Change the release timer

[Discussions_Acc]

Kind of annoyed me for years now and I don't know why it's still like that. The release timer on upcoming releases is just confusing, especially if you don't know how it works.

Currently, for me anyway, "Persona 3 Portable" is on the top of the "Popular Upcoming" section. So let's use this as an example.

The store page says:
"This game plans to unlock in approximately 7 hours"

Currently it's 10:00 pm for me. 7 hours from now means the game should unlock 5:00 am. Except that's not it. After saying "approximately 1 hour" for an hour, it'll change to "less than 1 hour" for an hour.

The actual unlock is around 6 am at the earliest.
That's at least 8 hours from now, which isn't what I'd call "approximately 7 hours".

Maybe address that? It's just confusing for no discernable reason.

[Zefar]

What is there to address? The game will release in less than 7 hours.

You adding 1 extra hour and an extra 45 min to the clock isn't Valves fault.

[Crazy Tiger]

What makes you think the actual unlock is 7am in your time zone at the earliest?

[SVaughan]

Just assume that 7 hours is 8 hours and leave it at that.

What I tend to assume is that Developers release games on their timezone, and normally between midnight and noon in their timezone.

A fine example would be anyone in GMT+4 awaiting a timed release of a game made by a US based company (I'll use hacktivision/Blizzard) in GMT-8. Midnight for the US Company would be 12 hours for those in GMT+4, but only 2 to three hours for those going across the US, or even two hours early for those in Hawai'i. But regardless, the release time is on the Companies timezone, and not the general global populations timezones.

So based on where the Developer you're commenting about is based in relation to your location, the time will be inaccurate, always, as their release time is based on their timezone and not others timezones.

Using the previous example. US West being GMT-8, Midnight for that, in comparison to say, Australia, is 1800 hours (6pm) as the land down under is 18 hours ahead of US West.

tl;dr Times for you and times for Devs differ, and your assumption will always be incorrect. Always plan to be disappointed, because timezones exist.

[Discussions_Acc]

Originally posted by Zefar:

What is there to address?

I was kind of hoping that I managed to explain that above.

Originally posted by Zefar:

The game will release in less than 7 hours.

We'll see in a few hours I guess.
You say less than 7 hours. Written 10:40 pm CET. That means the game should be released before 5:40 am CET, right? Additionally games usually unlock at the full hour and not somewhere in between, so one could expect it to unlock 5 am CET.

Originally posted by Zefar:

You adding 1 extra hour and an extra 45 min to the clock isn't Valves fault.

Scratch the 45 minutes. I probably mixed something up when bending my brain by converting time formats. I adjusted to post accordingly.

The hour still stands though. It's caused by the timer having an extra hour.
It displays "approximately 1 hour" for 60 minutes. After that the hour is over and the game should release, right? Except it then goes to "less than an hour" for another 60 minutes.
So once it changes to "approximately 1 hour" it's actually still 2 hours.

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

What makes you think the actual unlock is 7am in your time zone at the earliest?

I meant 6 am. And at the earliest because sometimes games unlock a bit late and not right at the full hour.
I've sat here and waited for new releases often enough to know how the timer operates.
The game also releases worldwide at the same time. So timezones don't matter in this case.



Maybe this helps?

"This game plans to unlock in approximately 3 hours"
The timer just switched from 4 hours to 3 hours. We start here.

60 minutes later it says:
"This game plans to unlock in approximately 2 hours"
We waited 1 hour total.

60 minutes later it says:
"This game plans to unlock in approximately 1 hour"
We waited 2 hours total.

60 minutes later it says:
"This game plans to unlock in approximately less than an hour"
We waited 3 hours total.

60 minutes later, because "less than an hour" is always displayed for an hour:
The game actually releases. Unless it's a bit late, which can happen.
We waited 4 hours total.

So somehow we waited 4 hours for the release that was supposedly happening in 3 hours.

Originally posted by SVaughan:

Just assume that 7 hours is 8 hours and leave it at that.

I do. But it's dumb.
And obviously not everybody knows. There's no good reason to blindside an unknowable amount of people with this for years.

[Zefar]

Since 1 hour after my post the timer has gone down to 5 hours.

I've never had a release on Steam where the timer took an extra hour to release something because if that was the case the forums would be lit up by it.

[SVaughan]

Originally posted by Discussions_Acc:

Originally posted by Zefar:

What is there to address?

I was kind of hoping that I managed to explain that above.

Originally posted by Zefar:

The game will release in less than 7 hours.

We'll see in a few hours I guess.
You say less than 7 hours. Written 10:40 pm CET. That means the game should be released before 5:40 am CET, right? Additionally games usually unlock at the full hour and not somewhere in between, so one could expect it to unlock 5 am CET.

Originally posted by Zefar:

You adding 1 extra hour and an extra 45 min to the clock isn't Valves fault.

Scratch the 45 minutes. I probably mixed something up when bending my brain by converting time formats. I adjusted to post accordingly.

The hour still stands though. It's caused by the timer having an extra hour.
It displays "approximately 1 hour" for 60 minutes. After that the hour is over and the game should release, right? Except it then goes to "less than an hour" for another 60 minutes.
So once it changes to "approximately 1 hour" it's actually still 2 hours.

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

What makes you think the actual unlock is 7am in your time zone at the earliest?

I meant 6 am. And at the earliest because sometimes games unlock a bit late and not right at the full hour.
I've sat here and waited for new releases often enough to know how the timer operates.
The game also releases worldwide at the same time. So timezones don't matter in this case.



Maybe this helps?

"This game plans to unlock in approximately 3 hours"
The timer just switched from 4 hours to 3 hours. We start here.

60 minutes later it says:
"This game plans to unlock in approximately 2 hours"
We waited 1 hour total.

60 minutes later it says:
"This game plans to unlock in approximately 1 hour"
We waited 2 hours total.

60 minutes later it says:
"This game plans to unlock in approximately less than an hour"
We waited 3 hours total.

60 minutes later, because "less than an hour" is always displayed for an hour:
The game actually releases. Unless it's a bit late, which can happen.
We waited 4 hours total.

So somehow we waited 4 hours for the release that was supposedly happen in 3 hours.

Originally posted by SVaughan:

Just assume that 7 hours is 8 hours and leave it at that.

I do. But it's dumb.
And obviously not everybody knows. There's no good reason to blindside an unknowable amount of people with this for years.

I looked. Your game is Published by SEGA. Right now it's 0805 for them. So expect for you, to be if not now, then 4 to 6-ish hours from now.

Most if not all games tend to release at midnight.

[Discussions_Acc]

Originally posted by Zefar:

Since 1 hour after my post the timer has gone down to 5 hours.

10:40 pm it said 7 hours. 20 minutes later at 11:00 pm it switched to 6 hours. And now it's past 12:00 pm so it again went down one hour.

Originally posted by Zefar:

I've never had a release on Steam where the timer took an extra hour to release something because if that was the case the forums would be lit up by it.

Since we all can watch when Persona 3 releases I won't go around and do a deep search for all the "why isn't it releasing" threads I've seen over the years.
So please make do with 2 "1 hour left" threads that instantly get corrected to 2 hours (no clue what that one guy means with showing minutes, never seen that):
https://steamcommunity.com/app/898750/discussions/0/3157579842163120142/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1091500/discussions/0/2988665684324907148/

[Discussions_Acc]

Originally posted by Discussions_Acc:

Originally posted by Zefar:

The game will release in less than 7 hours.

You say less than 7 hours. Written 10:40 pm CET. That means the game should be released before 5:40 am CET, right?

It's been over 7 hours now.
The time is 5:50 am CET. It said "less than an hour" for 50 minutes now and will continue to do so for another 10 minutes. Pretty sure 60 minutes isn't "less than an hour".

See? That's what I mean. Why the hidden extra hour for years? Not even you could tell the actual release time, and you've been here since Steam was literally green and just started selling Rag Doll Kung Fu.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

It releases in 1 minute.

MWII had the same release time, 9PM PT, 12AM ET.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

And it is released.

[Peterrchen]

Sometimes it does, and it's very confusing, because there are more and more issues of time being out of sync because the regions are out of sync, and hopefully that will be solved.