Blizzard has issued a follow up, announcing that both the Thunder-Ridged Elekk and future limited-availability promotional mounts will eventually make their way to the Trading Post available to all players.
The Thunder-Ridged Elekk was actually datamined last year, alongside a few other recolors.
Challenging players to scan QR codes located on pillars scattered across six German cities, this seemed like a novel promotion to get players, at least German ones, to go out on a real-life quest, but the illusion was shattered by two questionable decisions.
The QR codes don't actually matter: they simply direct users to a common website, with a simple quiz to obtain the mount.
A total of only 3,000 mount codes were made available, with no safeguards to prevent claiming multiple, much less actually redeeming them.
Three thousand codes may have been a lot, if users were actually expected to physically visit six cities within a specific country, but we live a digital age, where information is very quickly collected and shared. As soon as users realized they could bypass the QR altogether by visiting the site directly, each and every one of the remaining three thousand mount codes were claimed within the hour, by users all across the world.
The previous Pringles promotion was also UK/EU only, though unlimited availability led to more collaboration between players.
While region-specific events develop a lot of hard feelings over fear of missing out, they've frequently had a small silver lining: the codes themselves are unlimited and aren't region locked, resulting in collaborative efforts as well-meaning players help each other obtain the ostensibly exclusive prizes.
Instead being limited to just 3,000 means this promotion has taken a much more selfish turn: cooperation has given way to capitalization, as unscrupulous users opt to sell excess codes they can't use anyway.
Sales vary, but the fact that they're being sold at all should be a major red flag.
To anyone who has experience with the game, or the internet in general, this should have been obvious. Free to obtain plus limited availability practically always results in some level of scalping without additional safeguards to ensure that only the person who generates the code can claim it. As it stands, this should be remembered as one of poorest promotional events to date, though detached marketing teams and executives will undoubtedly see the speed at which codes were claimed and believe it to be a sign of resounding success.
To their credit, someone at Pringles has taken notice and the visit the promotional website now returns a new message lamenting the impact of "hackers" and scalpers. It's not quite clear what they intend to do about it, or how it will affect actual users trying to get their hands on the mount though, with the promotion set to come back online on March 17th.
