While the title was moved from its original release date, we were then told that the new release date would be Tuesday, March 27th here in North America, with Europe getting it on Friday March 30th. While reviews of the title seemed to support the fact that the release in North America was supposed to happen on the 27th, some retailers we spoke with said that they received no inventory and were not expecting the game to arrive till March 30th; one retailer told us that according to the latest information he heard the title would not be on his shelves till the new revised release date of March 2nd, which is actually a Monday.
Our retailer (where we had our pre-order booked) actually had the game for us on March 27th as promised, but that was after he told us that he didn’t have it, and had to go back and check his shipment information again. After doing so, he found that he only received the one pre-order copy and the cover of the game did not look anything like the “Limited Day One Edition” the company was showing on its Facebook page.
The “Limited Day One Edition” was a big deal because it included a special Day One Car Pack that was said to be reserved for those who purchased the game on release day. When we questioned our retailer, he said that he had heard the same thing, but the DLC access code that printed out with our receipt said the code was for the Vehicle DLC Pack; and he was not sure if that was the same thing as the special Day One Car Pack. Confused yet? We were at this point, but we figured that the extras we were going to get were all that we were going to get.
As it turns out, there was no additional DLC code packaged within the case, and the only DLC code we had was the one that was on the receipt for the “Vehicle DLC Pack.” Once we redeemed that code we found that it seemed to match the cars that were said to be included in the Day One Car Pack, so it turned out fine for us; but we have to tell you that if you don’t get a code printed on your receipt or there isn’t something marked on the case that is included in the Day One Car Pack content, don’t expect to get it.
So, it would appear that this title caused a number of release date confusions, and one distributor we spoke with said that he just received the title in his warehouse today for a March 30th release. We are also finding that some retailers in North America have it and others don’t. We do expect it to start showing up shortly. As for the game itself, reviews seem to be positive, so it would have been better if the launch would have gone more smoothly in North America.