Video Games: what is the _real_ release date Part 2?

By samson7point1
So I ordered yet another game and it isn't here on the release date. After polling retailers and publishers, the best response I got about this was from Capcom and Electronics Boutique. IGN, and 1-UP.com just ignored me.

The responses from Capcom and EB were basically the same thing. The "release date" is when the game is actually shipped. The reason that it sometimes hits retailers on that day has to do with distance from the warehouse and the expected popularity of the game. Evidently, some retailers will send courriers to pick games like Grand Theft Auto sequels up at the airport when they arrive as opposed to waiting until UPS gets around to dropping it off, but ho-hum titles like the ones I like to buy - Wild Arms 4, Grandia III, they're perfectly content to let wait an extra day to save the expense.

In conclusion, there is no intelligent element at work here, just cost/benefit ratio's and companies that really don't care about a one or two days in terms of availability.

That may be the way things are done, but it's still wrong. It's still generating a false expectation. If a game isn't going to be available in stores on the "release" date, then it hasn't really been released to the consumer. I could care less when a game is shipped - I can't play it until I have it in my hot little hands.

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