Germany has reportedly banned online retailers from offering preorders of video games with unspecified release dates.

Loading

As reported by Eurogamer (via the German site Heise ), online retailers can no longer offer preorders for games without being able to ensure an approximate delivery date, meaning games that are simply "coming soon" can't be preordered.A consumer protection group brought the issue to the Higher Regional Court of Munich, which determined that customers have a right to know when a game is coming before putting money down on it."When consumers order goods on the internet, providers must specify by when the goods are delivered," said Wolfgang Schuldzinski, CEO of Düsseldorf Consumer, an advocacy group.This ruling follows a consumer protection claim made against German retailer Media Markt over online preorders of the Samsung Galaxy S6 back in 2016, but their initial ruling now officially applies to all products ordered online, which includes video games.Though online preorders for games with vague release dates are no longer allowed in Germany, most everywhere else in the world will still let you preorder many games on the internet with unspecified release dates.While other countries can still preorder games super far in advance online, check out our list of where to preorder all of E3's biggest games , our complete guide to Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 preorder bonuses and our Fallout 76 preorder guide

Colin Stevens is a freelance writer for IGN and he's had Kingdom Hearts 3 preordered for the last thirteen years. Follow him on Twitter