As requested in another thread, here is the sequence of events required for the tail end of this project (expect our present situation to be somewhere along this)
- Final development
- Final internal testing
- Final publisher testing
- Sidhe ships physical DVDs to HES in Australia
- HES ships DVDs to Microsoft/Sony in the UK
- Sony/Microsoft compliance testing
- Sony/Microsoft usability testing
- Sony/Microsoft manufacturer test retail DVDs
- Sony/Microsoft ship test retail DVDs to HES in Australia
- HES test and signoff on test retail DVDs
- Sony/Microsoft send master discs to manufacturers in Singapore
- Manufacturers send finished units to distributors in Europe, Australia and NZ
- Distributors send final units to retailers
- Retailers await coordinated release date
- Retailers make available for sale
I haven't mentioned packaging in the above, so you might want to consider that also (it has to go through Sony/Microsoft standards checking too).