I have decided to write an open letter to game developers and distributors about the sorry state of street dates and a games actual release...
Dead Rising is a survival adventure game developed by Capcom for the Xbox 360 Console where you play a photographer trapped in a mall infested with zombies. I've been anticipating it for some time. I've played the demo the past few days sucking every bit of marrow from it's necro-sapien infested bones. I've done everything from gunning down a plethora of undead malcontents with an uzi, to throwing down some cooking oil and watching the zombies slide around while listening to the Benny Hill theme on my custom soundtrack (idea stolen from zero9teen on youtube).
I've been following things concerning it's release date for some time now and was truly excited when August 8th descended upon us like a mob of brain eating freaks. As mayor of my apartment, I had declared today Frank West Day. A holiday created for the sole purpose of finding how many ways I could kill a zombie, while then taking pictures of said endeavours.
I called my local GameCrazy before lunch in hopes of picking up the disc during my break. I dialed the number and some new guy named Chris answered. Here's a transcript of the conversation.
Super sexy intelligent guy: Yes, I was calling to find out if you had any copies of Dead Rising in stock yet.
GameCrazy Employee: Did you preorder it?
Guy who should be in movies: No.
GameCrazy Employee: It should be in later today... I can hold it for you when it comes in, but if someone else comes in and asks for it and I don't have any other copies, I'll have to sell it.
Confused handsome dude: Uh, so how is that holding it for me? Never mind...
GameCrazy Employee who has lost any confidence I had in him: I just suggest you call back around 1.
The Hotness: Ummmm ok whatever bye.
Being the older gamer I am, I was unfortunately busy from 1:00pm until 4:00pm. At 4, I decided to swing by there just incase they still had some in. I arrive and the Chris fellow from the phone was nowhere to be found, but my good friends that work there, John and Jeremy were. I asked them if they had the game and they said no, it ships on Tuesday but arrives on Wednesday. Huh?! "I called earlier and some guy told me later today..." Jeremy informed me the guy was part of an apparent affirmative action movement in which they had to hire one mentally challenged person from the local Special Needs Academy. "Oh, but we got the T-shirts!" To which I replied, "I hate you."
So what is the point of this rant? Well, I remember when Tuesday was the new DVD/Game/CD day, and Friday was the new movie day. Somewhere someone threw a monkey into a wrench, and then threw the pair into the cogs of a gear which wound up screwing everything up. It used to be you could count on a game coming out on Tuesday, now it's hit or miss.
Halo 2 came out on a Tuesday at 12:01 am. So did Madden and NCAA. Plenty of other games have come out on Tuesdays without a midnight release. Why are some games being held until Wednesday? Is UPS biased against games that generate so much hype? I simply don't understand it.
This phenomenon just started happening in the past year or two and it irks me to no end. Who do I need to write to in order to express my concern? Am I the only one that has had enough of this. I wait for months on end for a game and then the WIDELY ADVERTISED street date arrives and my local game stores tell me that I must endure another 24 hours of being without my plastic disc of crack. It's like dangling a carrot in front of a rabbit. It's just plain wrong.
Please, for the love of Pete, stop toying with our gamer emotions. Pick a day of the week and stick to it.
Sincerely,
Darksage
Dead Rising is a survival adventure game developed by Capcom for the Xbox 360 Console where you play a photographer trapped in a mall infested with zombies. I've been anticipating it for some time. I've played the demo the past few days sucking every bit of marrow from it's necro-sapien infested bones. I've done everything from gunning down a plethora of undead malcontents with an uzi, to throwing down some cooking oil and watching the zombies slide around while listening to the Benny Hill theme on my custom soundtrack (idea stolen from zero9teen on youtube).
I've been following things concerning it's release date for some time now and was truly excited when August 8th descended upon us like a mob of brain eating freaks. As mayor of my apartment, I had declared today Frank West Day. A holiday created for the sole purpose of finding how many ways I could kill a zombie, while then taking pictures of said endeavours.
I called my local GameCrazy before lunch in hopes of picking up the disc during my break. I dialed the number and some new guy named Chris answered. Here's a transcript of the conversation.
Super sexy intelligent guy: Yes, I was calling to find out if you had any copies of Dead Rising in stock yet.
GameCrazy Employee: Did you preorder it?
Guy who should be in movies: No.
GameCrazy Employee: It should be in later today... I can hold it for you when it comes in, but if someone else comes in and asks for it and I don't have any other copies, I'll have to sell it.
Confused handsome dude: Uh, so how is that holding it for me? Never mind...
GameCrazy Employee who has lost any confidence I had in him: I just suggest you call back around 1.
The Hotness: Ummmm ok whatever bye.
Being the older gamer I am, I was unfortunately busy from 1:00pm until 4:00pm. At 4, I decided to swing by there just incase they still had some in. I arrive and the Chris fellow from the phone was nowhere to be found, but my good friends that work there, John and Jeremy were. I asked them if they had the game and they said no, it ships on Tuesday but arrives on Wednesday. Huh?! "I called earlier and some guy told me later today..." Jeremy informed me the guy was part of an apparent affirmative action movement in which they had to hire one mentally challenged person from the local Special Needs Academy. "Oh, but we got the T-shirts!" To which I replied, "I hate you."
So what is the point of this rant? Well, I remember when Tuesday was the new DVD/Game/CD day, and Friday was the new movie day. Somewhere someone threw a monkey into a wrench, and then threw the pair into the cogs of a gear which wound up screwing everything up. It used to be you could count on a game coming out on Tuesday, now it's hit or miss.
Halo 2 came out on a Tuesday at 12:01 am. So did Madden and NCAA. Plenty of other games have come out on Tuesdays without a midnight release. Why are some games being held until Wednesday? Is UPS biased against games that generate so much hype? I simply don't understand it.
This phenomenon just started happening in the past year or two and it irks me to no end. Who do I need to write to in order to express my concern? Am I the only one that has had enough of this. I wait for months on end for a game and then the WIDELY ADVERTISED street date arrives and my local game stores tell me that I must endure another 24 hours of being without my plastic disc of crack. It's like dangling a carrot in front of a rabbit. It's just plain wrong.
Please, for the love of Pete, stop toying with our gamer emotions. Pick a day of the week and stick to it.
Sincerely,
Darksage
