Gamestop - releasing game early again.

Sorry for the double post. Forum fall down go boom...

I can't imagine anybody is really suprised about this. The only thing that strikes me as odd is that they would break the release date on such a relatively unknown title. How much money could they really be making off of this?

I too plan to buy this on Impulse. Maybe we'll be lucky and it'll be released tomorrow, but I'm not holding my breath.

'no. i don't want to buy a used copy'

'no. i don't want to preorder (x) game'

'no. i don't want a subscription to game informer'

the faceless automatons on impusle/steam are way better than the faceless automatons at your local gamestop.

if you have to go to gamestop, maybe you deserve the game a little early

That's a fair point

haha very true.

hahah so true. Oh man, fuck gamestop.

It's been posted by a staff member on the Matrix forums that you'll be able to buy the digital download from them on the 24th as soon as they get into the office. I'm not sure if Impulse will have it that fast. I plan on getting the Digital+Boxed copy. I've got plastic in hand and am just waiting at this point. I've got the Matrix sight pulled up and Impulse running and minimized. The first one to put up a download link gets my money.

Mass chain vendors like Gamestop are ALWAYS going to have a few stores that release titles early. Same with books and the big bookstore chains.

You get masses of books/software in. These masses of titles are stocked by hundreds if not thousands of minimum wage and minimally trained disposable employees. The companies see no financial model that makes it profitable to take the kind of steps necessary to make sure those kind of mistakes don't happen. A street date slips and what happens? They might get a minor fine and slip on a deal here or there from their suppliers. But the costs associated with training and programs to retain workers have expensive price tags especially in organizations so large.

Game producers aren't going to cut themselves out of the sales that places like gamestop or walmart offer either.

So I don't even consider it a news release. For every major title with a street date there will be a gamestop somewhere that screws up.

For the consumer though if you want a quality service and not to be annoyed to death you'll either go to someplace like bestbuy which pays and trains employees better or you'll get it digitally online from Impulse/Steam.

I would agree with you, Rish, except that Gamestop's track record for breaking release dates on games published by digital distributor's is shocking.  

The distribution deal with GameStop states that Matrix Games cannot release the game for digital sale until it is "widely available" in retail, so that digital sales don't hurt them too bad.  Unfortunately, if Matrix wants to get their game carried in retail, that's the kind of crap they have to sign to.  Then Gamestop goes ahead and sells the game early in their stores and wouldn't allow Matrix to release, even though their own stores were already selling it.  Matrix Games was finally able to distribute the title today.

I would be willing to believe that honest mistakes were being made if it weren't for the fact that I'm seeing a pattern of behavior here, with Demigod, Armada 2526, and other titles that are published by digital retailers.

Hey one of the recent breeches was a decision made at the corporate level. Thing is, none of the publishers are in a position where they can do anything but shrug it off.

Oh it wouldn't surprise me if Gamestop was playing dirty. But even if they didn't it is going to happen anyways.

I myself shrug it off. Little game stores like Gamestop are going the way of the dinosaur. Soon they'll be extinct and not even know why. Shoppers are wising up and realizing they don't have to put up with the garbage. But the big killer is digital distribution from Steam, Impulse, and others. People want digital distribution BADLY. The smart retailrs that I expect to survive the next decade are all going to incoprorate it somehow (i.e. Getting a pre-order box that lets you download digitally and get some extras).

Plus as they become less significant, Publishers are going to start getting the nerve to tell Gamestop to "stuff it" one of these days. If you've got sales at Walmart, Best Buy, and Digitally... cutting Gamestop isn't going to impact your margin by a lot anymore.

one of these days some one like EA is going to sue the hell outoff game stop.  compared to the number of other game selling retailers gamestop is insignificant.

Except last I heard a lot of Gamestop's profits comes from buying used games for almost nothing, actually saw a kid turn in his game for 75 cents, 75 cents. What is even the point of that?), and then selling it for only a few percentage points off the the new price. Even if someone like EA told them to stuff it, they could fall back on their used game sales which is a lot more worthwhile for them. They pretty much gave up on the PC things awhile ago. We have two stores in our local mall and they each give the PC a tiny section compared to the others.