Whilst many Grand Theft Auto V pre-orders were placed in stores, plenty of consumers also made online pre-orders at major retailers. Now online costumers are being warned ahead of time that these pre-orders may not make it in time for launch day and could take up to a week depending on postal services.
EB Games has sent out a number of warning email to any customers that may be affected. If you received an email informing you of a potential delay, you might still be safe, but there is a possibility of a delay.
The reason for the potential delay is a ‘shipping embargo’ put in place by Rockstar to protect against any potential leaks of the game. According to both JB Hi-Fi and EB Games, no copies of Grand Theft Auto V could be shipped until this morning. This situation isn’t completely abnormal — the bigger the game the higher the demands that can be placed, and games don’t get much bigger than Grand Theft Auto V. This is simply an attempt by Rockstar to protect its product.
“Most embargoes prevent online shipping until the day before release so nothing is unusual there,” explained a representative from JB Hi-Fi.
EB Games has warned customers of potential delays, and told Kotaku that it is perfectly comfortable with customers taking advantage of EB’s seven day return policy until they receive the game in the mail. EB has also upgraded the shipping on all packages in an attempt to minimise any potential delays.
“We are as excited as customers are for the release of GTA V, and understand everyone’s eagerness to get their copy as soon as they can,” explained Debra McGrath, National Brand, Events and Engagement manager at EB Games. “Unfortunately a shipping embargo was placed on all online retailers which meant that we could not ship orders until this morning.”
“To help our customers out we’ve upgraded all orders that would not have otherwise made it by tomorrow to express shipping, free of charge. A very small amount of customers will still experience delays in receiving the game due to the physical limitations of regional postal services. All affected customers have been notified via email, and any customer able to get to a store is encouraged to use our 7 day return policy while they’re waiting for their game to arrive. While this situation is completely out of our control, we do acknowledge how frustrating this must be for GTA fans in regional Australia and have done everything we can to try and minimize the effect on customers.”
JB Hi-Fi is confident that all online pre-orders will get to customers within a three day period.
“All online home delivery pre-orders we received before last Thursday have already left our Warehouse in Melbourne this morning via traceable priority freight,” said a JB representative. “We are very confident most customers will receive their deliveries tomorrow as anticipated or within the three day window that we endeavour to achieve.”
Comments
40 responses to “A ‘Shipping Embargo’ May Delay Some Grand Theft Auto V Pre-Orders”
If you were that keen on getting the game on release, you wouldn’t order online… would you?
Same thought I had. I pre-ordered from Harvey Norman for instore pickup and they not long rang me saying it’s there and I’ll be able to pick it up at midnight 🙂 (And I’m in regional Australia too)
Harvey Norman’s doing a midnight launch?
Not sure about Harvey Norman in general but the one in my town is (Moree).
Don’t think they’re doing a midnight launch but if you guys haven’t seen it, Target and Kmart are doing a $79 preorders now. Wish I’d seen that before..
Kmart? I can’t find anything
Past experience says to skip pre-orders through HN. They’re very iffy about getting things out in a timely manner, but if you’re worried about timeliness, _definitely_ avoid Ezydvd.
I pre-ordered Madden through ezydvd.com.au . It was available in-store at JB on the 29th – I still haven’t got it 18 days later and when I e-mailed them they told me that was NORMAL. I shouldn’t worry about it having gone missing until at least the 25th – about a month after its release date.
We only have HN or Target Country here for games (& Target Country stocks “F all” games compared to regular Target stores). I don’t normally pre-order at all so I’m not sure what HN here is like with that but it was a good gesture for them to ring and say my copy is sitting there ready to pick up so guess they did alright this time!
Could be the difference between where you are and the city, but the HNs in Sydney are shocking compared if you order online. They don’t call for two weeks, then when you file a complaint (which you can only do online) they say that they’ll try to look at your complaint within a week. This was despite the store in question having lots, and replicated itself all over Sydney.
It’s good that your local Hardly’s done right by you, but if I was in your shoes I’d see it as a choice between Ozgameshop and Playasia.
One reason is because ezydvd sells imported games, not localised
If you were living in the US and ordered from Amazon you would. Problem is our retailers here are crap and Australia Post is unreliable.
I only have an EB and a Big W in my town. I didn’t want to pay EB prices and my Big W is sometimes late with getting stock so I just ordered from JB online because I have found their delivery times to be pretty good.
exactly right…
plan for tonight – Eb pickup at 12:00
playing GTA and turning off all communication at 12:05
you’re assuming you are first in line, not 100+.
Pretty much. Although I remember I got Halo 4 the day before release when I ordered it online from EB, so it’s completely understandable why they would want to do this.
Some people order online though in the hope of getting it a day early. It’s the risk you take.
I have had mine pre-ordered for over a year. I ordered online recently, because that was the only way to get the collectors edition (With the bag, hat etc.), which I hadn’t even seen advertised. I got my scarce edition all booked and paid for. I checked the EB site today only to find that my delivery has changed from 17/09/13 to 19/09/13.
Fucking pissed off is an understatement. No communication yet from EB either. Just assumed I wouldn’t mind I guess. Should just show up tonight anyway, and eat all their fucking burritos!!!!!!!
Some of us are forced to buy online to bypass the new R18 ratings… I won’t be too happy if my copy doesn’t arrive by tomorrow.
FIFO workers, Off Shore Workers, People who live in Country Towns , those who live in outer city suburbs where Gaming Stores aren’t as easily accessed…..those are the people who just can’t walk in to a store and Pre Order a copy in store. EB Games and JB HIFI only give you a certain amount of days to go pick up your Pre Order or it’s given to someone else, that affects FIFO Workers and Off Shore workers a fair bit, I’d know because I’m One of them.
This makes me glad I pre-ordered mine at a “bricks and mortar” store.
I spoke to the manager at my local EB on friday, and he said that they had just got their stock in.
In Western Australia this is called ‘Everyday’.
Not shipped until this morning?
So the email I received on Saturday saying “Your order 7416582 was dispatched from our warehouse/supplier today and will be delivered to the address below” was a fake?
No it means they threw it into their outgoing mail pile to sit there and wait for the next business day.
I got the email too, and a couple of hours ago got an email from the courier company with my tracking link so I hope I get the game tomorrow.
Oh man, I haven’t got a second email with tracking yet what the hell.
On the email it says they don’t provide tracking for cds/dvds/games though so now i don’t know what to believe 🙁
I learned my lesson with online preorders with EB. Every single time I did it, it would arrive late. Guaranteed. If you want it launch day guaranteed, have get it delivered to a store and go pick it up.
I had this issue with a bricks and mortar place for Skyrim. They had it advertised 50% cheaper than JB Hi-Fi across the road for release day. They made it pretty clear it was an import version, but come release day they still didn’t have them to release. After 5 working days I just went to JB. I later resigned myself to just getting games off Steam. So shame GTA V is not PC ready yet.
got mine already 😀 not playing till tomorrow..
If you really do have it, then you wouldn’t mind posting a pic of the game case, disc and receipt. Otherwise stop trolling.
There’s a lot of this going on on the EB Facebook page, trying to get them to break street date.
Honestly we’ve waited over 5 and a half years for it, a couple more hours won’t hurt us.
hence why im waiting until tomorrow to play it.
You’re a gronk, mate.
Have you not seen the GTAV Reddit?
Seems like half the GTA population is playing it already. Hell, there’s guys who have finished it and now going through to get %100.
For once living in Brisbane is a positive.
We’re just around the corner from EB’s warehouse.
Don’t really understand this as the games has been available for download for the last 2 days. So the pirates have already gotten the game out there. all this does is hurt the good honest people who are willing to buy the game and even preorder it.
Because waiting an extra day or two is actually going to hurt people..
Hey it doesn’t hurt me, i already have it and have been playing for 2 days.
If i had prordered and i had to wait for it to be shipped i would be pissed.
That is standard practice for those naughty pirates, I feel that anyone who wants this game should really buy it though. I used to be heaps into modding but when something like this comes along you just gotta bite the bullet and not be a jerk. If I hear any of my friends pirate this I’m going to call them cheapskates and boo them til my throat gets sore.
After reading your comment, I just had a thought.
Would you happen to know what the numbers are in regards to people playing pirated games on xbox and ps3?
I ask because I am curious if it is as high as in the PS1 days.
There is not a single person I know who actually has a modded console and plays pirated games.
Though, among my PC gamer friends, we also always purchase our PC games legitimately [which I credit Steam with in part], so maybe my group of friends isn’t indicative of the rest of society….
I don’t think its possible to get an accurate number on how many people have modded consoles however it looks like more people have hacked Xbox’s than PS3’s if you go by raw download numbers on most sites.
I find that odd because the PS3 is much easier to hack than the 360 which is a giant pain in the ass.
Didn’t the PS3 stand up longer before a viable technique was available to allow pirated games? [I could be wrong] I was aware of 360 modding years before PS3 cracks were available.
But anyway, as for numbers, even just as a “people I know” survey….. like I said, I don’t know anyone that uses pirated games on their console. Do you know of many people that do?
It did stand up 3-4 years longer than the 360 if I recall.
I know 2 people with modded consoles out of about 20 gamers. Mind you, myself and nearly all my friends are PC gamers and they all use steam.
Well i pirate all games on all consoles. But in saying that, i probably have over 300 legit games from the last gen. I have probably modded 10 360’s. About 10 Wii’s. But only my own PS3.
My 360 RROD so i modded it when i had to pull it apart to fix it. Was quiet easy. So i fixed everyone else that had the same issue or who just wanted it modded.
Most likely this is because All Interactive Distribution’s online grey import store (can’t remember the name) accidentally broke street date on GTA4 by sending out online pre-orders early. I knew someone that worked there at the time and apparently it was a big deal.
Rockstar sure as hell wasn’t happy with them at the time, so this is probably to prevent it happening twice.
Then everyone who pre-ordered online in Northern Ireland still managed to get the game early.
Thank god I read this wrong, I thought it said that they would have to hold back the in store pre-orders to compensate for the online ones, I was about to through myself down the stairs.
Anyone know if you can preload GTAV from the PSN yet?
I was under the impression that the release date in the UK/US and Aus were the same, but my mate in the UK got his from Amazon on Saturday! And I am not Trolling he posted a pic on his facebook and its the real deal. I am working in Taiwan at the minute so cant play it anyway (PS3 back in Melb) but if someone breaks release in another country can the start selling in Aus? Just curious.
I preordered online but set it to pick it up in store so hopefully there isn’t an issue with my order.
People also preorder online because they can’t get to a store (no driver’s license, isolated area, etc).
Apparently Amazon have been sending out U.S copies already, some people recieved them 2-3 days early. I really don’t see the issue letting Australians get their copies on time or maybe a day early? (would still be after many Americans/Europeans have it)
Well, I preordered online. I couldn’t get the CE any other way. I got an email earlier today from EB saying it had shipped. From my experience Express Post is reliable and the fact that I’m getting it delivered to Sydney CBD where I work, I’m hoping it’ll be in my hands for tomorrow night. Right? Right!? •bites finger nails•
I left my preorder until a couple of weeks ago when EB were hawking off the last of their Collector’s Editions, only for online sale. Got that and recieved an e-mail about 2 hours ago to say that it’s been posted. Hopefully, given I have express postage, it will arrive tomorrow, but I suspect Wednesday is more likely.
So it seems that Australia is basically the only place where R*’s wishes have been listened too. Seems like the rest of the world has been playing GTA V early. ..
My store isn’t even that big when it comes to gaming. We had 3 GTA preorders but had over 100 copies of the game arrive last Friday.
@evilmonkey Which store was this?
An attempt to protect their product…. from getting to people who have payed for it at midnight instead of the morning the day of release? Seems like a real jerk move to me.