Release dates are different on different places..

why would they do that? are the people in the US more important than us in Europe? Because that is just messed up! But thanks anyway!

Years ago in a land far far away...

Joking aside years ago Thursday releases were a thing over here too but I believe at some point big box stores like Wal-mart threw their weight around because at the time the stores wouldn't get them until it was too late to have the stuff up for the weekend shoppers so they made themselves heard and started getting there shipments sooner. Now though it's gotten fast enough that this isn't a problem anymore so it's simply stayed the way it is with other parts of the world not changing their release date.

Also as to the dates holding even when it comes to digital releases that because of the power of big chain stores that sell the physical copes, they would not be happy at all to hear EA say "yea you know that big seller Battlefield 4, yea we're going to release is online days before customers would have a chance to buy it at your store" the stores would probably refuse to carry their games if they did that.

ok, but why the F*** does dice and EA not just give the game to the stores here in the EU and the rest of the world a couple of days earlier? I cannot see the problem... Ah well, another big stupid company that just cannot smooth things along... Typical EA.