General Discussions

This might have been posted a few times in the past, but I still don't get it.
Why are there two release dates for a game, usually one comes sooner, the other comes later? I mean except for the apparent reason of driving me insane.

They are for different regional areas. What is released in North America may not be released until later in Europe and vice versa.

[Edited by Neo7, 3/4/2012 11:44:20 AM]

@DDD
Or perhaps the sir knows what the two dates mean but wants to know exactly why there are two release dates; why not ship the game to all regions at the same time?

If not, then you can change my title to DDD2.

Errr, I'm only joking by the way! Peace, rainbows, friendship, puppies, all that!1!11! Hahahaha...

lol I like it when you talk to me like I'm 8 years, but yeah Monkey is right

Different rules regarding how things can be sold in accordance with NAFTA and the European Union (as they both have their own different rules which requires publishers to abide by and sometimes takes longer).

neo7 you do know that every game gets released in EU 2-5 days after USA right? and what rules is different i mean a game is a game ffs...

I'm guessing it has something to do with licensing...

Registration of copyrights
Getting the paperwork so you can legally sell your stuff
Ensuring who has rights to sell your work
etc
etc

There's a lot of paperwork that needs to be done to sell video games. It's not just as simple as "oh development is done now sell it on shelves".