Kotaku: street dates

7-Eleven Street Date Breaking Party Pooped?

Michael McWhertor — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:30:04 MST

Convenience store chain 7-Eleven may be adored for its employees' street date cluelessness, but corporate — and probably the odd publisher and retail competitor — aren't fond of its reputation as a place to score video games early. Now that the company is going whole hog into the games selling biz, it wants to put early sales behind it.

A spokesperson tells MTV Multiplayer that not only is the company attempting "council" offending stores, it's working with its legal department to warn franchisees of "repercussions" for selling you Gears of War 2 thirty-six hours early. Thanks a lot, 7-Eleven legal department!

7-Eleven Trying To Ditch Reputation For Early Game Sales [MTV Multiplayer]

7-Eleven Doesn't Get Street Dates - Lich King Version

Mike Fahey — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:40:00 MST

Convenience store chain 7-Eleven just cannot seem to get the hang of the whole street date thing. Last week it was Gears of War, and now this week they've been spotted selling the World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King Days before release. Witness the guys from 1UP as they venture into a local store and purchase their copies.

7-Eleven Breaks Wrath of the Lich King Street Date [1UP]

Look Who's Breaking Street Dates Now!

Michael McWhertor — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 16:40:51 MDT

One of these games shouldn't be sold to the public. No, it's not Viking: Battle for Asgard, but that's a very good guess! We're talking about Fallout 3, which, at least at some Wal-Marts just west of the Mississippi, is publicly available, even though it shouldn't be.

If you can't wait for next week, now might be the time to start scouring your local mega-retailer. More patient types can pre-purchase — but not pre-load, annoyingly — Fallout 3 via Steam or Direct2Drive. For the rest of us, expect to see Fallout 3 hit retail shelves starting next Tuesday.

Wii Fit Shipments Late? Not Exactly

Mike Fahey — Tue, 20 May 2008 08:20:00 MDT

I am a little confused about the reports of late Wii Fit shipments throughout North America when the package, as far as retailers are concerned, hasn't even gone on sale yet. While Nintendo did see fit (pardon the pun) to release their balance board on the 19th, I've seen boxes of the product at several retailers with giant "Do Not Sell Until May 21st" stickers on them. The shipments aren't late...they're dated.

I actually held one in my hands at a local Walmart nearly two weeks ago, with the ever-friendly electronics clerk (one of the few at a Walmart who knows what he is on about) even offered to sell it to me early, if the computer let him. Sadly it did not, once again flashing the message warning not to sell the game until the 21st. If Nintendo changed up the release date on retailers they didn't do it in enough time to change the box stickers and POS system fail-safes.

Don't even bother looking for one today. As far as the retail world is concerned you can get your Wii Fit on tomorrow. We've been lazy this long, another day won't kill us.

Play Halo 3 Early, Get Banned

Mike Fahey — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 09:40:44 MDT

Barely an hour goes by without a tip popping into our magical Kotaku mailbox regarding broken street dates for Halo 3. Copies are appearing on eBay around the world, companies are shipping out their copies too early, and in some instances, people are just being asshats. UK gaming site Pro-G got their hands on a copy from high-street retailer Argos through their website, which this morning was allowing customers to order the game with an in-store pickup date of today. Before popping the game into their 360, however, they wisely contacted Microsoft. A rep for the company confirmed that anyone playing Halo 3 before the release date will have their Xbox Live accounts banned, going on to warn that simply playing offline will not work, as the moment you connect to live your play history will get you flagged for a ban. For those getting their hands on early copies, enjoy that new game smell...you've only got a week tops to wait!

Microsoft threatens Halo 3 gamers with LIVE ban [Pro-G]