ShopTo and Tesco have become the latest retailers to break the street date for Pokémon X and Pokémon Y, the consequence of which being that The Pokémon Company may never again consider a worldwide launch for the series.
Their carefully structured marketing, which has seen the company steadily announce new Pokémon and features since the games were announced back in January, has been scuppered in recent weeks, with leaks emerging from copies obtained early from retailers in Canada, Italy, and Dubai. A situation that Nintendo rushed to address in attempting to ensure that as many surprises were left for players to discover for themselves.
You only need to search on the Twittersphere to see that Tesco have been delivering copies as early as yesterday – three days ahead of the official release date – whereas ShopTo pre-orders have been dropping through letterboxes today.
Each will defend themselves by saying that their standard delivery estimates orders arriving within 1-3 days after dispatch, allowing for delays. Yet we we’re sure that The Pokémon Company won’t be best pleased by the situation.
ShopTo and Tesco break Pokémon X & Y street date
“…the consequence of which being that The Pokémon Company may never again consider a worldwide launch for the series.”
I think this warrants a ‘citation needed’ flag. Do we actually have anything to that effect from them? Telling people to take down screenshots is one thing. Actually not doing this again and just going back to releasing 6 months earlier in Japan is quite another.
Usually companies that release games before street dates get a hefty fine. This is what games companies do “legally” to prevent early releases not stop worldwide releases as the article states.
I just wished to clarify that those are my own thoughts, which have been echoed in discussion with journalists and friends.
Nintendo Life’s Thomas Whitehead has more eloquently discussed the implications of the past fortnight, far better than I could ever explain, so would recommend reading his article: http://ow.ly/pGUwD
its not only tesco and shopto that have done this,Amazon have sent copies out early aswell, a friend has already received both pokemon X & Y a day before offical release, kinda makes me laugh though as he is working till 4am so cant play it till tomorrow anyway lol