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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?
Come on, people. It seems to me that every Christmas a certain number of games is going to be sold. It doesn't matter if those games are less than a month old! Kid wants game, parents buy game. I'm not saying taking a flagship-type title and releasing it Dec. 1 is a bad idea, not at all. But releasing a huge mash of games? Mightn't it be better to just have a couple great new ones, backed up by similiarly solid, but slightly older titles?
Much more than that, I hate having to wait for Xmas for half the games I want to come out. I miss out on games that way. I can only get a few out of the cluster. And I'm not always likely to go back and catch the remains later. I would probably buy more games, overall, if more companies had more even release schedules.
Once there comes about a major, significant videogame award event, watch for the "Oscar effect": they'll still be released around Xmas.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
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.
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
"Moderate drinking can help prevent amputated limbs" -- Abigail Zuger, NYTimes, 12/31/02
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.
I am a video game programmer, and have been in the industry for many years. Here's what I've experienced. The reason why Christmas is a big season is that games won't sit on the shelf for very long. The retailers quickly move games off the shelf to make room for new games. Since titles sell more units around Christmas, it makes sense to release them then. If I have a game that I release in June, chances are it won't sell nearly as well as it would around Christmas. And chances are, even if it is a good game, it won't be stocked by most retailers by the time Christmas rolls around. This is *especially* true of the really big retailers, for example WalMart and Toys 'r Us. On the other hand, certain titles sell well at different times of the year. Sports titles tend to sell well during the first half of whatever the sports season is, and poorly after that (comparitively speaking). Everyone here of course mentions games they would buy games no matter what the time of year is, but all the examples I've seen cited are existing franchises. Most game companies will try and release their unknown titles and/or new franchises during the Christmas holiday, and have their known titles release at other times of the year to fill the void. When I say unknown titles, I mean unknown, and not bad. I know plenty of games that were very good in my opinion, and just didn't sell well, usually because of poor marketing support or releasing at an awkward time.
The industry really needs a good way to keep consumers up to date about titles that are released and a way to test them out. Magazines that consist of nothing but demo CD's, for example, or timed kiosks at stores. Sure, they'd be swamped all of the time, but that's what kiosks are for.
When a new movie is released, there is an entire secondary industry around promoting it's theatre release, a cheap theater release, it sees more hype at rental stores, and finally the television premier nets more airtime. With videogames it is all or nothing, with a store shelf release that will see 1/2 of the profits in the first two months, ultimately culminating in... A store shelf release. The only people telling anyone about a game are the magazines and websites that people who are interested can go to. When was the last time you went to a website to hear hype about LOTR?
We need to get the industry to the point where John Tesh on E! gushing about Half Life 2's amazing graphics and solid storyline. Maybe then the quirky little games can have their spotlight... and their elongated shelf life.
The ______ Agenda
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.