No Oceans In The Internets

Two brand new PC titles come out today: Crysis 2 and Lego Star Wars III! Isn't that good news, dear reader? Actually, if you don't think that's good news, just humour me for a few minutes. Unfortunately, if you don't think the plural of 'Lego' is 'Legos', and don't drop the 's' from 'maths', you're not going to be able to play these two titles until they are released across the pond, which will be on Friday. This is ridiculous.


In the dark ages before we had the internet, if something was released in America, it would have to travel by sea to end up in Europe. That was fair enough. But now, in the days of digital distribution, there is absolutely no need to have staggered release dates for PC titles. What, does it take several days for data to get transferred over the sea? Of course it bloody doesn't.

In an effort to bring reform to release dates, and indeed, to bring them into the 21st century, John Walker over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun has started a petition to change the UK release day for games (which is a Friday here, for some strange reason) to a Tuesday, thus bringing us in line with our chums across the sea. Mr. Walker makes one very clear point about piracy that I would like to reiterate.

"There is nothing publishers like to worry about more than piracy. But like a person with a fear of heights choosing to live in a cable car in space, they do seem to go out of their way to encourage it. Making loud noises about releasing a game – a game that will then be discussed across the internet by those who have completed it in the next couple of days – is a sort of international version of teasing. Impatient gamers, who would very much like to slap down their £30, find that the only way to get the game their friends are playing, and indeed to play the game with their friends, is to download it. It’s about the only realistic evidence for those who like to equate piracy with lost sales.

Which punishes digital download services. Those in the US can click here to pay for the game to download. Those in the UK and elsewhere can’t. But they can click there to download the same game for free."

You can find the petition here. If you agree with it, I urge you to sign it, dear reader. Even if you are not a UK resident, I still urge you to sign it, as it targets the entire damned planet. We can change things, dear reader.

Until next time!
Teddy