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[debvon]

Meh, this petition doesn't make much sense to me. I don't even see the underlying issue as much of a big deal..

[Saint]

Oh WHAHH, I CAN'T WAIT 3 DAYS FOR A GAME! WHAHH!
Get the fuck over it.

[MrWiggles]

I think the petition is also assuming that high speed bandwidth is as equally available as potential in store purchases. Which, isn't always the case. I think its also assuming that digital disruption has the same or less cost then retail stores. And possibly that the infrastructure is already or being secured by game developers.

THIS. Rural australia, the highest speed around here is about 1.5 Mbps, very poor for Digital downloading. not to mention we're getting gouged in terms of how much the connection costs, let alone the game...

Rural parts of the United States have crappy or no dsl as well.

Also, whats wrong with DLC? I'm not a fan of micro transaction, but game expansions as DLC seem pretty alright to me. If I had the cash, I would be getting the defiant map pack for Halo 4, and Dead Money for New Vegas, and the two for GTA4.

[Googolplexed]

All the arguments here are about cutting content, editing the game, and so on and so forth.

Last I checked, release dates are generally split into 3 areas, europe, japan, and the US (and sometimes Australia gets its own date)
Often these dates are within 3 days of each other, and the dates are announced often months in advance.
Ignoring translation, how many times are games edited for various countries ?, apart from the obvious stuff (changing contact/replacement details) not much changes.

Honestly, I could understand if editing is needed, but with the various versions almost 100% identical.
Maybe this is a stocking issue or something, but it still seems to me that some games can have release dates down to the day, months ahead, and still be unable to sync up stocking physical copies.

@Chaoticag, I understand that, but again, if you can release within a few days of US release, and have the game physically manufactured for at-least a week before hand.... it doesn't entirely add up

I'd personally pin this down to the classic PAL-NTSC console conversions, which (although minor) gave publishers a reason to do this.
Really, I can't see what makes it so hard to sync up international releases, delaying the initial release a few days won't/shouldn't loose any profit, and I don't think anyone is trying to make this a rule, more of a guideline that should be followed more often. If the Australian sensor forces the company to wait months before releasing, then sure,release to the rest of the world first.


Disclaimer: This rant is from an english perspective not taking into account various different languages and translations, however RPS, is based in the UK, they speak english, and the issue still effects them. I honestly don't care about release dates, I'm pretty much in the same boat as Fikes. I'm arguing for the point of debating.

[Deon]

Will the companies really take the petition in consideration? What would they win and how much can it influence in reality?

[IronyOwl]

Now see, the problem I have here is that I don't understand why companies would do this in the first place. I guess it might build up demand from the suspense or something, but generally there just doesn't seem to be any real reason a company would go "Hey, let's shaft Australia."

Which leads me to believe that there's actual, physical reasons for differing release dates, and not just some CEO laughing at the French, as the article seems to insist. This means that synchronizing all releases wouldn't speed anything up, but rather slow everything down to the lowest common denominator. I suppose everything's relative, but forcing everyone to go through the trouble of lining massive, massive operations up worldwide just so some people don't have to feel jealous seems rather petty and asinine.

Plus, that's assuming the fact that everyone's connected doesn't create drama or problems somehow, which is pretty unreasonable. Can't release a game worldwide until every country you're going to release it in okays it? Yeaaaah, that'll end badly at least once.


Finally, yeah, "lol internet petition." Especially one that basically says "The internet exists, so everyone would win if you did the most blatantly obvious thing possible!" Even if it were true that'd get the eyes rolling from anyone in a position to do anything about it, and they don't exactly go to great lengths to explain their case.

[MrWiggles]

All the arguments here are about cutting content, editing the game, and so on and so forth.

Mine criticism wasn't based on this entirely.