Yesterday, Activision stated that it gave no store permission to sell Modern Warfare 2 before its street date of November 10, but GameStop has implied that the evil publisher knew it was going to happen. The retail chain has issued a statement on the broken street date in a number of areas, claiming the decision came after "many conversations with Activision."
This past weekend, GameStop made the decision to break street date and sell reserved copies of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in select markets where other retailers had broken street date," states the retailer. "Our decision followed many conversations with Activision and was an effort to protect our customer base."
So, GameStop's reasoning is basically that "Others were doing it, so we had to do it too." While Activision may not have given express permission, the implication seems to be that the publisher "Looked the other way" in order to give GameStop a competitive edge in areas where smaller stores were selling the game early.
In any case, a lucky few of you are likely playing truant today in order to play the game early. The rest of us schmoes have to wait until midnight.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
6:00 AM on 11.09.2009
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I know i wouldn't.
Games, Movies and Music all have street dates, they should be stuck to by everyone! I think the best idea would be to heavily fine the smaller retailers that are letting it go. So much so that it would be crippling to their business to break a street date on a major title if breaking a street date could ruin your small games shop you certainly wouldn't do it.
A simple, "we sent you X amount, now our rep will come and check you still have x amount as we've had reports of people buying it at your store" check could work.
I'm a bit surprised you didn't receive your review copy yet Jim. Sometimes I wonder what the hell those boys are thinkin'.
Nice Activision wants to make a little drama out of this, but I very much doubt it had anything to do with Gamestop slipping up and more about the backlash they're already facing and to avoid the inevitable negative press on launch day.
Look up my gamertag: Z3nGaijin
OMG J/K LOL
2 wrongs don't make a right though guys.
It's no accident. I believe I'm not due the game until Wednesday, the day after it launches. I have a feeling I'm on their "do not trust" list. :-)
I haven't been paying attention and had no idea this was out tomorrow.
They won't do that. It's not the consumers fault the retailers broke street date. They already have ways to catch pirates, and it's totally different than just banning people who pop up with MW2 in their game list.
@Holmes
Exactly. If they broke street on that, I would be livid.
@SakBee
Couldn't agree more, but this is something that all publishers in all industries care about. I don't get it, never have, never will. I think street dates have become this arbitrary industry standard for all manner of shit to let manufacturers/publishers feel important to the artists process somehow. As if seeing a game/book/movie/album a day early would diminish that enjoyment, but whatever publishers, have your little pee-parade.
When a store finds out that another store breaks release date they call the production company with info regarding the other store. The production company then says "we'll get back to you in (insert time here) usually a hour or so, if they do not call back gamestop or whoever files the complaint has every right to stock the shelves and start conducting business as usual in order to keep revenue. The other company usually gets fined, removes stock from shelves and that causes them to loose even more money on top of the fine so its a x2 whammy.
My local Gamestop saw a steady stream of broken preorders because the mom & pop store across the street broke the street date Thursday evening.
So what the hell is GS supposed to do. Lose at least three days of sales because stores decided to not honor the street date?
Activision can't really do anything about it. Fines and refusing to allow a store to sell it's games are solutions. But how is that enforceable?
books, games, movies cds, etc. and its all for a reason:
To ensure it comes out on the preselected date. Im sure if their ad campaign said "coming out sometime in Nov", it could potentially lose business.
tl:dr=
get over it
I have a pre-order at Blockbuster for £44.99 which i can pick up at midnight, however British Supermarkets (some of them 24 hour) are having a price war and have it down to £26! But this will be limited supply.
Do I go for the definite midnight launch of £44.99, get a few hours in before bed tonight?
or
Do i check out some supermarkets at midnight and possibly risk it being out of stock tomorrow morning for a cheaper copy?
hmmmmm
I would try finding it at a supermarket for cheaper because if you can't you can fall back on your reserved copy at Blockbuster.
If you get a copy, cancel the order tomorrow. It's not like you would be stuck with it it's a preorder. Cancel it and get the money back.
In either case I would go with getting the supermarket copy first. The savings seem like it would be worth the trouble.
Blockbusters copy will still be there tomorrow waiting on you either way.
Roll on 5.30pm!
Who is issuing and enforcing this fine that you suggest? If Activision sends me a fine I'll just lol at it while I throw it in the garbage.
They know you will not give it a 999900000/100 score.
Also, I got the Looney Tunes main theme stuck on my head now. I feel good about it.
None of us owe Gamestop anything, I managed to get my games before Gamestop existed and will manage to do the same if it ever does not exist.
Do you think Destructoid would be so popular if it were a shitty site? Do you even think Call of Duty would be so popular if it were poorly put together? Would gamestop be so successful if it didnt utilize certain areas of the market?
I know for a fact other retailers have also broken the streetdate because other stores in the area did it. If you open a lemonade stand but say you are only going to sell on the weekends, and then some loser down the street opens one up on the weekdays.....you're gonna do the same shit so you can reap the profits. Grow up, understand economics and buisness practice.
It's not like Gamestop released it early so they could make extra profit. It was simply to give them a chance to survive. It's not like the decision was made so a regional manager could take a month vacation in Hawaii from the extra profit. It was so they didn't have to let go of lots of people and close stores. So they could pay their mortgage and put food on the table for the family.
Same goes for the small stores that released early. They are in a tough spot as well. But, a few small stores ruined it for all the other small stores. And hopefully someone will find out who was responsible, and either fine them, or blacklist them.
You'd better be ready to "enforce" that pact with unannounced random searches. j/k
Free Xbox 360
Most smaller stores might not get their stock as quickly as big stores like BBY/GS, so if everyone just starts selling asap, that's probably gonna screw them over, isn't it? /shrug.