Poll: Mult-date releases

[Doug]

Seeing as I won't be able to purchase myself a copy of Fable 2 until Friday, given its not being released here in UK-land until then, I thought I'd see if everyone else was hacked off at multi-date releases.

Now, in this day and age, we have digital distribtion and all that, and the world is an increasingly hooked up place. As far as I can see, there is no reason for multi-region releases, especially for the UK/EU gap of one day.

In the case of, say, Australia, tougher restrictions might excuse it, but does it?

EDIT: Sorry about the edits, I early entered

 

[fedpayne]

I usually have to wait for the price to drop a wee smidge, or till I see any good offers anyway. Course if they released Ep3 tomorrow in the biggest smokescreen ever... that would be pretty cool, and I'd probably get it. If it came out in the states before here, I would be angry, and stop coming on here, because of all the times I've seen people writing about

Spoiler

Eli knowing about the G-Man, and then dying. In fact, I've seen plenty on here. My friend found out about Revan and had to go to the toilet for a while to calm down. And the ending of GTAIV.

 

[Generic Hero]

Yes, after moving to England from the states, it does annoy me. I know theres a bunch of legal/rating/etc reasons why we can't have it. But why not wait until it's ready to go on both sides. Now for the Aussies fair enough for the wait as the rating system there is wacky. But for England where there are games here rated 12+ while in states it's M (Imma looking at you Rumble Roses). It just boggles the mind.

 

[Doctor Panda]

Since all of the platforms that I use regularly are regionless (PC, PS3, DS, PSP)... No, not really. Until the Australian dollar died very hard (even compared to the US) it was cheaper to import stuff anyway. Now the price is similar!

Smash bros brawl was amusing. I had access to a japanese Wii through a friend and we were playing it the day after it came out over there. About half a year later i heard nintendo's announcement that they had finally set a shipping date for Aus and i was all like LUL WAT? Same thing happened when I'd played Sins of a Solar Empire to death, and then saw a 'coming soon' on a hard copy of it in EB...

Is it stupid? Yes. Do I put up with it? Not bloody likely. 'Course that relies on having enough *cash* to fund your hobby.

 

[Johnn Johnston]

Yeah, I see no reason why they can't release around the world on the same day.

Spoiler: And, with regards to the first option in the poll...

"Stop right there, criminal scum! Your staggered release dates infuriates us all. You can pay the fine, or go to jail."
*Game developers resist arrest*
"Then pay with your blood!"

 

[pigeon_of_doom]

Could be worse. Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 isn't out on the Wii until spring!

In general the delay between different region's release dates seems a lot less now than it used to be in the N64 era.

 

[Amnestic]

Yeah, I see no reason why they can't release around the world on the same day.

Spoiler: And, with regards to the first option in the poll...

"Stop right there, criminal scum! Your staggered release dates infuriates us all. You can pay the fine, or go to jail."
*Game developers resist arrest*
"Then pay with your blood!"

Objection! The picture clearly displays a normal conversation tree as opposed to those who have committed crimes. This attorney postulates that game developers have done nothing wrong!

Actually I lie. SSBB was delayed about 3 months from US->EU and it annoyed me to no end.

 

[Lt. Sera]

When I really want a game, it's annoying reading about how everyone is having a blast and I'm still waiting a week or so. But for most games it doesn't matter, since I buy them after a price drop.

 

[Rugged 13]

Fable 2 is only 3 days later thankfully, I can wait three days. What I do want to do though is to slap the "Fable II-Buy it Today" ad on the bottom right of my screen so hard that the next page I see it on it is upside down.

 

[xitel]

Seeing as how there is rarely a huge gap between release dates, I don't really mind. Even when there are large gaps, they usually make up for it with extras or fixed bugs.

 

[GloatingSwine]

In the modern days of Internets, I think it would benefit publishers more to group release dates in areas of common language fairly close together, due to the effect of the four month bell curve of interest in the product.

Before Internets, that curve was basically isolated in each region. Now, it's an international thing, and releasing a game in England and Australia too long after America has already lost interest in it vastly reduces the amount of hype presence you can transfer between the areas.