GameStop Breaks Demigod Street Date; Stardock CEO "Very Unhappy"

[Samurai Goomba]

What else is new? I learned about their strategy for breaking street dates months ago (on an Australian Gamer podcast.) Gamestop will do absolutely anything if they think they can get away with it, including lying to customers about what reservations they have, selling opened and played products as "brand new," and not giving employees breaks (by giving employees way too much work and not nearly enough time to do it in.)

I shop on Half.com whenever possible.

 

[Huyderman]

I can't find any downside for gamers in "game gets sold early". The game was already pressed onto discs anyway so there won't be any missed development, the only thing that gets cut down is the time the stock spends useless in some warehouse with gamers unable to buy it.

Here's a downside for you; the multiplayer servers weren't up running completly yet because the devs weren't going to roll them out before closer to the actual release date. But instead they had to go into overtime in the holidays to rush out a deployment. That's not good for anyone, except possibly GameStop...

 

[Kirra]

I have never seen a copy protection that has prevented piracy so i don't think removing it will make much difference. It will mostly just annoy people who buy the game legally.

 

[KDR_11k]

Here's a downside for you; the multiplayer servers weren't up running completly yet because the devs weren't going to roll them out before closer to the actual release date. But instead they had to go into overtime in the holidays to rush out a deployment. That's not good for anyone, except possibly GameStop...

So on the days before the game gets officially released you can only play singleplayer. And? The other option would be to twiddle your thumbs (or play something else) until then.

 

[Doug]

So they sold the game before Stardocks official release date? Can't they be fined/sued for that?

I do hope so! Stardock are one of the few publishers who actually work the business as a business - i.e. not horse whipping paying customers to get rid of pirates.

 

[Doug]

Also, I'm curious - is the game fun? It looks fun, but there is no demo, and after the whole Spore thing, I'm more wary about buying without trying.

 

[Sevre]

Probably wait for a review before buying.

 

[roekenny]

I feel sorry for the devs as a 8 week crunch and having holidays off as a reward then it striped from you. I would be more than a little pissed. I surprised if this a frequent occurrence that companies both with them as only takes one to say since you keep doing this to us and is no respect for our release dates then we refuse to do business with you any more. As only takes one for others to follow suit as gamespot will not be missed when there gone.

 

[NinjaKirby1322]

And GameStop continues to make it look extremely stupid. Why, GameStop, why?

I'm not saying GameStop is a god send, but it's not like I have any other choices here. I've only been able to preorder games from GameStop, and their "bargain bins" see frequent $5-$10 purchases from me. To be honest, they have been getting a lot more bad rap than I really think they deserve. I don't think it would have been blown this out of proportion if some other company did this.

Still, not a good move here. I feel sorry for Stardock, as I can fully understand how bad programming and testing crunches can be.

 

[Abedeus]

And you are surprised that pirates ALREADY HAVE RELEASED THE GAME.

 

[oliveira8]

And the gamers only get hurt on the process.

I can't find any downside for gamers in "game gets sold early". The game was already pressed onto discs anyway so there won't be any missed development, the only thing that gets cut down is the time the stock spends useless in some warehouse with gamers unable to buy it.

Bah post fail wait a second...

Edit: Yes it hursts the players Demigod is supposed to be a multiplayer RTS and the MP component was the main part of the game. It came out completly broken to the people that bought it on gamestop.

Apparentlty the SP is skirmishes and a tournament or something.

 

[KDR_11k]

And the gamers only get hurt on the process.

I can't find any downside for gamers in "game gets sold early". The game was already pressed onto discs anyway so there won't be any missed development, the only thing that gets cut down is the time the stock spends useless in some warehouse with gamers unable to buy it.

Bah post fail wait a second...

Edit: Yes it hursts the players Demigod is supposed to be a multiplayer RTS and the MP component was the main part of the game. It came out completly broken to the people that bought it on gamestop.

Apparentlty the SP is skirmishes and a tournament or something.

Those who want only MP can just wait until the servers go online and buy it normally on the street date, others can choose to buy it early and still end up ahead compared to no date breaking (because even only half a game is still better than no game at all).

 

[GonzoGamer]

I'd say to boycott the place, but chances are the informed gamers here already do.

I'm interested in the piracy aspect of this though.

A boycott would be good but the problem is that they have legions of zombified gamestop fanboys who think that they can do no wrong and will gladly give them week old games for $20 trade in and then put that $20 down as a pre-order for a game they'll have to wait another year for anyway.
No wonder everyone thinks gamers are suckers, they make companies like gameslop a success.

 

[Jursa]

People should watch Zero Originality. It's a bloke who used to work at GameStop who trolls about the thing in a hilarious and truthful manner for around an hour.

 

[Outamyhead]

When the heck did the game stores start pushing around developers, I thought that was the publishers job to give unrealistic deadlines?

 

[Pigeon_Grenade]

poor overworked guys