Why do games come out on differing dates in differing continents? - Games

I had assumed that before the advent of digital delivery, it was due to shipping huge amounts of physical discs to all of the stores around the world. But now, with digital delivery everyone can get the games without leaving their chair, or the company requiring shipping. And yet, games still release on differing dates. Why is this? Monsieur European Gamer has the same content on his hard drive as Mr American Gamer, and yet he has to wait 2 extras before activation, simply because he lives a few thousand miles away? Now, I'd like a genuine discussion, with arguments and valid counter arguments. Thanks.

On Steam and in Digital services there really isn't an excuse. Personally, it doesn't bother me. A release date is a release date and theres no point getting butthurt because another country gets a game first.

I've often wondered this. Would like a proper explanation

I'm not specifically butthurt, I simply see it as unnecessary, but would like to know if anyone has a reason why it may occur.

Region locking also confuses me - back when everything was NTSC and PAL it made sense that the games consoles should be split like that, but nowadays this isn't the case - especially for handheld consoles.

[QUOTE=pogothemunty;29703692]Region locking also confuses me - back when everything was NTSC and PAL it made sense that the games consoles should be split like that, but nowadays this isn't the case - especially for handheld consoles.[/QUOTE] In truth it didn't make that much sense then. If they just prepare early enough, everyone can get it on time. I mean, Valve manages it with all of their games on all platforms.

And Australia always gets it last :colbert: There's[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_localization"] this[/URL], but a lot of the points here don't really make much sense with the technology we have today, as you said.

Well it depends where the video game is developed. A lot of games are developed in Japan, therefore they are released there first since they need to be translated in order for them to be sold in Western countries. They come later in Europe because of the different video standards, NTSC for the US and PAL for Europe. Once again the games need to be converted to the proper standard before they go on sale in Europe.

[QUOTE=TheDeadHo;29704232]Well it depends where the video game is developed. A lot of games are developed in Japan, therefore they are released there first since they need to be translated in order for them to be sold in Western countries. They come later in Europe because of the different video standards, NTSC for the US and PAL for Europe. Once again the games need to be converted to the proper standard before they go on sale in Europe.[/QUOTE] I don't believe this is valid any more. Perhaps for physical copies of the games, but with Digital Distribution this is invalid. I have the files for an upcoming game on my hard drive right now, all I need is the code from Steam to start playing, and yet I have wait 2 days longer for an inconsequential reason. This just seems to be left over tradition from the days before digital distribution.

When it comes to games that play online, it lessens the load on the employees for server maintenance and whatnot. Public Relations are a bitch too. Trust me, there's a reason for it.

It's because publishers fuck everything up.

It's funny how people complain about 2-3 days between continental releases when back in the day it could take a year before a game turned up in europe

I remember the reason LFD2 didn't come out on time is because of the ratings crap, so it's often to do with not the coding of the game itself but legalities.

before (until the wii) it used to be mainly because of translations and ratings and advertising and such. there's pretty no much reason for it to happen on steam though

I think most of it has to do with sales data. I believe the NPD starts its data weeks on Tuesday, which is why nearly all the US games come out on Tuesday - it makes the sales look better, and gives a solid time to calculate first week sales. I believe the EU equivalent of the NPD starts on Friday, which is why they nearly all come out on Friday in the EU. That's how I always understood it, anyway.

[QUOTE=OpethRockr55;29704512]I think most of it has to do with sales data. I believe the NPD starts its data weeks on Tuesday, which is why nearly all the US games come out on Tuesday - it makes the sales look better, and gives a solid time to calculate first week sales. I believe the EU equivalent of the NPD starts on Friday, which is why they nearly all come out on Friday in the EU. That's how I always understood it, anyway.[/QUOTE] I've heard this before too. It's the most reasonable excuse.

[QUOTE=OpethRockr55;29704512]I think most of it has to do with sales data. I believe the NPD starts its data weeks on Tuesday, which is why nearly all the US games come out on Tuesday - it makes the sales look better, and gives a solid time to calculate first week sales. I believe the EU equivalent of the NPD starts on Friday, which is why they nearly all come out on Friday in the EU. That's how I always understood it, anyway.[/QUOTE] This, read some article about it, gonna google crusade for it.

I just thought it took longer to ship physical copies to different continents from their home country developers, and digital distributional companies just used the separate release dates to keep it fair.

[QUOTE=OpethRockr55;29704512]I think most of it has to do with sales data. I believe the NPD starts its data weeks on Tuesday, which is why nearly all the US games come out on Tuesday - it makes the sales look better, and gives a solid time to calculate first week sales. I believe the EU equivalent of the NPD starts on Friday, which is why they nearly all come out on Friday in the EU. That's how I always understood it, anyway.[/QUOTE] That explains Brink's Tuesday release date.

Because USA is best.

[QUOTE=shatteredwindow;29706132]Because USA is best.[/QUOTE] USA IS DOMINATE.

[QUOTE=Keelwar;29705146]I just thought it took longer to ship physical copies to different continents from their home country developers, and digital distributional companies just used the separate release dates to keep it fair.[/QUOTE] Exactly, Steam/D2D ect... cant release the games before the shops, because then everyone would buy the digital versions and the company that made the games would be stuck with the boxes. (I just dont understand why Brink's release date in steam is 2 days after the shop release date...)

Is it Penny Arcade/Destructoid/The Escapist have been campaigning for a while for universal release dates. (Well...one of them has, I just can't remember which...)