UK online retailer ShopTo is refusing to sell Activision games following a row over Call of Duty: Ghosts, Eurogamer can reveal.
The dispute revolves around rules that govern when retailers can post games to their customers. ShopTo is angry at Activision for refusing to allow it to send Call of Duty games more than a day before launch.
ShopTo claims it has shipped each year's Call of Duty game on the Monday or Tuesday for release, as per its contract with Activision, but with the release of Ghosts, due out as expected on a Tuesday this November, enough is enough.
"Activision's policy of only allowing e-tailers to despatch one day before release date effectively destroys an e-tailer's pre-order campaign," ShopTo boss Igor Cipolletta told Eurogamer, "as many deliveries inevitably arrive post-release date.
"This has the undesired effect of previously loyal and satisfied customers thinking that, if we can't 'get it right' for one of the biggest games of the year, why should they trust us with any future orders?
"Their friends and acquaintances, by word of mouth and social media, (despite possibly not having ever ordered from us), would see us (and possibly e-tailers as a whole) as unreliable. This despite all the time and hard work my team and the myriad of other publishers put into other titles during the year.
"Of course this Activision policy is not for every title, but due to the volume and fever pitch Call of Duty seems to generate (both positive and negative), it causes the most damage to us."
At the time of publication, Call of Duty: Ghosts is not listed on the ShopTo website, and thus is unavailable to pre-order. Neither is Deadpool, the upcoming Activision superhero game, or the new Skylanders game, Swap Force. Games already released by Activision remain unaffected, however.
Cipolletta said he would be willing to reconsider his decision if Activision changed its shipping policy. "We strongly believe they are not providing a level playing field between e-tailers and high street retailers, as the latter can have a midnight opening," he stressed.
While Activision declined to comment on our report, Eurogamer understands its UK office is unlikely to budge on its terms after growing frustrated at broken street dates in the UK, particularly from online retailers.
It's a huge decision from ShopTo and a brave move considering the expected enormity of Call of Duty: Ghost's UK launch. By not taking pre-orders of the game, the retailer is losing out to its rivals, including GAME, Amazon, Asda, GameStop, Sainsburys and Tesco.
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