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How GameStop stole Stardock's Easter photo

While most of us were off stuffing our faces with chocolate eggs and persevering against the evil that is the Easter Bunny, the support team for the recently released Demigod was hard at work no thanks to a certain retail giant.

For whatever reason, GameStop released the game last week even though it wasn't supposed to be sold until today. Normally, this wouldn't be a huge deal, or anything too out of the ordinary, as street dates are broken quite frequently.

But it's the fact that Demigod is being heavily pushed as a digital download that's got people speculating that GameStop purposely botched the launch date in defiance of Stardock's digital distribution platform, Impulse. Either way, the slip-up forced the game's support team to configure the multiplayer servers for the unexpected amount of early players over the weekend, right after "a good solid eight weeks of massive crunch."

I don't think I need to remind you all about the state of overtime in this industry. Stardock CEO Brad Wardell has commented on the situation, saying that it's "maximized" piracy for Demigod (the game is free of copy protection), and is in discussion with GameStop to figure out how this could have happened.

[Via Gamasutra]


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23 comments | showing # 1 to 23

DarkTower06's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/14/2009 21:14
DarkTower06
@ MotoRobo:

Punishing customers who actually bought the game is hardly good corporate policy. It's not their fault GameStop fucked up.

Was this at every retail location? Because I don't believe that every single GameStop sold the game almost a week early. Breaking a street date is usually a very isolated happenstance. For an entire chain to break it at the same time, it would have had to come from corporate.

Another good question: Could you buy a copy of Demigod for the whole week, or did GS take it off the shelves?
Josh Tolentino's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/14/2009 21:19
Josh Tolentino
@Motorobo

It's not that simple. Gamestop is THE retailer in the US, and cutting them out of the loop cuts a HUGE amount of people out of the loop. Digital distribution doesn't have nearly the amount of market penetration needed to effectively replace a retail channel, and Gamestop is it in the US.

Further, shutting down the servers on a heavily multiplayer-focused title is suicide. It'd be SECONDS before the forums and blogs would be yelling OMFG SHITSUX DEMIGOD SERVERS FUKKIN BROKEN DONT BUY PIRATE INSTEAD STARDOCK.
Exquisitor's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/14/2009 21:22
Exquisitor
Why not just have a message on the multiplayer screen saying "multiplayer not available until the game is released." Other games have done it.

And considering the main focus point of the game is multiplayer, piracy is kind of a moot point. You almost want to promote piracy for a game like this when there is no demo, that way people have a chance to play before they pay.
DarkTower06's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/14/2009 21:22
DarkTower06
@ MotoRobo:

Punishing customers who actually bought the game is hardly good corporate policy. It's not their fault GameStop fucked up.

Was this at every retail location? Because I don't believe that every single GameStop sold the game almost a week early. Breaking a street date is usually a very isolated happenstance. For an entire chain to break it at the same time, it would have had to come from corporate.

Another good question: Could you buy a copy of Demigod for the whole week, or did GS take it off the shelves?
Josh Tolentino's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/14/2009 21:23
Josh Tolentino
I'd just like to add that this whole thing seems to have some conspiracy theory feel, what with Gamestop fighting with Valve/Relic over the whole thing with Dawn of War II and Steam. It's like they're intentionally sabotaging the releases of also-digital games.
Chronic Logic's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/14/2009 21:35
Chronic Logic
So Gamestop forced Stardock to release Demigod in retail stores before a week Stardock was going to sell it by digital distribution, because Gamestop feared that they would lose money to Stardock's distribution site?

Sucks for Stardock. But I don't get it. How does Gamestop force Stardock to do that? It's not like Gamestop owns Stardock.
ninjikiran's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/14/2009 21:46
ninjikiran
Wonder what will happen with patapon 2 release
bVork's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/14/2009 21:47
bVork
@Chronic Logic

Demigod is available as both a digital download and a retail box. Gamestop sold the retail boxes a week before the street date, forcing Stardock to set the multiplayer servers up early to avoid pissing off customers. Is that simple enough for you to understand?

Personally, I'd like more clarification. Did this happen at a large amount of Gamestops? If it wasn't an isolated incident, then I'm inclined to believe that it was done on purpose. There are previous incidents of Gamestop throwing a hissy fit over digital distribution, which will hopefully kill their business. They stopped taking Dawn of War II pre-orders (until the internet pitched a fit) because of the way it is tied into Steam. They wanted royalties on the digital download versions of the Penny Arcade game in exchange for selling it at retail. And Empire: Total War is mysteriously difficult to find at Gamestops...
Grimspoon's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/14/2009 22:31
Grimspoon
This reinforces my desire to embrace digital distribution and shun Gamestop/EBGames.

Thanks for making the decision that much easier for me, retards.
ZeeJayTL's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/14/2009 22:58
ZeeJayTL
When I recieved the box with the game, I got no warning that the game was street-dated. It wasn't at the store level.
foolishwolf's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/14/2009 23:12
foolishwolf
GameStop is the whore of this industry. I hope the next time they release their sales numbers that we'll find a steep decline in those numbers.

I gladly spend my money elsewhere.
carpwrist's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/14/2009 23:22
carpwrist
That was just complete negligence on GameStop's part. Any dumbass at the store could have looked at the game's website which had a COUNTDOWN TIMER for the release scheduled 1pm EST today.
It's pretty clear Gamestop had a motive here. I believe it was to strike back at them for lowering the cost of the digital version.
carpwrist's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/14/2009 23:22
carpwrist
@Grimspoon, totally with you. This was the last straw for me.

That was just complete negligence on GameStop's part. Any dumbass at the store could have looked at the game's website which had a COUNTDOWN TIMER for the release scheduled 1pm EST today.
It's pretty clear Gamestop had a motive here. I believe it was to strike back at them for lowering the cost of the digital version.
JavTheGreat's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/15/2009 00:23
JavTheGreat
Overreacting much IMO

They sold it a weekend end early and it wasn't an isolated thing, all gamestops were selling it. I'm sure it was a mistake and if you guys were interested in this game you wouldn't be upset, you'd be happy to get the game early.
Catmurderer's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/15/2009 01:27
Catmurderer
I bought the game a day before it was supposed to be released. I checked the game's release on my phone, and it was supposed to be the next day. I asked the gamestop clerk to double check the date, and he said it was right. So... yaa... GJ gamestop...

(I also saw in the store that they were selling Starwars Empire at War, original not expansion, for 60$. Target has the game with the expansion for 20$. >.> yaaaaa)
gamesk8er's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/15/2009 01:38
gamesk8er
Ok. This is ridiculous. Everyone is saying that this was engineered by GameStop to sabotage Stardock.

However, as ZeeJay stated, the game wasn't street dated in the system. How are the stores supposed to know that the game is street dated if the company isn't told?

If Stardock really wanted their "Easter break", then they should've shipped the game with little "Do Not Sell Until" stickers that almost EVERY SINGLE street dated game GameStop receives has on them.

I've seen this same story on all three of the gaming blogs I frequent despite the fact that, on every single article, there are GameStop employees saying that the problem was not on the company's end. It's getting annoying seeing the same story on every site with the same misinformation.
Tet's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/15/2009 01:44
Tet
Hanlon's Razor. For those who can't be bothered to look it up, "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."
Wedge's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/15/2009 02:25
Wedge
Who the hell buys PC games from Gamestop anyways? All I ever see is a tiny rack full of a bunch of random budgetware titles from the last five years.
Suigyoken's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/15/2009 02:35
Suigyoken
Well when we usually get street dated stock we have large stickers all over the packs says "STREETDATED DO NOT OPEN TILL..." And even outside the box and SEALED with a SD sticker. So it's more of a communication error either on GameStop or the publisher's part, since GameStop is really tight on street dates. We haven't even had an email or anything about it so at the last moment nobody did anything on either side.
Vrynix's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/15/2009 04:27
Vrynix
@bVork

This is the same thing that happened with several other titles. Gamestop seems to have a crap policy when it comes to breaking streetdates. It happened with Spore as well over in Australia. Some shop in the middle of nowhere sold a copy "accidentally", they sent the receipt to the main office and for some reason all Gamestops were allowed to sell it from that point on without ramifications.
I can imagine that Gamestop applies the same strategy internationally. It plays hell on the developers but hey at least they get extra revenue right?
A large problem is simply the size of gamestop. They get several titles early on in their inventory because of their size. As it happens it always seems to be these titles that are sold too early.
zgerhard's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/15/2009 07:39
zgerhard
usually when a title is street dated, the POS system will warn the employee selling the title that "this item is street dated for xx/xx. are you sure you want to sell this item?" and the SD items are packed in boxes that are labeled "Do Not Sell Until xx/xx" but Demigod for PC had none of this.

This was most definitely a miscommunication on a very high level that trickled down and not an individual store's fault.

And you can't expect every single gamestop employee to frequent videogame sites of every new game coming out. there's just too much.
RoninZero's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/15/2009 09:31
RoninZero
What if this wasn't some kind of mistake? Maybe Gamestop is trying to earn street cred with people and tell people "Hey, we'll release the game early, so buy from us instead of any other store who actually releases on time (who does that anyway?) in order to get business. It's probably far from the truth, but you know there are people at Gamestop just loving the attention and cash rolling in.

Hopefully things get settled with the least acid spitting, but there will still be some.
Akitoscorpio's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/16/2009 22:11
Akitoscorpio
This is unfortunate, I mean a real screw-pooch on Gamestop's Side....
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