Breaking street dates

[sausage]

What, if any, repercussions do stores receive if they break games release dates by a few days/hours whatever?

Interested as it seems from the amount of posts in Hyper that it happens quite regularly.

Or is it just a slap over the back of the hand with a wet bus ticket.

[big_b]

From memory (I used to work for Harvey Norman) if you got caught breaking street date you would get fined a **** load (this was regarding windows vista though, so no idea on how much the store/company would get fined for games).

Of cause you would have to get caught.

[sausage]

Interesting big b; do large game companies have staff whose sole role is looking at street date breakers??

[Silverwolf]

I WANT BATMAN ON PC NOW GODDAMMIT.

Wait... I do have it on PC!

What I want to know concerning this, is why retailers (and whoever else) would sell console versions of a game earlier than the release date, but not the PC version.

[Silverwolf]

Interesting big b; do large game companies have staff whose sole role is looking at street date breakers??

What would be the purpose of this?

(hell yea double post)

[ThePhotoshop]

As far as I know it's just a fine.

[sausage]

What would be the purpose of this?

(hell yea double post)


To report the breakers to head office for the aforementioned fine?????

To protect their copyright???

To make an example?????

To make everyone aware that they do indeed exist??

In some circumstances get in before the breaking and warn the retailer????

Plus more.

[Fenrir]

Interested as it seems from the amount of posts in Hyper that it happens quite regularly.
Factoring in imports?

[sausage]

Factoring in imports?

Don't know how to quote from other threads but no, I was referring to actual posts by members saying "such and such have broken street date - GO!" type of thing.

But in saying that I guess the plethora of importing options may be a factor in retailers breaking street dates. Shit I dunno.

[Silverwolf]

To report the breakers to head office for the aforementioned fine?????

To protect their copyright???

To make an example?????

To make everyone aware that they do indeed exist??

In some circumstances get in before the breaking and warn the retailer????

Plus more.

There is no reason to make an example though, what kinda motivation is there? They are still selling their game (selling it earlier in fact!) I don't see why they would want to discourage breaking the street date.

[sausage]

Which begs the question; why have enforced street date breaking fines at all??

[Silverwolf]

Possibly for the games which have an important reason (eg. World of Warcraft) to not be leaked early?

I have no idea!

[Thraxas]

I think there are 2 types of street date. Ones for big game releases where the date is not supposed to be broken and others where if you get the stock in earlier than anticipated then you can just put it on your shelves.

[Azzaman]

It's so all retailers will be on equal footing come release day. If the distributors are on the ball getting a game to one place and it gives them a few full days over the other retailers, if you were one of the unlucky retailers you would be pretty peeved wouldn't you?

[Halt, Hammerzeit]

It's so all retailers will be on equal footing come release day. If the distributors are on the ball getting a game to one place and it gives them a few full days over the other retailers, if you were one of the unlucky retailers you would be pretty peeved wouldn't you?

This, pretty much. Most people don't care about low level releases, but the big games that are going to sell hundreds per store, well, if someone was able to break street date that would give them a major advantage.

As for penaulties, I have heard rumours of places being barred from releasing other prodects from the same developer, but not sure how much truth there is to it.

[sausage]

But that's the thing; no one really knows what the outcome is; and that is the thrust of my OP.

I understand the need for street dates and the reasons why they are broken from time to time yes, no worries there.

But I can't find a source that says explicitly "if you break the street date you are liable for ..."

[Lazlow]

This, pretty much. Most people don't care about low level releases, but the big games that are going to sell hundreds per store, well, if someone was able to break street date that would give them a major advantage.

As for penaulties, I have heard rumours of places being barred from releasing other prodects from the same developer, but not sure how much truth there is to it.

Most recent example of this happening was with DIRT 2 just yesterday;


EB and Kmart have broken street date on this game. JB and GAME will start selling theirs when they get their copies.

[StorminNorman]

What, if any, repercussions do stores receive if they break games release dates by a few days/hours whatever?


None that are legal.

The problem is, none of the retailers really have the balls to stand up to the distributors on this matter.

I'm convinced the ACCC would have some really interesting things to say about enforcing release dates if someone would just give them all the info they need (and while you're at it, tell them about how console region-locking "limits consumer choice").

[Tonez]

I think there are 2 types of street date. Ones for big game releases where the date is not supposed to be broken and others where if you get the stock in earlier than anticipated then you can just put it on your shelves.

You're confusing street dates with release dates.

A game may have a release date of 17/09 but retailers may receive their copies on 14/09 or 15/09. In this case they can start selling the game as soon as they get it.

Street dates are strict. You can not sell the game before the street date even if you receive it early. Not all games get street dates.

[Lex]

I don't think I've ever gotten a game early from a store,
but I love broken street dates because it means the same few posters who are obsessed with coming first miss out and make a new thread here throwing a tantrum

[JubeiSaotome]

If a store breaks a street date, apparently, they get fined for every copy sold before launch.

[adam_91vn]

Last year for GTA IV I was one of the people that received it a few days early.

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2008/04/gta_iv_australian_street_date_broken/ (http://www.kotaku.com.au/2008/04/gta_iv_australian_street_date_broken/)

I can’t remember or find what I happened but they got in trouble they actually called all the people that they had sent it to and told them not to say anything to anyone.


There was also a Microsoft (I think) game last year kmart started selling early they were not given a couple of new releases after that for a few weeks.

[T Strife]

I expect this changes from country to country, but in general it'll work on a case-by-case basis depending on the importance of the title in question, as mentioned already.

Over in the UK, Argos broke the date on Halo 3 (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/n_argoshalo3_190907), of all titles. This was thanks to a computer error and staff who simply weren't product savvy at all. From what I understand, all of the upper management underwent heavy disiplinary action, and I think that their stock allocation took a heavy hit. Note that, to my knowledge, none of this is provable fact, however.

It's worth noting that if you do break the release date of such a high profile title, you will get caught, because people will tip each other off about it over the internet. Low profile stuff won't usually matter, though, and the reason for this is simple: as mentioned before again, breaking release date can have a huge effect at retail. Most high profile games shift the majority of their units within the first week of release, if not the first couple of days. One store selling a game but one day early is enough to seriously upset profits at those who don't.

I've never known games stores to have staff who just search out broken dates, but they will mystery shop each other on bigger titles. Nothing complicated, mind - just send a member of staff over in casual clothes and have him or her try to buy whichever game may be of concern.

[McChimp]

Was just talking to one of the staff from my local EB about this this morning. He told me that apparently one of Target's stores broke the release date of a game (not sure which one) and were denied stock for the Gears of War 2 release for a certain period of time, as well as also being fined like hell. And that was for ALL stores, apparently.

Only gossip though, not sure if it's all the facts or not.

[Halt, Hammerzeit]

None that are legal.

The problem is, none of the retailers really have the balls to stand up to the distributors on this matter.

I'm convinced the ACCC would have some really interesting things to say about enforcing release dates if someone would just give them all the info they need (and while you're at it, tell them about how console region-locking "limits consumer choice").

I tried complaining to some governement body when the Wii system update disabled Freeloader (I think it was the ACCC, but it could have some ombudsman somewhere). They didn't want to know about it.

[Jickle]

There was also a Microsoft (I think) game last year kmart started selling early they were not given a couple of new releases after that for a few weeks.

Was just talking to one of the staff from my local EB about this this morning. He told me that apparently one of Target's stores broke the release date of a game (not sure which one) and were denied stock for the Gears of War 2 release for a certain period of time, as well as also being fined like hell. And that was for ALL stores, apparently.

Only gossip though, not sure if it's all the facts or not.

As I recall, it was indeed K-Mart who missed out on Gears 2 at launch. I think the game they released early may have been Fable 2?

[FrozenSoul80]

They didn't want to know about it.

Why not? Didn't they say that PS2 mod-chips were legal because they stopped all that region-locking bullshit a few years ago, or am I thinking of some other country? There was a huge court case about it.

[Halt, Hammerzeit]

Why not? Didn't they say that PS2 mod-chips were legal because they stopped all that region-locking bullshit a few years ago, or am I thinking of some other country? There was a huge court case about it.

Can't remember exactly, but I remember being outraged and even went so far as to draw up a table comparing prices from Australian and overseas websites and calculated the different between them, proving that we were paying more, but they didn't want to know. Just kept sending me the stock standard email.

[TrinityJayOne]

As I recall, it was indeed K-Mart who missed out on Gears 2 at launch. I think the game they released early may have been Fable 2?
This is spot on.

[FrozenSoul80]

Can't remember exactly, but I remember being outraged and even went so far as to draw up a table comparing prices from Australian and overseas websites and calculated the different between them, proving that we were paying more, but they didn't want to know. Just kept sending me the stock standard email.

Time to report the ACCC to the ACCC.