Recently, it was learned that the street date being broken by GameStop was a corporate decision.  Chris Olivera who is the Vice President of corporate communications from GameStop headquarters said, the decision was made to break street date in regions where other retailers had already broken it.  Olivera said they made this decision after speaking with Activision many times.

Our decision followed many conversations with Activision and was an effort to protect our customer base.

Earlier today, Activision told Kotaku that they gave no retailer permission to break street date.

Activision has not given any retailer permission to sell Modern Warfare 2 prior to the Nov. 10 street date. The company fully supports the Nov.10 street date

Activision and has been adamant about protecting the game from not only pirates, but removing video clips from YouTube and most Live Streams on sites like JustinTV as well.  The statement above issued by Activision makes all too much sense.  It’s very clear they want to keep the game from being put out there before Nov 10th, so why would they approve breaking street date?  Was there a miscommunication somewhere between GameStop and Activision?

Let’s look at a “conspiracy theory” about this for a second and ask, did GameStop do this without real permission just to protect pre-order sales in those regions?  While it has been isolated to a few areas in eastern part of the US, Olivera said the breaking of street date was, “an effort to protect our customer base.”  With Modern Warfare 2 being one of the most desired games of all times, gamers would jump at an early chance they could to get their hands on the game.  Especially the weekend before release.

Street date for games being broken can have a domino effect.  Let’s face it, when Small Store A is selling it, someone at Small Store B starts selling it because of A, and then people call their friends word gets out, Stores C & D start selling as well, and then people will more than likely go to store A – D to buy that game instead of where they originally intended or had their pre-order.  Pre-orders will either be canceled or moved to other games.

Having worked retail at a small game store for 5 years a while back, the few times this happened, we did break street dates as an effort protect our sales on those highly desired titles.  So from a business standpoint, it makes sense.  Tuesday is supposed to be a big day for many places, but what if 20-40% of your expected sales that day don’t show up because they got it somewhere else a few days before the release?

Now, let’s go back to the Non conspiracy route and ask was there just a major miscommunication between the Activision and GameStop?  Why is one saying something different than the other?  Activision has yet to say anything about what Olivera said about the breaking of MW2′s street date, and when they do will they acknowledge they gave permission or stay with their original statement?  Bowling said via a tweet that any retailers selling early copies is a violation and there are no “special permissions.”  Maybe GameStop is going to pay a fine for this?  If so, a fine might cost them less than losing customers that have their copy paid off or on pre-order.

We will update you when any more information is available.

What do YOU think about this one?