On Launching Major Videogames Outside Xmas

Thanks to the Hollywood Reporter for its column discussing major videogames originally due to launch in time for Christmas 2003, but which didn't quite make it. In the course of discussing these titles, which include James Bond 007: Everything Or Nothing, the article notes: "Game publishers, in general, recognize that the Christmas rush... is a huge marketing problem. This past Christmas, they say, there were too many good games coming out at the same time and quite a few didn't sell well." A spokesperson for Microsoft elaborates on this: "My prediction is we'll be spreading out the releases and shipping some in early September and others in January and February of 2005... But we can only do that with really great games that can stand on their own." Is weak sales when launching outside the holiday season a genuine problem, or just a self-perpetuating myth?

Comments

Awards

[AtariAmarok]

Once there comes about a major, significant videogame award event, watch for the "Oscar effect": they'll still be released around Xmas.

Games

[mohhomad]

I'm still wondering when game companies will realize that the video game market is more like the movie industry than the toy industry. With movies they have the Christmas and the Summer season but they also release big movies throughout the year especially around holidays. It would be really nice if video game companies did this because as much as I might want all the latest games I can't afford them all at the same time and if I don't pick it up while it's fresh in my mind I tend to forget about it.

Re:Games

[exick]

The place where that comparison breaks down, though, is in the development phase. The movie industry has been around a lot longer than the video game industry. They've nearly got the development cycle down to a science. If they want to release a movie around Christmas time, they have a very good idea of when they need to begin each phase of development based on the length of the movie they want, budget, etc. It doesn't seem that game developers and publishers have quite figured that part out yet. Far too often release dates get pushed back for one reason or another and there's a mad rush to get the game out near Q4.

Depends

[RaboKrabekian]

For some games - Gran Tourismo, GTA, Final Fantasy, etc - it doesn't matter when you release, it's going to do well.

For others it makes sense to launch either at Christmas (for obvious reasons), or in May when kids are getting out of school and suddenly aren't under the strict yolk of parental control. So traditionally you see games come out at those two times.

The game market is bigger now, and any given game can absolutely get lost in the shuffle. Maybe spreading the releases is a good idea. I'm not a video game marketing expert :)

Re:Just release them when they're done!

[fireduck]

exactly.

Blizzard has never made a Christmas release and none of their game sales have hurt because of it. Every game they've released since Diablo has sold 1 million +. Closest they came to a Christmas release was the original Diablo, which shipped on Jan 4 (if i recall correctly). Next closest would be the D2 expansion, which went out in November.

I think the Christmas sales release is only for B titles that are easily lost in the sea of mediocrity...

they had a better chance this xmas not a worse one

[liminality]

seems to me that game companies had a much *better* chance this xmas than previous ones. this christmas, we had no Half-Life 2, no Doom, no new Zelda, no new Mario, no Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, no Fable, no Halo 2. this season there was a *lack* of premier titles of the kind that are likely to drown out the smaller ones. my guess is that other game companies, expecting huge games like Half-Life 2 and Doom to make their ship dates, scaled back their marketing in anticipation of being overlooked. big mistake. 2004 is going to be a far more competitive year than xmas 2003 would ever be considered.

Trust your own work damnit!

[MMaestro]

Is weak sales when launching outside the holiday season a genuine problem, or just a self-perpetuating myth?

I don't think superstition is really the root of the problem here. I think its an issue of trust and communications between the developers and their marketing department. Old traditional marketing research dictates that "Christmas Release = More Sales" no matter what market (unless you work in something like the swimsuit industry). However, this is not true in the case of video games. With successful marketing a game like Neverwinter Nights, Starcraft, or Half-Life could all sell well even if they weren't release near Christmas season.

I chose these three games as examples because : Neverwinter Nights was released in June, pretty much as far away as Christmas as you can get but was insanely marketed for its modding systems. Starcraft was not an existing franchise and was a deviation from Warcraft 2's, two side system as well as a change in "universes" and was pushed by Blizzard. And Half-Life was developed by a company (Valve) no one had ever heard of prior to its release but was pumped with talk (relatively) smart AI and implementation of a strong storyline.