The winds of change are blowing, no longer shall gamers need suffer a terribly parched gaming summer, big names pulling back from ”crowded holiday”.
It’s all thanks to the volatile economy agrees Codemasters, analyst Pachter and ShopTo. Early summer windows will help reduce marketing costs, help titles ”stand out” much better.
”We’re beginning to see a change in summer releases,” said analyst Michael Pachter, from Wedbush Morgan. ”It actually started a year ago, with GTA (April) and Metal Gear Solid 4 (May) having pretty solid success. EA pushed Tiger and Fight Night forward, and will release FIFA and Need for Speed in September, earlier than usual.”
So we have Rockstar Games and Kojima Production’s to thank? Of course we do, as always.
”A lot of this is to limit risk from a crowded holiday release schedule. EA had a bad time with too many games in the October-November time frame last year. They decided to spread things out in order to be more competitive.” EA have acknowledged they screwed up.
ShopTo boss Igor Cipolletta recounts most of Christmas 2008’s titles were all discounted within ”a few short weeks” because of the number released from publishers.
”Traditionally, the summer and early autumn have been a very quiet period for game releases, and it would seem to be worth a change of focus to advertise and release some titles within this window; customers may have money now, but will they still have that money come the Christmas rush?” asks Cipolletta.
”…would the publishers rather have decent sales in a pre-Christmas market or are they happy to see their titles as weekly specials or bargain bin fodder crushed under the weight of sales of Modern Warfare 2, FIFA 10 and Forza Motorsport 3?”
”The earlier release date will reduce their advertising budgets and allow their title to stand out, rather than getting lost under the sheer weight of releases when we reach October, November time,” he went on, referring to franchises without a massive following.
Publisher Codemasters is all about the summer months this year, with a number of titles already having hit the shops; Overlord II at June’s end, FUEL at June’s beginning and Ashes Cricket this month.
”For Codemasters, it’s always been about spreading releases to the launch window that makes the most sense - fitting the right game to the right window,” says Codies Sam Cordier.
We haven’t quite landed the ideal release landscape just yet though. ”July will be sad, August will be better,” said Pachter. ”Hardware is still a driver of game sales, and the consoles and handhelds are just too expensive for those households who haven’t bought yet.”
”They have to come down in price to spark renewed interest, and if console/handheld sales are down by 500,000 - 700,000 units in July and August, software sales will be burdened by 1.5 - 2 million fewer units that aren’t purchased with new boxes.”
Cipolletta notes that publishers ”are choosing to revive well established franchises which they can sell to hardcore gamers, who will buy games all year round.” New properties that could receive ”a lukewarm reception/sales has become too big a risk, especially in the current economic climate,” he explained.
”That’s not to say we should abandon all hope of fresh and original titles, just that publishers may be wary of the risk,” stated the ShopTo boss. May the school summer break finally be filled with decent games?
Source: Eurogamer
