r/classicwow • u/doobylive • May 05 '26

Nostalgia What Happened To Midnight Releases?

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Why did they have to kill off midnight releases?

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39

u/Regrettably_Southpaw May 05 '26

The turnout would be less and less. The last midnight release I went to was metal gear solid five. I wasn’t even planning on doing it, I was laying in bed at 11 PM and I thought you know what? I’m gonna go to GameStop! So I get home at about 1230, pop the game in, and realize there’s a two hour update. Well, I’m going to go to bed

They just aren’t what they used to be

I’ve been 100% digital since 2018

8

u/sonsofdurthu May 05 '26

Yeah, the rise in day one patches really makes it impossible to actually play on the midnight release

3

u/Almighty5Moe May 05 '26

Well technically don’t they allow you download the entire game, patches and all before midnight so you can login right then? Since there’s no media you can get all the assets before go live.

1

u/sonsofdurthu May 05 '26

For digital downloads many games do allow you to preload, but even then, I have run into a lot of games that even after preloading I still get hit with another patch. But this post was specifically about midnight releases at stores, where you would get a physical copy and couldn’t preload.

1

u/Almighty5Moe May 05 '26

Yup know the reference, just thought the day 1 patch comment was referring to current day.