Originally Posted by Gabe, from Penny Arcade
During the entire summer I purchased maybe three or four games tops. I was in an EB yesterday looking at all the coming soon boxes and it got me thinking. I went home and compiled a list of all the games coming out just in September that I really want to play. Take a ****ing look at this:
Guilty Gear X2 - 9/7 - 19.99
Burnout 3 - 9/7 - 49.99
Fable - 9/14 - 49.99
X-Men Legends - 9/22 - 49.99
The Sims 2 - 9/14 - 49.99
Star Wars Battlefront - 9/20 - 49.99
Myst IV Revelation - 9/21 - 39.99
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne - 9/28 - 49.99
Sly 2: Band of Thieves - 9/14 - 39.99
Mega Man X Command Mission - 9/21 - 39.99
Then take into account the fact that I already purchased Star Ocean and Phantom Brave this month. That means that if I wanted to buy all the games I want this month I’d have to spend over five hundred bucks. That is totally ****ing insane. What in the hell is wrong with the videogame industry? If they spread these games out over the course of a year I’d probably buy every one of them. As it stands now, I’ll end up having to rent 90% of these.
In the movie industry you have a few big summer blockbusters, but decent movies come out year round. Imagine if every single movie worth watching came out in July. Imagine if you had to spend five hundred dollars in one month just to see the movies you were interested in. People wouldn’t stand for that. Why is it that the videogame industry is able to get away with this bull****?
I’m not even talking about October and November here. 99% of all the games worth playing in a given year come out in the space of three months. THAT IS ****ING RIDICULOUS! I keep looking at that list I posted above and shaking my head. It’s hard to believe that they can get away with this level of banditry. I’m not going to take a loan out just to buy the games I want this month. That means I’ll only be purchasing one or two of the titles on that list. I know for a fact I’m not the only one who will be make some hard decisions in the next few weeks.
I’d love to hear an explanation for this. If you work in the industry and you have some light you could shed on this please share it with the class .
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I’ve got a great letter here from a developer. I’m not going to say where he works but you’ve probably played his games.
Hi Gabe,
Most of us in the industry are as puzzled about these release schedules as you are. Why would you release games in such a way as to get them buried under a landslide of other great games? From a money-making standpoint, this makes about as much sense as releasing the pilot of a new TV series during the SuperBowl. No TV producer in their right mind would ever do that. However, this happens every year in our industry and there's really only one reason I can think of. It's the same reason so many sequels get made for games -- people like to play it safe. And it drives most of us in the trenches mad.
Now I know what you're thinking "What? How is 'getting your title buried in a **** heap of other games so that it doesn't sell nearly as well as it could have' playing it safe?" I have a theory on this that I call "The Christmas Decoration Phenomenon." As near as I can tell, there are legions of trolls that sit in marketing offices all day crunching numbers. They are really sensitive to patterns, even ones that the normal human eye is incapable of seeing. It would seem that, at some point a few years back, some clever marketing troll said to himself "hmm... a lot of games sell around Christmas, because people go and buy toys for kids at Christmas. I know! If we sell our game at Christmas, we'll make tons of money!" And it worked. For years, it seemed that the maxim was "lets push this game and get it out the door at Christmas." And, like the decorations at department stores, the definition of "Christmas Time" keeps getting pushed back sooner and sooner and lasting longer and longer. Now, "The Holiday Season" begins in September and ends in January.
Well this year, I think what happened is that everyone did as they normally did -- scheduled for Christmas -- oblivious to the fact that everyone else was doing the same damn thing, and all of a sudden there's a crisis. "Oh ****, you mean GTA4, Half-Life 2, Metroid Prime 2, Halo 2, AND OurGameX are coming out in the same week? Crap! How did this happen? Lets shuffle around some deadlines... release a week later.. a week earlier.. a month earlier... and so forth."
It really just comes down to some crappy planning based on the stagnangy of marketing philosophies. Releasing during the holidays is "safe"... even though tons of other games are coming out... I dont know if you can hear it, but my eyes are rolling back in my head right now.
At any rate, I think there is some light at the end of the tunnel. From rumblings that I hear, you'll probably start to see more games released mid-year than before to avoid just this sort of thing. Nintendo has been doing this for a long time. They'll step out the release of their awesome first party titles throughout the year to avoid a pile-up at Christmas... like intelligent people.
That's just my theory, though. I'm sure someone involved in marketing would be able to help you out much better than I could.
~ Dodger
I'll post more good ones if I get them.
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This was the other explanation I heard a few times. I’ve gone ahead and removed the name of the developer again.
I will add this to your friend's sage advice. Most companies are publicly traded and having a big Q4 (4th quarter) is good to inspire stock sales for the following year. Remember company success is no longer based on something as easy to track as good sales. It is also largely linked to this mysterious thing known as consumer confidence. The consumer strangely enough is not the person who lays down the cash at the check out stand of the local Wal- Mart, no they are the ones who lay down their money at the local online stock trader. True a lot of a companies clout is based on sales but people look at the year end and there is only one time where a developer can salvage a year end and that is in the months leading up to Christmas. Again sales to you do not matter at this time. More so the publisher's sales to Best Buy matter as they front the money for the product and will reclaim said money later for product not sold in their stores also known as sell through. Thi s allows for the negatives to be placed nicely in Q1 when the public has not realized what kind of smoke and mirrors were laid in front of them to get them to buy stock.
~Chuck
-Gabe out