Release - what time of day?

[MadDjinn]

Steam releases have changed the order of things wrt 'north america vs europe vs everyone else vs Australia'. Usually in that order historically.

For a few years now, major releases have followed either:

block by block launch time (not specific to timezones, but rather 'Australasia->europe->north america') on the same day (Xcom or BE did this) but with 'local' (within the block) release times of midnight.

or truly local midnight by timezone.

Just depends on how big the game is expected to be wrt mass downloads/starts on the steam servers.

2K has been using that pattern already on steam, so it's unlikely to be an old style slow release. Worst case is the 10am PST (Valve morning), but that's only for smaller games or games without big publishers.

 

[Sansa_Stark]

Now I am really confused

This

According to 2k on Amazon, 12:00 AM PST.

and this

I believe with both Civ V expansions, both Beyond Earth and both xcoms it was released, at least in the USA, at midnight eastern time.

would mean they will really release it either 9pm PST or 12am PST, which would be great since we'd get it Friday early in the morning in Central Europe. However, I always thought they they would primarily target US market, and release it when majority of players actually can start playing, and not in the middle of the night.

If it's either a local release or global release, it wouldn't make a difference in America, it'd still be the same time.

The only difference is that with global release times is that the rest of the world gets it later in the day or the next day if you're in Australia for instance.

First sentence makes sense (and supports my idea), however, if it is released at 12am PST, then we in Europe theoretically get it "later" in the day, but in reality we do get it in more playable time (9am in the morning), so we in fact get it sooner, don't we?

I always thought it will be released similar to FL videos - i.e. early morning in USA, afternoon in Europe.

 

[eso12por8]

I do believe they've been working on local time zones, so I'm unsure of why they'd go back. It'd be sick for the west coast to have a release date earlier than it is in New York but that'd make no sense that they'd not make that more clear if otherwise.

 

[eso12por8]

If it's either a local release or global release, it wouldn't make a difference in America, it'd still be the same time.

This is what I see:


& when it says this, it means I can download it at 00:00EST when the computer calendar turns 21 Oct, 2016, & I don't have to wait until 03:00EST unless specified.

 

[Bino]

Last time i was paying attention, having preordered it was for Stellaris, in my time zone, central Europe, it was 7pm, I expect the same with Civ 6.

 

[rastak]

Last time i was paying attention, having preordered it was for Stellaris, in my time zone, central Europe, it was 7pm, I expect the same with Civ 6.

I don't, because Firaxis games have dropped at completely different times than paradox for me. I expect it to follow the 2K/Firaxis pattern of the last 6 releases, not Stellaris.

 

[Bino]

I don't, because Firaxis games have dropped at completely different times than paradox for me. I expect it to follow the 2K/Firaxis pattern of the last 6 releases, not Stellaris.

Ok, at least it's released by the weekend, plenty of time to play anyway

 

[rastak]

Ok, at least it's released by the weekend, plenty of time to play anyway

You got that right!

 

[joncnunn]

Will we be able to preload it?

For those who have pre-ordered thru Steam; that should happen automatically.

For those who pre-ordered elsewhere, it depends upon if they stream key into the steam library in time. (And that whichever company they bought it from emailed them the stream key instead of simply having it on the CD)

 

[Deggial]

"Never play at release day" is true no matter which time it is released...

 

[rastak]

"Never play at release day" is true no matter which time it is released...

Yea, better to mow the lawn or clean out your sock drawer.

 

[juanpavo]

Yea, better to mow the lawn or clean out your sock drawer.

Nice

 

[ls612]

If it follows the pattern of other recent Firaxis releases you will be able to pre-load a week or so beforehand and it will have a staggered release (so Asia will get it in the evening American time, America will get it at midnight, and Europe will get it midday American time.)

 

[MaximusPlatypus]

According to 2k on Amazon, 12:00 AM PST.

Looks like I'll be up at 2:00 am, here in the American Midwest.

 

[rastak]

Looks like I'll be up at 2:00 am, here in the American Midwest.

My guess is 11pm CT.

 

[Acken]

The amazon time is a placeholder.

Nothing is official until 2k says what is the release time. And this is usually not known before 1 to 2 weeks before a release.

If you live in america most of the previous Firaxis games have released at 12am EST so id bet on that for the region.

 

[Kazimierz Wielk]

The amazon time is a placeholder.

Very well might be, but there is no time listed for the regular, non-deluxe version on the same site. One would think that a placeholder would be for both versions.

 

[RohirrimElf]

09:00 is way better then 19:00 CET.

When i have a good night of sleep i can play the next morning. Instead of waiting till the day is almost over, which is just awfull.

Besides battlefield 1 releases on the 18th anyway. So this is the big date from which all the good things reaches me. Waiting till the 21th will be easy by then.
18-10 bf1. 21-10 civ 6 and 28-10 skyrim EE. After skyrim the next purchase might be cyberpunk more then a year later
Ancient Empires and rights of men (eu4) will come in the next 2 weeks. My pc will by busy the next year for sure.

 

[Ravihon]

In terms of the pre-load, based on CiV and CivBE when did Amazon ship the boxed versions? Before the release date or right on spot?

If you have experience would be great if you could state which Amazon it was...I am most interested in the German branch or any other European at least.

 

[dturtle1]

As long as it isn't Global Time. (actually Global Midnight PST isn't too bad .I know technically I am not waiting any extra time for it but you advertise that it releases on the 21st, it better damn be available on the 21st... I have been burnt before and it made me