The Word on the "Street"

"In stores July 18^th".

Many of you might remember seeing those words plastered all over EA Sports' NCAA 07 Football's website, print and online advertisements, TV spots and the demo recently released over Xbox Live for the Xbox 360.

The date loomed as a miniature Christmas for many, with anticipation building throughout the gaming community to a fever pitch as the newest iteration of the one of the most-loved sports gaming series came closer to arriving on store shelves everywhere.

Of course, the closer the game got to release, the more people were already playing it.

Why? Because "street dates" don't work, instead causing a confusing and frustrating frenzy for gamers and retailers alike, serving nobody.

Here, I'll explain some of the rationale behind setting a "street" date - most of which are sensible and even beneficial - and then explain why the road to gaming hell is paved with good intentions.

***

The theory

"Street dates" are designed to provide benefit to the capitalistic triumvirate of producer, seller and buyer. (For simplicity's sake, I'm ignoring distributors in this discussion, which some companies use to ship copies from the factory to retailers.)

For the producer (in NCAA 07's case, Electronic Arts), the "street date" gives EA a hard-and-fast date by which to stock all their retailers with enough product to meet demand, and to allow them to distribute the product in a more structured fashion, rather than "shotgun-style", which consists mainly of blasting as many copies out to the door as quickly as possible when copies become available, which often results in odd product allotments to many retail outlets. (This is why Best Buy might have 50 copies of a game on Day One, whereas Circuit City may have a dozen, and then end up with 40 more copies a week later.)

For a high-profile, high-volume title like NCAA 07, this approach makes sense, both for EA, who can then assure correct allocation to it's resellers, and for retailers across North America, who can be assured of an appropriate amount of copies in stock to sell, and hopefully preventing them from turning away a single customer.

The "street date", in concept, provides a great service to smaller stores, who struggle to combat the "big box" chains for gamers' business. If every retailer has copies in stock, and every retailer must wait until a specific date to sell those copies, then smaller, local gaming stores can then provide the interested gamer with the same product at the same date, allowing them to compete more readily. This "second layer" of the "street date" concept is in many ways the most important, and it's also where the concept utterly fails in execution, as I'll explain later.

For gamers, the benefit of the "street date" is obvious - you'll know when the game comes out, you know you'll be able to buy it anywhere you'd like, and you know that you'll be able to find a copy. But as the "second layer" breaks down, this "third layer" does as well, causing confusion and frustration for dedicated gamers, who are - not coincidentally - the very same customers that the producers count on to provide them with a reliable financial base to recoup development costs.

The reality

For an expected blockbuster like NCAA 07, most retailers start receiving their copies a week before the street date. The "big boxes" usually receive their copies first, and within that week, the plan is for every authorized reseller to have stock in-house and ready to shelve. Generally, this part of the plan works.

The "second layer" - waiting to sell copies in stock - is where problems begin to manifest themselves. The "big box" stores (think Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, Circuit City and the like) usually receive their copies first, as they'll sell the most, and their large networks of distribution and management are not traditionally agile. Most employees are accustomed to working as quickly and as efficiently as possible. When stocking newly-arrived games, usually that means that they're unpacked and placed on shelves for sale as soon as they're received. Of course, these companies are notified of the "street date" and any penalties that might be imposed on a company that breaks that date, but oftentimes, this doesn't trickle down to each and every one of the literally thousands of individuals that will be required to effectively enforce a "street date". At a smaller chain or local gaming store, of course, this is less of a problem.

Let me briefly relay my experiences this weekend, as I investigated exactly how this "second layer" breaks down.

Last Friday, five days before NCAA 07's July 18 "street date", I resolved to purchase a copy for the Xbox 360, "street date" be damned.

On my first stop, I visited my local gaming store and asked about the title. The answer was just as I expected: the store didn't have copies yet, but the game would be on sale next week.

Next, I visited Target and sauntered into the electronics section, where a pleasant young clerk offered to help and went into the back to look for the game. After a few minutes, she returned with a befuddled and apologetic look and explained to mean that they had "two big boxes" of the game, but they had a sticker on them that said they couldn't sell it.

Feigning ignorance, I asked why.

She shook her head and said she asked "another person in the back", who told her that they couldn't sell it until next week; and that their store would get fined $1,000 per copy if they did. She apologized profusely, adding that not being able to sell something that was in the store was "kind of silly".

The next stop was Circuit City, and the first salesperson there was filling in from the camera section and didn't know much about games at all. He apologized and offered to try and find someone else who might know more. Within moments, he returned with an exuberant young clerk who nodded knowingly when I asked about the game.

"Yeah - I can't wait for that too," he said. "It's right in the back, but we can't even open it and look. It's driving me crazy."

He did point out that there was a demo of the game that could be downloaded on the Xbox 360 if I had Xbox Live. I told him that I had done that, and that I appreciated his time.

"Come back next week," he said with a wave. "It's gonna be a good game."

As it turned out, that would prove to be unnecessary.

Strolling into the nearest Best Buy, I looked at the wire-grated and locked container of Xbox 360 titles until someone came to help. I asked about NCAA 07, and the young lady peered through the grate with me, finally concluding that since they had no tags for it in the container, that they must not have it yet. I mentioned that some stores had received it, but had yet to put it on their shelves. She shrugged her shoulders and told me that if something's not on the shelves, they can't sell it.

That was that; and I went across the parking lot to CompUSA.

A lady in Business Sales noticed me perusing the Xbox aisles and asked if she could help me with anything. I mentioned that game and she brought me back to her counter to check her computer. They had copies in stock, and she asked me to wait while she retrieved one. Only minutes later, she returned, game in hand.

As she rang the game up, a confused look crossed her face.

"What the…", she muttered. "Something's weird. Hang on; I'll go get a manager."

While waiting for her to return, a forty-something salesperson walked behind the counter and whistled at the screen.

"Wow," he said. "Do you want five of those? That'll make my day - I'll even deliver them to your house," he said with a chuckle. He noticed that I was perplexed, and he swiveled the screen so I could see the price.

"That's gotta be screwed up," he said. I could only nod in amazement as I stared at the price on the screen: $718.06. Before tax.

As the Business Sales rep returned with a portly younger fellow, he explained the situation. "The game's officially released on Tuesday, and then the price drops to $59.95," he said.

"The price drops?" I was baffled. There is a "street date" after all, I knew - they were either selling it or they won't. But this CompUSA had a different perspective on things.

"Right," he continued. "If you wanted it today, you could buy it for this price, but I'm sure you'd rather wait, of course."

I was incredulous. "If I gave you my credit card right now, and you charged it 750 bucks, I could walk right out of here with the game?"

"Right," he said again. "It's more expensive because it doesn't officially come out until Tuesday."

Momentarily, I was tempted, if only to see if they'd really do it - but my investigative curiosity only goes so far.

Next, I visited the local mall and it's obligatory Electronics Boutique (or EBX or EB Games or GameStop or whatever they're calling it these days).

After mentioning the game, a large, bearded fellow insisted that I put five dollars down to reserve a copy and come in for their midnight release party on Monday. "There'll be a big line and everything," he said.

I wasn't convinced that was the best sales pitch I had ever heard, but he was energetic. I decided to mention that CompUSA was selling their copies - not at the best price, of course - but they were for sale.

The man stopped and his face reddened. "Well, they're not supposed to do that," he snapped. "If you want a legit copy, we'll open at midnight Monday and you can get one."

I mentioned that the CompUSA copy appeared to be "legit" to me, and he stammered, "Well… the way you're supposed to get one, I mean."

I headed off to a nearby Toys 'R Us, where after making my way to their selection of games, I noticed dozens of copies of NCAA 07 in their glass case. PlayStation 2 copies, Xbox copies… there they were - Xbox 360 copies.

The lady at the counter smiled and asked me, "Find what you're looking for today?"

I asked for an Xbox 360 copy, and she opened the glass case to pull one out, mentioning as she turned the key, "This has been pretty popular today. It just came in." Just as she scanned the game and set it on the counter, she picked it up once more and looked more closely at the box.

A beat, and then: "Wow. The back… that looks like a picture. $62.59, please."

I had defeated yet another "street date" - in only two hours and less than 10 miles away from my home. By doing… nothing.

***

My story, repeated ad nauseam around the country illustrates perfectly why "street dates" don't work as intended, and can actually hurt both retailers and consumers.

Target enforced the date, even though it's employees didn't really understand why they had to. CompUSA tried to make 12 times the profit. Electronics Boutique followed the script to the letter, while Toys 'R Us seemed blithely unaware of the entire concept.

Perhaps stores that break the "street date" will be fined - perhaps they won't. But what certainly won't happen is this - a major game manufacturer pulling their products from a "big box" chain. They'd be fools to do so, and the stores know it.

Let's say Electronic Arts chose to pull its games from, say, Wal-Mart. Whose bottom line would that really hurt?

However, pull those same titles from Electronics Boutique or your local game shop, and they might as well close their doors.

Threats to the "big boxes" are empty ones, and everyone in the industry knows it.

That means that whether by ignorance, carelessness or ruthlessness, "street dates" are made to be broken, confusing and frustrating customers, and small gaming stores and chains can be decimated in the process.

So, when the "street date" inevitably fails, giving even more of an advantage to "big boxes" and leaving consumers unhappy, whom does that reflect poorly upon? The game-makers, of course, which means that despite the best of intentions, no one is satisfied with the results.

That's the word on the "street".