The Australian gaming industry is at serious risk of collapsing, not because of an issue that they have caused themselves, but rather one that the consumer has made, and to most gamers, it isn’t an evident issue. It’s the problem of broken ‘street dates’. In business, a street date is the date a particular product is to be released for sale to the general public and retailers are breaking this date.
Waiting for a game to be released is the most difficult thing in the life of a gamer. For months leading up to the release, we’re fed trailers and screen shots, getting us ready for the all-important street date. So when a game does break street date, you can guarantee that the last thing a gamer is going to be thinking about are the long-term effects this will have on the industry.
The process of releasing a game is long and arduous. It all starts early into the development of a game and a release date is set. After the game is finished, a copy is sent to the distributers, who are required to make copies, organize shipping, and generally create more hype surrounding the game. The last stage is when the stores receive their copies of the game, usually two to four days before the release date. The stores are then trusted to sell on the release date. Recently the retailers have made trouble for themselves by deciding to sell before this date; this is what is causing a lot of controversy.
‘If you think back to the Harry Potter releases, the hype around some of these books it was very rare that you heard of a store that was brave enough to do that.’ says Ingrid Just. This courtesy is not seen in the gaming industry, if the retailers can increase their profit margin, they will. Street dates are there to even out the field for the smaller retailers and they are an important part of the distribution machine that surrounds a massive release.
It is a massive loss to the retailers that break the street date and to the gamers that buy the games before the release. Yann Suquet says ‘that [gamers’] don’t get that excitement of the first day and some events that we might have had... It would have been more fun if they waited coz they get more out of the launch of the game.’
A market the size of this country, anywhere between 3-5% of the global market, is insignificant in comparison to some of the big European or US markets and if this becomes the norm and games like Skyrim, Battlefield 3 and Arkham City continually break street dates, then we are risking a delay put on Australian releases across the board. That’s something we don’t want and something consumers and retailers don’t want but that is the path that we’re going down.
Last year, there was a lot of confusion surrounding Batman: Arkham City because they broke street date. The confusion stemmed from an issue with the Cat Woman DLC. People were complaining that their codes were not working, yet it hadn’t been activated globally yet as the game had not officially been released.
Despite the strict rules and guidelines that are given to retailers when they first receive the shipment from the distributors, anything from an indiscreet staff member to a really persistent customer can cause a game to leak. Once this happens all the other stores are forced to do so also or face huge losses. Expensive events like midnight openings and press events are now ruined.
Retailers will do anything they can to be the first people selling a particular product. This competition is at a whole new level in the gaming industry. Russell Zimmerman, the executive director at the Australian Retailers Association, says if ‘there is anything wrong with the products going to be allowed to be sold say on a particular date, and that means 1 minute past midnight you start selling it. There is nothing wrong with that retailer opening their doors and selling it but for a retailer to go out a day or two days before the marketing date then yes, it’s ethically unreasonable…[it] does make it difficult for the other retailers.’
If it breaks street date and somebody hacks it and then there’s hundreds of torrents then nobody buys it. The producers have then made a terrible business decision, by making a great game and that’s depressing. ‘I want to care about making great games and then I want people to spend money on great games so that we have money to make the next great game. That’s what this cycle should be.’ – Seth Olshfki.
The newest addition to the Star Wars gaming franchise, Star Wars: The Old Republic, broke street date but with a difference. When a global staggered release was set by EA (Electronic Arts, a game products company) for technical reasons, many Australian fans began grey importing, getting copies from overseas. This led some retailers to spurn local distributers, importing copies themselves and selling onto the public. If this trend continues distributers may try and prevent future breaks by online only sales. That in itself will bring more issues.
This could all potentially come back to affect the Australian consumers. Stores may no longer accept pre-orders, they may stock lower quantities or not receive copies of the game right up until the very day of release. Australia is a big country and there are logistics in moving a shipment and products around. So that could mean that customers may not have it on the actual release day if you live in Alice Springs and it doesn’t get there in time.
This issue needs to be addressed and though it is also the responsibility of the retailers to follow the guidelines of game release, it is also the responsibility of the gamers to maintain the integrity of the gaming industry. Don’t be the ‘feeder’ that everyone hates.
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