Retailers fail to honour embargo dates as two top games--Pro Evolution Soccer 6 and Canis Canem Edit--come out early.
The official release date in the UK has been broken again by retailers this week, which put Bully and Pro Evolution Soccer 6 out onto store shelves two days ahead of schedule. Last week, Sega brought the official release date of Football Manager 2007 forward to October 18, after "certain retail outlets" had chosen to ignore the embargo and put the game out on sale early.
This week, both Canis Canem Edit (also known as Bully) and PES6 are already on sale at high street retailers and online stores throughout the UK. Konami spokespersons pointed the finger at family store Woolworths, where it claims the games were deliberately put on sale today, October 25.
They told GameSpot: "This Friday is one of the busiest days on record for new releases, one of which is PES6. We understand that Woolworths, reacting to street date-breaking during recent weeks have instructed their stores to sell this week's major new releases from today (Wednesday)."
The situation could escalate into retail and chart chaos, Konami warned. "This is not something we condone," said the reps. "It leads to anarchy in the market, and some retailers who do not yet have stock or are unable to react quick enough will be disadvantaged."
A spokesperson for Woolworths commented that the company had simply been reacting to other retailers who had already put the games on sale, though he refused to name names. He said, "Woolworths is reacting to what it has seen in the market over the past two weeks."
@Greydawg, no the point isn't that the game is selling anyway, the point is that some retailers are getting an unfair advantage over other retailers, can't you see that? imagine you owned your own game shop, wouldnt you be pissed if you were sticking to the official release date and some big corporation shop like woolworths started selling it 2 days early and stealing a load of your potential customers???
what's the fuss about? i got pro evo 6 on 360 earlier today and i hadn't even planned it! i just went to the shop, saw it and couldn't believe my eyes. good going GAME, i don't care if Konami don't 'condone' an early release!
Company wide I know that only roughly 1500 copies of Pro Evo on the PS2 were sold and less than 400 on the Xbox360. Bully/CCE wasn't even topping the 700 mark (at my employees stores at least). Retail is very quiet during half term anyway, most people assumed that this weeks big releases weren't out till Friday as per usual and didn't come in anyway. Considering companies like Play.com and such ship early all the time and more often than not waiting hurts the indie's I think street dates for games are a bad idea.
"Woolworths was reacting to what it has seen in the market over the past two days". Childish.
I saw it in Gamestation today and I was surprised. Then again, I never buy games from the gaming retailers anymore; the supermarket prices are much more pocket-friendly.
i wouldn't expect a shop like woolworths to do this. i would think a small games shop would do it. i was given pokemon silver about 3 days b4 release as i had pre-ordered it and the person there gave me it when i came to check on its release
This is kinda strange it has been happening here for a couple of weeks too i have a feeling someone could be getting sued
I wished I read this eariler and the games will be in my collection right now. Now, I have wait till tomorrow.
Why buy from Woolworths? They price new games at £39.99 when you can buy them at least £10 cheaper on the internet.
The problem is, they know that there too many factors in play that would screw shipments up if they wait until the last minute to ship. But stores should be able to sell games when they get them. While the new Zelda may not release until the 19th, I know that if we were to get copies in to work tonight, I could ask the chick that stocks Electronics to get me a copy, and I could pick it up in the morning. (I could actually buy it at night, but the "OOOPS, did we put this out early?!?!!?" excuse wouldn't be as good.) For the record, I haven't found a game worth doing this for. But friends at work have been playing Madden weks early for the past three years.
I would read a review of games I was unsure of first that helps me decide if it's worth the cash. The last game I brought right off the bat without reading a view was Clayfighter for the N64... Exactly.
I got my copy of Canis Canem Edit, and its great, so im happy :) I dont even understand why there is an embargo on game releases? Why dont they just sell the game when they first get the copies of it?
another way to solve the problem could be to make sure "repeat offenders" get their delivery of the game on the day of release instead of 2-3 days early, thus ensuring that they can't sell it before it's release date and possibly giving indie's and "nice" shops a head start, or you could just order online and maybe get it early (?)
I was in Game yesterday and also saw Family Guy on sale early .. judging by the wallet friendly price and lack of reviews i think the extra couple of days worth of sales will benefit this game .... but then again i could be wrong ... it might be a good game resonably priced ! I was very tempted to buy PES 6 yesterday ... but i've only started playing Fifa 06 and not even touched PES 5 ... too many games and not enough time ! i do feel sorry for the small independants who might lose out on sales to the big stores
The point isn't about game sales being affected. The point is that stores who stick to the rules are losing out to big corperate bastards who stock things early. Which is unfair. The answer, Konami, is to stop stocking the offending stores. If Woolworths pulls a stunt like this, then stop supplying them with your games altogether. That'll teach 'em.
PES 6 is a great game, as a long time fan I have to say that I was expecting to be disapointted. But no! it's a great game.
pro 6 doesn't live up to pro 5, player reactions times are slow, ridiculous referee leniency makes the game more like an arcade game and less like a football sim, and the overall play of the game is not as fluid as it is in pro 5, i bought it yesterday and i am trully disappointed. dont believe the hype
I thought the street was unusually busy on my lunch hour yesterday; I mean it's normally busy but not that busy. =|
Osama bin Laden has been usurped as the biggest threat to western civilization by Woolworths? What`s next? Democracy is in peril because of Wendy`s choice of sides with your combo cardiac meal?
Board up your windows!! The streets of the Uk are awash with raw anarchy!! It's every man for himself! Damn your woolworths! Damn you all to hell!!
Anarchy might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it really is a big deal. This kinda thing does happen but usually on lower profile titles. Say a publisher sets a certain shelf date for a game. Store "A" puts game out early. Either an employee was stupid and couldn't read the nice bright sticker, or the store or stores just did it deliberately. Now if it's a game everyody wants once they hear it's out they'll run right there while store "B" that abided by the street date gets word and, not wanting to be beaten by the other store that now has a "mini-monopoly" on the game, also stocks their shelves early. Meanwhile, store "C" hasn't even gotten their copies of the game in yet, so they lose out the business to the other 2 stores. The consumers will think in the future why should I wait when I can get my games earlier from this store that's not following the rules. Then there are others that preordered the game questioning it even more and why they even bothered, so the preorder system falls apart. Then the game's publisher could get mad and decide not to sell any copies to store "A" at all. I highly doubt any publisher could afford to do that though, which leaves the penalties for this a joke. It is only an honor system after all. Bottom line is in the interest of good business publishers set a shelf date. Obviously not every store gets their copies at the exact same second, or even week. Breaking street dates doesn't help competition like some people here are saying, it completely degrades it by giving another store or company an unfair advantage over others. Online is a gray area though since there is no actual brick and mortar stores involved. Sorry for the long post but I couldn't really explain it any other way. And in the end that's a very unlikely thing to happen where the whole system falls apart. But it's always a possibility. And I will add that most titles aren't nearly popular enough to even worry about.
Pity Konami didn't put as much effort into PES6 on XBox 360 as they have in their "poor" marketing jibes. It makes no difference that the game is released early, those who want the game will buy it - no matter what day of release.
Anarchy for the u.k its coming sometime and maybe I give a wrong time stop a trafic line Your future dream is a shopping scheme cos i I wanna be anarchy ! In the city
I don't see what the big deal is, every EB and gamestop I've been to in Illinois puts their games on the shelf right when they receive them.
I see Play.com are now offering 24 hour delivery on PES6. I pre-ordered mine from there about two weeks ago. Silly me for being pro-efficient. I shall never be organised again!
it's mostly always like this over here, yestersay I saw a about hundred nutters gather round one shop about 5pm, just for PES6, all going nuts. and it's ANARCHY IN THE STREETS, RIOTS HAVE BROKEN OUT.
Um...this doesn't seem to be a huge issue to me. Anytime I order on Amazon, I get my things a day or two before the realease anyway. Don't see why some stores selling games that don't have a "hyped" release date are ruffling companies feathers.
Heck, too many games are coming out on the same day during this time of the year anyway, so why not shift a few out the door ahead of time! Frigging companies are crazy -- look at the first week of November's releases. Everything and GOD are being released that Tuesday - and wait until the weeks to follow when you have wii and ps3 software adding to the mosh pit! So yeah, a few titles get out a few days earlier- so be it!
2 DAYS EARLY OMG, Someone call an am-bu-lance! Stick to the dates people, otherwise we ALL know that complete anarchy will arise if you choose to ignore it. Oh, and that whole thing about the apocalypse....that will happen too.
Cant believe I ordered PES6 on line knowing I'd be one of the first to play it a day early but NO! I should have made like a Chav and skulked down to the shops and bought the f 'ing game today ! TODAY !!!!! Dam you sneaky retailers!
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