Pokémon X and Y was released by its developer, Nintendo, worldwide on October 12th. Players were happy that the sensational new game came out simultaneously throughout many regions so that spoilers could be avoided and jealousy didn’t have to fester in certain countries for days or weeks.
However, multiple retailers worldwide broke the proposed street date of the release and started selling the game Friday, October 11th, instead of the Saturday.
This annoyed Nintendo a lot, but was hard to control given the scope of the problem. 22% of internet users surveyed by Nintendolife said they got their game early. It’s hard to control a quarter of your sellers doing bad business. One thing Nintendo could have done to control the problem was just make Pokémon X and Y come out on Friday. A Saturday release is unusual in modern practices.
UK retailer GAME released the game early after several other rivals, specifically HMV, ShopTo, and Tesco, had put the game on sale themselves. GAME told the Market for Computer and Video Games that they take “…compliance with all industry standards and regulations very seriously. It was extremely disappointing to see a number of competitors break street date.” They broke the date anyway, though.
As a retailer it’s very tempting to sell the game early in order to boost sales. Especially on a popular game like Pokémon, the wrath of Nintendo might be worth the profit increase by letting the game out just a bit early.
