European release date?

[Ajuga]

I'm gutted, so I went ahead and begun operation Begging on Twitter to get Greg or 2kGames to unlock God and Kings in Europe on 19th

What is his twitter account? Let's get everybody here to plea.
It's really weird how us Europeans have to wait for a digital release while America gets to play it early.
In the days where products had to be shipped to Europe it made sense, but to hold on to these standards in the digital age is just a kick in the teeth.

 

[RealHuhn]

I hope a few americans spam some let's plays on youtube, at least. xD

 

[Birdjaguar]

Kinda blows for people in Sweden, 22nd of June is midsummers eve. Quite a lot of people are away from home that weekend so you might just as well release it on the 25th.

And to add insult to injury, they've patched in some new bugs making my saves unplayable. I had 2 very interesting games going, which I can't get to load now without the game crashing.

GG Firaxis, you suck *ss.

Yes the patch KOed my current game too, but it is easy to start another. and yet, I see little point to, though, given that G&K is so close. Anyway, I'm guess that 2k selected the date and not Firaxis, and 2k is probably not too in touch with local Swedish customs. I'm guessing having a special release date for Sweden on the 25th would be too difficult to orchestrate.

 

[Infiltrator]

What about us who punched in a retail key into steam?

 

[Fluxx]

I completely understand the frustration of people that they have different launch times. When CIV5 vanilla got announced, and the decision accompanying it that steam would be a requirement as the chosen platform there was ALOT of unhappyness.
For a company it was a logical decision to make use of a 3rd party as a release platform, but then please the crowd as well by making use of having a digital only release platform.

Instead they have a different launch time for civ5 vanilla (again with alot of bad rep accompanying it), and apparently they havent learned from this because history repeats itself with the expansion.

Personally I dont really mind, because it saves me sleep deprivation at work in the middle of som important projects, but it still is a big deal to alot of people, and a bit of an insult to european players, because there is no proper logical motivation to have these different launch times.

For all European people who really do want to play earlier then friday EVENING, there are alot of ways to legally buy the game and still do this, and google allows you to find these solutions quite easily.
I cant blame people doing this at all, because this is the punishment that bad organisational decisions like that call upon themselves.

 

[Loucypher]

I hope a few americans spam some let's plays on youtube, at least. xD

Yeah, I'll do my best to avoid those. Part of playing a new game to me is the fact that its NEW, I don't want to be spoiled already by anything but the basic public knowledge.

 

[RealHuhn]

Yeah, I'll do my best to avoid those. Part of playing a new game to me is the fact that its NEW, I don't want to be spoiled already by anything but the basic public knowledge.

I would agree with you on other games but CIV is a different case.
CIV doesn't have a story, there aren't any spoilers. It's fun because you have to develop a strategy and "outsmart" the AI and you can only invent a good strategy when you know everything about the game.

I get excited about the new content because it introduces more diversity. It doesn't matter whether I see, for example, the animation of a new unit for the first time in a youtube video or in my own game.

 

[Loucypher]

Yes, but I'd like to find out those things by myself. Not by watching youtube vids of others playing. The thrill of seeing it all in action for the first time and put things together yourself is a big part of the fun for me.
'Course that's just me.

 

[blackcatatonic]

Although I'm ridiculously excited about the expansion, I'm happy to wait the extra 3 days. If there are any problems or things worth being aware of, it'll be old news by the time I get my copy, so I'll be fully prepared.

Plus it arrives just in time for the weekend so I won't have to lose any work time

 

[Flying Mathias]

I'd just like to add in the reason our overseas friends get their games late.

There are a few reasons.

1. Companies want to show the highest possible first week sales. Because most of Europe counts week sales on Thursday, they get the games on Friday. But in the US and Canada, week sales are counted on Monday, so games are realized on Tuesday. This is the reason why even developers based in Europe (Such as Bohemia) take longer to release their games in Europe.

2. Retail stores. Developers want to please retailers as much as possible so that their game gets sold and they make more money. If the game gets released worldwide on Steam before retail shipments arrive, European retailers, such as Gamestation, wouldn't make as much money, and would refuse to sell any of the developer's games, which means less money for the developer.

3. In cases where games take months or years to be released worldwide, it's because of language translating. For example, most Japanese games get released in the US and Canada about a year after after their Japanese release, due to translation. In a few cases, it takes even more time for a European port, depending on whether or not they want to support French, German etc, or just English.

Edit: Another reason is that some companies don't see Europe as a large market for video games, and wait months or ever years before finally making a Euro version.

Edit 2: Even more reasons! Some games take a while to conform to rating standards (I'm looking at you, Australia)

 

[Mivo]

I'd just like to add in the reason our overseas friends get their games late.

What you're overlooking is that this applies to maybe one out of ten Steamworks games, if that, and even less often to expansions.

 

[RealHuhn]

Edit: Another reason is that some companies don't see Europe as a large market for video games, and wait months or ever years before finally making a Euro version.

I have to nitpick here.

USA has probably a bit more sales per citizen but in absolute numbers the revenue of the gaming industry should be pretty equal in Europe.

 

[Flying Mathias]

I have to nitpick here.

USA has probably a bit more sales per citizen but in absolute numbers the revenue of the gaming industry should be pretty equal in Europe.

I know it's stupid, but blame the publishers, not me.

 

[fenwayb]

Edit: Another reason is that some companies don't see Europe as a large market for video games, and wait months or ever years before finally making a Euro version.

I don't think this is the case...I'm pretty sure your second edit was more correct. Germany in particular has such strict ratings that games need to be retailored to be released in Europe

 

[Johnny Bash]

When CiV released I simply logged in to Steam using a US proxy, and it worked.

 

[Infiltrator]

When CiV released I simply logged in to Steam using a US proxy, and it worked.

That's what I was thinking of doing about GaK. Can anyone tell me when exactly is the US release date?

 

[Mivo]

Edit: Another reason is that some companies don't see Europe as a large market for video games, and wait months or ever years before finally making a Euro version.

In my opinion and experience, neither is true. I don't know any developer or publisher of strategy games who isn't fully aware that Europe is the larger market for more complex strategy titles (twitch-RTSes excluded).

 

[Flying Mathias]

In my opinion and experience, neither is true. I don't know any developer or publisher of strategy games who isn't fully aware that Europe is the larger market for more complex strategy titles (twitch-RTSes excluded).

I know, but I was going for the gaming industry as a whole, not just Civ. I mean, look at some of Nintendo's games.

On the bright side, the Europeans usually get the best box art.