Slashdot Mirror
The Christmas Rush In The Games Industry
Gamasutra has a piece offering up responses to their query regarding whether the Christmas rush helps or hurts the industry. From the article: " I think it benefits no one. Developers lose out because their hard work is fighting for a slice of the publishers' limited market resource. Publishers lose out because marketing will cost more in order to make an impact, and consumers lose because they'll miss out on some truly good games just because they either can't afford to buy them all at release, so they don't get bought at all, or they just won't have time to play all the games they do buy properly. -Sean Scaplehorn, IdeaWorks 3D Ltd "
The quotes in the article are definatley interesting, but I have to say as an avid gamer that I'm certainly part of the contingent that has missed out on some great titles due to the blitzkreig of games pushed out on shelves just in time for the X-mas rush. I spend a decent amount of my leisure time gaming, but as is the case with a lot of us that leisure time doesn't amount to much. I'd love to be able to try out the new games when they are released and see how they stack up in my own opinion rather than reading a ton of reviews from someone else's point of view, but it's not fiscally responsible during a season of giving. Just my $.02
The movie industry has no problem throwing most of their good offerings in the same time frame. Movies don't appeal to everybody, so you throw a lot out there and see what hits. The same story is probably true with games. I don't care if the latest sports game ships or not, but I keep my eyes open for new FPS's and RPG's. I'm sure it's the case for a lot of people. Sequels and expansions probably have it relatively easy, people that like them are going to be watching for the new stuff anyway. New games have to have something special to offer to get me to buy them. Throwing a Star Wars skin on Battlefront isn't going to get me to buy it, regardless of how much marketing goes into it. If, as a developer, you deliver good story lines I'll probably buy it regardless of season.
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
because people get bored waiting around. When a massive game hits in july it's always bought by many people but now we have a line up of about 10 games I probably would buy if it was over the 12 monthes, but they shove all the "quality" games here. RE4, I'm skipping again, Soul Calibur 3 I might get (now that I read about character creation), Ratchet Deadlocked which is my favorite series I'm only considering, Tony Hawk I'm skipping, Jak X which might have gotten attention in August, is getting overlooked now (and likely should be from what I heard).
Not to meantion the 360, and the 360 games that are getting PC ports will get mostly ignored by me now (though Oblviion will get picked up! YEAAA Elder Scrolls!)
Basically it's not just a shopping time, it's the console release time so everyone's working ultra hard at grabbing money and attention and I have to say it's gonna be a devistating season for some of the losers.
I have to say this year is probably the worst in recent time about pacing, the last couple has been a bit dull, but this year has been semi dull and all of a suddent just ran headfirst into a christmas holiday packed with games, but money will definatly run out before the end of the line for most fans and so many crap games are going to be picked up because of the confusion.
Imagine if they kept Zelda's date for this year at christmas, that game would have gotten overlooked by some people, I'm sorta glad they moved it to April now.