AU Embargo Broken

[emana]

I'm an Aussie. I was all ready to rock and roll out the door at 6PM (11:30 PST) to grab my copy of catacylsm CE. However, about 9 am I got a call from my local video game store - the embargo is broken, come get your cata copy.

The guy at the video game store said that there was massive fines for the company which broke the embargo, (like AU$20,000 for invididual stores, AU$100,000+ for companies) but someone did it.

I'm curious on two points.
- Is it just Australia?
- Which company did it?

It probably doesn't matter, it only gets me playing about an hour earlier (my installer is going atm), but I am curious to find out the how and why.

[Fedexkilla]

Color me shocked but I was unaware of an embargo?!

[blippo3k]

Yeah its just australia
and im most likley thinking its EB

[Janaa]

EB broke it, in NZ, every other company in NZ followed suit. I believe JB broke it first in Aus, with all others following suit, but this was after it had already happened in NZ.

[phaded]

I received my copy of CE via express post yesterday at 10:30AM AEST, about 30 hours before launch from EB Games. It was shipped out on Friday.
Some folks have said that JBHIFI only started shipping out orders yesterday. GAME shipped out on Friday, but apparently they didn't arrive until today.

[emana]

Ah most interesting, thanks all. The gossip in me is satisfied.

[Samurai]

EB Games broke it through their online store, people received their games yesterday (24+ hours before server go live) so the retail stores followed after a few "friendly" phone calls from customers lol

The US has an embargo too, but as its their midnight its easy to understand, Aussie retailers were not allowed to sell till 7pm Sydney/Melbourne/Canberra time

[nerdling]

EB Games broke it through their online store, people received their games yesterday (24+ hours before server go live) so the retail stores followed after a few "friendly" phone calls from customers lol

The US has an embargo too, but as its their midnight its easy to understand, Aussie retailers were not allowed to sell till 7pm Sydney/Melbourne/Canberra time

Was just about to say that Samurai. Made a LOT of people unhappy last night, so I jumped on the net today to find that all stores had broken the embargo. I got my CE from EB, and checked JB and they had tons of copies on the shelf of normal. Stupid really having the embargo, since it's useless prior to the 'switch' being flicked.

[Aeriel]

This happened throughout the EU as well. Basically once Denmark and Norway started releasing the game, everyone else did. Sometimes the fines are less than they would lose from people canceling orders. Of course the biggest hit to retailers this time, and why the midnight release made little sense, is that direct download has been available for weeks instead of at the same time as with WotLK.

"Embargo" is meant as the release delay (i.e. midnight release) versus the more common "trade embargo" that does not allow trade to cross country lines.

[Samurai]

For other games that are playable any time a retail embargo makes sense, but not for wow, it was selling to begin with