In my country (Australia), when Skyrim was due to release on 11/11, major retailers broke the street date a day early. It only takes one retailer to do this and then all you need is to show a photo of a receipt and any retailer can sell the game early. I'm all for waiting for the actual release date, but is this something that could possibly happen? I'm putting of my digital download until said shops close just in case!

It likely won't matter since the game is tied into Steam. Steam won't make it playable until launch day.

True, for PC.

u cant get it early but u cant play it, on PS4 or Xbox is the same, after u install it u need to wait for small patch for play it.

Obviously not on steam, my friend. But for console? We already get the game a bit earlier than our U.S counterparts. As long as I see no spoilers I'm good!

Why wouldn't you be allowed to play it? It's obviously not an illegal procedure or these major retailers wouldn't abide by the broken street date rule. People are playing the game on console now. It's not an online only game on console either, from what I recall? What about the people without Internet. Correct me if I'm wrong, but a physical copy would be able to played right this moment I'm sure.

After stalking Pete Hines Twitter for weeks now, I thinks it's safe to say this will not happen.
Hopefully it won't, as I plan to get my pipboy edition at midnight, start the download on steam by 1am and than go to sleep until it's downloaded. Than I will sit down for an entire day of casual play so I won't feel like I rushed the story or anything too quick.

nope since the physical copy of most game install data on your PS4 and Xbox 1 so u can get patch, that data prevent u from playing till u get the release patch.

They don't want you to play it till it is released. It's been an issue since games got pre-orders where people could get them a few days early depending on the post. It's basicly how they maintain the release date, else pre-loading wouldn't work as they've downloaded the game.

Where is your evidence of that? There has been zero evidence that you must be connected to play on a console. Do not spread lies.

You tend to need one for it to validate the game files and to get the day one patch. Now as has been said before it's becoming the normal practise for Devs to hold back the run file(s) for the games now. Again with the pre-loading sort of backs that idea up.

You say that like its common, but what single player console game has required it? I have never seen one...

Not sure, not played a console in years and all my friends who have one have it hooked up to the net and always download the day1 update.

As a former owner of a retail game store (although not a video game store), I will disagree here. Yes, showing a receipt will likely piss off another merchant and they *might* sell you the same product early, but that is only because the first merchant is stealing some of the 2nd merchant's profits by breaking the street date. However, this does not remove the obligation that the 2nd merchant has to not break the street date.

Breaking the street date can get a merchant into a LOT of trouble, depending on the product, the situation, and if it gets reported (and to whom). It is possible that nothing will happen. But it is also possible that their distributor or the company that makes that product will impose sanctions. They may be dropped by their distributor as a client, they may no longer receive promotional materials, they may be fined tens of thousands of dollars, they may have their privileges to carry that manufacturer's products in the future revoked, and they can be the subject of a lawsuit. And even if NONE of that happens, it certainly does NOT endear you with your fellow merchants. A store that frequently breaks street dates will quickly find that other stores that carry similar products may start banding together to hold events, tournaments, promotions, etc - but exclude that store.

So, please don't encourage stores to break street date. It is there for a reason, and while you may not get in trouble, the store could. And really, you do want your local store (especially if it isn't a chain store) to stay in business, don't you?

It's not mom and pop store dude. It's EB, the equivalent of GAME in other countries, K Mart, Harvey Norman are all the biggest retailers our country has and they all did it and heard no repercussions.

And there may not be. It is very rare for it to be enforced, but it can be, and that's the problem. Also, even if it isn't enforced, the store(s) breaking the street date are pretty much stealing from those stores that are not breaking it. If store A breaks the street date, and the customer tells all his friends about it - then the ones who want the item all go to the store to get it. Now, if store B is keeping the street date (as it is supposed to), it loses sales to store A. Thus, it loses money. So, the only way to compete is to break the street date.

To combat this, the publisher then doesn't send the product to the stores until the last minute - perhaps the day before the street date. Now, if there is a delay due to weather, a shipping strike, or whatever, the area impacted doesn't get the product on release-day.

As I said, I ran a game store. I got games as much as several days before street date, and as little as a couple days before. It can be nerve-racking waiting on a highly anticipated product to come in the next shipment - especially when you have hundreds, or thousands of dollars in pre-orders.

You have allways been able to start the games without downloading the updates.

You just get a message saying something to the extend of "There's an update, if you start the application without updating you wont be able to acces online features", but the game will be playable anyway.

This holds true at least on PS4. I have played games day 1 without the required patch. You may have some broken quests that didn't get patched until the late update post release but it should still be playable. Thats not to say it is impossible to lock it out obviously but it would be generally frowned upon by both the install base and the console manufacterer if a dev or publisher took that route with a game that had no online functionality.

I got mad max about 3 days before release date and most others iv ordered turn up the day before, the all work straight out of box I doubt beth will have made theirs different but remember xbox1 needs a constant Internet connection to work so that may bite me lol

Yeah consoles... breaking the street date..., ... the first leaks are coming from them, .... are the first to show up on the bad, bad sites... but PC is responsible for all the piracy and has to be restricted in all possible ways.

Pure logic .

Yep. With all the leaks and the addition work of the Mods they should just restrict the key file like with PC.

Yeah I'm going to have to call that out too. I've played plenty of games on the Xbox One without the Day 1 patch. You can install the games in offline mode, or you can select an option that prevents patches from installing by themselves, so you can play on unpatched games.

This topic (also on the frontpage here) should clear things regarding FO4: http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1541994-will-fallout-4-on-console-require-internet-to-activate/

A evil, evil PC Player who is responsible that the whole gaming industry is going down because of that

Yeah, but even a moderator said that console versions won't require the day 1 patch or an online connection.

That's why I linked this thread.