street-date
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Report: Rockstar investigating early copies of Grand Theft Auto 5
Rockstar is looking into the possibility of retailers breaking Grand Theft Auto 5's street date over the weekend, GamesIndustry International reports. The game is just two days away from beginning its life of crime. Rockstar told GamesIndustry that it is "in the process of investigating early 'sales' to determine how and why that is occurring." Its investigation follows photos posted online by users showing supposed copies of the game.
Resident Evil 6 out early in Australia (this is how the infection begins)
Resident Evil 6 is available in Australia for Xbox 360 and PS3, and has been since Thursday, Game Informer AU reports. The game technically has a release date of Tuesday, October 2, but hey, that's more of a guideline anyway.Back in August, copies of Resident Evil 6 were let loose in Poland, though those turned out to be stolen. The Australian sales appear to be legit (or so EB Games makes it seem), so if you're in the area call up your local retailer and see if you can get lucky.[Thanks, Blaise!]
Select GameStops in NY, OH and PA selling Modern Warfare 2 already [update: Activision responds]
Update: Activision shot us an email to point out that "Activision has not given any retailer permission to sell Modern Warfare 2 prior to the Nov. 10 street date. The company fully supports the Nov.10 street date." It seems that a whole mess of folks are breaking street date and selling the game early. If you snagged a copy already, enjoy!Poor, poor GameStop. As the gaming public's anticipation for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 approached critical mass, they faltered in their loyalty, and took their business to small "mom and pop" game retailers who had broken the game's street date. Fortunately for the retail juggernaut, Activision showed compassion for its plight, and agreed to let certain GameStops in a few Northeast states start selling the game before Tuesday in order to help combat these vicious local businesses. We've been receiving tips all morning from folks living in New York and Pennsylvania (and Kotaku reports Ohio as well) stating that they were able to find the game on sale at their local GameStop. If you live in one of those Northeastern states, you might want to go ahead and call your local 'Stop to see if it's one of the stores which was granted special permission. If it is, then you can go straight to hell, you lucky jerk.
Windows 7 sold early at college bookstore, order somehow maintained
Street dates are invariably broken somehow, somewhere even when it comes to the biggest products and companies, and Microsoft is certainly no exception, with it now able to chalk up at least one sold copy on the Windows 7 charts thanks to an exceptionally eager college bookstore. While it didn't come in an actual retail box, this does indeed appear to be a legitimate education copy of the OS and, according to our tipster, it has been successfully activated. A little earlier than the usual slip-up to be sure, but we have a sneaking suspicion this won't be the last copy that drops before the big October 22nd date. Feel free to let us know in comments if you happen to come across one.
Broken promises, or 'How GameStop's error cost Stardock a vacation'
Stardock employees had their Easter weekend ruined by GameStop when the retailer decided to break street date on the Gas Powered Games-developed action RTS, Demigod. "We were looking forward to the weekend to recover," Stardock CEO Brad Wardell wrote on the publisher's official forum. "Instead, we found ourselves back at work having to turn on and configure the multiplayer matchmaking servers." Beyond losing vacation time, Wardell theorizes the early availability of Demigod will cause piracy of the copy protection-free title to be "maximized." But the outspoken (anti-intrusive DRM) exec says Demigod's early release may serve as proof of the actual effects of piracy. In response to GameStop's decision, Stardock released the game via its own digital distribution service, Impulse, a day early (on Monday). While Wardell wouldn't discuss speculation that GameStop intentionally released Demigod early to combat Stardock's digital distribution service, the CEO says Stardock is in talks with GameStop to find out "how this happened."[Via Gamasutra]
The Dark Knight Blu-ray disc leaking out, complaints already rolling in
Don't let that December 9 street date fool you, it seems like many are taking our advice and getting their hands on The Dark Knight Blu-ray disc as soon as possible. Reports have popped up on more than one forum over the last weekend of people ordering -- and receiving -- copies from retailers with 7-11-style views of release date tyranny, or for the less scrupulous, downloading ripped copies. Even worse the biggest Blu-ray debut to date is being met with criticism before it even (officially) goes on the shelf, with complaints about edge enhancement, compression and director Chris Nolan's aspect ratio choices in relation to IMAX / non-IMAX footage. Need to check it out for yourself? A bit of poking around should earn a copy sooner rather than later, no mail-ins necessary.Read - AVSForumRead - Blu-ray.com
Major Nelson: 60GB Xbox 360 has no street date
As the tips flowed in, saying that every major retailer out there was selling the new 60GB Xbox 360, our dreams of full-blown retail anarchy were dashed by word that there is no street date attached to the unit. We were first told to expect the new model sometime in August, but Microsoft's Major Nelson confirmed to X3F, "Nope ... they'll just appear in the retail channels."If you've been waiting for the 60GB model, check with your local retailer, as the console might very well be available. If you want to take the internet route, Amazon is already selling them as well. Now we go back to praying to our dark lords for the end of all street dates. Diablo, grant us anarchy!
Target selling non-existent Dark Sector
Sometimes it's funny to poke fun at big-box retailers for missing small things, like release dates for example. From countless of broken street dates to outright insanity, the big guys have been known to make mistakes. This week, the Target flyer promoted Dark Sector as being teh new hotness -- unfortunately they didn't realize the game isn't scheduled to release until the end of the month.We'd like to imagine the game section manager of each Target had his staff clear off a special area for the upcoming third-person shooter and proceeded to give a touching speech about how shoving strategy guide sales down our throats would only benefit us before they realized their shipment was a few items short.[Thanks, Mike P.]
Kmart reportedly breaks Mass Effect street date
It's official - 2007 will henceforth be known as the "Year of Broken Street Dates." First, BioShock was sold a week in advance by Toys R' Us, then there were the reports of number of early sales of Halo 3 throughout Europe, then the recent Rock Band mix-up at Best Buy, and to top it all off, a number of lucky gamers have apparently gotten their hot little hands on copies of Mass Effect from Kmart - a full ten days before the game's official release date.As with every instance of broken street dates, there's no guarantee that your local Kmart will be selling the game early, or that they will have any in stock. But if you're as anxious as we are to board the SSV Normandy to explore the Milky Way (while making some sweet, sweet, FCC-approved love), then you'll make the trip to your local Kmart, braving the Saturday shopping crowd, and sightings of terrifying anthropomorphic light bulbs.[Thanks, Alex]
Check your local Best Buy, they could be selling Super Mario Galaxy right now
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo_wii/Best_Buy_breaking_street_date_on_Super_Mario_Galaxy'; Several of the folks frequenting the message boards over at GameFAQS are reporting that several Best Buy locations have broken the street date for Super Mario Galaxy. These lucky folk who were able to walk into their local Best Buy and walk out with a wrapped copy of Super Mario Galaxy not only win what is sure to be the best Wii game of the year (Sorry, Metroid Prime 3. We still BFF?), but also our unadulterated hate. Why? Because our local Best Buy is closed at the time of this report.Now, before you get all up in arms that this is only the crazed ramblings of a GameFAQS forum poster, know that several in the lengthy thread have come out of the woodwork to confirm this. Know, also, that some have claimed to be managers at other retail locations and Best Buy itself, stating that it isn't normal to receive product a week before release. So, take it as you will, but you can bet when morning hits, we'll be heading over to our local Best Buy to try our luck.%Gallery-4735%[Thanks, Ben C!]
Xbox 360 Elite hits the market early, Target to thank
Waiting around another week or so for Microsoft's Xbox 360 Elite to hit the market didn't seem all that painful from here, but to those looking to get their sweaty palms around the sleek, HDMI-enabled rig on the double, you can apparently fulfill your fantasy right now. Unsurprisingly surfacing on none other than eBay, the world's first Xbox 360 Elite bundle to leave Target's doors in a customer's hands has arrived, and if the small bevy of photos and actual receipt aren't enough to arraign some careless bullseye-sporting employee, we don't know what is. Of course, if you're still unwilling to shell out the above-MSRP asking price, you can always patiently place a pre-order, enjoy the hands-on photos, and envision yourself in the place of those Microsoft drones playing with it on video.[Via Joystiq]
Italy breaks Euro PS3 street date
You'd think that after waiting for roughly five months longer than the rest of the world, European retailers would be able to wait a couple more days to start selling their one million stockpiled PS3s. Apparently not, though, as an Italian retailer has broken Sony's carefully planned street date, causing a domino effect in other other stores across the country.GamesIndustry.biz reports that small specialist chain Darty took out ads for a 7 p.m. Wednesday PS3 sale in advance of the official Friday launch. Competitor Media World responded by canceling midnight sales plans and letting its stock loose at 9 a.m. Wednesday morning (or roughly seven and a half hours ago, Italy time, as of this posting). Italy's GameStop stores are currently planning to stick to the street date, but said they might be forced to break it to stay competitive.Sony, for its part, is "deeply disappointed by the unilateral decision" to launch early and is "carefully consider[ing] all available options in relation to retailers who have commenced sale of PlayStation 3 prior to 23rd March 2007." Unilateral decisions? Retaliation? Is this the console war or the Iraq war?
Crackdown for sale south of the border
No, not "Crack for sale down south of the border", but Crackdown itself is. While you may be able to find both, we're really only reporting on the availability of the latter in Mexico. According to a wily reader of PlanetXbox360, Crackdown has been available at Mexican retailers as soon as it arrived at their doorstep. Some locations are even sold out of their initial shipment. Apparently, this isn't even out of the ordinary, and Mexican retailers tend to ignore street dates, as seen above. One thing we're curious about, is how many of the 3405 gamers who has played Crackdown on MyGamerCard.net has taken advantage of this, and 50 have Mexico as their locale. Another thing we're curious about is whether any of you fanboys near the US-Mexico border are going to try your luck south of the line or just wait patiently until the 20th?
