Why....

[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.

[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.