Viva Piñata’s Double Trouble
High prices in PAL regions and unexpected delays cloud the Piñata release
It’s clearly impossible for any company to get a perfect distribution for their products to meet the official release dates. Even Apple, famous for their tight release windows, failed in some countries when they recently released their ultra expected iPhone 3G. Having said that, the launch of the two new Viva Piñata titles for both Xbox 360 and Nintendo DS has suffered some sad incidents; hopefully some will get fixed in the coming days, while others… will not.
As we recently pointed out, in North America the official release date is not usually the day the game hits the stores, but the day is shipped to them; so customers can get their hands on the titles within a 24h lapse. In Europe, these kind of things are usually more lax, and games could be released either days before, or some time later: retailers usually get the games before the official release date, and it’s up to them wether they want to sell them or not. That’s why Trouble in Paradise have hit the stores both in North America and Europe at the same time, and last Wednesday was already available nearly everywhere both in western PAL and NTSC regions.
Moreover, the game has been confirmed to be region-free, like many other first and third party titles nowadays, so there won’t be any problem for anyone who decides to import it from other country. Although this time, due the the simulaneous release, Europeans probably don’t need to search for the game in international online stores.
Or do they? Well, apparently gamers from PAL regions don’t need to worry about release dates anymore regarding any Microsoft title, but they keep finding a different treatment when it comes to prices.
In the States, Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise enjoyed the benefit of being released for $39.99, a really appealing price for customers, which in any way made sense if we bear in mind that most of the work was made for the first title and the costs to produce this one were obviously lower. Surprisingly enough, though, in Europe the official price proposed by Microsoft is more than double: despite the strenght of the European currency VP TiP can be found in some countries for 59.95€ (which equals to $86.90), while in the UK the recommended retail price is £39.99 (equivalent to $71.06). With those prices, we highly urge any fan that can actually wait to play this sequel to buy the game in any international store (such us Play-Asia) where you don’t find yourselves cheated with these clearly abusive prices.
Regarding the other Piñata relase this week, Pocket Paradise, we only have bad news to report. The game has been delayed everywhere and in North America most retailers won’t get it until next Monday, September 8th. In Europe, some countries -such us Spain- will even have to wait until October 10th (as a THQ spokesperson confirmed to this site), while Australia won’t probably get it until October 9th according to several retailers. We cross fingers so this time we don’t find any problem with THQ’s distribution like in previous occasions.
Expect some extra coverage of Trouble in Paradise and -hopefully- Pocket Paradise in the coming days.
Somehow related news
- Piñatas worthy of Tiffany’s ()
- Pocket Paradise announced by THQ, headed your way this fall ()
- Trouble in Paradise’s infection starts expanding ()
- Trouble in Paradise demo hits the Marketplace ()
- Portable ponocky Rare site blowout! ()
I bought it at game.co.uk and now I am waiting for postman. I had to pay 9000 Forints that is $54 and it contains the post too.
Comment by manga02 — 04.Sep.08 @ 8:37 amOh and I’ll get 10 vision cards because of the pre order
http://www.game.co.uk/Xbox360/Action/~r334987/Viva-Pinata-Trouble-in-Paradise/?s=Viva+Pinata%3a+Trouble+in+Paradise