No Oceans

[deanb]

It's been coming for a while now, especially if you've been reading RPS articles.

 

Basically John Walker aka @botherer has now put into motion a campaign to get games, especially digital titles, released simultaneously globally. None of the "Crysis 2 for US today, Crysis 2 for the rest of the world on Friday" stuff we have now. There's plenty to poke holes in on why it's such an outdated system.

 

So there's currently a petition up (from what I can tell might need a bit of tweaking if you're not UK) and he's requesting help from any sites or people up for it. I've thrown in PXOD's weight (hope none of you mind ). I'd recommend anyone else here with access to a games blog to look into it. Maybe anyone with access to publishers too.

 

Personally I think it's a pretty good cause. Being an affected Briton I am a bit biased. Though the arbitrary release dates can affect US too (there's a few games where it comes Friday 1st for us and Tuesday 5th for you guys)

 

Full post can be read here:

http://www.rockpaper...-release-dates/

Petition can be signed here

http://www.petition....-says-no-oceans

 

(and yes I know "web petitions lead to nothing" but they get the ball rolling, people talking. The right people talking then things can happen.)

[excel_excel]

Yes! Oh God Yes. Sick of waiting. Even for a few days!

Its not like its an official thing anyway, COD released on the same day in America and Europe! If that's the way it is for that then it can be the same for everyone!

Edited March 22, 2011 by excel_excel

[deanb]

http://games.slashdot.org/story/11/03/23/0534222/Rock-Paper-Shotgun-Call-For-Worldwide-Game-Release-Dates

 

So it turns out, Slashdot works in pretty much the same way as N4G.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

This rubs me the wrong way. Whatever happened to patience? How does it affect you if you have to wait 2 days more than someone else? What about people who never buy new? They have no problem waiting.

[deanb]

It's actually 3 days (at minimum) Could be a couple of months. Depends on the game.

But it's main point is that even on digital games, where you've got it preloaded, the game is on your PC, and yet there's an arbitrary nonsensical date in place that means if you live on one part of the world your game unlocks on Day Y, and if you live on a different part of the world it takes until Day X. What's the point? The game is finished, it is gold, it's downloaded on servers and in boxes at the local game store. What reason is there for the arbitrary delay?

It's not like global releases can't be done, they've been done a fair few times. In fact COD is released on multiple systems on the same day and that's the biggest game launch of all time, so it's not a scale thing either.

It's not the end of the world, though it is a bitch to have to sit through several days of American friends all lit up green blasting away at a game, sometimes even completing it, before you can even boot it up for first launch. (and it's not like it doesn't work in reverse few times too, sometimes the Friday release is first)

It's just fucking stupid and there's no reason for it to continue.

(though I'll admit with Dead Rising 2 is saved my skin a bit, giving me time to download, test, then cancel my order on the game)

 

(and before you jump to the wrong conclusion like usual, that wasn't me)

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

It still comes down to patience in my eyes. I have no problem with the slowest shipping, or waiting until games are a cheaper price or anything. I just see no reason to want a game immediately when it comes out. Hell, I know a lot of you have a huge queue of games you still need to play, so this makes this even more moot. I'm not against worldwide releases I just don't see why there needs to be all of this bitching. Though I bet a lot of the bitter taste has to do with the way the RPS guy wrote the article.

[deanb]

What was iffy with how he wrote the article? It's just regular RPS style.

 

I just find it stupid and pointless to be there. I can't really think of any actual reason to have staggered launch dates.

And yeah we have backlogs, doesn't negate the fact there's games we want to play Day One.

 

 

 

(and no I didn't do the other two either)

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

I think it's funny that I get minused simply for not sucking the dick of every other user on here. I'm not even saying anything drastic and even pointed out that I'm not against this.

 

Anyways, "day one" means nothing. You can make any day your "day one." What does it matter if you play it 2 days later than someone in a completely different part of the world? I never got that. For all we know the difference in launch dates can come down to any number of reasons: shipping, what the regular launch date is (like for example, stuff in america comes out on tuesdays most of the time, movies, games, whatever), marketing purposes, internal purposes (easier to handle it with 2 days in between or some odd shit), etc.

 

If you're really excited for a game, what's another few days of waiting when you've already waited months or years? The same can be said about getting upset over delays. The game will always be there after it comes out. There's no rush.

 

Btw, the writing of that article wasn't the problem, it was his typical gamer on the internet "we're owed the world!" attitude that got me that I haven't really noticed before.

[TheMightyEthan]

You get minused because of your smugly superior attitude, not necessarily the viewpoints you express.

[deanb]

Complains on how people use the rep system then negative reps everyone else in the thread. No hypocricy at all.

Shipping? When it comes to digital that's not an issue at all (which is his main point) but even with regular retail it's more than likely sitting in the back room. I doubt it gets delivered to the store on the day of release. To get the game to your house for release webstores would have to send it out at least a day ahead if not two, showing the boxed copies are clearly done and ready.

As for "it's how we've always done it, stuff comes out Tuesday in US, Friday in Europe" doesn't mean it can't change. There's no reason to stick to such an arbitrary schedule.

Marketing reasons makes the least amount of sense. As it stands they have to create twice the marketing materials to accommodate the differences in release dates, or run stuff with two release dates over it (which highlights to more n more people something funky is up) If it's one date then that's all you need to run with.

As for internally handling it, easier to run with 2 days etc as one of the /. commenters put it:

You undertake a multi-million project over the course of years and you can't sync logistics & legal? Come on, bullshit.

Plenty of studios have done it. And as I mentioned up top, that includes Activision shipping several million copies of COD across multiple systems and regions in a single day. If they can do it on that scale it should be possible on shipping <million of most games.

 

Yes there's no absolutely drastic reason why you must have the game ASAP. It's just why on earth should the delay be there in the first place. Just cos it's not end of the world doesn't mean it's not something that can and should change.

It wasn't so much "we're owed the world" as "this is stupid and should stop"

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

You get minused because of your smugly superior attitude, not necessarily the viewpoints you express.

 

*minuses RPS*

 

Anyways, I'm acting smug or superior? Besides that last post, I'm acting pretty indifferent.

 

Complains on how people use the rep system then negative reps everyone else in the thread. No hypocricy at all.

 

Just thought I'd join in on the fun

 

Dean, I know how shipping works, but where is it shipping from? Perhaps there is a legitimate gap created by it. With digital, they just line it up with the box street date. That's pretty easy to figure out.

 

Has Friday always been the industry standard for games/other stuff over there even for games developed in Europe? Tuesday has been the standard here for as long as I can remember (and only recently has there been random friday releases.)

 

With marketing and internally you have to think about the size of these companies and the branches of them. I'm sure there's some EA office in Europe that's handling European marketing separately.

 

For CoD they might have to do things abnormally such as stock it earlier than normal and crap like that (which would explain why those always leak so early.) I think as consumers this is particularly hard to get a grasp on. I'm interested to see if anyone in the industry will respond to RPS bro and what they will have to say about it. I'm definitely curious as to if they have any reason at all, too.

[TheMightyEthan]

You get minused because of your smugly superior attitude, not necessarily the viewpoints you express.

Anyways, I'm acting smug or superior? Besides that last post, I'm acting pretty indifferent.

Your viewpoint is indifferent, the way you're expressing it is smug and superior. Your posts read like "I'm indifferent, and anyone who's not is wrong and stupid for caring."

[deanb]

Dean, I know how shipping works, but where is it shipping from? Perhaps there is a legitimate gap created by it. With digital, they just line it up with the box street date. That's pretty easy to figure out.

 

Has Friday always been the industry standard for games/other stuff over there even for games developed in Europe? Tuesday has been the standard here for as long as I can remember (and only recently has there been random friday releases.)

 

With marketing and internally you have to think about the size of these companies and the branches of them. I'm sure there's some EA office in Europe that's handling European marketing separately.

 

For CoD they might have to do things abnormally such as stock it earlier than normal and crap like that (which would explain why those always leak so early.) I think as consumers this is particularly hard to get a grasp on. I'm interested to see if anyone in the industry will respond to RPS bro and what they will have to say about it. I'm definitely curious as to if they have any reason at all, too.

Friday isn't an "Industry Standard" but it is the more common day. And yeah I've noticed a few US Friday releases, which does give insight into which way this might go should it come into action.

When it comes to digital services like Steam they have releases nearly every day. But it's primarily indie and smaller releases only. Full releases tend to stick to the normal Friday release date. And XBLA and PSN go with the .. I think it's Tuesday now for XBLA and it's Thursday for PSN, and as far as I know that's the same across the pond (showing what is possible)

 

Marketing still gets the same adverts on the major gaming sites with the US date more often than not. There's usually only one trailer released for a game too. Apart from TV/Mag n road side adverts, they're rarely localized. And TV, Magazine and roadside adverts for games are pretty rare. I'd say >95% of game adverts are on the internet.

 

The only reason they'd have to stock abnormally early for COD would be due to the amount of stock involved. It's about a 2 week period from going Gold to printing and shipping. (don't ask where I have that info from, but Thursday can probably back me up on that one) Now if your game goes gold on 1st MonthX, and is due for US release of 14th n EU on 17th, you're not going to just twiddle your thumbs for three days with the ready game before you start on European run too.

So what No Oceans is suggesting is to release your game on the 14th everywhere, of if they want to go with Friday then the 17th. Or maybe you want a slight edge on the rest, your game is ready earlier than normal. Go for the 16th. Would of certainly helped a fair few games.

 

And yeah I'd imagine as part of this he'll be grabbing a fair few industry guys. A single article isn't really a "campaign"

 

 

 

Complains on how people use the rep system then negative reps everyone else in the thread. No hypocricy at all.

 

Just thought I'd join in on the fun

 

If only you wouldn't join in on the fun so often. You can't really have a go at folks negative voting you for no reason when you're quite happy to lash out on anyone else in the thread or anyone you think is negative repping you when 9/10 they're not. (don't forget as mod I can see who is repping what)

The system isn't purely on and off, it's got quite a fine grain of control and the option to disable negative reps is open.

 

Edit:

Okay Duke Nukem (which now has a new date which puts US release after the EU release) has provided some insight:

“We have a commitment to our fans to get the game out as early as possible, and every day counts. New games are available on Tuesday in North America, so we’re getting the game out as early as possible in this territory. The international markets do not adhere to this release timing, and it just happens that they will be able to release the game a few days before North America. We don’t want to hold it back, we want to get it into the hands of consumers as soon as possible,”

 

The bit I whacked in bold seems to be the important part in relation to this.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/03/24/duke-nukem-forever-release-date-disparity-demystified/