Why....

[dragonchr15]

is Rome: Total War being released in North America before Europe? Isn't the game made in the UK? Is it because they have a larger market here (ie, more gamers)?

[DisruptorX]

I don't know. Might have something to do with Activision producing it, I think they are an American company.

[LordKhaine]

It's always been this way... and probably always will be.

[Colovion]

I don't know. Might have something to do with Activision producing it, I think they are an American company.

bingo

I would also put my money on the fact that America has such a massive media network and that can be good for advertising something by releasing the product to the US market.

[andrewt]

Activision (RTW's publisher) is located in CA.

[ICantSpellDawg]

will the game be in stores tomorrow (22) or the day after?

what a newbie question, but im asking anyway because i hear quite a few different dates (22, 23... so maybe 2 diff dates)

[Colovion]

call them tomorrow

[Red Harvest]

It's the Royals. The product cannot be released in the UK until Her Majesty has completed at least one campaign.

[Bob the Insane]

It's the Royals. The product cannot be released in the UK until Her Majesty has completed at least one campaign.

LOL.. If Her Majesty wanted to play soldiers, she has about 100,000 real ones to go kick arse for her if she asks.....

This was brought up in another thread and it is basically down to spped of disk production and dispatch... The publisher may be in the USA but I am pretty sure someone mentioned the disks being cut and packaged in South America somewhere, which is why it makes sense that the America's and Australia get it first and then the ROW... Apparantly a single worldwide release is an expensive thing to achieve with lots of stock having to be stored for a while and increases the opportunities for piracy...

[Devastatin Dave]

is Rome: Total War being released in North America before Europe? Isn't the game made in the UK? Is it because they have a larger market here (ie, more gamers)?

Because we have a larger military!!! Actually I wish they would have released it on the other side of the pond first. I would have liked getting some honest reviews from you guys before purchasing it. But, ala, i guess I'll just have to sacrifice the next 48 hours playing the most anticipated game in the Total War series.. Poor me!!!

[Barkhorn1x]

is Rome: Total War being released in North America before Europe? Isn't the game made in the UK? Is it because they have a larger market here (ie, more gamers)?

I've addressed this before. If you want to get games first - START BREEDING! It's all a question of market size - not marketing.

Barkhorn.

[The_Emperor]

I've addressed this before. If you want to get games first - START BREEDING! It's all a question of market size - not marketing.

What the US Market is larger than the whole global market?

[Barkhorn1x]

What the US Market is larger than the whole global market?

No - and I did not mean to imply that it was. But it is larger than any other - so if you are forces to choose who goes first - logically this is where you go.

That's the way it is.

Barkhorn.

[Sinner]

Except that Europe & Britain combined have a higher population than the States - 450 million vs 325 million or thereabouts as I recall.

The argument that a worldwide release would cause more piracy is a poor excuse. Why don't Activision try the absolutely revolutionary concept of more than one distribution center? Reduced shipping costs from a more local hub, could be used to offset any potential increase in production costs. Shipping the gold copy of the game to two - or even more! - locations won't be difficult or costly, assuming they don't just send it electronically. Manuals, etc can be printed wherever is cheapest to produce & then ship out, since you only need to worry about piracy of the actual game. With a nice and cheap eastern European country for Europe, then South America for the Americas, and other regions picked up by one of the two main distribution points, you'd be able to achieve a worldwide release with little or no extra cost.

[The_Emperor]

Arguably releasing in one part of the world first will increase piracy itself.

Once some clever American hacker cracks the game, he can place it for download on the web... Where everyone in other parts of the world who have not got it are free to download it.

Was Warcraft 3 heavily pirated on its worldwide release? Probably not to the same extent that Doom3 & other games were on their staggered ones.

[Barkhorn1x]

Arguably releasing in one part of the world first will increase piracy itself.

Now that's a different argument - and I agree w/ you here.

Barkhorn.

[Sir Moody]

Guys arguably anything they do will increase piracy as the pirates will still crack and put the game up how ever they do the release

[The_Emperor]

Guys arguably anything they do will increase piracy as the pirates will still crack and put the game up how ever they do the release

it is true that it will be cracked. But most purchases happen when the game is first released, and a cracked version of the game will always take longer to be made because of the simple fact that someone has to grab a copy of the game and then take the long time to crack it...

In a worldwide release the game should be out in the shops (and satisfying public demand) before the game has been cracked by the hackers. Therefore it is more likely to have people buying it.

If demand is satisfied by a release of the game, people will not look for a pirated version from abroad because they do not have it yet.

[Spino]

is Rome: Total War being released in North America before Europe? Isn't the game made in the UK? Is it because they have a larger market here (ie, more gamers)?

It's because we're special...

[Soulflame]

Most of the time its because of divisions and logisitics and protocols and all. If you want to release in the EU you need to file some more forms (plus packaging must comply with norms and such), plus the publisher usually has local divisions handling out marketing & sales (latter more important in this matter). In the country it should be evaluated which stores get which supplies etc. And of course it needs to be shipped. Now they could all plan to do it on the same time, but that would mean extra work, calculations, safety nets (in case one of the language manuals goes wrong for instance).

One example of this has been Neverwinter Nights. Although released in the US first, there were hundreds of complaints because Atari (publicher) put in red strips in the case where the cd-keys were on, but they were missing from huge batches.
In the EU however (a week or so later) as with almost all games released here, it was printed on the back of the manual, so no trouble at all.

Note that there is a marketing strategy to first publish it in one region, and then others, called 'waterfall expansion'. But that is usually the case when you want customer feedback (sort of a test market first) or only have a small working capital (or culture). Which in a case of just only a week or so difference, isn't the case.

[andrewt]

Arguably releasing in one part of the world first will increase piracy itself.

Once some clever American hacker cracks the game, he can place it for download on the web... Where everyone in other parts of the world who have not got it are free to download it.

Was Warcraft 3 heavily pirated on its worldwide release? Probably not to the same extent that Doom3 & other games were on their staggered ones.

I already explained all of these in another thread.

Wrong on many counts. Warcraft3 was heavily pirated. Why? Because for them to do a worldwide release, they had to delay the U.S. release. It takes time to produce games. That's why you need at least 2 weeks to get it out in the U.S. If you want to get it out simultaneously worldwide, it's going to take at least 3 weeks. That means the U.S. release is delayed by 1 week. The international release wasn't sped up. To imply otherwise was just wrong. Popular games right now are pirated before they are released. Warcraft3 was available for download 2 weeks before the worldwide release. To do a worldwide release, a company has to hold U.S. inventory for 1 week more and that's very expensive. In fact, inventory costs could be much larger than piracy costs. Never underestimate inventory costs. Not to mention that pirates have had more weeks in the U.S. to pirate the game before it was released. It is better to get each batch out as quickly as possible.

Except that Europe & Britain combined have a higher population than the States - 450 million vs 325 million or thereabouts as I recall.

That's 325 million Americans who only need 1 version vs. 450 million Europeans who need more different versions (language, blood, gore, packaging, etc., etc.) than there are stars in the sky.

[The Black Ship]

It's not as if the EU is one big market, as has been suggested. The EU countries speak dozens of different languages, and while the tariff system(s)have been stream-lined they are still a hindrance when compared to releasing to one large, essentially monolithic english-speaking HOME market.

Just make friends with one of the American patrons. I'm sure we can be bothered to ship you a copy overnight provided you pay the freight, so to speak That's what Pay-Pal accounts are for.

[Ellesthyan]

A common theory is that the European market is smaller then either the American or the Japanese. Now, there is an actual base for this: Americans and Japanese generally spend more money; IE Europeans like to collect money rather then using it. However, as the population of the EU alone (456 mil) exceeds the ones of Japan, the US and Canada together (127 mil + 293 mil + 33 mil = 453 mil), it would seem that the Europeans are never spending their money, or that they just arent as rich. I don't agree with none of both. Granted, the newest members of the EU aren't increasing our average welfare, but since a lot of people in the US are having troubles enough getting some food on the table every day, it should balance up.
However, Nintendo (to take an example) still regards the Japanese market as having such a high priority that there is sometimes more then a year between releases, although recent numbers show that Europe together buys a lot more Nintendo products (once they're there). Therefore I regard the statement that Europe is no lucrative market as a little shortsighted. It may not be the fastest nor the biggest, but it is one you can't surpass easily.

A better explanation has been given by CA already: the game takes longer to get to Europe then it takes to get to America and Australia. They decided to release the game as soon as possible, even if that would cause a lot of the world to wait.

[Barkhorn1x]

...but since a lot of people in the US are having troubles enough getting some food on the table every day, it should balance up.

Doubtless not nearly as many as is portrayed in your media. The US can be rightly proud of boasting the fatest poor people on the planet.

Barkhorn.

[andrewt]

60% of us Americans are overweight. We even have lots of obese homeless people. Even among the poorest of the poor here in the U.S., I'd argue that obesity is a bigger problem for them than malnutrition.

Even in the U.S., Japanese products come much later than they do in Japan. Nintendo is getting its ass kicked by Microsoft everywhere except Japan so I wouldn't be surprised that they're focusing on Japan since they're not doing well anymore anywhere else.

U.S. and Canada (except Quebec, which I think requires French version games to be sold at the same time as English versions) have the same version so that's 1 version for 326 million people. Japanese actually save way more money than most that's why their economy is not doing well right now. However, they spend a lot on videogames and they also only require 1 version for 127 million people.

Europe is a different matter, though. France requires a French version that will be sold to 60 million people. Germany requires a sanitized, Saturday morning cartoon-like German version for 82 million people. The U.K. has 60 million people but needs their own English version. Many different European countries also need their own version. When a company thinks market, they consider each required version as a different market.

[Thoros of Myr]

The DS is being released in the US before Japan...strange I know.

[Red Harvest]

Pulled up some stats for 2003, EU per capita income was less than 2/3 that of the US--I don't think that includes recently added countries, but I don't recall when the last addition was. On average, that difference should translate into considerably less disposable income (magnifying the disparity.) Food is not that much of a problem in the US even among the poor. From what I've heard of EU food prices I suspect the US food supply is considerably more affordable on average. Other issues tend to be worse for the poor in the US (like healthcare) but starving is rare except in cases of severe neglect. I was poor as dirt as a kid in the US, but we always ate well--rarely extra helpings of the meat course, limited candy/treats, and soft drink intake was low; but I never went to bed hungry for lack of food.

[Devastatin Dave]

Pulled up some stats for 2003, EU per capita income was less than 2/3 that of the US--I don't think that includes recently added countries, but I don't recall when the last addition was. On average, that difference should translate into considerably less disposable income (magnifying the disparity.) Food is not that much of a problem in the US even among the poor. From what I've heard of EU food prices I suspect the US food supply is considerably more affordable on average. Other issues tend to be worse for the poor in the US (like healthcare) but starving is rare except in cases of severe neglect. I was poor as dirt as a kid in the US, but we always ate well--rarely extra helpings of the meat course, limited candy/treats, and soft drink intake was low; but I never went to bed hungry for lack of food.

This basically means, more capitalism, more gaming. Too bad you guys have gone all socialist over there!!!

[Tamur]

So this is what a political debate begins to sound like on the Org... Huzzah to my policy of avoiding the open forums I'm sure, as they say, I haint seen nothing yet.

[Red Harvest]

This basically means, more capitalism, more gaming. Too bad you guys have gone all socialist over there!!!

I don't see it that way, and it would be best to avoid broadly painting many separate nations with one brush. North American or European, we are living in countries with some form of elected/representative type govt. Each have advantages and disadvantages. Better to celebrate the differences rather than thinking they should be just like us.

I would gladly trade the US healthcare system for so called "socialized medicine." I've seen it from the side of the uninsured poor, and from the side of well insured. Either way it gave me and my family poor service and was not a good value for the money spent. I've had egregious medical mistakes kill relatives, and I've had to get personally involved in care of other family members to correct other life threatening mistakes. When I hear what a great healthcare system we have, I have to wonder what the standard is--I expect a heck of a lot better. I am appalled at the 50% overcharge that is standard practice in the industry. With a 14% annual inflation rate over the past 20 years or so, it won't be long until no employers offer coverage, and premiums for self insurance will be so high as to be unaffordable even for the healthy. Personally, I'm a bit tired of paying exorbitant costs for a system that gives me poor service on the rare instances I use it.

Let's not forget: unfettered capitalism results in the robber baron system we had around 1900, where a few Microsoft type entities ran each major industry as personal monopolies. People seem to forget that free market capitalism requires some regulation to keep it competitive, for it can devolve into monopoly. Capitalism in and of itself is rather ruthless and can be quite destructive, hence the formation of unions, labor laws, anti-trust law, environmental law, conservation law, accounting standards, food labeling & inspection, patents, etc. To give some perspective: those robber barons would utterly balk at the system we have today and would not think it free market at all.