THQ turns Pocket Paradise release into a chaos
After an American delay, Europe gets multiple release dates
Frankly, we saw it coming. When THQ was chosen by Microsoft to be the publisher for Rare DS titles we were afraid that the distribution problems and chaotic release dates suffered by some of their Game Boy Advance titles could be repeated. In spite of this, we decided to make a fresh start and give them the benefit of the doubt again.
Never more. THQ has proven to be a complete failure as a game publisher and has led Viva Piñata Pocket Paradise into a total distribution disaster in the US, but especially in Europe.
VPPP was officially going to be first released in North America on September 2nd, along with its Xbox counterpart, Trouble in Paradise; but it didn’t make into stores in time, and was delayed a week, to be finally available on September 9th. No reason was given for it, but at least American gamers can finally buy the game. Better late than never. After all, It’s Mr Pants was technically published in the US, but they failed to distribute it to retailers and the only way to get an NTSC version was to go online and buy it on eBay.
More problems, if not a total chaos, is what we can find in the more dispersed European market. While, according to THQ early plans, PP was also officially going to be released along with TiP on September 5th, the game has only seen the light of day in the UK and Germany. The game is, in fact, available in the United Kingdom, and major retailers like Game and Play.com are shipping orders without apparent problems. In Germany, though, THQ decided to change the name of the game plainly retitled to “Viva Piñata DS“, as it can be seen in their TV Spot (which, by the way, is the only promotional campaign that we’ve seen so far for the game).
For the rest of PAL territories we can only find a complete plethora of confusing release dates and problems for pre-ordering.
In Spain, a THQ spokesperson confirmed to us that Pocket Paradise will be released in October 10th. In spite of it, THQ’s official regional site for this country states that VPPP should have been released a week and a half ago; in the meanwhile, Spain’s most important retailers, Game and FNAC, accepts pre-orders for a tentative release date set on September 19th.
The prospects for the game distribution in France aren’t any good either. Amazon sets its release date on October 17th; but one of the major French retailers, FNAC, with an important international presence, don’t list the game in their site, and so pre-orders can’t be taken.
Even worse, Italian, Portuguese or Belgium retailers doesn’t even acknowledge any Viva Piñata handheld title, while our affiliate Perfect-Rare states that the official date in the Netherlands is September 19th.
In the other part of the world, Australian gamers find several different release dates, depending of which online store you ask: from September 25th to October 1st or even October 9th. Japan is officially out of any plans right now.
In the latest few weeks MundoRare has contacted some THQ representatives, asking them to clarify this situation and find out the real release dates list for every territory, and an official explanation for these unjustified delays (the translation to all the main languages in these countries is already done), but they declined to comment on this issue or simply didn’t bother to answer on this specific topic.
While Pocket Paradise’s sales will probably be quite affected by this situation, we’ll try to offer you a complete review for the game in the coming days.
Somehow related news
- Pocket Paradise announced by THQ, headed your way this fall ()
- Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise is on the way to Nintendo DS ()
- Press to pay a visit to Rare’s new pocket-handkerchief garden ()
- BelieVe in Piñata the first week of September ()
- Trouble in Paradise and Pocket Paradise ship to stores in North America ()
