Oh yeah entirely possible. It sounds like his source is either stealing it directly, or gets it from someone who steals it off somewhere in the production line. The fact that “his guy” didn’t really know what it was makes me believe it’s just part of some package deal from whoever is fencing him the Pokemon and YGO…

I think its more that they are concerned people are stealing from them or collaborating with retailers to leak stuff on purpose because there's been more leaks than average lately. Ergo rhe private investigators

They’re acting as agents of the proper owner.

Considering the number of YouTubers who’ve gotten Transformers that “fell off the truck” over in Vietnam, I feel like it’s giving the reviewer too much benefit of the doubt that he didn’t get stolen merch.

Sounds like the pinkertons escalated what should have just been a routine investigation

Sending Pinkertons is a wild overreaction IMO... but the poster should’ve just not posted the video of him opening something he knew wasn’t released yet.

It’s possible the provider wasn’t disclosed. I’m sure the guy doesn’t want to throw them under the bus to the public based on how he comes off here. Also, products get shipped super early sometimes where stores are told explicitly that they have to hold them for the street date. This is particularly early, but having…

I feel like there is more to this story. Why isn’t his supplier listed in this article? While it is possible that this was a mix-up, the language quoted here makes it sound like the supplier might not be legitimate and could be getting product stolen from the factory floor or distribution centers.

Their options are either retcon it out of existence (which will confuse and turn off more casual fans) or try to salvage it.

Seems like a bad idea to double down on the sequel trilogy.

Oh boy I can't wait for the Order to return and then be destroyed again or become corrupted or whatever. 

I think the problem is the biggest driver of hype for BotW was the new format, while this game seems to be largely the same format as BotW with more added in. I don’t really think there was any way they could reach the same levels of hype. They’re doing what they often do and waiting until the last minute to really…

I’ll be the only one here who agrees with you, I’m sure. But man, I have never bought into this show. Shallow can be fun, no immediate examples come to mind but there are multitudes, but I found this laughably bare of anything resembling story, character arc, or fun. Cartoons have more weight (Filoni’s in particular)…

Still waiting for Mando to be “good stuff” 

“but I wish they would see the value of the games crit ecosystem as not so much an extension of their own PR efforts to be gamed for positive buzz, but as a place that lifts up the medium of games as a whole by taking them seriously.”

I was hoping that at least the Kotaku Commentariat down here would be on board with…

Hearing that the game is a very bog-standard “AAA” release just makes the garbage people championing it to own the libs look all the sillier.

Agree - but that’s what dontpunkme is suggesting, in a rather pathetic way.

City building games in general are “god” games. They use far more authoritarian governance than any large nation has ever had. “Zoning board and land developer simulator” would be a real small niche! Because who wants to play a game where you just watch other people make decisions about what to build and where?

The same applies to capitalist games, though, doesn’t it? Or similar. Instead of straight-up corruption on the same scale, you’d be forced to deal with companies and their owners refusing to behave, refusing to comply with the law, insisting on exporting all their goods outside the country instead of letting you buy…

out of an “abundance of caution” CSUF explained that there will be additional officers on campus today