For the most part, it's fair to say that GameStop doesn't really side with gamers very often. Ridiculously low trade-in values, bonus content missing from used games, trade-in and pre-order credit not transferrable between stores, clueless employees, etc. marr the shopping experience.
Regardless: some things they do right, and this week is a good example. While playing the World at War beta version with my brother -- who lives in a suburb of Austin, Texas -- he received a phone call informing him that his retail copy would be available tonight, November 10th.
Click the "Read More" link to view the rest of the story and release details.
This was a surprise to me, because usually the "release date" is in actuality the ship date, unless it's such a high-profile game that they are shipped two weeks ahead with street date seals, a la Halo 3 and Grand Theft Auto IV. When GameStop.com says November 10th, I expect the game to be available on November 11th.
However, a call to by Houston suburb GameStop confirmed that after 5:00 PM local time, pre-order customers can pick up their retail copy and get their game on 17 hours before everyone else.
Being that we live in south-central Texas near a large distribution center (Austin), I'm not sure if this is unique to certain areas, or if this is a countrywide effort. As of this morning, I have not seen anything official.
In the interest of benefiting Co-Optimus.com for future improvement and growth, visit Amazon.com via this link to order your copy if you haven't already made your arrangements.