From a conversation earlier today:

Me: Hey GameStop, I’m here to buy a copy of We ♥ Katamari.

GS: Oh, we don’t have them yet, they should be in tomorrow.

Me: Oh, OK…

Yeah, so that’s how it was. Explain to me how a game scheduled for release today is not in your store and available for purchase today. Yes, I understand Best Buy and Target don’t have it either, and they’re not scheduled to have it until the 22nd, but they are not game stores. You, as the only video game-focused store in town, are obligated to have games the day they are released, otherwise the release date becomes meaningless.

Let’s pretend for a moment that, instead of being a video game, this is Bon Jovi’s Have A Nice Day, a hotly-anticipated album also scheduled, coincidentally, for release today. What kind of reaction would stores get if they said, “well, we know today is the release date, but we’ll probably get it tomorrow…” I’d imagine that there’d be a lot of upset people.

So then, why are video games different? It seems that in most cases games occupy a lower tier than movies and music, but that doesn’t really make any sense at all. It’s a huge industry with expensive product and potential consumers are treated as though their time doesn’t matter; the stores and publishers can just adhere to whatever schedule suits them and we can just wait. As is the case with any kind of media, games should be readily available on their scheduled dates of release for purchase in physical stores. I don’t need to call Best Buy to find out whether a popular album is out; it just is. And yet, GameSpot wants me to call them to find out whether or not they’ll give me the privilege to buy a damn game?

BS.