Gamestop

[oklahoma19]

omg...i just went to Target's website and it says that THEY will ahve the game JULY 6!!!! this is like 30 different dates...

[ninefall]

ea will have a countdown for this on their website once it gets closer. my gamestop says july 11th a midnight.

[kodiak]

Quote: Originally Posted by oklahoma19

omg...i just went to Target's website and it says that THEY will ahve the game JULY 6!!!! this is like 30 different dates...

To set the record straight, yes the game does ship the end of June. Everyone here knows that date. Yes Wal-Mart or Best Buy or some other box store might mess up and break the street date. BTW the fine is on each individual copy of the game sold. But it did happen for Halo 2 so it will probably happen for this as well. Although after the Halo 2 crackdown, it might curb things somewhat. However that was also Bungie(Microsoft) that released Halo 2 and not EA so the crackdown may not come from EA until next year. What you need to understand is that the employees at EB, Gamestop, etc pull the dates from the computer. I cant speak for all the company stores but my store's employees know that its street dated for July 12th. It even says that next to the title in the computer. Often times though the employees just look at the ship date. And no date is ever set in stone to begin with. EA could very well give the OK to sell it before the 12th. As for EB selling it after 5 on the 11th. I would be very shocked if they indeed did this. With the merger all but finalized, neither GS or EB want to piss off the other and cause problems with the vendors. Again I am hoping for an ok from EA to sell early but I am not getting those hopes too high. Especially when all of the emails from the corp office have been towards the midnight opening from July 11th going into the 12th. BTW, most stores had to sit on Halo 2 for about the same amount of time as we would have to sit on NCAA. I even scheduled a mini vacation of sorts for the first part of July so I dont have to be antagonized by NCAA just sitting there all locked up with no place to go. I hope this clears some things up for people.

[8bit]

how is this different from last year though? Last year EA had on their website saying it "ships july 17th", while the majority of people got it on the 15th and some on the 14th. Why do people think the date EA is giving this year is set in stone, when it has never been in years past. THis time last year, basically all the websites had the game as being shipped on 7/15, just like all these places are doign with 7/12. Not to mention i havent seen any official statement from EA when the game will ship. So..........how is it different from last year?

[kodiak]

Quote: Originally Posted by 8bit

how is this different from last year though? Last year EA had on their website saying it "ships july 17th", while the majority of people got it on the 15th and some on the 14th. Why do people think the date EA is giving this year is set in stone, when it has never been in years past. THis time last year, basically all the websites had the game as being shipped on 7/15, just like all these places are doign with 7/12. Not to mention i havent seen any official statement from EA when the game will ship. So..........how is it different from last year?

Until this year, EA never put a "HARD" street date on NCAA or Madden. None of the box stores had the game when the EB's and Gamestops had it. This has held true for quite some time. However, after seeing what Halo 2 did when it had a hard street date, EA is now wanting to do the same thing. Last year and previous to that, the date you saw from EA was when it would be in stores everywhere. EB and Gamestops close to Louisville KY would send someone to the distro center to pick it up. Usually a district manager. From there, the diffferent regions would get it. Thats why some stores went to the airport or whatnot to pick up their allotment. I just dont see whats so hard to understand about this. And of course you are not going to see anything from EA about this year, especially if they do indeed hold the hard street date of July 12th. They dont want everyone knowing that the stores are sitting on it. The less people know, the lower risk of having it sell early.

Hard street dates are not good for anyone. From the retail stores to the consumer, everyone suffers except the company that made the game. They already have their money from the different stores that will carry their game. They are out nothing by making stores sit on it or letting them sell it early. Bungie wanted to set a record and now EA is going after the same thing. NCAA is the test run for Madden. If everything goes well, then you will start seeing more and more publishers start putting a hard street date on the games. This practice already exists when it comes to the systems. Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Target, EB, and Gamestop were sitting on Halo 2, PSP, etc days before the "Release" date. It all has to do with the board of directors from said game publishers seeing bigger sales in "launch/release" period than say having store A selling X amount of copies 2 days before store B sells Y amount. A quicker profit margin often means an increase in the shareholders quarterly dividend. This is why EB and Gamestop are merging. To be able to maintain as big a presence in the industry as Wal-Mart. As it stands right now, Wal-Mart holds 25% marketshare with Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. The merger will give the merged companies the same clout as Wally World and can continue to cater to the gamers. Wal-Mart, Best Buy etc dont specifically cater to the gamer. Hopefully this merger wil mean that hard street dates wont become the norm and they can continue to have early releases so the hardcore gamer can get what they want at the earliest convinence.

Sorry for the rant but I hate this street date thing.

[ODogg]

Quote: Originally Posted by 8bit

how is this different from last year though? Last year EA had on their website saying it "ships july 17th", while the majority of people got it on the 15th and some on the 14th. Why do people think the date EA is giving this year is set in stone, when it has never been in years past. THis time last year, basically all the websites had the game as being shipped on 7/15, just like all these places are doign with 7/12. Not to mention i havent seen any official statement from EA when the game will ship. So..........how is it different from last year?

It's no different from last year or the year before. The game will ship out July 11th and for the stores who got overnight or their managers go to airport or distro center, they will be selling it July 11th in the pm, around 6 or 7pm. I'm sure some stores won't do so until midnight which is July 12th, ie the "official" date but that just depends on the manager.

The bottom line is we go through this debate every year about early releases, various due dates, etc and it's always the second Tuesday of July and if you preorder you always get it Monday evening. For the last 2 years i've gotten it Monday evening between 5 and 9pm and there have been no fines or EA getting stores into trouble.

I mean I could see if EA said the release date was July 12th and stores selling it July 1st would get in trouble, but does anyone really believe EA is going to go after stores for selling it not a few hours early at 8pm instead of midnight? They never have before so why is this year any different? Simple, it's not!!

[theaub]

Remember...EA can make a crackdown much easier if the game is sold early...just don't ship Madden to the store. That's got to be lot of money lost...

However, I see a MVP-type thing happening again. I'm predicitng a July 5th release date, and hopefully I'll have the game by the 10th.

[kodiak]

Quote: Originally Posted by ODogg

It's no different from last year or the year before. The game will ship out July 11th and for the stores who got overnight or their managers go to airport or distro center, they will be selling it July 11th in the pm, around 6 or 7pm. I'm sure some stores won't do so until midnight which is July 12th, ie the "official" date but that just depends on the manager. They never have before so why is this year any different? Simple, it's not!!

Wrong, wrong, wrong.