Release Dates

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I don't know why I was wrong enough to think that video games would be released in the same way that CDs and DVDs are. Maybe it's because they're all entertainment on disc. Either way, I'm apparently horribly mistaken.

The thing is, for all of the gaming that I do, I rarely buy a game on or near its release date. It's just not cost-effective. I'd rather wait until it's been out for a while and retailers want to cut stock, or else it's popular enough that it gets released as a cheap "players choice" title. Or else buy used, at least until Sony takes that option away.

In any case, I was fully intending to buck that trend today and buy a new game. So I thought I'd just swing by a Circuit City before lunch, and that'd be that. Thankfully my suspicious nature took over and I decided to check out their website first. Followed by other websites. Here's what I found:

• Nintendo of America's site actually lists the release date as yesterday. Not sure how that works, but I guess movies sometimes come out on random days even though the "usual" release day is a Tuesday (not that I know why that is, but it probably has to do with marketing research).
• Circuit City lists the release date merely as "Coming Soon". Helpful.
• Best Buy lists the release date as tomorrow. Interesting. So does EB Games.
• WalMart lists the release date on its search page as last Friday. When you click through to the game it says the release date is today, but won't let you buy the game, just add it to your cart as a "pre-order" item. Not that I'd have given WalMart my money under any circumstances for something like this, but I thought it would be a fair comparisson.
• Amazon.com has the release date as today, and says it ships in a day or two.

Naturally, given those lackluster choices, I've put in my order with Amazon. Of course, it now lists my ship date as January 16th, 2006. I just can't win.

Leave it to the gaming industry to stick it to its fanbase, though. Imagine if going to a movie was like this. It's Friday, and you want to see a new movie, but each theater won't tell you for sure when they're showing it. That'd be fun. Bah.

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