Cantillon (77031) on 1/13/2022 2:31 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

I wanted to do this as a correction, but it turned out a bit long. It would be interesting to hear opinions from people with more industry knowledge. It might prove useful for other contributors trying to find a release date to understand how the shipping process works.

Here goes:

I think the US Mac release date of Oct 07, 2009 on file is wrong. The original source was the distributor's website, but that seems to just use the wrong announced release date.

This news item sets the date on Oct 22. At least, for the online shop that is. Because it mentions retail, but I also found some extra contemporary sources: forums.macrumors.com and insidemacgames.com/forum.

Edwin from Feral says on Oct 12:

They should be rolling out of the manufacturing factory to the stores. If your awaiting a Feral web-store order we are waiting by the office doors for the delivery man to arrive with the pre-order stock". On Oct 21 in the morning he says: "The stock has just arrived in the office (right now we are unpacking the boxes) and after we check that it has been well made and is shiny enough for you we will be shipping out all pre-orders.

So my guess is that for retail they would also have arrived on Oct 21 in the stores, right? They indeed seem to have been in German stores on Oct 21 (1 and 2).

//edit I read the other forum also completely:

Posted 20 October 2009 - 07:57 UTC

"Bioshock Availability:
Amazon US - In Stock $44.99 (£27.47ish)
Amazon UK - Usually dispatched within 1 to 2 months!!!!! £25.99
Feral Store preorder - Shipped ???? £35.99
I mistakenly thought preorders from Feral would take priority. What a crock!

Edwin on 20 October 2009 - 16:37 UTC

"US disks get made in the US and EU disks in Germany, this time for some reason the Germans have been defeated by the Americans and the US stores have shipped first. This is very rare (never happened before) but this time it has.

In terms of pricing some stores decide to lower their margins and sell under the RRP as we are the publishers we cannot get involved in price wars with our distribution partners (they might get upset as we just might be able to source games at a better price). ;)

We do offer deals on game bundles on the store but we leave discounting to the other online retailers. In all cases in the past however you usually get the game up to two weeks before the stores as we usually get the stock first.

And before that he also mentioned:

It was sent out to all the distributors early this week it when it makes stores is dependant on a bunch of things like location etc.