Ravensburger's Disney Lorcana: Rise of the Floodborn pre-release was a complete disaster
Although Disney Lorcana: Rise of the Floodborn doesn't officially release until December 1st, the game's creator Ravensburger hosted an online pre-sale for the upcoming second set. With Rise of the Floodborn already available at local game stores, the pre-sale was designed to allow fans to pre-order the new set via Ravensburger's online storefront before it hits big stores like Walmart, Best Buy and Target.
The pre-release was supposed to go live at 10:30 a.m. EST, with a queue opening up at 9:00 a.m. EST. The system would assign anyone who visited the site before 10:30 a.m. EST a randomized spot in the queue regardless of when they first visited.
But when the time came, well, disaster struck. Before the queue even opened, those in line were hit with a server error. The pre-sale was then pushed back an hour to 11:30 a.m. EST. When 11:30 a.m. came, it was pushed back again indefinitely.
It wasn't until 1:05 p.m. that the pre-sale eventually began and when it did, the queue was a mess. My assigned queue spot was upwards of 55,000. My friend was around 8,000. But honestly, it didn't matter.
The queue continuously froze. There were numerous server errors. Those who did get into the site couldn't actually make their purchase because of these server errors. Others were randomly booted from the queue.
The whole thing was just a dumpster fire and a clear sign that Ravensburger's website was not ready for the massive influx of people interested in Disney Lorcana. With no communication from the game's creator, I eventually just gave up.
It wasn't until later in the day that Ravensburger issued a statement explaining that they had experienced "an extremely large DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack which severely disrupted the launch." They ultimately decided to end the website sales of Rise of the Floodborn with no further details.
Interestingly, the site was up and running this morning at around 6:00 a.m. EST with Rise of the Floodborn products available for purchase online. There was a limit of one of each product, but even this was a mess.
The site would continuously present a server error at different stages of the checkout process. Some were able to successfully check out, while others continuously had to refresh. Eventually, the products sold out online.
It's possible that Ravensburger could quietly open up online sales again for Rise of the Floodborn before release, but don't expect any sort of big announcement. I think they will do it in small waves.
In the meantime, other retailers should also begin opening up pre-orders. Target, Walmart, Amazon and other big retailers will begin selling Rise of the Floodborn in-store starting December 1st.