Street dates for games and hardware certainly have a mixed record of enforcement, with the majority observed impeccably and others flagrantly disregarded — Pokémon X & Y was the in the latter camp. So on that score one major retailer in the US is already displaying the Link Between Worlds hardware bundle, evidently available to buy.
The pictured units were spotted by Kotaku writer Mike Fahey at the Mansell Road store in Roswell, Georgia, though it's not 100% clear that they could actually be bought. There's no price tag, for example, while one comment in the article recounts an experience of spotting them in another Walmart, attempting to buy a unit before the system refused to process the purchase. Perhaps those wonderful computers are saving the day, ultimately.
The bundle is officially available from Friday 22nd November, so perhaps you can stare at the boxes until then. Walmart, you tease.
[source kotaku.com]
Comments 33
Both game and bundle are available in France since last week.
@Byuu really? because the earliet their supposed to come out is the 22
"Sir i cant sell those, they arnt for sale yet"
"What do you mean you cant sell them, THEY ARE RIGHT THERE"
"They dont go on sale until the 22nd you will just have to wait"
"Wait.....WAIT. F&*k you and your waiting. you are a horrible human being and i will bestow my entire hatred of life to you"
What i imagine employees are going through
@linktothepichu I'm already playing it. Received the preorder chest too.
http://byuu-world.tumblr.com/post/67488047074/french-the-legend-of-zelda-a-link-between-worlds
At Walmarts in Canada most Nintendo games lately will not allow a price to be asigned to the UPC or the UPC can't be processed till the release date making a sale impossible. Pretty easy to do.
man, I wanted so badly the preorder chest, but it seems that there is no way to get it outside of europe
Wal-Mart is notorious for breaking street dates for stuff. I don't know if they just don't know and put stuff on shelves as stock arrives, or if they don't care because they are the No. 1 retailer in the world. My friend picked up the Zelda Wii U bundle four days early from Wal-Mart. And I saw the Wii Mini on shelves there over a week ago - many full days before official release date.
Not important once it is there you should be able to buy it. No point in waiting.
@unrandomsam i agree plus the quicker the sell their stock the quicker they can order more. The only exception is making sure u have enough in stock for the people who pre-ordered it
@onespicyasian I also saw the Zelda Wii U bundle at Target a good week before its street date. And from my experience, the Walmart "associates" don't know AND don't care - they kinda do what they're supposed to do, sometimes. If they know what to do at all.
@beingvasey Haha, I totally agree with you about the Walmart associates, although I'm sure there are exceptions. Target also had the Zelda Wii U bundles out early, but they wouldn't sell my aformetioned friend one until the actual street date, even though they were in the display cases. She ended up getting it at Wal-Mart early since they don't care there.
One time I saw Skylanders Swap force 3DS and PS3 before they came out at walmart.
Hey settle down on the Walmart associate bashing, I'm one of them. The registers should not allow a sale before the street date. In the picture above, I'm assuming that the store put them there to store before the sale so they don't get misplaced. Believe me, the backrooms are packed with cases of merchandise.
@Byuu Lies and more lies. Not true at all.
This happens all the time at Wal-Mart. They start to stock and label, but I promise you that you can't buy it yet. Thus the kind of sticker placed in front of the product.
@shigulicious
I work backshift. I don't know how you can stand the blanking blank blanks. I mean the customers. I would be up for assault with some of them. I SALUTE YOU!
@KrautMcFriend Sorry man
They have been on the shelf of my local Wal-Mart since last Friday.
So, the Walmart I work at wasn't the only one. I saw a few of them myself the other day and asked another associate about it, since they disappeared not too long later (I was asking as to whether they sold out or if it was too early). He showed me that he just hid them in the back of the case since somebody else put them out early, which shouldn't have happened.
Is anyone else concerned that the inside, around the 3D screen, is gold instead of black? There is a reason they went with black on the inside before...I am concerned about the contrast impacting the 3D presentation. Valid or no? I would be upgrading from a standard 3DS.
Reminds me of when Target displayed Wind Waker HD early. >
I just got home from Target, and they have Super Mario 3D World on the shelf.
is the game itself out, cause i wanna attempt an early buy.
The Target store in my town has the 3DS bundles on the shelves as well. Not as prominently displayed, they're sideways with the edge facing you, but you can still see them.
Nice to know computers are programmed against unruly Walmart employees that may want to get a game copy before it actually releases.
I noticed this the other night while at Walmart. It kind of surprised me.
@shigulicious: i hear you re: crowded backstock areas, especially gearing up toward Black Friday! I work at Kohl's, and our dock and upstairs are seriously stuffed to the gills with all sorts of crap that can't go out until Thanksgiving.
From a Wal-Mart customer's standpoint, this is common practice — I remember in particular the Wal-Mart i go to had copies of Pokemon Black/White 2 out on their shelf for a week before the release date, and they had a sticker on the glass saying when the game would be available. Thank goodness that sticker was there, btw — the games had been out and apparently not ringing in the register for so long that the associate I asked to get a copy for me on release day had to be reminded (via sticker) that it was finally release day, lol. it's great to be able to see which wal-marts will have the bundles on release day, though, so you can (hopefully) swoop in at midnight and grab 'em :3
@shigulicious this man knows what he is talking about.
I work backroom at Target and saw one of these bundle boxes back there on a "push-to-salesfloor" cart. I got to hold it and read the back of the box, it's spiffy :3
One more nail in the coffin for physical copies, that sucks.
I see this at WalMart all the time. I've even told them they have street dated product out early and their associates don't care. I work retail selling games and nothing ever goes out until the street date hits. If it's on the sales floor, you cannot refuse to sell it to a customer cause they are seeing it. Many customers don't know street dates and don't care about them either. Plus when these items arrive in store they ALWAYS have a label telling the street date and that label says "DO NOT PLACE ON SALES FLOOR" Sometimes its worded differently but the meaning is the same. Plus when they do this kind of stuff it makes my job harder because customers tell me "Well (insert retailer name here) is already selling it so you can too" and I have to explain that I can't... its annoying.
@JAG1981 it may work that way at your store (street dated items not able to be placed on the floor and you being forced to sell an item to a customer just because they caught an early glimpse of the item), but not at all stores. People will complain all the time that 'well this store here was able to do blah-blah-blah for me and now you at your store can't do the same?' well, no, we can't — it's against our store policy (though i won't be the one to tell 'em no, that's up to a manager lol). if you want to shop at a store that will do blah-blah-blah for you, shop at that store, y'know? dealing with that sort of thing is just one of the many joys of working retail :3
1 more day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111
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