We should have all seen it coming. We should have all known it couldn’t happen as planned. We ignored the first signs as insignificant and meaningless. But now that we’re in the thick of the holiday video game release season, it’s clear: Many of the games we were told would be released this year are not going to be… but don’t panic! We’ve still got plenty to play and be excited for. This may actually even turn out to be a good thing, and here’s why…

If you ask any videogame developer, they’ll tell you that the majority of their income comes from holiday season game releases and sales. If you ask any videogame advertiser or marketing executive, they’ll tell you the majority of their advertising for the year is spent during the holiday season. But if you ask any consumer, they’ll likely tell you they (roughly) make the same amount of money each month, year round. How are we supposed to afford 10-12 $60 games in a 2-3 month period? Have these gaming companies not realized that to some degree we spend more money during the holidays because, well, that’s when they market and release most of their games the heaviest?

If several of the games that have already been delayed until next year end up being decent games and launch in the traditionally “dead” period between January and March (the end of the fiscal year), then maybe the gaming public might have more reason to spend money during this period. Personally I hate going without a great game for months and then getting 3-4 at once. I’d rather have them spread out. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out. If the games are crap and don’t sell during that period, or they magically get moved to a Spring release (read Q1 2008) then we’ll probably see no change as there usually are a few decent Spring releases.

Of course, this does bring up another point that I’ll just address as an aside since it could easily constitute its own rant some other day. Why do people even care if they’re playing a game when it first comes out rather than waiting a few months to get it? Well, I put the blame (or credit, depending on which side of the transaction you’re on) mostly on Microsoft here. The undeniable success of Xbox Live and Gamerscore/Achievements has people racing to play games as soon as they’re released so they can get the Achievements/Gamerscore as soon as possible and if the people that truly value playing online with their friends that do this, they had better be playing online when the game is new or else their friends will be off playing some other new game when they finally get around to it.

In a way, games are becoming consumables to a certain degree. And isn’t that just great for Microsoft and the game publishers? Much like Microsoft is partially responsible for driving people to fly through hardware by the way they keep a steady march on the OS and DirectX fronts, homing in on what makes people jump on games immediately helps keep the game publishers flow of games being consumed. I’ve never personally been bitten by the Achievement/Gamerscore bug, but that’s about all I want to say on that topic, back to the rant at hand.

If we, as gamers, get more games throughout the rest of the year (and more importantly, we support the games worthy of a purchase) maybe some fragment of a message will make it through to developers, publishers, and marketing departments saying “Yes, I’m here. I work all twelve months on the calendar and get paid regularly. I like new games in the OTHER 9 months of the year as well!“. But if games get bumped from one holiday season all the way around the calendar until they’re almost in the next holiday season, well, then I’d question whether they were (or are) worth my time and effort to check out (let alone my money).

Not that we’ll have ANY impact on game publishers’ plans by simply discussing it, but what are your thoughts or suggestions for the mass quantity of games targeted at the Oct/Nov/Dec (or even arguably Sep/Oct/Nov) time frame? What are your personal spending or game quantity limits within that time period? Do you have a problem intentionally waiting on a game to buy and play it during “the lean times”? Are you a sucker for “Gotta have it on release day!” syndrome? I’m curious to here what you guys think about this; maybe you don’t think it’s a problem at all.

There are times of the year when nothing good comes out, then I look at the 9 day period from Nov. 12 through Nov. 20 and wonder how people are able to come up that much money or how they make their game buying decisions… Assassin’s Creed, Super Mario Galaxy, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Rock Band, Mass Effect, Need For Speed ProStreet, WWE Smackdown Vs. RAW 2008, Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, Time Crisis 4, Rayman Raving Rabbids 2, Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles, Soul Calibur Legends, Tomb Raider Anniversary Wii Edition, Wii Zapper w/Link’s Crossbow Training, Trauma Center: New Blood, etc. That doesn’t even take into account PC or handheld games.

Yikes. My wallet is trembling… must… not… panic…

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