Inside The Zero Escape Watch Problem
I know this is hard to believe, but Zero Time Dilemma is back in the news again. The game came out months ago, but there was one part of the release that took this long to process, and technically still isn’t resolved: the watch problem.
For a limited time, a special edition of Zero Time Dilemma was offered on Amazon and Aksys Games’ website that came with a plastic replica of the watch worn by the game’s characters. Aksys had made similar offers with the previous two games, so they had experience…but for some reason, this time things went horribly wrong.
The game-and-watch versions were not shipped on time with the rest of the copies. Aksys revealed delays had hit the production of the watches, due to obvious defects in the initial batch. Weeks later, the watches still weren’t done and Aksys had to ship out the games separately — which caused a problem with Amazon, whose system is not built to process orders changed to piecemeal by their suppliers.
So Aksys had to fudge it by giving everyone who ordered a watch a $500 Amazon voucher so they could order a watch privately listed at $500. It might have worked, if not for the existence of sales taxes, shipping costs and overseas tariffs, meaning most customers were now paying extra.
And now the watches aren’t even arriving properly. Some people are getting no watches at all, while others are getting two. One person posted a picture on Reddit of SIXTY watches he was mistakenly sent (the picture above). He’s still deciding what to do about it.
The only real solution at this point would be if the watches were truly functional. Aksys could solve this entire problem by having everybody put one on, and then remotely injecting an amnesia-inducing solution into their bloodstream. They would wake up three hours later with no knowledge that Aksys messed things up this badly, and hey, their watches just came!