Whatis the big deal about having an 'official release date'? Seems kind of goofy that Tuesday, 17th was picked. Do most people shop on Tuesdays. I guess this date was chosen to aollow time for mfg and dist. with a same day release to fair to retailers. However, it seems that it should not matter if FSX is sold before then. If you have it, you should be able to sell it.

I think you pose an interesting question.Perhaps this modern "Official Release Date" phenomenon evolved from someones weird idea of political correctness. Or perhaps this

marketing depts use release dates to synch their ad campaigns, they dont want to advertise a product that isnt released, or release a product with no publicity. Youd be surprised at the amount of sway a release date has on a product... companies refuse now to dely games unless something so bad has to be fixed, that is why more and more games have more and more bugs. its all about the bottom line, not a quality bug free game

Vendors - stores - really hate it when another brand gets the jump on sales of a popular product.One big reason for an official release data is something called Supply Chain.Different retailers have different distribution methods and take different lengths of time from receiving the product to get the product to the stores.The goal is to have all the main vendors ready to sell the product on the same day - that way Microsoft's major customers - the store chains - are happy.One of the worst things which can happen for a game publisher/manufacturer is for one store to be seen as "The Place to Buy".Some of the fall out from the Best Buy deal is that many other retailers will order fewer copies of FSX or future versions of FS, and not be willing to give the game prime display space.Microsoft will not be happy if WalMart passes on their next game release because people believe Best Buy is the place to purchase. And WalMart especially has a reputation of that type action.EBGames may well order fewer MS games in the future after this deal. Also as pointed out above - marketing - many of the stores - Best Buy and Fry's will feature FSX in their print advertising which hits the streets the week of Oct 17.Sunday newspaper print ads on slick paper are printed one to two months in advance - so it was too late to release FSX on a weekend from the retailer view point when it went Gold.Weekday color ads take only about 96 hours lead time.

Looks like the job is being done properly in the UK. No copies discovered `mistakenly` on shelves here.Perhaps its much less complicated than we seem to be making it. Shopworkers in the UK are smarter than in the US and can actually read labels that say: "Not for sale before the 17th."Allcott

>Perhaps its much less complicated than we seem to be making>it. Shopworkers in the UK are smarter than in the US and can>actually read labels that say: "Not for sale before the>17th."Well, ours would say 'not for sale before 13th' :(

Bearing in mind the numbers of children leaving our schools in the UK who can barely read or write, I'm not so sure....Best regards, Chris