f13.net

I just finished phoning most of our game shops in town because I wanted to buy a copy of guitar hero for the PS2.

The official release date for GH in germany is the 19th of may (tomorrow) but usually the shops get the games a few days earlier than the official release date and so I was asking around whether one of the stores already has copies.

Well it turns out that all of the stores I phoned have copies of GH in stock but they all refused to sell me one because they are under obligation to not sell the games before the official release date. If they nevertheless would sell me a copy before the official date they might face financial repercussions by their distributors.

How stupid is that? They are sitting on copies for the last week but are unable to sell them until some arbitrary date.

What usually happens around here is that things don't arrive in the store until one or more days after release, although that depends on the game.  Maybe they have a copy of Tuba Hero for you?

The distributers do that to ensure fairness, also if one store constantly sells before the others their competition complains very loudly (possibly legally) and makes the distributers' life unpleasant.  Setting a date means less headaches.

You cannot wait a single day to buy this game? Relax.

Yes I could wait for a single day but  I still think it is stupid. It is not that one store has the game before all the others in that case I could even understand the need for something lie that. It is the fact that ALL the gaming stores in our town have copies of the game since friday of last week and are simply not allowed to sell them.

Street dating has been a practice for movies, music and video games since the early 80s. Music was probably street dated even before then. This is not an old practice and it's not one that's going to change. It is also entirely necessary. Calling it stupid is missing the point of preventing total destruction in competition and putting retailers on a equal ground. Without street dates, two good games could be released on the same day in the exact same genre and completely ruin eachothers sales. Also, it keeps Mom and Pop shops in the mix simply by removing big box retailers the ability of blitzing the product to shelves. Also, it keeps retail ahead of online companies on day 1 sales.

I lol'ed :-D

A "lol" from a German is a high compliment, thanks.

I don't know much about Germany.  Bavaria, on the other hand....

We don't go there ...

 :evil: