Red Dead Redemption 2 PS4 PlayStation 4 1

Imagine being an independent retailer, banking on this year’s biggest game making up a chunk of your end of year earnings, only to be told that you won’t receive stock until November. That’s the dilemma staring a bunch of small US shop owners in the face, as a supply issue means they won’t get copies of Red Dead Redemption 2 until next month – a fair few days after the title’s 26th October release date.

Kotaku reports that many small stores have outfitted their shops with imagery of Rockstar’s latest, and have been taking pre-orders for years – but owners expect all but their most loyal customers to end up downloading the title from the PlayStation Store or visiting a larger chain like GameStop to get their fix.

It’s unclear why this is happening – especially for such a high profile game. Some believe that Rockstar simply wants to keep the product out of the hands of Mum and Pop shops in order to prevent leaks, but it’s also possible that the multi-disc rumours that have been doing the rounds have caused a production headache – it would be unprecedented for this generation after all.

Either way, this really sucks for smaller shops – especially at a time when selling physical copies of games is getting tougher anyway.

[source kotaku.com]