The shipping date of Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds is given in this IGN.COM preview:

http://pc.ign.com/previews/15959.html

as thanksgivings day. That makes a whole lot of sense to people outside of North America. A minor grumble to go alongside the general US-centric malaise that includes the continual late release of games in Europe, even those that were developed here, like Black & White.

I'm very pleased to see your posting news more regularly, as it got a bit patchy for a while - where you suffering from holiday absenses or just ennui?

Gx_Farmer
http://www.mrfixitonline.com/

Last week of November.

As an aside, not to dull your rightful skewering of the North American-centric marketing, there is an important reason.

The day after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year in America. It's considered critical to have product in stores then. Since Europe has no Thanksgiving, any time in December is okay to ship.

That's how the schedules are built: NA first, then Europe. Then, later, when the schedules slip, the order remains the same.

"alongside the general US-centric malaise that includes the continual late release of games in Europe, even those that were developed here, like Black & White."

We just got Empire of the Ants this past week. Does that make you better?
;>

Also, I don't expect UK magazines I'm reading to define when Boxing day is, I mean, if that should come up.

-Andrew

If a British magazine listed the release date of a game as Boxing Day, I would be equally scolding of their ignorance :).

Thanksgiving is the 3rd Thursday in November.

Don't blame us for delaying games. It looks like the French have bought up most of the US game companies at this point ;-)

Any particular reason for the day after Thanksgiving being a big seller? Is that because it is the last big shopping day before christmas, or just tradition?

Tim.

The day after Thanksgiving day has just evolved into a shopping event -- big sales everywhere, lots of ads, etc. You'd really like your game to be on the retail shelves on that day if you can swing it.

As to updating the news, yeah, a bit of ennui coupled with some slow news days and Diablo 2: LOD are to blame for missed days here and there. Like today, I'm going to update the page right now, but there's not anything really of interest that happened today. I'll have to dig around for stuff.

>The day after Thanksgiving day has just evolved into a shopping event -- big sales everywhere, lots of ads, etc.

Heh, that's what Boxing Day is all about.

Thanksgiving is no where near as big a deal in Canada as it is in the U.S., and it's not on the same date, so that date is pretty meaningless in the rest of North America as well.

Stefan

I think retailers feel the day after Thanksgiving is really as far back as they can push the "Christmas Season". Even though you'll see decorations right after Halloween, it's become a major, MAJOR, day for retail. Financial people love to scrutinize that friday for an indication of how the retail season is going to look. And then they write about it, like it means something significant (which it actually probably does).

Some people here, my sisters-in-law (but thankfully not my wife) see that day as a "must go shop" day, like it's some sort of cultural event in and of itself.

For me it's a day NOT to shop, but releasing a major game then makes perfect sense and IGN probably should have clarified the date for readers (did they mention the year?)

-Andrew

Tim said: "Is that because it is the last big shopping day before christmas, or just tradition?"

It's becoming a tradition fast... but it's the first big day not the last. Christmas Eve is, of course, the last big day.

-Andrew

Sorry for my ignorance, but there's nothing quite like that in the UK. There's no retailing ground hog day, no imagined incentive to go racing around the shops a couple of months before Christmas, so I was curious as to what exactly it is. All we have is Guy Fawkes Night on November 5th, where firework sales get their yearly boost. Still, we took Halloween of you, before long we'll be celebrating Thanksgiving and July 4th lol.

Back to the subject of release dates, I tend to find it quite frustrating when games are released in the US weeks, and sometimes months, ahead of Europe. Especially a game like Kohan, which I was particularly keen on, that had a release date of March in the US and won't be seen on UK shelves until September! The expansion pack will probably have been shipped by then...I can always order it on my credit card, but then I run the guantlet of UK customs who will slap arbitrary tax fees of up to 50% on the value of the goods.

In a modern world where many of my friends are online it's annoying to be invited to play the latest and greatest new game, only to have to say "I'll join you in six months when they release it over here." I just would have thought that logistics would have advanced far enough by now to allow for worldwide launches on the same day. I know there are schedules for launches, but what I don't understand is why it has to be in that order.

I mean Microsoft has its production facilities in Ireland, and EA in the UK, so it's not a shipment problem. I just don't get it, and it has cost TimeGate at least one sale. When most of the people I know have bought the game, played it to death and then dumped it, there's little incentive for me to go and pick it up.

As for IGN mentioning the year, Bub, I don't think they did. As I already knew that it is set for release this autumn (fall) I didn't even think to look.

Tim

So far as the regional stuff goes, I feel for you. I hear Canadians have to endure the "arbitrary taxation" stuff on imports as well. How annoying considering how close the border is.

"As for IGN mentioning the year, Bub, I don't think they did. As I already knew that it is set for release this autumn (fall) I didn't even think to look."

Hmmm... that's impossible.
Are you sure you weren't reading about Star Wars: Galactic Battleground (the AOE based RTS)? Galaxies is the Verant made MMORPG and we won't see that for at least two years, probably more.

-Andrew

Oh jeez... Excuse me.
I'm the one who misread your post. You were talking about Galactic Battleground Tim. My apologies, it's been a very long day here.

-Andrew (presumably)

A lot of these games have different publishers for the European and N. American markets. Kohan's like that, I'd guess. Ubi Soft is distributing it in Europe while Strategy First published it over here.

No problem, bub, I guessed that's what had happened.

Yes, Mark, that would explain the different schedules to some degree, although it doesn't really explain why there are different release dates. What I mean is even though there are different publishing companies, sometimes, they could still co-ordinate. That leaves me to think that either they are just too lazy, because they think nobody cares about it, or there is some deeper motive. The way that the scheduling mirrors the film industry makes me think there may be something more to it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm don't think there is some anti-European conspiracy going on - it's probably just a tradition of sorts.

Tim.

Well, I know that Blizzard has been pushing for world-wide releases on the latest of their big games, so it obviously can be done -- unless Blizzard is different with it's publishing companies, and such...

Oh, and just in case you haven't whipped out your calendar yet -- Thanksgiving is Nov. 22 this year.

In the case of Kohan, it's probably the matter of no European publisher being interested in a 2D RTS with a funny name made by a new development studio. Now Kohan's done ok, I suppose, so Ubi's taking a chance on it.

Some companies do push for simultaneous worldwide releases. Blizzard does. Sierra as a whole tries to. Arcanum has been done for months, and will be released internationally this month supposedly. One drawback though is piracy--there are already scads of full-version, boxed Arcanums showing up illegally from Latvia to China.

A lot of this might have to do with local specialisation. Different countries can require things to be different. It might be as simple as changing the wording or imagery on the box, or as deep as making changes to the game itself to be acceptable in different countries.

This doesn't affect every game to a great extent, I'd guess. It wouldn't be too surprising, though, for it to become part of standard operating procedures with a company, after the first time it is encountered. They do one production run per country.

My guess is that becuase the most developers are in the US and it is the biggest market deveoplers try to find publishers to distribute in America first. Then set out for asian and european markets. It ussualy takes several months to find a publisher and to hammer out a contract. And only after the contratct is singed dose the publisher start advertising. And they ussualy advertise for some time before the game gets relased.

They call the day after Thanksgiving "Black Friday." Because of the hideous shopping nightmare.

I think it evolved into a shopping day because everyone always has the day off, or takes it off, and it's the last legit day off people have before Christmas. There's kind of nothing else to do - nobody travels on the long 4-day weekend because they've got to be with family on Thanksgiving. Check that: they travel like mad, but to visit relatives, so then they're stuck in like Madison Wisconsin on Friday with nothing to do but blab with aunt Martha and so it's off to the mall for Christmas shopping.

Anyway, for most games (at least PC games, and increasingly many console games) the US market is the largest single language, and that's the key. Europe often outsells the US, but they're counting like 3 or 4 different language localizations as one whole. Europe often doesn't get the games at the same time because Europe isn't one version, it's several.

I suppose.

Americans certainly are crazy about their Thanksgiving holiday. Makes me wonder just what percentage of Americans are related to the original "pilgrims".

It's a combination of both people having their last day off to shop before Christmas and the retailers running all their best sales that makes Black Friday what it is. That weekend is the busiest weekend of the year for retail. I work for a large Department store chain (in IT) and our business doesn't hinge on it, but it sure does spike upward that Friday.

Anyway, as it relates to games, typically if you're not on the shelves before Black Friday, you won't see as much in sales before Christmas. There's a ton of stuff that hits throughout November to be sure it's had some time to be known it's available for that weekend. There's also always a fair amount of games released the Tuesday and Wednesday before Black Friday. Ultima IX was one two years ago.

Now, there's one other week that games do extremely well. The publishers haven't quite caught on to it as much yet though. That's the week between Christmas and New Year. December 25th to January 1 was often the absolute best week of the year at the EB I worked at. In fact, it was so good one year we couldn't get properly restocked for a month afterward.

--Dave

"Makes me wonder just what percentage of Americans are related to the original 'pilgrims'."

Very few. Most of the immigrant population has arrived in the last 150 years. It is not quite a pilgrim, but my wife is eligible for DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution). Her Great-great-great-great-great Grandfather (I think I have enough generations in there) fought in the Revolutionary War. He even was at Valley Forge.

On the other hand, my Great Grandfather was a poor young immigrant from Germany around 1870, so I am sullying the bloodline. :)

"Very few. Most of the immigrant population has arrived in the last 150 years. "

Nonsense you come to america and you automacitly take on the genetics. Ive even heard of it happening to long staying tourist.

Resistance is futile.