I don't know how often you've checked the upcoming releases section of Vgchartz, but for example, Dynasty Warriors gundam musou 2 is supposed to be released today.

I went to the Gamestop like a dimwit and asked for my pre-ordered copy. They responded that they are not going to get the shipments of the game until tomorrow, and that "release dates" actually means "ship dates".

What is the deal with that? Do release games really ship on release day? At any media store I used to work at, we had copies days before the release day. Is my Gamestop just bitchy? I spend like 200$ there a month, you'd think they would treat me better....

Gamestop has ALWAYS recieved games the day after the "release date". Big stores like Wal Mart receive copies early and that's why they're able to sell them a day earlier than Gamestop. I have no idea why this difference exists, but it's been that way forever. :P

The only exceptions I know of are midnight releases and perhaps some of the few bigger games that didn't release at midnight, but I'm not sure.

Major game releases get overnighted -- so they are there the same day.
Standard game releases get shipped -- so it takes about two additional days.

It is that simple.

Mike from Morgantown

lol i showed up at a midnight launch a day early.

but the date is when it is shipped. they rrelease it the next day

You can only get big games on release day.

that's so lame. What a bad business practice. Walmart must steal a lot of customers.

How long have you been going to Gamestop? I'm really surprised you never noticed this before. I remember hating it since the beginning of my gamecube days.

heh, I went to get Mercury meltdown revolution, and Gamestop didn't even have it on their computer. I went on amazon and got it the next week.

Anyways, your answer is above. the game ships the night before and depending on where you live and how fast they shipped it it will really be in stores on varying days. People on the west coast tend to get games 1 day early compared to the east coast if the games aren't rush shipped.

@wfz
I haven't been going there for a long time, maybe 6-7 months.

But I've only ever went once before to pick up a game on release, LBP, which was a hassle. Usually I preorder and just pick it up when I feel like it, but I really wanted this one, and I thought the last one was just some shipping problem....

It's too bad that they don't have much competition anymore. Someone should be able to do all these things correctly. Yaknow, preorder bonuses, games released on time, cheaper used games section, (not 50$ for a used cod4), nicer interior,consoles that work.... so on and so forth...

it's actually the same at Wal-Mart
If you look at the ads, they will always say the day after the internet. I don't know why internet puts ship days as release days.

btw, most games have soft release dates, which means it doesn't have to be in the stores by a certain date. Only the high profile games have hard street days and those are the games you will see on the shelf the day they are suppose to, just like moveis and cd's.