Release dates

[gbpxl]

I know I've brought the topic up before but can anyone help me with some fact checking on release dates? I saw one source say Sonic was released in June 91. Yet Sonic the Hedgehog Day is November 23rd... I always thought it was released later in the year.

Wikipedia says Link to the Past was released on April 23rd. EGM says March. I always assumed April. But how are they getting a specific date?

I assume the best evidence we can come by would be store catalogs but good luck finding those. An article on The SNES release date says newspapers and magazines said August 23rd which I believe but then other sources give other dates.

[gbpxl]

I looked at the "similar threads" below this. Looks like other people have had the same problem.

[retroman]

I know Sonic came out in the Summer time because I can remember playing it while out of school. I also remember Sega was giving away free Sonic game mail in's for people who bought a Genesis that came with Altered Beast. Could that be the November day that everyone got them?

[gbpxl]

It seems that for more hyped releases, a release date was given but generic titles and crappy titles, a month is the closest you can get. What i want to know is where Wikipedia editors are getting their dates from?

[Rickstilwell1]

It seems that for more hyped releases, a release date was given but generic titles and crappy titles, a month is the closest you can get. What i want to know is where Wikipedia editors are getting their dates from?

A lot of those dates probably just come from other websites that list dates like Gamefaqs. So where did Gamefaqs get their dates?

I can see why it matters though. It is fun to compare things that were released around the same time to see what was popular, what was overlooked, what was the best etc. You can really see what things took the attention away from other things. People only had so much money to spend. Nobody could buy every single release every time something came out so you had to choose until you could afford to go back and get something else later. But by then some people might just want what is newest then. Because they still make video games, there is never any catching up. You just have to ignore more new stuff to focus on old stuff. So how about that Sonic 1 in June 1991? Did you want that or did you want that NES game you didn't have a chance to go get 6 months before? I don't know, I didn't get a copy until June 1993 when I was old enough.

[Natty Bumppo]

From I can see the Genesis Sonic came out in June of 1991 whilst the Master System Sonic came out in November 1991. (Seems counterintuitive I know.) Hence some confusion on the dates.

It looks like Link to the Past came out in November 1991 in Japan and April 1992 in the US.

Could be worse - thionk of the confusion as to what the first two Final Fantasy SNES games numbers really are. :(

[gbpxl]

A lot of those dates probably just come from other websites that list dates like Gamefaqs. So where did Gamefaqs get their dates?

I can see why it matters though. It is fun to compare things that were released around the same time to see what was popular, what was overlooked, what was the best etc. You can really see what things took the attention away from other things. People only had so much money to spend. Nobody could buy every single release every time something came out so you had to choose until you could afford to go back and get something else later. But by then some people might just want what is newest then. Because they still make video games, there is never any catching up. You just have to ignore more new stuff to focus on old stuff. So how about that Sonic 1 in June 1991? Did you want that or did you want that NES game you didn't have a chance to go get 6 months before? I don't know, I didn't get a copy until June 1993 when I was old enough.
I like the release dates from a statistically standpoint. Its interesting to see just how many games were released on the leadup to christmas. Or see why a game failed because the release coincided with a hyped up game like you said.

Im a stats junkie. I want to know dates, production totals, variants, etc. For no other reason besides liking information