The Royal Mail are threatening to strike on 4 November – the day before Call of Duty: Ghosts is due to launch – which has a fair few UK denizens worried that they won’t be getting their copies on launch day.
The retailers, however, aren’t so concerned as they have back-up plans in place. Speaking to MCV, several major online retailers confirmed that they have plans and contingencies in place in case a strike screws everything up.
GAME, for instance, said that they were “working closely with Royal Mail and other couriers on the situation to make sure our pre-order customers get their orders on release day.” GameStop will “use alternative delivery channels to ensure our customers get their games on time.” Online giant Amazon? “If one of our carriers was unable to provide delivery services, we would employ contingency plans which include routing orders through our other carrier partners.”
With a bit of luck, then, it won’t impact things too much. I do wonder if the games might be dispatched before the strike and will then get stuck in sorting on 4 November, pushing the delivery back, but none of the retailers seem unduly concerned about this. Of course, one rather large advantage of being a PC user is digital delivery – we have the option of being able to buy Call of Duty: Ghosts at home and have it delivered directly to our computer, postal strike or not.