Upon receiving a magical box of wisdom in the mail earlier this year, several publishers decided to move their high-profile titles out of the busy holiday release window. Max Payne 3, Singularity, BioShock 2, Red Dead Redemption, Red Steel 2, Dark Void, Splinter Cell Conviction, Heavy Rain and a host of other titles are now slated to hit at some point in Q1 2010 instead of immediately before or after Christmas. One problem: these games are going to end up competing with each other within a comparable period of time, in essence voiding the seemingly smart move to a different window. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot realizes this and thinks more delays are coming as a result.
In a recent conversation with MCV, Guillemot said, “We now have a situation where there are a lot of good games due for release in the first half of next year, but I think publishers will move again.”
"The first quarter of 2010 is looking pretty crazy. So I expect some movement from the other players -- some of those delayed games will be moved again,” the CEO said.
Guillemot was careful not to lump his company’s Q1 2010 portfolio -- Red Steel 2 and Splinter Cell Conviction -- with his simple observation, but we just feel (in our bones, of course) that he's prepping us for another Conviction delay. If that happens, well, it's fine with us. We love making Duke Nukem Forever jokes. Really.
[via 1UP]
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Contest:
8:00 AM on 09.16.2009 | 
*3 years later*
ME - "Oh, did Heavy Rain FINALLY come out? Meh, I'm not interested anymore."
Just look at the 360, it's great sales can be highly attributed to a early release. Are these publishers all just competing for a first week's sales record? It makes more sense to release your game as soon as it's done because a large portion of sales happen as each consumer becomes ready to purchase that game.
The 360 release is COMPLETELY different from these game releases. The 360 released first and with no competition (next gen console-wise). Also, consoles benefit much more from being first out of the gate than games do.
These games being released sooner would HARDLY make them "first" at anything as there are hundreds of games coming out around the holiday months. It makes almost ZERO sense to just get the game out the door as soon as it's done because timing means A LOT with game releases.
Let's say Max Payne 3 just happened to be finished and released on the same day as Halo: ODST. Do you honestly think your strategy is a good one in this case?
Fact is, if a dozen games come out at the same time, consumers make budget choices and cut the games they don't need or want as much as the others.
To use Max Payne 3 as an example again, if it was released at the same time as a Halo or Call of Duty game, pretty much everyone would skip MP3 (at least temporarily) for the other games. Now then, if it's delayed a few months to say, middle of summer, where less games are being released, it's likely that consumers have already moved on from those "bigger" name games are looking for something new to fill that space.
@Arianol,
3 years isn't the same as 3 months. And in actuality, a 3 month delay could even serve to INCREASE hype, especially if the game is good (or at least marketed well).
Get the word out about how your company is utilizing this time to make the game even better or send out some early copies to peeps like DToid or Penny-Arcade and watch as the word of mouth spreads and gets even bigger.
It's not like these companies are going to delay their games and then say nothing about them for those next 3 months.
Have you people been living in the same gaming universe as the rest of us?
new york dress
orange county seo Are these publishers all just competing for a first week's sales record?