TwilightSoulKey said:my gamecrazy, ebgames, and gamestop get it the 29th. And just to let you know, living in california does not guarantee you a copy on the 28th
deathsaber lives in san diego, and gamecrazy, ebgames, and gamestop get it the 29th over there
basically i have seen nowhere that "sells it the 28th"
*sigh* Do you always hope for the worst? I'm not going to argue with you about when every store in the world gets it, but lets be sensible here. You said it yourself, half the forum thinks it'll be out the 28th and the other half believes the 29th. Now here's the sensible part and I'm gonna use your proof (though I lack hard evidence, I can pretty much assume safely I'm correct).
Square Enix will always and probably has always used the phrase, "_____ will ship to retailers on ______" Look at their press release page for proof that it's always the case. Now I reckon Final Fantasy XI was no exception. I can't find a press release for the game and they deleted the news archive from that far back, but I think it's safe to assume it was advertised as "Ships to retailers 03/23/2004."
Now living in Pennsylvania, I'm like what a three or four days away from California? Maybe five? I dunno. I know you can't drive there in a day. Anyway, my point is, I was at Gamestops distribution center to pick up the boxes of Final Fantasy XI, a game that "ships to retailers on 03/23/2004." I was there on March 23rd, at 8 AM to pick up the boxes with the manager.
I'm not telling this story to prove you wrong, keep reading.
Anyway, there was a reason why we had to go to the distribution center, I forget why exactly, something to do with the trucks or something.
My point is, it was at the distribution center before 8 AM the day it shipped to retailers according to Square Enix. There's no way you could fly a plane that fast to here unless you left at some ungodly hour in the morning, which Square Enix wouldn't do. We got the hard drives there, stocked them, and I bought mine and went home at 10 AM (we got back at 9 to open up the store).
"The Game Store" (name of the shop) in my local mall which is about 10 blocks up the street didn't recieve hard drives until the next day. I doubt most private game stores will have their games that day and some big business places like Gamestop won't. So I will agree that not every store will recieve the game on March 28th, but to blow off any chance that anyone not near California will not recieve the game that day is retarded. People across the country will be buying their games on March 28th, 29th, and 30th. The people who buy it on the 28th can be from Maine, Florida, Washington, Texas, Kansas, and California.
Again, I didn't tell you this to prove you wrong, because I know not every store in the country will get the game March 28th, even in Califronia, I agree with you. But you gotta comes to your senses and realize that no one far away from Califronia won't get it March 28th.