No matter how great the game looks or how jealous we are of the people who got lucky due to Toys R Us messing up and selling it before the 21st, the fact of the matter is Bioshock is NOT being released early.
I just got off the phone with one of the PR guys over at 2K. According to him, this whole situation was just a broken street date by some Toys R Us employees who didn’t know Bioshock had a street date (or didn’t care), and the resulting snowball effect that caused. At this point 2K isn’t entirely sure why so many Toys R Us stores went and sold the game early ("It’s not like street dates are a new concept"), but they are going to look into it once they put out this fire. (Check the update below for one reason why the street date may have been broken so widely.)
He also mentioned that they’ve been trying to control this whole thing all morning ("It is getting a little ridiculous"), and that they really didn’t know why so many people were convinced the release date would be moved up a week when they haven’t announced anything.
Look for an official press release from 2K fairly soon, as they were working on it when I finally got hold of them.
*UPDATE* I’ve been getting a lot of emails from people who work at TRU, or who have spoken to the managers. From what they’re saying, there’s no real clear indication on the packaging, boxes, or in their computer system that Bioshock has a street date of August 21. Which company is at fault for that? Right now, I don’t know. I’ll post more as I hear back from other sources.
