Stories from Australia: The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Disaster

Many people will be aware that the Australian release of Ocarina of Time was a few weeks later then the rest, but what has since unfolded in those weeks is a disaster which could alter the way the industry performs down under.

The story begins with the retailer Game Traders importing European copies of the title to sell. Nothing wrong there, with the company using this technique quite often to have ample amounts of their titles and to supply gamers with the lowest price possible. However during this period of time EB Games announced an Ocarina Edition of the game. The Ocarina Edition included an Ocarina packaged in by EB Games from STL Ocarina.

Confusion arisen from this at Game Traders who came under the false impression that Nintendo authorised this deal, and in a roundabout way it lead to them putting the imported title on shelves before the big day.

This also ended up leading EB Games to decide, they too want to release the game as well. Feeling that Game Traders had broken the street date, they threatened to do the dead themselves, but instead with an Australian edition. With the copies which had already arrived, and the modified Ocarina versions, EB Games had quite the stock. So when it finally came time to pull the plug, they announced on Thursday they would be selling any stock the next day.

Orders where shipped out yesterday from their online store, and if any store had the game it was also then available to be bought. Other retailers in Australia followed suit, with Game, BigW, Kmart and JB Hi-Fi all participating in the early launch.

Screenshots of Legend of Zelda (The), Ocarina of Time 3D for Nintendo 3DS

However for Australians, it isn't necessary an easy way to get an early copy of the biggest game in 2011 for the 3DS. Problems arise when many of the stores also still didn't have stock at the time, with this coming Monday been the key day for more stock at a wide range of retailers. You also have to ask at the counter at many stores, with the game not been allowed on the floor until the official launch (30th June).

In correspondence to Australian news sites such as Kotaku AU and Vooks.net, Nintendo of Australia didn't such much about the events. However Nintendo planned when they announced the release date to have a celebration in their Nintendo Experience retail store. Which is an EB Games outlet in the heart of Melbourne, however Nintendo has since revealed that it will no longer go ahead.

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