I've always wanted to write in the videogames press, but it's always seemed like an unreachable objective. I got into writing for music websites over a year ago; ending up working for Pitchfork.com this past year. Long story short, I ended up getting Skyrim a week before street date because my higher up friends there knew how big of a fan I was. I thought it was so cool, as that's never been a possibility before. Have any of you Duders ever had something like this fall into your lap? Which game and did you feel as moronically cool as I did when it happened?
Have you ever gotten a game before release?
Yeah lots. Mostly retail, I am not Hollywood enough to get a debug. It ain't really hard to get into an indie site and request stuff from press. You just gotta contact appropriately.
My old BF1942 clan was the biggest in the country, when BF2 came out we were able to secure BF2 about 1 week before release. We were told we were under NDA and that if the game went online (even just within our clan) all the keys would be disabled (I am sure this wasn't true but it scared me straight) Let me play in the maps myself and get used to the guns etc by the time it went live so we could be competitive.
@WilltheMagicAsian said:
Mom & Pop stores are your key to getting games early.
yep the one by me usually has games a few days before release
My local EB Games was handing out pre-ordered copies of San Andreas the day before release. That was pretty fucking awesome.
Between reviews and broken street dates, I've gotten a few. No huge AAA titles or anything (or even AA titles), but it's a cool feeling just the same. It's also kind of funny when I'm on Steam and forget to appear offline while reviewing a game, and suddenly I get bewildered messages from my friends list.
Uncharted 3, the day before it came out. Local game shop was about to close, noticed they had it displayed in the window. Quickly knocked on the door, they let me in, asked if they were selling it already, they said "yeahhhhh" and 65 bucks later; had it. Beat it the following day.
Way back when I was buying and playing a lot of console games, my local shop would sell me anything I wanted as soon as they got it in stock. Big releases were the easiest to get early, the best of example of this was Halo 3 which I was playing nearly ten full days before the release date.
Breaking the street date = piracy. There, I said it.
No, in all seriousness, I don't think I've ever have. Besides, I mostly get my games on either Steam or Amazon these days, so no chance for me to get them earlier than release date.
@iam3green said:
@WilltheMagicAsian said:where do i find mom & pop stores? i don't think there is one around me.Mom & Pop stores are your key to getting games early.
Not sure if serious, but if you are, "mom and pop" is how many people call smaller brick and mortar stores. You know, small, probably family-run retail businesses.
Not really. I did go to a rental store back when Halo 2 came out. It was about 4 days or so(maybe more) before the actual release date of the game and they already had some in and let me rent a copy. A little while after I got home they called and asked me if I had started playing it yet. I told them I had. I can't remember exactly what they said after that, but I think they mentioned they might call back but they never did.
Gears of War 2 and Gears of War 3 - I got both of them a day early from the same website. It is the site I usually buy my games from and those two are the only ones I've gotten early.
I managed to get the original Little Big Planet a month before release. I bought a review copy off ebay because it was super cheap (like half the pricethe retail version would be) and the day after it arrived that whole song scandal broke loose and the game got pushed back 3/4 weeks. I'd done everything in that game before it even hit retail yet. Felt good man.
constantly i live in Europe so i sometimes order a game from us or japan and get it a week or so early, i also had an after school job at a block buster which basically let me buy games when they came to the store even if it was before release, same with movies.
once i found a game in a store that i had not heard about there was only one copy and it looked like it was the only one placed there bought it (two worlds two) and played it found out it was supposed to be released like a month later but thats a rare one
Not really before release, but New Zealand got games like Halo 3, GTA IV etc. 16 hours before the states... so kinda? I've also gotten some indie games actually before release, and Two Worlds II about 2 months before release. (From game journalism)
Yes, but only once outside of working in enthusiast press- I got the people at the local GameCrazy stores (remember those?) to sell me Crisis Core before the game was officially due to be released (think I got it early Monday morning & it wasn't supposed to be out until Tuesday).
Besides that, I've gotten stuff like Ms. Splosion Man & Trine 2 out before they officially were ready for download.
I haven't knowingly gotten a game before release date, apart from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. It was ordered for my birthday and arrived the day before. I can't remember the release date for it since I wasn't too bothered about it then, but I must have been playing the game about a week before release date. Suffice it to say I felt like an instant badass.
In the UK if you order from GAME's online store they always send it to arrive a day or more before release.
I apparently got Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time almost a week before it was going to be released from a K-Mart.
I was one of the lucky B*ds to get Halo 3 3 weeks before release LEGIT, heard stores had them in and went to about 7 or 8 until a store accidently sold it us. I made the mistake of boasting about it (whilst also reporting a bug) on the official Bungie forums and for a little bit they didn't believe me but they did after a couple of pages. I was then flooded with Messages, Friends requests and Private chat invites for days. I couldn't keep up deleting them, more would come in faster than I could delete.
I've also had a bunch of games early, GTA: IV a week early, Gears 3 a week early, theres a few stores that sell it early.
There used to be this small games store in my city, and I got to know the owner somewhat well. I got a lot of games from him a day or two earlier. The most memorable games were Metal Gear Solid 2 and Forza 2. However the real jackpot was when I was able to buy the original Xbox with a copy of Halo from the store a full three days before the actual release of the console.
Since those times the store has shut down, and I do still get early copies from online retailers (I assume by accident) from time to time. I used to work at a gaming website a few years back, and got some review copies from there. Recently I won a Forza Motorsport 4 tournament organized by Microsoft, and as a reward I got a copy of the game a full two weeks before the European release (a week before the American release). I was totally stoked!
Got Burnout Paradise early for half-price when I visited Electronic Arts in LA, back when that was their main hub. They have their own little game store available to employees, complete with a cashier.
No, but a dude at my local game store tried to sell me Arkham Asylum a few days before release. I think I bought Killzone 2 instead.
@mlarrabee said:
ilomilo, if that counts...
Other than that, I don't think so. My parents convinced one store to sell them A Bug's Life a day early, and I've found a few CDs that were set out a few days before they were supposed to be.
Never gotten anything early because of people I know but plenty of broken street dates. In fact my main online retailer for games (shopto.net) strives on broken street dates; been using them for several years and EVERY pre-order has been a least one day early, usually two.
Buying online in the UK from most sites that specialise in games will get you the game 1-3 days early.(had 3DS 2 days before launch) But years ago I got Devil May Cry 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3 over a week before release.
Please Log In to post.
Log in to comment