The Historian

So over the weekend a lot of retailers broke the street date for Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. GameStop says they “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”.

Personally I think the concept is Street Dates is antiquated. I mean I see what they are trying to do; retailers receive shipments of stock prior to its street date release, so that the product can be placed on display shelves for store opening that day. But you know.. we have four time zones here in the US so that means that the East Coasters will get it a full three hours before the West Coast people will. How do the Publishers handle that?

I know, I know.. Retail outlets can be severely punished by publishers for releasing a product even a day before the street date. If a retailer breaches the contract establishing a street date, the publishers may impose fines, may even withdraw privileges to distribute future products from that manufacturer, and may file a lawsuit to enforce the contract. However, there is no documentation of a retail chain or store being fined or any action taken against them. And lets face it.. if the 800 pound gorilla called Wal*Mart decides to break a Street Date there isn’t a company on the planet that is going to even peep about it.

So Publishers and Developers, just get rid of the whole Street Date phenomenon, besides no one really likes to show up for midnight releases when they could have been playing all day while the stock collects dust all day.