Different Release Dates for Different Continents/countries

[Ordonary Guy]

Hello everybody,

I have often wondered why most games do not appear on the same day worldwide but almost always on different dates in different parts of the world. Usually the 4 most important release areas seem to be the U.S.A., Japan, Australia and Europe. More surprisingly though, there does not even seem to be any pattern in terms of which countries get the title first. One should think that Japanese productions such as most Nintendo games are released in Japan first and that it might take some time to finish the translations and marketing for all other countries. This is not always the case though, as for the newest Zelda release Skyward Sword for example. It was released in Europe two days before it came out in the U.S.A and even 5 days before Japan. One simple explanation could be that stores in most European countries are closed on Sundays, which I know very well since I live in Europe, and the 20th November was a Sunday so it could not possibly have come out on that day in Europe. But that does not answer the general question:

Why are there so many totally independent and unpredictable different release dates, especially for console games?

 

[shaymin1]

Well usually Japan gets Nintendo games first. This is because they develop the games and it gets around Japan the fastest. Also when they develop the games they develop them in Japanese so they don't have to translate it. For America/ Europe they have to translate the games before selling them.

I hope that helped.

 

[Ordonary Guy]

Well usually Japan gets Nintendo games first. This is because they develop the games and it gets around Japan the fastest. Also when they develop the games they develop them in Japanese so they don't have to translate it. For America/ Europe they have to translate the games before selling them.

I hope that helped.

Not at all, actually ;-)

I mentioned that in my original post already, but also pointed out, that this is not always the case, especially with newer games. The last two Zelda games, Spirit Tracks and Skyward Sword for example came out last in Japan (according to Zeldadungeon). And why the small differences of a few days between release days in Europe and U.S.A most of the times. Or look at 4 Swords adventure: It came out almost a year later in Australia than it came out in the U.S.A. -- it is the same language, and Australia is even closer to Japan than the U.S.A. is )

 

[shaymin1]

Not at all, actually ;-)

I mentioned that in my original post already, but also pointed out, that this is not always the case, especially with newer games. The last two Zelda games, Spirit Tracks and Skyward Sword for example came out last in Japan (according to Zeldadungeon). And why the small differences of a few days between release days in Europe and U.S.A most of the times. Or look at 4 Swords adventure: It came out almost a year later in Australia than it came out in the U.S.A. -- it is the same language, and Australia is even closer to Japan than the U.S.A. is )

Oh wow, I missed a line of your post...
Sorry about that. Other then that I don't see many reasons why this would happen.
But when you said that Japan does not always get games first, basically every game (other then Skyward Sword and Spirit Tracks) gets released first in Japan. What other games where released first anywhere other then Japan?

 

[Ordonary Guy]

Apart from those two Zelda games, only 4 Swords seems to have been released earliest outside Japan. Also many portations as for the Virtual Console were available first outside Japan apparantly.

Two more observations that I made:

- Games appear to release often during November or December. I guess this could be traced back to Christmas shopping.
- Huge times between Japanese and English-speaking release occured only in the very old games. Starting with OoT all language versions would have been finished by the time of the first release.