We have some interesting news to share with you now, as it has been revealed that one big name retailer in the UK won’t be offering arguably one of the biggest games to release on the gaming calendar this year. The retailer is ShopTo who many of you will be very familiar with, while the game that they are refusing to sell is none other than Activision’s upcoming Call of Duty Ghosts title.
It has become apparent that ShopTo and Activision are in the midst of a dispute, due to the fact that this year’s Call of Duty title will have a worldwide ship date of Tuesday November 5 2013, as opposed to a Friday release in the UK when other publishers usually put out their games.
ShopTo are unhappy with Activision’s policy regarding ship dates, as they require retailers to only start shipping games, one day before its official release date, so that they arrive on launch date or in most cases – slightly after. If you have ordered from ShopTo before, you’ll know that they have an excellent reputation for delivering on time and in most cases – gamers will often receive their pre-order a few days earlier than the actual launch date.
Activision are obviously unwilling to allow this to keep happening with their Call of Duty games, and as a result, ShopTo has now decided to boycott the release of Call of Duty Ghosts completely. In previous years, ShopTo would have sent Call of Duty copies out on a Monday or Tuesday – in time for a release on Friday in the UK, or maybe even before.
With Activision’s Tuesday release date, ShopTo has now said that Activision has effectively killed off their whole pre-order incentive, which they say will hurt their reputation if consumers decide that they are no longer reliable. The full details are available over at Eurogamer, and it’s certainly a very interesting read.
What do you make of this? Some will applaud ShopTo over their loyal stance in keeping up their great relationship with consumers, but then again – it could be a massive mistake to boycott one of the biggest games of the year. Have you ordered a game with ShopTo before and received it ahead of schedule? If so, let us know your thoughts on this.
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