Why does the US have a bad time zone for game releases?

Submitted ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨SilentStriker@piefed.social⁩ to ⁨[deleted]⁩

You can’t just “move” countries around as they’re positioned where they are since the last continental shift. What I mean is this: New York (USA) is -15 hours behind Sydney (Australia) while Sydney is +15 hours ahead of New York, due to where both countries are positioned in earth. On it’s own it sounds trivial but it gets brought up when speaking of media release dates (movies, games, books) regarding on who actually gets them first.

Whether it’s physical or digital releases, often or not Oceania (AU & NZ) have the earliest window as they are +15 hours and +18 hours in the future from LA & NYC. So, the only “way” to get them first whilst in the US is to alter the time settings digitally along with an entire region change or physically travel there to acquire a copy legitimately, like during midnight launch in AUS (you technically got it first before everybody from the US).

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slazer2au@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Because the smart decision is to release digital content at GMT so everyone gets access at once.

Otherwise you will have more people pirating or lying about their location to gain access to a game that has zero reason to be region locked.

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dhork@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
It’s not that Australia is “in the future”, it’s that local time is oriented toward when the sun is up. I am posting this at 1150 Saturday US Eastern Time, which happens to be 1550 Saturday UTC and 0050 on Sunday Sydney time, but it’s all the same actual time.

Publishers have a choice to make: either release at the same time worldwide in UTC and have to pick which markets get it in the middle of the night, or release in stages worldwide and put up with the fact that one it gets released on one market, enterprising people will figure out a way to play it from anywhere. If it’s an online game, and they are already planning worldwide access, they probably are planning their server rollout regionally, and can turn on the game in each region at a different UTC time of they want to.

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otp@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
This is the first time I’ve heard “timezones aren’t fair”!

If those extra 15 hours matter, you could always move to New Zealand. Otherwise, it’s “safest” to play by the rules and wait until midnight. Or just wait until the next day. Playing exciting games after midnight can be bad for your health (assuming you’re not on a nocturnal schedule)!

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kmartburrito@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I guess I never thought about it that way. Worldwide releases are usually GMT, so you just get it when you get it. I’d feel selfish wanting to have it oriented around the US, even though that may be the largest consumer base. (Note OP I’m not directing that last comment towards your question, just my thoughts)

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