I know if I worked at one of these stores i'd be at the dock every day waiting and sneek one out of the box and to the register asap.

>I would assume it says that because they are wrong.^^^^

You know it's funny, but now that I think back to it, it seems I recall being able to purchase the FS 2004 somewhat before the official release date. I remember being pleasantly surprised at seeing it on the shelf at a Comp USA, and got it on the spot. They even gave away a small model plane along with the purchase (whoop-de-doo)!-Rick

Because Wal-Mart makes their own rules. When you are the largest retailer in the world, you can tell MS that you will offer the 10th Anniversary Edition of the most popular game franchise in history, 10 days early. If Office Depot does it, and they do because I bought 2002 and 2004 at the Depot, pre-release date, and others here have stated same.That is one possibility in my conjectural premise.Another possibility is "they just screwed up".bt

"Because Wal-Mart makes their own rules."Bingo!

Heck, Walmart's jet fleet is larger than the air force of several nations.The product has to be in the supply distribution chain to make it to the stores by the release date. It will be at most stores a few days to a week before the release date. In some cases two weeks before release is a target date.It's up to the retailer to honor the manufacturer's release date - which MOST do, and some do not. An individual store manager can also put a product on the shelf before the "official" date by accident.The interesting part is that a modern POS system with good connectivity to the central office, price updates, etc - can make it harder to sell a product before release date.The POS system can be set to not authorize the sale of the product early. I've been told that EBGames uses such a system.Of course older systems will not have that problem.

I ordered FS9 from ProAdvantage with overnight shipping and I got it a few days before the official release date.Staples had it early too, but they didn't put it out until the official date.

There will be plenty of copies in channel. This isn't a PS3. :)

I wish I can it buy it now here in Nicosia Cyprus at a special price of say $50,00 !!!! Stelios

the people who write those release dates on websites, and even in stores, know very little, to nothing about the product itself. they are just given a number by someone and most of the time they make mistakes. it is possible that the game will be shipped earlier in packages marked "do not sell until ______" like EA did with games like Madden and NCAA Football but the biggest chance is that they just got it wrong

my pc aviator pre order just says mid october so i think they knew a change was coming also.Wal-mart released the XBOX 360 a week or two early and i beleive they were in a lawsuit with MSEDIT: PC Aviator is saying october 4th nowhttp://pcaviator.com/shop/viewCategory.php?s=3&c=0

One guy is going to post that he has it, on this web site, and it's going to be "Katy bar the door", just like the last time.Bob (Las Cruces, NM)

Well - I'll take my chances - and be at Fry's when the doors open on Oct 2nd...(my birthday - got to give it a shot :-)

>Because Wal-Mart makes their own rules.Nope.

>my pc aviator pre order just says mid october so i think they>knew a change was coming also.>Wal-mart released the XBOX 360 a week or two early and i>beleive they were in a lawsuit with MS>>EDIT: PC Aviator is saying october 4th now>http://pcaviator.com/shop/viewCategory.php?s=3&c=0No they didn't, at least not here in CA.They had sales for it up on the website, but they 360 didn't ship until release. Same thing Circuit City did.There was no early release of the 360 at Walmart. If there was, it sure as heck wasn't company wide.