EA will now release games in the UK on Thursdays

Consoles games form publisher EA will from this point on be released on Thursdays in the UK.

Friday has been the established release date for video games in the UK since the dawn of the industry, with exceptions typically only happening to either coincide with a global Tuesday release or instead on a Thursday to avoid a Friday bank holiday.

This move, EA says, is to bring the UK in line with the rest of Europe, where new games hit the shelves on Thursdays.

Until now, players in the UK have had to wait until Friday for new EA games to release, one day after the rest of Europe,” the publisher said. We realised that players wanted to be able to get in the game the same time as their friends across Europe and we’re happy to make this change.”

The release date for games in the US is Tuesdays. Interestingly, DVD and Blu-ray movies have a Monday release date in the UK, as do CD and vinyl albums*, while movies in the cinema tend to hit on Thursdays.

As a result, four EA games have now had their UK release dare changed.

Madden NFL 16 will arrive on August 27th, FIFA 16 on September 24th, Need for Speed on November 5th and Star Wars Battlefront on November 19th. Retailers such as Amazon have already amended their listings to reflect these changes.

*UPDATE: Apparently music albums recently moved from Mondays to Fridays in the UK.