Thread: Diamond, Pearl to get European release June 30: Amazon.co.uk taking pre-orders

Online retailer Amazon.co.uk has begun taking pre-orders for Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, listing its European release date as June 30.

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Sounds good to me.

I should point out that that's not a confirmed date. Amazon routinely makes up its own estimated dates based on speculation and have done it for practically every Pokemon game in the past.

The fact it's got the 30th June down is pretty indicative of this, generally they'll say the first or last day of a given month so as to fill in the date fully but still give themselves leeway over the actual date.

Until Nintendo Europe comments on it, it's as meaningful as me telling you it will be out here next week.

The game didn't appear on the release list for 2nd term.

Some online stores have already done this. The fact that Amazon UK does this being a more important store just tells us to take it a little more serious than on previous attempts by other stores, but we still have nothing until Nintendo confirms the date.

It's sad that Europe gets video games last(or doesn't get them at all, like Chrono Trigger).

I'm very skeptical about this date. It is not a Friday, which seems to be some kind of NOE tradition to release games on Fridays. Also, Amazon just has the US box with a PEGI logo pasted on it. The ESRB notice "Game experience may change during online play" doesn't seem likely to stay on the European boxes, unless NOE decides to also have these on the boxes of Wi-Fi games for whatever silly reason. Why do the US boxes need to have this notice anyway?

And I agree with Doctor Oak. Amazon often makes up dates - I think I remember seeing other weird dates for Ranger and DP on Amazon.co.uk in early March.

Originally Posted by nYoo

The ESRB notice "Game experience may change during online play" doesn't seem likely to stay on the European boxes, unless NOE decides to also have these on the boxes of Wi-Fi games for whatever silly reason. Why do the US boxes need to have this notice anyway?

Presumably it's a reaction to the Hot Coffee scandal, online games need to declare that the game may change by things downloaded to it. Generally those things are just more of what's available already but of course it can also include unofficial Mods such as the Hot Coffee patch or the infamous Nude Sims patch.

Neither the BBFC or ELSPA require it, so it wouldn't be on a European box or game.

Hot Coffee patch? Can someone explain that?

Originally Posted by Dogasu

Hot Coffee patch? Can someone explain that?

Seconded. I'd like to know why they always have to have those warnings when you start up a Wi-Fi game.

Where were you guys in 2005? You couldn't look at a videogame website for months without seeing news on it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_coffee

Well, I was too busy working at school to look at a video game website and how does this relate to the current issue? I really don't see the connection.

Originally Posted by Geoffrey2004

Seconded. I'd like to know why they always have to have those warnings when you start up a Wi-Fi game.

I didn't think it was about the whole hot coffee thing, I thought it was more about the whiny kids who would cry if they lost.

Originally Posted by TTEchidna

I didn't think it was about the whole hot coffee thing, I thought it was more about the whiny kids who would cry if they lost.

Originally Posted by Geoffrey2004

Well, I was too busy working at school to look at a video game website and how does this relate to the current issue? I really don't see the connection.

When the Hot Coffee mod became big news, Rockstar was forced to have GTA SA pulled from the shelves and re-rated because of content that had changed due to downloaded Mods.

The ESRB notice is telling people that the game may change from the game originally sold to you in some way or another by online play/downloads and is effectively a catch-all to say to parents etc "We're not to blame that your kid has a nudey patch for The Sims (etc), you were given adequate warning on what online play can endup in" - and thus there's one less stupid lawsuit in America that day.

It's basically just a way to cover the asses of the ESRB and the game publisher/developer.

Not to mention parents might get pissy about the voice chat over Wi-Fi. Even though the kids would use friend codes, if the parents know they are Internet friends they might get weirded out.