RCT3 Release pushed up to 10/27

Yeah, I'd need to drink beer before voting to vote for Kerry...

Like Meatloaf sings: "Two outta three ain't bad" :)

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Kick The Sky said:
If I remember right, Target released RCT2 well before the "official" release date.

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They did, and got a $10k fine for every copy they sold. I'm confused as to which date it will come out, but either way, I don't get paid again till the 30th.

Yeah right... I'm sure Target shelled out something like a half-million.

I guess that CD I have was really expensive then.

Like they are gonna fine Target 10K for every copy. Where do they get the legal recourse to do that? They shipped it to them early with the priviso that they not put it out on the shelves until a certain time. Target put it out early. The only recourse that the makers of RCT2 would have is to stop selling their game at Target. That didn't happen, as I still see copies of RCT2 at Target to this day. These game companies wouldn't sell a damned thing if they went after any of their major retailers like that. It's biting the hand that feeds you.

Believe it or not, Target got a 10k fine for everything. I was still working @ Wal-Mart at the time, stocking electronics, and our home office sent a big huge email down about it, what the reprocussions are, etc.

If a store sells anything early with a street date on it, the company releasing the CDs/Games/Movies have the right to impose fines. Standard fine is 10k per copy sold, and Target got that fine. Same thing when K-Mart released Blair Witch Project 4 days early. You pay the fine so that you can continue selling the parent company's products, or they pull it.

Trust me on this one, I did Retail for 7+ years, worked at quite a few different companies, and know what I'm talking bout:).

I really don't see these game companies fining a bit retailer like Target. Target can just shrug their shoulders and say, "fine, we won't sell your stuff anymore if you are going to fine us" and it won't hurt Target all that much while the game company will lose a good chunk of their sales. Believe me, retailers have an ENORMOUS amount of leverage over their wholesalers and the companies the supply the wholesalers. If a retailer doesn't like the way someone is doing things, they will just drop them and that company just lost a huge swath of the market to sell their goods in. There is huge competion between companies to get their products in retail stores. 10K fine is never gonna happen. My guess is that memo you was falsified information.

Sorry, but I can't believe that story at all. I've been in the retail industry for 17 years, and I've never heard of any retailer paying a fine for pre-maturely shipping a product against its official date. My own distributors had mentioned a number of times, that the most that can happen is, the manufacturer will cut off the retailer/distributor of future products, but even that I find hard to believe.

In addition, if that Target news was true, it would have been pretty big industry news seeing that the media would jump on something like this.

Ya know, someone's belief in something is not a pre-requisite for it being truth. I know what I speak of, I've worked in a couple different electronics retailers, and am confident enough in what I have said to sit here and not argue about it, because I know what I'm talking about.

:)

A fine of a retailer that large would have been newsworthy, and unless you can find some kind of article that backs up your claims, no one here is going to buy it. (pardon the pun)

I'm sorry, but I tend to agree with most everyone. Target stocks a very limited line of computer games. They wouldn't enter into a contract like that because they can just as well tell the publisher to stick the game up their rear.

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TeknoScorpion said:
Ya know, someone's belief in something is not a pre-requisite for it being truth. :)

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As I understand it, you saw a memo so your belief in that memo translates (for you) into a truth, correct? Is that not the same thing?

I have to agree with everyone else...that much money spread around would have to show up on someone's radar. There would be a story on it in the business wires. Or, stuff like that would be brought up by someone at a stock meeting. Point is, it would come out somewhere besides a competing store's internal memos!

I doubt they got fined 10,000 a copy. Maybe like, 10 dollars a copy.

Either that, Kyle, or pehaps $10,000 total....

Yea,I would really also have to agree with everyone else.....10,000 a copy is a little steep. I pre-ordred EA'S Nascar 2005 for a friend...it had a Tuesday release date..but it actually shipped from Eb on that Friday before...so the game came to me a day early should they have got fined...NO!. Games have always came out early...as long as I have been buying them. If every big business like Best Buy, Target, or Circuit City got fined that much money for putting a game out early...I am pretty sure that they would not be carring many games!!!!

Dude Walmart itself puts it's games out early. I bought this wrestling game a few years ago, and it was out on Sunday when it was coming out the following Tuesday.

Plus with all the billions these companies make every year, I seriously doubt they care about a petty 10,000 dollars anyway. Especially if all there stoers can say they got the game before anyother store. Which would make more people wanna shop at that store for example.

Well... I'm not sure who's right here, but there is a middle line inbetween...

Case in example: At BestBuy, I've bought a number of X-Box games, and on some of them, namely one Midtown Maddness 3, there was a sticker on the package that specifically stated: "DO NOT SELL BEFORE 06-17!" right on all the copies on the top of the box. What happens if they do sell it before then? Something, as that sticker was from Microsoft themselves. (it was also on Ninja Gaiden when it first came out, too)

Another case in example: At Circuit City, I was anticipating Wario Ware for Game Boy Advance when it was first announced. The game was schedualed to be released on that Wednesday or Thursday. I went there on Monday and saw a few copies of the game there. When I went to cash it out, the computer would not accept it. I was denied the game as they would not sell it to me. I tried arguing it saying that it's false advertising that they have this game out now, with copies on the shelves & prices labeled... but refused to sell it to me. They said that they just couldn't.

So somewhere along there... the stores do have some responsibility to not release games early... I don't work in retail stores, so I don't know the policy, but I am a consumer & have witnessed those 2 things, which means there's something inbetween here.

I've talked with game publishers. Yes, some get agreements where the retailers will agree to fines if they're sold before a certain date. However, while giant retailers will agree in principle not to sell a game early, they certainly won't agree to terms with fines because they have the upper hand over the publisher. Best Buy and Target can set the terms because they have the volume of customers the publisher wants to get the game in front of. It's like, "You want us to be subjected to fines? OK, then see how many copies you sell without us."

Get it?

I had a job interview today at a local mall-based video game store (not saying which one...) and when I walk in the back room, I see about a dozen boxes of RCT3 sitting there. So could the release date be pushed up? Perhaps, considering the store has copies in its inventory.

Ah,

but are sure those were actual RCT3 boxes, or just the 'dummy' boxes they give out for pre-orders.

When you pre-order the game, you get a 'dummy' product box that merely containes instructions on recieving your free gift for pre-registering. They don't even give you a CD-ROM copy of the demo with the pre-order.