Indie cries foul over MW2 date breaks

Independent retailer Gameseek is protesting against competitors that broke the street date on Activision Blizzard’s Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

The game officially launched at midnight last night, but Gameseek boss Stephen Staley has called on Activision to deal with retailers that have been selling copies to consumers early.

He said: It’s been an absolute joke. The Hut has been sending copies on Thursday? Five days before the release date? And, of course, decent-sized company that has sent out the game early because – unlike us – they got their stock last week. And what is going to happen to them? A spank on the bum? Nothing?

This happens every time a new game comes out, and a big company will never be punished because money talks. I would love it if The Hut, for example, were to be banned from every selling Activision products again. Is this going to happen? No.

It’s time for Activision to tell us all what will happen to these companies that ship early. We all feel let down by these large companies that sell early – how can we compete?”

However, some Indies do not believe the situation is as serious as this. Chips’ managing director Don McCabe believes such breaches of the given release date have not been too detrimental.

Generally speaking, the release date has been held to pretty well,” he said. There have only been a few minor street breaks but they haven’t caused to much of a problem – they’re more of an irritation.”