[SilverDragon1979 talks about how much he hates all of the big name titles coming out at the same time during the end of the year for his Monthly Musing piece. -- CTZ]
The summer is about to end and it’s almost time to usher in that very cold period of the year known as fall and winter. With it will come a great many wonderful things, such as football, turkey, snowmen, and chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Along with all of those chestnuts will come a huge deluge of videogame releases. Now I’m not talking about a slight increase in the number of videogame releases, I’m talking about the Burje Dubai of videogame releases.
Between the months of October and November there are over 120 individual games being released in 2008. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have the time or the money to play even a small percentage of these games, and that’s why I hate the onslaught of fall/winter videogame releases.
The Massive Number of Fall/Winter Game Releases for 2008
As I already mentioned, there are over 120 individual games coming out between the months of October and November. I know this because I actually took the time to count them all up. Now this number does not even include the different versions of each game coming out over multiple platforms. If you actually look at the number of games coming out over all platforms, it’s closer to the 400 range. That means that over the span of a year where 800 games come out, 50% of them are released in only 2 of the 12 months. This is just absolutely absurd
Let’s take a closer look at just some of the popular titles for this year to see when they are actually coming out in relation so each other.
10/14 – Dead Space
10/14 – Saint’s Row 2
10/14 – SOCOM: Confrontation
10/21 – Fable II
10/21 – LittleBigPlanet
10/21 – Far Cry 2
10/26 – Guitar Hero: World Tour
10/27 – Red Alert 3
10/28 – Fallout 3
11/04 – Resistance 2
11/04 – End War
11/07 – Gears of War 2
11/10 – Mortal Kombat vs. DC
11/11 – Call of Duty: World at War
11/11 – Mirror’s Edge
11/13 – World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
Look at all those incredibly popular titles coming out, and if you notice they are all within one month of each other. That’s 16 games in less then a month, so almost a game every two days. Do these companies really need to release all of these games so close together? Does this actually benefit them?
How do you find time to play all these games?
According to USA Today, the average age of people who play videogames are between 25 and 40. I am 28, and I can tell you that all these people who are between 25 and 40 do not have a lot of free time on their hands to play videogames. These people have full time jobs, relationships, families, yard work, and other hobbies that all take up their time. With all of these responsibilities, it can be very difficult to actually find the time to sit down and play a game for more then 1-2 hours a day. I don’t typically find the time to sit down until 10PM at night to play, so I can definitely attest to there just being too many other responsibilities that take up my videogame playing time.
For most of the people I know, it can be very tough to play more then 1-2 games a month. What are these people supposed to do when 15 high profile games come out in the span of a single month? They can’t play them all. They can’t even play half of them. What ends up happening is they only purchase one or two of these games at full price. Then as time passes they end up purchasing the other games months later as they drop in price. I spent the last year playing games that came out last fall and winter. The only games I played this year that actually came out in 2008 were Metal Gear Solid 4, and Grand Theft Auto IV. That is absolutely crazy that it took me a year to play all of the games that came out in the span of three months. So I have to ask the question, how is a person supposed to find the time to play all of these games? The answer is that they never do find the time.
No one hates as much as the Angry Video Game Nerd
Feel my Hate!
Videogame publishers are a bunch of greedy bastards. I can’t blame them though, because their entire purpose is to make money and keep the stock holders happy. They don’t make the games. They don’t pour their hearts and their precious time into these games like the developers do. The publishers simply decide when to release the games in order to make the most money, and that happens to be right before the Christmas season. Who cares if it happens to correspond with all of the other publishers releasing all of their games at the same time, making it seemingly impossible for gamers to play them all. If they get their money they are happy, and let me tell you parents are going to spend the money. I worked at Electronics Boutique for four years and I saw how crazy people get during Christmas. If their kids want five games, the parents are buying them five games. It doesn’t matter how unpractical it seems for their kid to get five new games, because no one is practical during Christmas time.
Is it really impractical for these publishers to release their games during the other ten months of the year? Do you have to be a big name title like Grand Theft Auto IV or Metal Gear Solid 4 to actually get sales if you release your game during the spring or summer? Maybe if these companies actually found good ways to market their games they could get sales. Maybe if they actually tried spacing their games out over the period of the year and market them accordingly they might get the same sales as if they just released them over Christmas. I’m not in marketing though so I probably don’t know what I’m talking about. Maybe there is just no way to ever make as much money releasing a game if it’s not during the Christmas season.
I might not be in marketing, but I am an avid videogame player, and I can honestly say that it is just absolutely crazy to release 400 games over the span of two months. Lots of companies are missing out on my hard earned cash because I will never find the time or the money to play all these games. Well that’s too bad for them. I will simply continue to hate the fact that this is the way the industry works, and maybe if I find the time, I’ll actually get around to playing some of these games.
Contest:
9:03 PM on 09.28.2008
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But yes, I do I agree as a business strategy it's retarded to clump all of these games together on the retail shelf.
Also, Fuckballs?? LOL.
ALSO you forgot Left4Dead
When you release so many highly anticipated titles at the same time, people are going to prioritise and the games at the bottom of their list are very likely going to end up as pre-owned sales. Y'know, those things the industry keep bitching about yet actively encourage.
But then there's plenty of examples in this industry of stagnant business models being used again and again for fear of breaking the status quo. Shareholders play far too great a role in something they understand little about, this is just another example of that. I'm pretty sure most people between 25-40 years of age don't rely on people buying them games for Christmas, but try explaining that to the corporate suits.
I've decided to narrow down the games I'm getting this holiday, but I feel it's still too much and I won't be able to play all of them. I want to get Rock Band 2 (PS3), LittleBigPlanet, Star Ocean, and Castlevania on the 21st, and Fallout the week after. Still that's 5 games in 2 weeks, at least I can play the portable ones at work.
I don't understand why they still do this. I can get releasing Kids games and shitty movie license games at Christmas, because they get the most sales by uninformed parents that way. But what parent is going to go into a store and pick out Fallout 3 for their son for Christmas? Games made for adults are going to sell whenever they're released, as long as they do a decent job advertising. I'm pretty sure GTA4 and MGS4 sold pretty well, if you release a game during a drought, people will buy it.
This year so many great games are going to get lost in this rush. Good thing is we should be able to find a handful of them in a bargain bin after not too long. Maybe they'll learn after Far Cry 2 (just an example) sells like shit because they released it the same week as LittleBigPlanet, Fable 2, and WiiMusic (sigh).
I've gotta give props to EA for pushing Dead Space forward a week though. I know it's only a week but it was a smart move. I think more people will buy it day 1 because there's less competition that week, and people will actually get a chance to play it.
And sorry for the long comment, but whose gonna review all this shit? Is Destructoid going to start hiring people for the holiday season?
And as a grown up dude with a wife, eventually kids and a job, it sucks even more. Back then as a kid, I had nothing but time during winter break to catch up. And college winter break? Forget about it. I was ready for more games by February.
I've resigned myself to locking in on a few of these titles, and promising myself that I'll catch up to the other ones. Fable II, Mirror's Edge and Lich King (also Wario Ware shake it, outside of your window above) are about all I'm putting into my "schedule" and budget. The rest will need to hype me into impulse buy. Even Fallout 3 (just never played he originals)
SEPTEMBER:
- Wario Land: Shake it! (26th)
My 18th birthday is on Monday, so I'll probably get some money to compensate for this purchase.
OCTOBER:
- LittleBigPlanet (22nd)
- Fable 2 (24th)
- Far Cry 2 (24th)
- Fallout 3 (31st)
Now this is going to be an extremely hard period for me as a gamer. I'll have 2 days to enjoy LittleBigPlanet, before Fable 2 and Far Cry 2 is released 2 days later. But there cant be room for more than 2 games in such short time (I love the number 2), so I'll delay the purchase of Far Cry 2 for later this year. That way I can properly enjoy LittleBigPlanet and Fable 2. Then 7 days after Fable 2, Fallout 3 is released...
NOVEMBER:
- Gears of War 2 (7th)
- Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolt (21st)
DECEMBER:
- Prince of Persia (2nd)
And just another 7 days after Fallout 3, Gears of Wars 2 is released... Geez...
I'm planning on putting Banjo & Kazooie N&B and Prince of Persia on my Christmas wishlist, so that means there will be a moderately large gap on the calendar without game releases. But that suits me fine, as I'll probably have an exam near the end of the year. As mentioned earlier I delayed the purchase of Far Cry 2, so I might get that game if I feel like filling the gap.
TBA 2008:
- Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (?)
As much as I hate games being delayed in Europe, I actually hope this one comes out later, so I'll get time to play other games.
TOTAL: 4400 NOK
(440 USD I think, due to the trend of just adding a zero to the US prices when the game publisher decides the Euro prices. The actual US price when you convert the currencies is 757 USD, giving an indication to how expensive games are over here.)
Up and coming 2008 releases that I might buy some other time:
- Call of Duty: World at War
- Dead Space
- EndWar
- Mirrors Edge
- Resistance 2
I guess the only positive is that I can get them for much cheaper later on. I'm not even going to play most of them these year because I won't even be in the country from December to May!
But yeah, I've got no time and a little monies. I can easily afford a few games, but I just don't have the free time I used to.
So I'll just keep some of these games on my radar for the summer months. But this deluge of games at the end of the year seriously needs to change.
I didn't even own a next-gen system until recently when the Dragon here conspired with my girlfriend to help to get me a PS3. Now I have a few more gaming options, but my time to play the good ones is limited, and this game deluge doesn't help.
Out of all these games, I have determined that I will only be playing Fallout 3. May be Mirror's Edge if I can find the time.
On a side note, might I also point out that publishers can manage to make financial successes out of totally crappy games during the American holiday season. This is not a good pattern for gamers.
And by that of course I mean I'll be getting Fable, Fallout, Mirror's Edge and Little Bit.
Last season (this summer) I brought COD4, and it DID keep my attention for months, this season it will be LBP
Seeing as I am a creative person, this appeals to me the most out of all the games released for the rest of the year.
In fact, apart from Fallout 3, I do not intend to buy a game full price until next year, I play what I want to play, unlike many gamers I do not care for having piles and piles of games to play through, I buy a game, I want to savour it to the fullest.
Other games can wait, simply because they do not warrant a purchase at this time!! :)
Also, FRONT PAGED!!!
Cool,eh? :D
midnight club:LA
Dead Space
Fallout 3
LittleBigPlanet
Saint’s Row 2
need for speed:undercover
Also, you forgot LEft 4 Dead
That being said, I will probably be getting LBP, Mirror's Edge, Rock Band 2, probably FIFA 09. Yep I am an American and I want the soccer game!
Everything else will just be added to my GamFly list or get picked up in a few months on sale.
PS - I've only purchased 3 games this year (Smash Bros., GTAIV, and Vegas 2).
I think you have to pick two of the three. Hardcore gaming, getting laid regularly, and having no job is the dream option.
Most gamers are twentysomething to 40 (crap this is my last year I guess) They have no time to play all the games because they all come out at the same time. Do these games have a shelf life I wasn't aware of? For me, the only game on that list I'm really geeked about is Fallout 3. I will buy it on release day.
(which, by the way, I will bet my mortgage payment it will be available everywhere and I won't be one of the IDIOTS that preordered it in the hopes of whatever it is they are hoping for that ends up waiting a week after release date because EB games shipping sucks ass.)
anyway, where was I? Oh yea, while I'm playing the crap out of Fallout 3 I can be reading reviews of all these other games I might want. Some of them are gonna suck. Trust me, I'm friggin 40! Ive seen this over and over again. My guess is Fable 2 and Farcry 2 will be BIG letdowns. Theres only 27 people on the planet that have the alien mutant technology to run farcry 2 and IMO fable 1 sucked. Theres other games doing the same thing better than fable.
So I can use the time to not waste monies on crap.
Also, some of the games I would not have bought will end up being great. I will be able to hear the comments from friend and favorable reviews on these games and, sometimes, find them ON SALE! See, I'm old (did I mention that yet?), so I need a reason to spend money because I have a wife. She will not give me lovin if I spend money on games excessively. But her weakness is she's a woman. If something I buy is on sale, I am off the hook. I don't care if its a friggin Neutron bomb, if I got it on sale I am in the clear. In my mind the only argument against my feelings are the multiplayer games. Sometimes a community that likes a game moves on to the next good game and by the time I get to it's server browser theres not many people left playing (I just bought crysis and was surprised how few people play the multiplayer)
So, to recap, if your gonna run around with your wallet hanging out trying to buy every game you can as soon as you can you will
A. Buy games you don't have time for
B. Buy bad games
C. Miss sales on good games
D. (and I feel this is most important) Miss buying good games you thought would suck. You spent all your money and now that everyone knows it's good theres NO WAY your gonna find it on sale.
and all of this, hate free.
Fortunately, I'm 15 and therefore still live with my parents, and thats where Christmas comes in. That's what Christmas is about. Making other people buy stuff that you don't have the money for. And I really only ask for for Mirror's Edge, Fallout 3, and maybe Far Cry 2.
Also, I DO have more moneyz, but thats for buying people stuff for Christmas. I'm not a total jerk.
Most of the other games sound like stuff I'd never play again after one playthrough, so those will just be rentals/downloads.
Now, if they simply released a bunch of those games in the summer instead of in the winter, you'd essentially be in the same boat, but would be paying half-price for the games you wait until summer to play.
Just because it comes out in winter, doesn't mean you have to buy it then! As for me, only a few of those games are must-buys for me, at least right away.