Quote: BifrostWait,they have it for games without even final titles? December 30 is very obviously placeholder though, but next saturday seems less random in comparison.
Yeah, I don't know how it works in Brazil, but here in the states, as soon as a game has an announcement (and sometimes, before official announcements), the game is usually listed on major retailers websites for preorder, and if a release date isn't provided by the publisher at reveal, the retailer will often use a placeholder date based off of whatever information the publisher has provided. Pre-orders are big business for retailers - they get to hold your money for free (free interest!), virtually lock you into buying the game (even if early reviews are bad, if someone has pre-ordered the game, they're more likely to pick it up because they feel 'invested' in it.) and virtually lock you into buying it from them, even if other retailers have better deals going on (when the Twilight Princess sound track was announced as a GameStop exclusive, there were a lot of folks complaining because they had already pre-ordered the game elsewhere - even though virtually every major retailer that does preorders will let you switch or cancel with no penalty).
Basically, retailers will do whatever it takes to be first to get the preorder listing up, so they can be first to get your preorder.