Red Dead Redemption 2 – Several Independent Game Stores Reportedly Receiving The Game One Week Late

Red Dead Redemption 2 is merely days away from launch now, and given the fact that it’s one of the most highly anticipated games of the season (perhaps even this entire console generation), it goes without saying that people are eagerly awaiting the day of release to be able to get their hands on the game. However, if you’re planning on picking it up at an independent local video games store near you, you might be out of luck.

According to a report on Kotaku, numerous independent game stores throughout the United States will not be releasing the game on October 26, the day of release. They will, in fact, have to wait roughly a week. Considering how huge a release Red Dead Redemption 2 is and how many sales it would have contributed to the aforementioned local game stores, this is a big blow, because as one store owner points out to Kotaku, “gamers don’t like to wait.”

“We have a very loyal customer base, per se, but I don’t think I’d want to wait for a week,” said Zach Gieg, the owner of an independent local chain in Pennsylvania. “It’s ridiculous. They’re gonna download it or go elsewhere and buy it at a big box retailer.” Gieg estimates that between his four stores, his chain would have sold more than a thousand copies of the game, which translates to over $60,000 in sales that now probably won’t happen.

As for why this is happening, the store owners contacted by Kotaku have a few guesses. Rockstar might be afraid that independent store owners might break the game’s street date and supply it to customers early. Others guess that due to the game reportedly shipping on two discs, there might be supply constraints, which means Rockstar is prioritizing distributing the game to larger chains. A few stores, however, have told Kotaku that they might be able to get the Xbox One version of Red Dead Redemption 2 at launch.

But it’s not just small or local store owners who’re being affected. GameFly, a respectably large American online retailer, is also getting the game considerably late. They recently sent out emails to their consumers about this. “Our supplier has indicated that we will not receive the game prior to its release date,” the email read. “At this time, we do not expect to ship PS4 discs before Wednesday, November 7th. We understand Red Dead Redemption 2 is a very popular game and apologize for this delay.”

Sure enough, Red Dead Redemption 2’s PS4 page on GameFly reflects the date of availability as 7th November, while its Xbox One page shows the date as 30th October. Both are pretty belated, especially the PS4 version.

Red Dead Redemption 2 launches on October 26 for the PS4 and Xbox One. It’ll take up over 100 GB of your system’s storage on both console. Recently, Rockstar released a launch trailer to build up hype for the game, and it definitely did the job. Take a look through here.