Naughty, naughty...
Pookémon X and Y aren't due to release until midnight tonight around the world, with Nintendo playing host to a premiere party and launch event that kicks off at the company's World Store in New York City, scheduled to be underway at 8pm tonight.
However, one retailer seems to have started festivities a bit early, going so far as to send out text messages to pre-order customers, telling them to come by and pick up their games according to a report from MCV.
"For some reason known only to Nintendo (probably something to do with a worldwide launch) Pokemon X and Y was due to come out tomorrow (Saturday, October 12th). Except if you want it, you can get it right now. Pretty much on any High Street in the country."
From there, all the dominoes started to fall as other retailers joined in on the action. Apparently, there's something of a legal loophole that says once one retailer has broken a street date in the UK, all the others are free to do so as well. Something about "competition laws."
However, the first store that broke the date is the one that's actually liable, and that seems to be in contention. MCV is placing the blame squarely on GAME (It's also reported that the retailer is also selling the 2DS, another product not supposed to be released until tomorrow), but a GAME employee commenting on VG247 is saying they only did it because Tesco had already begun the process. He said, she said...Either way, someone at Nintendo is going to be pissed. But with the company struggling with the Wii U, the company would be hard pressed to start doling out any sort of punishment. According to GoNintendo, they have warned that if retailers are found to have sold game's ahead of respective release dates, "Nintendo will hold future product shipments until after their release date."
Now that the launch is seemingly underway, might as well enjoy it with the new live-action trailer below.
The games represent a radical change for the franchise, the top down perspective having been replaced with more of a three quarter perspective, and battles look radically different. As per usual, players will see several new pokémon, 5 of which were teased in the game's trailer at the time of the announcement. There's the usual array of new starter Pokémon, and each game will play host its own type of new, legendary Pokémon. And what's more, a number of classic Pokémon have earned mega-evolutions they can transform into during battle.
The games become available at midnight tonight. Unless you live in the UK apparently. In which case, enjoy!
