I’m not much of a special edition guy, but even I was tempted by Starfield’s Constellation Edition. The smartwatch has that ‘60s NASA vibe that is so appealing (even if Bethesda won’t stop trying to make the infuriating phrase NASApunk happen), and it’s actually functional too, unlike most game tat you get in these sorts of things. If there had been a physical artbook included as well, I might have pulled the trigger, but I’ve seen people burned by Bethesda pre-order bonuses before.
Still, I’m not surprised that the Constellation Edition has been so popular. It looks good, despite the fact you may well be playing Starfield after your friends due to the code being physically engraved onto a plaque in the box, leaving you at the whims of your national mail service rather than hitting that midnight download. You couldn’t think of anything worse, then, than the pre-order that you’re so excited about being cancelled for no apparent reason.
Multiple players are reporting that their pre-orders of the Starfield Constellation Edition have been cancelled. Many have taken to the game’s Reddit community to address their complaints and have unexpectedly found other players in similar situations.
Reddit user u/Beltaine-77 shared a screenshot of their order from Walmart, where the pre-order price is shown as being reduced to $0.00 due to “competitive price match”. They captioned the image by saying, “I’m more than a little concerned about the order update I just got”.
While the reason for the refund is stated as that price matching system, many commenters say that this is a normal way for Walmart to refund orders or pre-orders. Many others have experienced the same thing, with u/Valen_Kasar saying, “Same and mine was ordered an hour after the direct on June 11th[,] shenanigans are afoot. Hopefully this is some error and not a mass cancellation.”
However, many players have been told different things when making their inquiries to Walmart’s customer service – and the problems only stem from the one retailer. One player who encountered the problem, u/Merlin7__, shared their chat with a Walmart representative who said that this was standard procedure for pre-orders. “What I do highly advise is to wait up until your order is shipped for the charged [sic] to be reflected on your account… Once your order is shipped the charge will be reflected in your account”.
The problem is, Walmart has given different information to different players. Another player, u/Senior-Remote-840, shared their call with a Walmart supervisor. The player quotes the supervisor as giving the following response: “Sorry, sir. There is no way to reprocess your order. The representative you spoke to earlier accidentally sent in a cancel request on your order by mistake. We apologize for this inconvenience, and can assure you the representative and situation [is] being investigated, and she will be retrained on how to process and close tickets”.
It’s not just Starfield pre-orders that are in trouble either. There are also multiple reports of similar issues with pre-orders of Pikmin 4 and new Funko Pops, leading to speculation that this could be a technical error in the Walmart system. As of yet, Walmart has not officially commented on the issue, other than the individual responses it has provided to players contacting the support team.
If you’ve pre-ordered Starfield through Walmart, or anything else for that matter, it might be worth checking on the status of your purchase. Their support will likely be swamped at the moment, but with a $300 pre-order on the line, and with how difficult it can be to find the Constellation Edition in stock anywhere else at this point, it’s worth your time ensuring your order is still on its way.