Retailers have it

I remember not that long ago the entire World of Light for Smash 5 was leaked weeks in advance of the game's street release because people got it early from retailers that chose not to honor their deal with Nintendo.

This happens all the time. They have to make sure retailers have stock on hand so people can buy the game on launch day. There's also no way to stop them from breaking street date and selling it early. The only thing to be done is to come down on those individual businesses.

Yeah, it makes me miffed that there are sleazy people out there that either tricked a retailer into giving them a copy early or they know someone and got a copy early and they got the game before me, but until videogames go totally digital, there's just no way to stop this from happening. There's always going to be that local game store that says "screw it, people are asking, so Im selling now". There's always gonna be "My uncle works at EB Games, he'll get me a copy early."

And because this is the digital/social media age, there will be people throwing up stuff and not caring about spoilers. Even a simple youtube search I just did showed a couple small channels uploading videos and streams of the game. Might be fake, but I wasnt about to check and see. 

There are a *lot* of factors that go into deciding a release date, most of which we'll probably never know, so let's not simplify it with "this was the best time/quarter for them to make money with it". I'm sure that was a consideration, and at this point it may be as much about recouping money as it is making it. Every week that the game goes on in development, more time passes without them having any return. This isn't a company that's making money off of their other games that fund the current one or a bunch of merch - this is the first game, and there's not a whole lot you can buy for it. Anyway, let's look at some other reasons we can appreciate as fans for the June release and how the game doesn't come out final (not counting impatience etc):

- It is the closest release day (Tuesday) after the 4th anniversary of the Kickstarter's close, which was June 12, 2015.
- Igarashi previously wanted to make the release timing of H1, 2018. Mid-June release means they roughly delayed a single solid year beyond that.
- The game having more content coming/being patched and updated beyond the initial physical product means they stay in business and we get more things later, on top of these guys keeping their jobs and not having to disband and look for other work until they're needed again. If that were to happen, we may not be able to gather all of the requisite employees from before or it may take a while to gather that team - assuming RotN became successful enough to warrant it. It being how it currently is means that we begin a flow of content and products we want from the same, consistent team who can keep their positions.

I know not everyone may be interested in that last one as it technically has nothing to do with us, but in a relevant way it really does, if we are to want something more and not rely on Kickstarter #2, which I don't think will happen again. I also think this is still relevant overall, and I just want to link it when I get the chance:
bloodstained.forums.net/post/66459

Great posts/thoughts on the whole thing.

edit: to be clear on what gunlord said above, we're not exactly "official mods". Him, myself, Xombiemike etc are 100% volunteers and not official. For official people, that's just 505, ArtPlay, Fangamer, etc (Angel, Question, Steve, Dan, Mana and so on).

What smarmy jackass wrote this horsecrap po-...

Anyone working in software development TODAY should know a product is never really done. There's always something to patch because of how complex software has become these days with so many layers.

My tracking number finally updated today to "in-transit" with an expected delivery date of June 17th by 8PM. Parcel shipped first class mail.

Also for anyone that didn't back the game and hasn't pre-ordered it yet and is interested in the PS4 version check out amazon, it's currently listed there for $32.84. That's about what you'd pay at Best Buy if you still have GCU. Not sure if this has been posted yet but a great deal none the less for those still looking.

Tuesday can't come soon enough, just to get my copy from Gamestop and holding it in my hands. I'll start up the game that evening after I get home from one of my family members apartment. The patch should be installed by that time as I will open up the game right away and get it installed before I leave.