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The Australian arm of video games retailer Electronics Boutique has begun selling Warner Interactive’s Batman: Arkham City a day ahead of its official release in the territory.
And as a result, rival GAME has also gone live with its sales of the title on its website.
The move was brazenly announced by EB on its Twitter feed.
Retailers giving the nod for store staff to go early on key titles was once reasonably common practice in the UK, but in recent years it has become increasingly less frequent.
Many independents still sell games early as in reality it’s just about the only advantage they have over their High Street competitors, and of course it’s not uncommon for an ill-informed supermarket worker to hand out copies of a game before its official release.
And many dedicated gamers could tell you exactly which online retailers make it a point of service to deliver games ahead of their official release.
Batman: Arkham City is released this Friday (October 21st) in the UK. Critics suggest it is one of the finest games ever released.
UPDATE: GAME Australia has contacted MCV to confirm the sequence of events.
It says that non-specialist retailers were the first to break the street date of the game, followed then by JB HiFi. GAME then declared earlier today that it would begin selling the title followed very shortly after by EB.
