EEDAR: 2010 delays smart decision for game publishers
With so many publishers intentionally pushing games out of the holiday season, Q1 2010 is shaping up to be one of the most competitive release windows in the history of gaming. Bayonetta, Army of Two, Dark Void, MAG, BioShock 2, Dante's Inferno, Lost Planet 2, Heavy Rain, Aliens Vs Predator, Final Fantasy XIII, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, God of War III, Mass Effect 2, Splinter Cell Conviction, No More Heroes 2, and Red Steel 2 are just some of the games to come out in the first three months of 2010. Doesn't it seem as though the industry is preparing for yet another cannibalistic quarter, akin to the holiday?
EEDAR's Jesse Divnich doesn't necessarily think so. He argues that "publishers who purposely diverted their AAA holiday titles into 2010 made the proper decision and will likely realize stronger sales with a post-holiday release than a holiday release." And the reasoning? The combination of Mario, Modern Warfare 2 and Assassin's Creed 2 predictably impacted the sales of all other games. "High quality games are selling less units in the 2009 holiday season compared to 2008," Divinich noted by analyzing the sales of games with Metacritic scores of 80 and above.
Still, we can't help but look at the first paragraph with awe. Can our wallets even survive an onslaught of that magnitude? We have an easy solution for publishers: there's an entire "summer" season to consider when releasing games.
