Nintendo Of Europe Isn't Happy About Broken Street Dates

Well if it's coming from Official Nintendo Store, then it will be late. Don't think i have EVER had any pre-order on time or early

Understandable that Nintendo doesn't want things to be spoiled for gamers that get their games on release day by the few retailers that break the date. Another reason why we will be pushed toward digital even more in the future.

In the Netherlands, it's becoming a real problem. A lot of people were upset because some stores sold Mario Odyssey two days before release. I was one of them, actually.

Honestly, it's only 2 days, but still, it's unfair for the people who couldn't buy it and had to wait, so I'm happy with this development.

I've never received a game early and there's no indie sellers here, there's a few in the secondhand market and I mean just a few. There's only 3 big retailers in Ireland that sell Nintendo products; Smyths, Argos and (the dirt of the dirt)Gamestop.

I got the Switch a day early. Lucky ? Not that much : I didn't have any game to play until the eshop went live (in the evening).

It isn't fair to those smaller retailers. But the blame lies with with the people breaking street date. They are breaching contract with Nintendo. Any other company would have the same complaint - though I don't know if Nintendo's answer is the best choice, I totally understand them doing something to try to prevent this.

So a few people get a game earlier than others. It's hardly a big deal.

As far as it's "spoiling it for others" well not really. The release date hasn't changed. Nothing has changed for those that don't get early copies. It's not been spoilt for them.

If they don't want actual game spoilers then don't watch Youtube or read gaming website articles relating to it. Simple.

Personally I've never got a game early but when I've read about people that have I just think good for you, enjoy. It's nice to hear peoples excitement getting it early!

EDIT - actually I just remembered I got the DS console a few weeks before general release but that was a Club Nintendo special offer for Nintendo's best customers so doesn't really count...

"It's understandable that Nintendo is annoyed about street dates being broken"

No. it really isn't. I've never understood the obsession with release dates, and I've worked in the industry. Everything would be just fine if there were no such things as street dates.

I've received several games before the street date over the years.

@FantasiaWHT Exactly. Release dates are a bit weird when you think about it.

They're basically saying "I don't want anyone to buy my game today. I want to sell zero copies. However tomorrow you can buy as many as you like. I want to sell millions, I want everyone to buy it!" What difference does it really make when they sell?

many of my friends (Amazon Prime customers) have received their games one day before launch days

Received games 1-2 days prior to release but also sometimes a few days late; usually from the Nintendo UK store (Xeno X was a sore spot).

Then again I'm not interested in my 5 min of fame of posting on Youtube or Tweeting how "special" I am to get it early.

@Saego
Mario Odyssey 2? That is early!

If Nintendo wants to cut down on broken on release dates it could try releasing its games on Tuesday like the rest of the industry. Yes, the stores are at fault, it's their responsibility to know what the street date is and pass that info onto their bored, disinterested, barely competent employees, but I've seen first hand on many occasions where Nintendo's Friday release games get put on shelves on Tuesday when all of the other games releasing that week get put out.

Go look at all of the stories on video games breaking release date and more often than not you'll find its games not releasing on Tuesday getting sold on Tuesday that is at the root of the problem, not Ninth shipping it's games to stores early.

I mean obviously the problem is employee error, but if Nintendo really wanted to minimize broken street dates changing it's game release dates to Tuesday would probably eliminate a lot of the problems right off the bat. Simple.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE well, at least you guys don't have GAME

Funny. When I bought Mario Odyssey one day early there was a Rep from Nintendo at my retailer making fotos of the shelves with the games and bundles on it. I didn't know why or who he was until a employee told me. The rep wasn't happy that I bought the game. He was looking at me like this ʕಠᴥಠʔ

@SLIGEACH_EIRE im irish too and i couldn't agree more

@Bunkerneath I've actually had a few things turn up a day early from the official store... but it can vary.
Oddly, it's usually things that I preorder with standard delivery that arrive early... next day delivery usually arrives on time or late.

I don't get it. Why Nintendo is bothered by something that is " not fair to other retailers who do honour the street date"? I don't understand this kind of problems probably but I can see why it is a bad thing for shops that don't break the launch date but why it is a problem for Nintendo too?

@SLIGEACH_EIRE What's worse though is that you can go to Amazon.co.uk and find the game is cheaper there by sometimes €20 after you convert from Sterling (though I've noticed Smyths are pretty good on the hardware when they have it).

If this leads to me getting more games long after the release dates I'm not too chuffed. Of the games I've preordered in the past 12 months the only one that wasn't late was a download code from Amazon. Funny how not relying on the postal service gets results.

On the 3DS pirates get the games early, sometimes over a month earlier. It's crazy.

@macaron75 I wish I was one of those people! I always hear about people getting game a day or so early, but never happened to me thus far and I generally order through Amazon lately. In fact I got Mario Kart 8 Deluxe like 6 days late, although i got a nice little credit to help make up for it and it wasn't a huge deal, but one of these days i want to be that guy that gets the game early hehe.

@JamesR Not anymore they don't. When GAME went into administration back in 2012, only the UK stores kept trading as no administrator was appointed for the Irish stores. There were sit-in protests about the lack of redundancy entitlement: https://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0328/315297-game/

@the8thark the point of advertising is to sell your product. If people buy your product anyway who cares if they have seen your advertisement or not? And all the people who don't buy the game immediately can still see it if one really care that much about this thing that, let me tell you, sounds really pointless imho. The only thing that matter is how much money you gain, not how many advertisement people saw before buying your game

I sometimes get the preorders early. I mean, I don't think we have any official store here, or we didn't have, at least.
But strictly keeping the release date has its bad side: getting the game few days late, while everyone is playing it around you. The shipping was simply set too late.

The street dates are there to protect smaller stores to be on the same ground as the big box stores. That and it also allows consumers to know when a product is being released so they can go to the store and pick it up on that date. If stores ignore the street date then it not only messes with other stores, it also causes consumers issues when they go on release date to find out that the item has been sold out before the item was even supposed to be released.

I understand when the item is shipped by Amazon or Best Buy and it arrives early to your house. That can happen as they need to estimate how long it will take to arrive on (or as close to) release as possible. I got Final Fantasy XV a whole day early because of that. However, Amazon was not trying to undercut my local EB Games by shipping it and it just so happened to arrive early (maybe the postman was on his game that day). However, selling items early on purpose is an attempt to undercut your competition and potently harms consumers who have no idea that you are even selling it early. And if all stores do it, then it only harms the consumer in the end who has no idea this is even going on. And in the end makes the manufacture look bad as they appear to have no control or authority over the retail stores selling their product.

Not Nintendo-related but I did get my copy of Battlefront 2 in the mail yesterday from Amazon Canada. The game isn't due for release until Friday Nov 17, and those who pre-ordered weren't supposed to get the game until tomorrow. But now, I'm done the single player mode and judging by the number of people I played with in the online Starfighter mode, I'd say a lot of us got the game early.

@FantasiaWHT Correct, you don't t understand. Street dates must be adhered to go maintain fairness between retailers ordering stock. Why would a retailer order from Nintendo if another local store would sell a day early.. Nintendo needs to have stock in at many stores as possible...

@cfgk24 "Fairness" in this context is meaningless. Businesses are in competition with each other. If one retailer can get their stock before another, that's a competitive advantage that should be used.

Is sad when for just one or two rotten apples, everybody else pays the price.

@FantasiaWHT Then it makes Nintendo/EA/Ubisoft/Capcom/Sony/Microsoft/Rockstar/Whoever the publisher is look bad. Why would I carry a Nintendo game if I'm going to sit on a large amount of stock that I cannot move because Joe Mart down the street sold theirs a week early. Sure I will sell it eventually, but at the time I have sunk thousands of dollars on an item I cannot push. Sure something like Mario will fly off the shelf, but what if it was NieR or Drakenguard, which were at best niche games? Or even a smaller Nintendo title like Chibirobo? It only harms your fellow stores and it harms the publisher. It also, harms the consumers because they cannot get the game on release like it was advertised because all the stores in your area already sold out of their stock a week ago? The consumer then loses confidence in the publisher because why bother getting the game on release date or at all when you can never get it on that date because the retail stores do not respect your authority as the publisher?

It just harms everyone involved, but the lucky few who got the game early. The other stores lose business, the publisher losses face, the consumers who did not know lose out on the game, and the store that broke the date in the long-term may lose business.

@FantasiaWHT What is good for one individual is not good for the industry as a whole. It is greedy and selfish to break street date. It may earn you more money in the short term. But it costs confidence in the supply chain that will end in less stock on shelves and lost opportunities for those valuable extra sales. Nintendo had a right not to be happy as these retailers are in breach of their agreements.

Yikes. Well, so long as folks can still play the games on release day...

@Wexter you are correct.

They're going to send the games later ONLY to small retailers??

I got DOOM two days earlier (and I could have gotten Snipperclips two days earlier as well, and L.A. Noire four days earlier).

The thing is, it wasn't an "indie" retailer. It was the biggest retailer in my country that has at least 50 copies of each.

The big retailers benefit from that decision. They will continue to sell the games in bucketloads days earlier.

The problem continues. Nintendo just helps eating the tiny rest of the little fish a bit faster, as all the small retailers appear to have been killed off in the last years.

@FantasiaWHT You don't understand the issue, eh?

Are you still working on that industry? You said you had worked there. I guess you're not anymore.

@SKTTR To be fair I have a few smaller indie-stories in my area that are rather bad for selling games early. They do it because "they can get more foot traffic before EB or Walmart get it" and they do it constantly. Sure big-box stores are bad, but most of the time it is a manger's decision rather than a corporate one.

It is just a vicious cycle all around.

In Swizerland supermarkets break street date and indie shops are therefore FORCED to do the same just to compete with hardcore fans who want the games ASAP.

This is super sad if the indie shops end up having repercussions though.

@Wexter You're missing my point. You say - "sit on a large amount of stock that I cannot move". But if there's no street date, then you aren't sitting on product you cannot move. You can sell it as soon as you get it.

@cfgk24 You're missing my point. You say - " It is greedy and selfish to break street date." I'm not saying retailers should break street dates. I'm saying there's no good reason to have a street date in the first place.

@GC-161 I understand the issue perfectly. Which is why I know that the very idea of a street date is outdated and unnecessary.

@FantasiaWHT It's obviously still an issue to many. Just read the replies on this very thread.

I’ve never had a game before release date, but I don’t mind if others get it, since there some small shops here that do that.
What I DO mind, is these people that get the game before release date and screw everyone by uploading the full game to YouTube, and posting spoilers in the game video.

It’s sad, but I prefer what NoE is going to do if it favors not having all those spoilers on the net two or three days before.

i just got an email from simplygames, they shipped my copy of pokemon ultrasun already to arrive tommorow, if this continues nintendo is well within their rights to refuse to sell stock to a retailer who refuses to honor street dates

@GC-161 Which is mostly people agreeing with me or explaining why they think it's bad if some retailers break the street date.

@FantasiaWHT The problem is the street date is not meant for that. If someone respects the street date they get screwed if someone does not. Also, if someone does break the street date they get punished by the publisher who will send less stock in the future hence loosing business. These rules are in place for a reason. Street dates by nature are pro-business and pro-consumer. The business get to sell their product on release and get expected traffic and in turn get to have equal opportunity to sell their product as every other store in their area. The consumers also get to know when something comes out and expect to be able to get that product at the same time as everyone else. It is win-win for everyone. The only ones who get the advantage over broken street dates are those lucky enough to get the product early and the business who get short term profits over long term gains (which is the mindset that is killing our hobby as a whole... looks at EA).

In the end there are no real advantages to do it. If so big-box stores will just do it all the time and it would be a nightmare. Just imagine if the Final Fantasy VII Remake comes out, but every store is selling it early you would have no idea who would have stock. You would also, be fighting with everyone else. There would be no friendly line-ups or anything of the sort. It would be dog eat dog and that is not good for consumers.

@Wexter You've been sold a load of crock and don't understand how marketplaces actually work. None of your parade of horribles would actually happen. Street dates are a relic of a pre-information age mindset. Top-down enforced "equal opportunity" is inefficient and harmful to both sides of the voluntary transactions.

GAME in Northampton, always break the street date, sometimes by 4 or 5 days, depends when they get their stock. It's very dodgy, you have to pay with cash, and the manager does not run the sale through the till. The way I see it is a victimless crime.

@FantasiaWHT You see what you want to see.

Another fact? most care about the issue.

@Wexter Put another way, if what you believed was true actually was true, then this chaos would be prevented Day 1, but would then occur Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, etc. indefinitely. Outside of Day 1, there is nothing stopping this "problem" you see of being out of stock, not knowing exactly when you'll have shipments. If you were right, we'd see terrible problems caused by that uncertainty. But we don't.

@FantasiaWHT The difference is it causing constant problem. If there was no reliable date for consumers to know when they can get the item then it is fruit-shoot on where to pre-order. Do I go with Joe Mart or Cool Games? Stores would be in bidding wars to make sure that they get the product before everyone else creating mini-monopolies. At least with street dates it creates reliability. You know when something is coming out and the other stores know when the other stores are opening. It is one of the reasons why for hot items there are midnight launches.

It creates an environment where the consumers are at a disadvantage and not every consumer is a person within the hobby. Some mothers just want to walk into a store on their lunch break and buy Tommy, Mario or Sonic on release as a treat for scoring high on their reportcard. They do not want to perform research as to when what store will get a shipment of what and when. They have to when an item is extremely hot like the Wii and is constantly sold out and I'm sure your remember amiibo and the Wii and how nuts it was when they did get in stock. But most people would not want to go through that level of stress all the time just to get an item on release day.

If stores just sold an item when they had it, total chaos would occur. Street Dates are there to A) level the playing field, B) to create consistency C) to allow the stores and consumers to be prepared for release.

I don't see how it harms Nintendo at all if a few people get a game a couple of days early. It's just free advertising if they post on social media.

Nintendo even 'break' their own release dates by letting NA customers buy from the Japan eshop...

@Wexter If an item is extremely hot, having a street date doesn't help that mom get it on her lunch break. If she didn't pre-order it, she doesn't have any realistic expectation of being able to drive over to a store and get it anyway.

Also this - "bidding wars . . . creating mini-monopolies". That's not how markets work.

@Wexter "If stores just sold an item when they had it, total chaos would occur." Again - if this were true, it would be true from Day 2 on, because that's how selling hot items actually works on every day except the street date day. Yet stores and consumers operate just fine under this model. Nothing breaks down. Monopolies aren't created. People aren't swearing off retailers or manufacturers because of it.

@FantasiaWHT I wish you luck in your future endeavours then because I know that a world without street dates is something I do not want. I like getting my games on release and knowing that I can relax and not have to stress about it. It brings me peace of mind which is all I need.

PS I hope if/when you release an item you give the stores a nice release "window" as when they can sell it. I'm sure it will not frustrate people.

This whole institution of trying to have a retailer enforce a "release date" is silly. Just let the stores sell them as soon as they get them. If Nintendo cares about it not being available until a specific day, have the shipping company ship it to arrive that morning.

@LuckyLand I think it's obvious. They care about their partners. If some retail shops can't sell Nintendo games because customers buy from other shops that break the rule, what do you think those shops will do?

@riki_sidekicks What if something doesn't go according to the plan?

I used to shop at a well known U.K. Indie store and was lucky enough to get God of War 3 very early as they sold me the promo copy. I'm not one to upload videos, not then it now so Sony wouldn't be any the wiser and at the time I felt thrilled at the idea I was one of the first few to play the game. Of course I would also be aware that if I did put up some videos on YouTube I would be giving away the rouse to Sony and I knew how lucky I was to be securing a promo peice that I would have been smarter than to do something like that.
GTA 4 came a day early from online retailer but hey that seems pretty common now, although received more late than I have early. But I've sworn off online now and only buy and bricks n mortar stores.

I'd gotten so used to Amazon Prime (USA) getting my pre-orders to me a day early it kind of threw my plans out of whack when I received Odyssey on release day.

I've had a couple of games arrive a day before release from online retailers, which is always nice. Then I've had times where a brand new game hasn't arrived until a couple of days later (Usually from Amazon) and it gets rather annoying. Never had a place offer to sell me a title early.

Used to routinely receive games a day or even two days early from GAME, which is why I always used them. That all changed when they almost went bust. I used to laugh at people queuing outside the shop at midnight for the latest launch when I would be playing at home for hours before. Amazon have very rarely delivered a game early. I'm ok as long as it arrives the morning or early afternoon of the release day. Hate waiting until the evening, defeats the purpose of pre-ordering if I could get it in the shop quicker.

@FantasiaWHT of course they need a street date/release date. Consumer: "When's that amazing new game out, Nintendo?" Nintendo: "October the whenever your local retailer receives stock"

@Baker1000 Well there's a difference between a release date and a street date. This is the internet and the Amazon age. Just say "Ships October 12th". That makes more sense than sending it out to your retailers on October 5th and telling them they can't sell it until the 12th.

@Heavyarms55 I’ve seen posts of smaller retailers on Facebook breaking street dates with Mario Odyssey and DOOM. Unfortunate to the smaller stores in return as the later shipping might have an impact on inventory at launch. Maybe? I’m not in supply chain so unsure.

@StarSurfer They do that to give themselves an advantage, but they are breaking the terms of their contract with Nintendo. They might give themselves a short term edge, but they are shooting themselves in the foot. Retailers agree to release dates when they get products from suppliers. Breaking that is a breach of trust between supplier and retailer.

@FantasiaWHT We are not missing your point - The reasons for having a street date have been explained by many people posting on this article.
But...in addition to my previous comment - maybe I was a bit harsh with selfish and greedy so sorry about that - I apologise -
It may be down to kindness - recently I bought a game at a very nintendo local game shop the day before release because I had to catch a long haul flight and I wanted to play the game on the flight - otherwise I would literally be left mid-air when release came lol .: In this instance, the shop owner was very kind to sell me the game 1 day early. .

@617Sqn looks like you just got that manager the sack!

@datamonkey I wish I could heart this comment 5x

@chardir Taking time zone differences, that's like 3/4 of a day early, assuming it was an international same release date. Not too big of a deal, much like amazon timing shipments so that they should arrive on release date or maybe a day before.

But I do remember in the PS2 and Wii era, the local GameStop regularly getting games a day late (if I remember, it was particularly Square-Enix, maybe Atlus games but I don't think I bought as many of theirs) but they usually had Nintendo games on time. (I'm guessing the former would have been shipping their games later to avoid street dates being broken.)

@cfgk24 I doubt it, he's been doing it for years, on every game. The company are aware of this practice, and don't care.

I received Mario Odyssey a day early, but that's just because the retailer in question uses royal mail and so dispatches a day earlier to ensure that no one misses out on launch day. So it depends on how efficient royal mail are being I guess - there's no doubt that if I received a game even a day late from a pre-order I would never pre-order from that retailer again. Which is why I don't pre-order from Nintendo anymore and will happily pay for services like Amazon Prime.

@MrKai Thank you MrKai, very kind of you!

If it’s actual stores breaking it, like you walk into one and they sell it, then ok that’s not right. But if it’s online, then stores are in a tricky position, if they send it out late and it doesn’t arrive, then not only will they get angry customers, but quite often they won’t bother using them again.