All this early release stuff is infuriating!

So I didn't pre-order, why would I, y'know? I wasn't about to throw £60 at something online, only to have it not turn up on day one (something that's happened before), when I can go to a store and pick up a copy regardless.

But now it seems many retailers just said "F that!" with MGS V in particular, releasing the game early on-shelves, posting it to customers etc., leaving the rest of us to sit n' spin until launch day.

There's not much of a point to this post other than to vent, but I think when something as widespread as this has been (when it's making news headlines and Konami are commenting on it) the embargo/release day rule should be lifted across the board, and we should all be able to go pick the game up.

Where do you guys stand on it? I remember across the early 2000s you used to be able to rely on getting games early if you went down a day before street date in-person, kinda like a small-known secret where some stores would sell tomorrow's games in the last hour of business kinda thing, but now it's rarely the case.

Either let all of us buy it early, or have repercussions for the retailers that broke their agreements. It's not very fair when it's such a huge release with such a passionate fanbase susceptible to spoilers and leaked info.

Who cares if other people have it before you? None of this matters.

I'm staying far away from anything MGSv related till I play the game myself.

You can get it for under £40 from most places. Mine came yesterday

:toot:

Doesn't something like this happen with every major release? There are always people who get games earlier than they are supposed to while others wait patiently until it is actually released. Not really something new as I understand it and as someone who hasn't really ever gotten game early, yeah...it kinda sucks and there should be repercussions for it, but it hasn't happened before, so there is no reason to expect it to happen now.

I live in a small town in Yorkshire, which has 2 small independent games shops. Both are very competitive and break release dates on every single game they get in just to beat the other and the supermarkets to the sales. If its a friday release for a game, its in stores and available to buy on Wednesday before lunch, If its a Tuesday release, you can usualy go in and get it the friday or saturday before.All cash in hand of course. So for me at least, pre ordering or even waiting for release dates is totally pointless. They always sell the you the special editions as standard aswell. I got the Day One Edition of MGSV on friday. Pre ordering is a pointless exercise that benefits only the publishers. Like the OP said, relying on a postal delivery for a preorder can suck if it doesnt turn up, especially when you can walk to a shop and get it. Thats why i dont bother.

Saying all this though, if i didnt live where i do, waiting until release date wouldn't exactly bother me, neither would a shop refusing sale until that date. if someone else got it early before me i wouldnt care either, good for them. Maybe the OP should employ more patience and not worry about such unimportant things. Games coming out eventually, and you can play it eventually, whats a day or two when its been years of waiting anyway.

Waiting until Monday 2100 PDT isn't too bad. It's a day and 10 hours. Not the worst. However....

I think the whole thing has been handled poorly. They had a review bootcamp, which was apparently the only way to review the game. "For fear of spoilers, Konami invited journalists to review the game at five-day 'boot camps' tied to strict NDAs (non-disclosure agreements). We played between 9am to 5pm, with no unsupervised play outside these hours. That's a maximum play time of 40 hours, assuming no stoppages for eating, drinking, stretching… or reality. So you're trying to complete a 35-50 hour game (or longer, depending on your play style and the nature of your 'completion'… I can't say more), that you've been anticipating for five years, in a realistic window of 30-35 hours" (GamesRadar). To banning any streaming of early copies (Source).... unless of course you're Greg Miller then you are THE ONLY ONE who can gave gameplay videos on the internet... which I'm willing to bet is pretty profitable (doubles to triples their regular video views ). Totalbiscuit, Jim Sterling, and Slowbeef talk about the implications here...

I'm sure the game is great. but Konami is the worst. FucKonami. Punishing their consumers who got their hands on early copies is detestable.

Gotta wait till monday 11pm to start downloading the game, won't be playing it until 7 or 8 lol. :-(

I don't think slapping the hands that feed you (retailers) is a good idea.
I get that when you're excited for something and people get it early it can make the waiting suck, but I don't see it as a huge issue that needs overhauling in the industry or anything.
But I do agree it would be a cool thing for a company to go "Oh, lots of people are getting it early? Fine just put it out." But maybe there are reasons they couldn't do that I don't grasp.

Edit: To share in some pre-release "Everyone has it but me!" misery, looks like unless some sort of mail miracle happens I wont get my pre-order copy until Wednesday afternoon.
I was crossing my fingers I might be able to get it by Monday out of sheer luck, but there has been no movement on the order tracker, and I don't get mail on Tuesdays or Thursdays where I live. I know it's just an extra day, but man, when you're jonesing you're jonseing! I got the nanoshakes man!

What pisses me off is that I preordered digitally and I am STILL unable to preload. With how slow PSN downloads are, no way I get to play it tomorrow night. It is a piss off. This shit needs to be fixed if they want people to actually move towards digital purchases.

Most big games are released before street date. COD is usually out at least a week in advance.

You're just noticing it because MGS both means something to you and isn't the usual COD release. This just happens with any big game.

To solve this and many other problems associated with initial game release, I've become completely apathetic to playing things new. The passion has been chilled out of me by pre-order shills and crippling bugs. I play games I'm interested when I get around to them now. And the apathy has been liberating.

Isn't that sad.

@iceorb said:

:toot:

ARG *gurgle* *mouth foam*

Happens all the time. I have my secret spot here locally (Vegas) that I can rely on picking up new releases the weekend before launch. Unfortunately (or fortunately) my days off are Tuesday and Wednesday, so there's no point in me getting anything early. As long as you're avoiding spoilers, it's no big deal to wait. Someone will always have something before you, don't worry about it.

I am one of those in the UK that ordered the special console bundle from GAME so I was kinda resigned to the fact that I won't be getting it until Tuesday when it releases here. Especially because the day before is a bank holiday here!

I was momentarily worried when I got an email from the courier saying they hadn't received the package but apparently that was just an automated message because of the holiday and everything is on track for Tuesday.

Breaking street dates on disc is one thing but it may be a ballsier next level to break it on console bundles when you're the exclusive retailer for them! But I guess it's happened before.

a) This happens with most big games

b) It's pretty childish of you to be mad that people get to play a game 3 days before you do.

Seeing at least 5 people on my friends list playing it and it is making me super jealous. At least the pre-load is up so now all I have to do is keep myself busy until 12am Tuesday.

This happens quite a bit, MGSV isn't really an exception. I'm bummed but that's also because I'm anxious as hell and want the game now, but oh well. On the other hand, I'm glad it's the case so I can get some early impressions outside of those from reviewers that went to the bootcamp event.

I really don't care if anyone has it before me, it doesn't effect anyone.

I'm the type of guy who gets all games 5 months or even a year later at at least half price, and always have been. I cant understand people caring about a day or two, whats the benefit? You will just get an broken game until its patched anyway.

Someone will always get the game / record / movie before you.

It's a fact of life. Don't sweat it, you have the whole eternity after release to enjoy it.

Buying stuff digitally from PSN in the UK sucks. Nobody should do it. £57.99, fuck that! I pre-ordered with an E3 offer and got it for £34, and I knew for certain I'd be playing it before release. Everywhere sends out games early, even if it's usually one day. Mostly because everywhere guarantees a day one delivery.

This game was a little different due to it being a bank holiday on Monday. Everywhere was going to send it out on the last day before the weekend or earlier. I nearly always have Tuesday release games on Saturdays. MGS was weird in that it was a Thursday. It's been well known that games get posted/delivered early from websites and usually at a fraction of the price of PSN.

I feel your hurt man. I haven't been teetering on the precipice of Mt. Anticipation to this extent since Red Dead. I usually complain that time feels like it's going by too fast, but for the last week my mind and focus has been utterly consumed by everything Metal Gear, making my temporal existence in the 4th dimension feel slow and anguishing. Damn you 4th dimension -- damn you to hell.

Great discussion guys, I think it's pretty fascinating/interesting there are these little 'mom 'n pop stores' that become more reliable to us than the bigger chains that in theory should (and could) be catering to all our needs.

I totally get the people saying it's childish to want something you can't have, of course it is and I agree, but what zolroyce said was the main crux of my post. Like, if it's okay for some pockets of fans, then why not everyone?

Maybe if everyone started doing this, it'd be a case of 'where does it end?', in some assumed reality where we're suddenly getting games weeks in advance because retailers are forever trying to best each other. I won't profess to know how these things are done, but I'd totally appreciate the notion of "If it broke in X number of locations/X number of streams are online" we'll greenlight the major stores.

Ultimately, it's what, a week at most for most early releases?
The game officially comes out tomorrow, at which point none of this will even matter anymore.

@iceorb said:

:toot:

Sweet drink, what is it?

@spoonman671: As much as this post is in his words, "just to vent", this is even less engaging of an argument. MGS is a game series well known for having a complex plot and easy-to-spoil twists ('X dies', 'X is still alive', 'X both dies and is later alive') and is a major industry release besides. Both fans and the publisher should have reason to be upset about early release. Saying, "whatever, it doesn't matter" is unfair.

As for the OP, yeah I think this is stupid. Press and certain others getting review builds is one thing and obviously separate from the point, but when it's "some guy I know" who got it because of a retailer who could care less is where it gets dumb. There are reasons why release dates are set how they are, even if a few weeks before release you find yourself wondering "the game is shippable RIGHT NOW, why can't I just play it?"

Besides the obvious sales stats of how well the game sold on day one and so on, there is probably some amount of confusing statistical reasons why a game's sales need to be tracked starting from 1. When you throw all that out the window and just let the game get sold to "some, but not all" it kind of defeats the purpose of even those silly business decisions, right? If copies are getting sold early to a surprising degree and the publisher couldn't even care about it, then just lift the damn embargo - though, granted again, there are complicated business reasons this can't happen.

It's almost here! I managed to get the game on Friday. I have put 22 hours into it and trust me, it's worth the wait!

I'm starting to get nervous. I pre-ordered on the 19th and my copy hasn't shipped yet. Seems like it won't be getting here on the 1st. Amazon still says it's on track for guaranteed delivery, but if it's two day it's not going to make it.

@quid_pro_bono: ive had times where I had 2 day delivery and got it the next day, also a video game with release date guarantee so Id hold some hope out.

If you really care that much, can't you just find a store that's released it early?

@artikay: yeah I contacted their CS and they said it'll ship out Monday afternoon, but get there Tuesday. I didn't realize release day guarantee was a different shipping type than two-day

The publisher doesn't care because the early sales represent a minuscule tiny fraction of actual sales and it's not worth their time or effort to worry about it.

I find it annoying as well. Does it matter a whole lot? No. Will it ruin my day? No. But neither of those mean that I don't have every right to be unhappy that others can play it because their vendors violated street date while mine did not. Call it childish all you want. Frankly, IDGAF. The reality is that calling people names online is "childish" as well.

@everettescott:

Metal Gear Mango.

Isn't that exactly why people pre-order; If you are this emotionally invested then you should have just pre-ordered it.

@hunkulese: Sorry, yes. I meant more in a "moral" sense, it was in their interest to care because of fairness and stability of release record. Of course, both of the aforementioned things are trumped by the allure of actual sales and more likely, laziness, in most cases.

I feel your pain as a customer who's getting the PSN version.

You know it's not that hard to find a store selling it early

@poobumbutt: It has nothing to do with the allure of sales or laziness. It just makes no sense as a company to go after Fred's discount produce store for selling a few copies a few days earlier. Someone has to be paid to do that and it serves no purpose.

We're so close to release I can taste it.

Sure, if you live in a major metropolitan area. Those of us who like nature and thus live in more rural areas of the world often have one or two choices. Neither of them in my area are unethical enough to break street dates.

I know, I can't find a good place that is selling it early in my area. But whatever, I'm just getting it digitally. I'll probably get it on Steam too at some point.

If you live in a smallish city with no mom and pop stores it's pretty difficult getting a game early. A lot of the big name stores would really love to sell you the game early on Monday, but the cashier computer wont actually let them sell it to you unless the clock reads 12:00am. I know that specifically Wal-Mart does this and I'm sure pretty much every other store does this as well. You just have to get lucky if you go to the big name stores and pray that maybe someone put the wrong release date and no one caught it before release.

I really wish there would be a website or subreddit for major game releases where people report which stores in which cities are releasing games early... would save a lot of trouble of driving all around town just to realize that you wasted all your gas for the week.

I was pretty shocked to see that my entire preload downloaded in under an hour. Fingers crossed PSN can keep that kind of stuff up. 30ish GB in under an hour makes me happy.

After my recent experience of downloading AC: Unity from PSN after it was on sale I will not be purchasing another digital game in a long, long time - or at least until more people unanimously say "yah PSN isn't complete trash anymore."

I also kind of miss not having a box to put on a shelf. Indie games sure whatever, but I like to have full retail releases in physical form. I dunno guess it's the collector in me.

Concerning Phantom Pain I had a WONDERFUL weekend. I had to go to some work training thing for Thursday-Saturday but I got out of it so had those days off. Woke up rested and happy on Friday morning, overjoyed at not having to sit through corporate training and have the day off. Checked my phone and saw some of the people on my PSN friends list were playing Phantom Pain so I checked my local stores, saw they had it in stock and were selling already. Had breakfast, took a nice bike ride over to the game store, was back in under an hour and then continued to play MGS V for the next 6 hours straight with a huge grin on my face.

God bless street date breakers. It's especially fucking terrible when you have games that for whatever reason adhere to the European release schedule so everyone in the US gets it on Tuesday and then everyone in Europe has to wait until Thursday to buy it - in this digital age no less, you still need to wait two more days for your download. It's ridiculous.

@humanity: My friend got a copy early, so I've been playing a lot of it there. So glad I can start it up at home tomorrow night. Soooooo glad.

I've been playing it all weekend. And I'm not sorry. It's really, really good. By far the best in the series since MGS3. A major course correction.

@hunkulese: Right. And that means Konami has a legitimate, 100% sales reason to not pursue that. Believe me, I understand the concept of compromise. All I'm saying is by virtue of having a thing called a release date, they are designating a dtae when it, uh, releases. And a comparatively miniscule amount of copies being sold early is small bones in the grand scale, sure, but I guess my initial point was more if the publisher doesn't care at this level of early selling, then when?

Obviously, if this doesn't bother them, there must some number of sales that will. If that number was made entirely by Mom n' Pop stores, are they really going to crack down on chains consisting of sometimes single stores/owners? No, of course not. And that's the thing, it doesn't just feel like only a few people got it early and that's common etc. etc. It feels like if even MORE people had gotten it early, Konami probably still wouldn't have done anything, besides maybe strongly chastise the stores' sales practices.

To be honest, I know I am splitting hairs over this, yes. And if this was AC: Unity or CODBLOPS being discussed, I wouldn't bat an eye. I care because it's a thing I like. I will say I'm not pining over wanting the game myself like a child who wants whatever he sees, I simply see the inherent issue with Konami's "it doesn't matter at this number of sales" reaction. There's an obvious extension that logic can be taken to, and it still has Konami generally doing nothing about the problem.

Even though it comes out tomorrow and I could go to the store and pick my pre order up I probably won't get to touch the game until Friday.

I have already cleared out this weekend to play this game. I even have a few sick days and vacation days banked up just in case....just in case.

In other words people having the game earlier means nothing to me. I don't really have time to play it like I want during the week, not yet anyway. Might as well just chill and wait till the weekend.

Besides I get paid Friday-all the better. I can sit back with recreational habits and enjoy my movie/game.
Better that than getting it right now and staying up late on school and work nights trying to get 20 more minutes in letting my adult responsibilities suffer.