While we have heard continued rumors of small retailers violating street dates for video game releases in an effort to lure loyalty from customers, we decided this weekend to find out if in fact this is really happening, or just rumors that some gamers are making up.

For this experiment we attempted to purchase NCAA Football 10 from Electronic Arts which does not have an actual release date until July 14th, 2009. After some calling around and prompting the clerks on the other end of the phone, we found that most retailers received their initial shipment on Thursday or Friday of last week. We then determined that this would be a good test of what we could find.

The first store we tried was corporate owned and the clerks behind the counter were polite, admitted that they did have the title, but they could not and would not violate the street date and sell it early. They did, however, admit that they had already heard rumors this weekend that other smaller retailers were selling the title ahead of the scheduled release date on Tuesday.

The second store we tried had a good selection of titles, but the store was a franchise store from a bigger video game store chain. Like the first corporate-owned store, the clerk behind the counter said that they had received their shipment Friday, but they would not violate the street date to sell an advance copy. They did, however, attempt to get me to pre-order a copy to ensure that I would be able to get a copy Tuesday, as they claimed to only have a limited supply of extra copies beyond those that were reserved for pre-orders.  I asked if they had heard rumors of other stores in the area selling copies early, and the clerk behind the counter claimed that while it was possible, normally it is hype because most retailers would not take the risk to break the street date for fear of potential penalties.

At this point we were feeling that it was a bit unlikely that we were going to obtain an early copy, but at the third store we poked around for a bit and looked at the used game titles as well as the used movies. After making some selections, we headed to the counter and noticed copies of NCAA Football 10 behind the counter. We asked if it was available for purchase and the clerk said yes, but it does not release until Tuesday, at which point we paid for the game and walked out the door with it.

It seems that small independent video game retailers like this one do understand that there is a street date; they seem more interested in obtaining business and moving product than honoring the street dates, which were imposed to give all of the retailers a level playing field from which to sell the product. Of course, we believe that these small retailers think that if they don’t take your money and sell you a copy, you are just going to go someplace else and buy it - at which point they have lost the sale.

It seems the rumors that at least some of these small independent retailers are willing to break the street date on titles isn’t a myth, but is a very real problem for publishers that are trying to enforce the actual availability release date of their titles. While penalties are an obvious possibility, it seems that until the publishers get more serious about the enforcement of these street dates and the word reaches these smaller independent retailers, early availability of titles for those who can’t wait is a very real possibility.