Already playing!?

[YodaMan 3D]

Already seeing players that are showing videos of them playing the game already.  Seeing how it doesn't release for a day and a half.   WTH! is going on.

[Jackthestripper]

@YodaMan 3D  I don't know what is going on either, but I am glad you posted this so I don't have to see any of those videos.  I was in a Gamestop today and a worker answered the phone, and the caller asked if he could return a 'sealed' copy of RDR2.  She said "No, you obviously didn't buy it here, so no you can't...where did you get it?"  He said "I got it from the ROCKSTAR warehouse."  Hmmmm....very weird imo.  I don't know if it was some kind of scam or what, but it sure was odd. 

[BropolloCreed79]

1 hour ago, YodaMan 3D said:

WTH! is going on.

When a man and a woman love each other....

Wait, that's a different "talk".

If I had to guess, there's plenty of people looking to score coveted "internet points" by posting leaks/spoilers.  Having worked in retail, you'd be surprised how early they ship product out in advance of street dates to brick and mortar stores.  

You'd be even more surprised as to how easy it is to acquire these things early, especially as an employee.

[YodaMan 3D]

1 minute ago, BropolloCreed79 said:

When a man and a woman love each other....

Wait, that's a different "talk".

If I had to guess, there's plenty of people looking to score coveted "internet points" by posting leaks/spoilers.  Having worked in retail, you'd be surprised how early they ship product out in advance of street dates to brick and mortar stores.  

You'd be even more surprised as to how easy it is to acquire these things early, especially as an employee.

I had a friend who worked at Gamestop, they didn't used to get them several days early.  If they was lucky the got them same day as a release.    Maybe they have changed since he worked there, but this is getting ridiculous. 

Especially, if Rockstar themselves are releasing it to customers this early.

[Truth]

Just now, YodaMan 3D said:

Gamestop

I'd assume Gamestop is more aware of the problem (or cares more about it), and likely try to stay on top of it. They're barely hanging on as it is, for them to get busted leaking a game early would ruin them.

A place like walmart probably doesn't care so much. They don't rely on video game sales to stay open.

[BropolloCreed79]

18 minutes ago, Truth said:

I'd assume Gamestop is more aware of the problem (or cares more about it), and likely try to stay on top of it. They're barely hanging on as it is, for them to get busted leaking a game early would ruin them.

A place like walmart probably doesn't care so much. They don't rely on video game sales to stay open.

Gamestop probably has a much tighter logistics supply chain than Walmart.  Because the majority of their inventory could fit within one aisle at a place like WalMart, they can have smaller distribution channels--hell, they don't even have trucks, they rely on freight shipping from their warehouses to their stores.  But big box retailers don't want to keep inventory at a warehouse that services multiple stores or regions--so they push that stuff out to the stores as quickly as possible via dedicated trucking (running between the warehouse/distribution center and the stores directly, not utilizing third party services like the USPS, UPS, FedEx or DHL).

It's ridiculously easy for an employee to use their box cutter to open the shipper when it comes in and swipe a copy.  They know where all the cameras are, which ones are on, which ones are off, which direction they're pointing in, and where all the blind spots are.  The problem is, stores are designed one way, have the cameras installed, and then get reconfigured but nobody moves the cameras to compensate.

When a store like Best Buy gets 300-500 copies of RDR2 in stock in the run up to Black Friday, one or two missing copies isn't even noticed.  Sure, if it becomes a problem (i.e. 5-10% of the inventory unaccounted for) then store or corporate security gets involved, but one or two is usually chalked up to theft by customers, mis-stocks (or customers putting it down over in the TV department) that doesn't get caught until monthly inventory is taken, if at all.

Make no mistake, I'm not endorsing theft by any stretch of the imagination.  But it's much, much easier than people realize to get their hands on something like a videogame a few days before the street date.

Edit: a good example of theft; back in my day, the grocery store I worked for sold DVDs (this was pre-Blu Ray).  Because the discs weren't in a hard, clear second cover (like you see for video games at big box retailers), one of the more common methods of theft was for people to grab the box, use a pin that was palmed to slice through the wrap along the long edge, pop the disc off the central pin and slide it out from between the edges of the DVD clamshell and through slit they made.  With practice, they'd pop the disc out of the casing before slitting the shrink wrap.  The whole thing could be done in less than ten seconds, and then they'd be gone.  The dead givaway would be the end of the night walkthrough when we'd find a DVD case in with frozen peas.  You'd shake the casing, and you wouldn't hear the disc inside.

 

 

Edited October 24, 2018 by BropolloCreed79

[DylBandit]

People from other countries have the copy of the game, such as Russia and Iraq. I heard a news report that people in Iraq stole versions of the game at a store taking a lot of copies of the game, and I'm sure they are playing and releasing gameplay, and Russia, not sure how rules work over there, but someone a lot of people are releasing gameplay from Russia. 

Also, others are reporting people who have the English version of the game because of 3rd party stores, and they somehow went again policy and gave some people the game early, not to many people have the game. The leaks are spreading rapidly making it look like a bunch of people have the game. Rockstar is taking hundreds of videos down every minute of leaked gameplay, and right now it's a battle between Rockstar and people that are posting leaks. 

Obviously, Rockstar cant control the internet, so the leaks will spread faster than they can take action to these leaks and gameplay videos. 

[YodaMan 3D]

Back before pre-orders, I had a buddy that at the store he worked at employees got 1st shot at incoming product.  Soon as they would get it in, the employees could go ahead and buy items before stuff would be placed on the shelfs.  He always made a killing on Black Friday.  People would pay him a 25%+ on a item just so they wouldn't have to get up to go get an item.   He made a killing in college that way.

[Reyes]

I have basically been avoiding everything where RDR2 could be spoiled for the last few days. 

I know some people do receive the game a day or two earlier, like YouTubers and Twitch streamers but general players... I am not sure how that can happen.

[DylBandit]

6 hours ago, YodaMan 3D said:

Back before pre-orders, I had a buddy that at the store he worked at employees got 1st shot at incoming product.  Soon as they would get it in, the employees could go ahead and buy items before stuff would be placed on the shelfs.  He always made a killing on Black Friday.  People would pay him a 25%+ on a item just so they wouldn't have to get up to go get an item.   He made a killing in college that way.

Easy profit, bet he made a killing on the big titles.