‘Resident Evil 6’ Copies Stolen, Sold Early

“Resident Evil 6” is currently slated for an official release date of Oct. 2. However, a store in Poland was selling the game as early as last week, about a month ahead of schedule. So what’s going on?
Last week, Polish website Neo Plus said that it was able to purchase copies of “Resident Evil 6” in Poznana, Poland. Now, Capcom (the publisher behind Resident Evil) is stating that those copies being sold were actually stolen.

“Capcom is currently undertaking a thorough investigation into reports that Resident Evil 6 is being sold ahead of its official Oct. 2 release date,” the company said in a statement. “At this time, all we can add is that it would appear this unfortunate incident is limited to a small quantity of stolen copies of the German USK PlayStation 3 version of the game.”

A staff member at Neo Plus then went on to tell website VideoGamer.com that they were “not the only person to buy a [copy of Resident Evil 6]. Several more copies have been sold - but not a lot - like not more than ten.”

According to Neo Plus, the game is now no longer available at the store.

Copies of a video game, stolen or otherwise, being released into the wild before release date is a very, very bad thing for any publisher. When that happens, it’s not long before copies of the game are released online for pirates via torrent websites. That means fewer sales, fewer pre-orders and less money for the people that already spent a lot trying to put the game together.

Despite this incident, Capcom has decided not to move the game’s release window up a few weeks, like other games that have suffered similar incidents such as Stardock’s “Demigod.”

Capcom Senior Vice President Christian Svensson told VideoGamer “The NA [North American] date remains 10/2.”

Advance hype for “Resident Evil 6” has already been less than stellar. Public opinion of the Resident Evil franchise has been waning since Resident Evil 5’s departure from the series’ core concepts while Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City was met with abysmal reviews. This has left the next game in the franchise in an already precarious position before launch. An illegal, early release could not have come at a worse time for Capcom.

We’ll just have to wait and see just how badly this will affect the game as we get closer to October.