Why do software publishers release software around the world at different times?
I live in New Zealand and it is really beginning to annoy me how titles for my Wii get released at completely different dates to other countries.
For instance we had Mario Strikers Charged in June, same as Mercury Meltdown Revolution. And yet titles like The Bigs is only due for release on the 26th of October, the same date as Metroid Prime 3. Another example is Alien Syndrome which America got last month won't be here until the 13th of September. Its not like it takes a long time to ship a few copies over here, planes fly back and forward everyday, and sea freight does not take all that long either.
Our nearest neighbour is Australia, and in fact Nintendo Australia supplies to New Zealand, and yet Australia will be getting Madden 08 2 weeks before us (its only a 3 hour flight across the Tasman Sea damn it!).
So, a couple of question: 1) why why why do they do it?
and 2) If I buy a game from America through Amazon will it work on my PAL Wii? ( I am guessing they will use regional coding so that may answer my question but if someone can give me a definitive answer that would be cool).
I get that sometimes there may be a need to do some translation of titles e.g. from Japanese to English or even colloquial US English but there is no need for this between Australia and NZ.
Anyway, thats my rant.....but it is still annoying. Oh yeah BTW the software for the Wii is starting to flow. August sees 6 new releases, September has 16 and October 10 (at least).
JRI.
