Consoleation Rants: Street Dates Redux

There probably won’t be a game this year that will outsell Modern Warfare 2. Sure, I’ve talked a bit here about some of the game’s controversy before, but one man’s opinion likely won’t dissuade scores of people wanting to see if Infinity Ward can top its huge hit from two years ago. The hype is at a fever pitch, and the release date is oh-so-close…

… but there are plenty of people playing the game already. In fact, gaming social networking site Raptr is showing that over 4,000 hours of gameplay have been logged by users so far. That’s over 24 hours in advance of the game’s alleged street date.

Yes, it’s another broken street date. Like Borderlands and Tekken 6 before it, Modern Warfare 2 is an example of how the street date system is impossible to enforce… and further evidence that street dates must end. It’s not even a suggestion or a gripe anymore– it’s almost mandatory, with the Pandora’s Box that a game like this has opened. Nothing’s definite, of course, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a lawsuit of some sort was coming involving either Activision, Infinity Ward, GameStop, and/or any other retailer that sold Modern Warfare 2 early. Why? Well…

Any players who purchased a legit retail copy will not be reset or banned. Only modded / pirate versions will be.

That quote, from the Twitter feed of Robert Bowling from Infinity Ward, indicates that there will be no statistic, rank, or leaderboard reset when Modern Warfare 2 officially launches on November 10th. That means that, arguably, the players who were wrongly sold copies of the game early will be at an advantage in terms of rank, leaderboard standings, perks, and so on. That’s unfair in a competitive multiplayer game, especially with a head start of several days over those who are forced to wait.

A potentially even bigger issue is GameStop’s decision to break street date in this instance. What’s peculiar about this situation is that GameStop only cleared certain locations to break the date, allegedly due to competition doing the same. Here’s GameStop’s explanation from its Vice President of Corporate Communications, Chris Olivera:

This past weekend, GameStop made the decision to break street date and sell reserved copies of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in select markets where other retailers had broken street date. Our decision followed many conversations with Activision and was an effort to protect our customer base.

There are some problems with this explanation:

• Earlier on Sunday, Activision commented to Kotaku that the company had not given any retailer the green light to break the date, which would presumably include GameStop. Robert Bowling also mentioned the same thing via Twitter. Someone’s either lying here or withholding some facts about the situation that we’ll probably never learn. Either way, it’s not a good thing.
• Picking and choosing markets to break street date doesn’t make the decision any more ethical. GameStop is going to look worse in markets that it’s holding fast with, because consumers do not care about an agreement with a publisher that has no bearing on them. Where’s GameStop’s proof that just those markets have instances of broken street dates?
• Lastly, the decision to break the street date at all is a marginal one, at best. How much potential revenue was GameStop set to lose if they’d waited the extra few days like most other retailers? Couldn’t they just cite the distribution agreement in lawsuits against other businesses who broke the date? 

It’s understandable that publishers want to try and appease all of their retail clients. The street date system was designed to try and ensure that all retailers would have equal ground when a significant title launches, but the success of this system was predicated on retailers cooperating and enforcing street dates. Despite the threats of hefty fines, it makes no sense for retailers to follow street dates. If Activision decided to fine GameStop, GameStop would likely file a lawsuit claiming that they broke the street date because others did the same. Other retailers would possibly sue to make the street date distribution agreement null and void. Activision could try to withhold product, but how would it get sold?

It’s all a vicious cycle that can easily be avoided by simply ending the street date policy. Send product to retailers in an orderly fashion and allow retailers to sell games as they arrive, like we see in most cases during the year. There isn’t a good enough reason for stores to sit on games that can be sold immediately. It’s time for publishers to rethink their shipping strategies. If they want high-profile releases in stores on a certain date, make a deal with a shipping company (of which there are plenty) and send them all overnight directly to each retail store. It would be up to each retail chain to alert publishers to the stores that product must be sent to. The responsibility of getting games to retail in a timely fashion for merchandising and sale lies as much with the game’s publisher as it does the retailer.

Enough is enough.