I'm not one much for clever t-shirts much anymore, but this is one worth considering. I've had seven out of the twelve in my life. Actually, I probably still have them all in a box somewhere (much to the wife's chagrin).
Control Freak, $20 from Busted Tees
busted tees, clothing, t-shirts | in Classic Games, Web In the movie industry, studios plan the releases of their big titles carefully. The Harry Potters of the world are never released on the same, or even the adjoining, weekend as the Transformers, the Batmans, the other tentpole hits. Studios want their movies to have exclusivity to a weekend, to generate the buzz, to pull in the big opening weekend numbers.
One would expect similar behavior in the release dates of video games, that having an exclusive window around your AAA release would guarantee greater buzz, better initial weekend sales, and higher sustained sales as people buy the game, love it, and tell their friends.
Looking back over the last six (eight? ten?) months of video game releases, it’s been slim pickings for “games I want to buy” – and granted that’s a very subjective list. There was Portal 2, which I bought and loved. I considered LA Noire, but after hearing a poor review from a colleague, I passed on for now. Not a lot else. Sure, there were lots of “version 2.5s” – sequels which appear to be slightly enhanced versions of the original game rushed to market to make money (Left for Dead 2 is an excellent example of what I mean) – but no games which left me tracking their release date or going to GameStop to preorder.
So the Gentlemen have been playing Battlefield 2 over the summer of 2011. Great game, we enjoyed the multiplayer with its rewards for team play, different soldier classes and vehicles. This game was released in 2009, and yet almost two years later it’s the best one we could agree on for our online entertainment.
This brings us to the fall of 2011. Between early September and the end of the year, we have Dead Island, Gears of War 3, Battlefield 3, Dead Rising 2, Batman Arkham City, Halo Combat Evolved. Modern Warfare 3, and of course Minute to Win It. Lots of great games that I’d definitely consider dropping $60 on (I do realize they’re almost all sequels and one is a release), but I’m simply not going to buy them all. There’s not enough time. So, GoW3, and BF3, you get my preorder money. Dead Island got my $60, but that’s likely going on the shelf Tuesday (GoW3 day). Looking at the number of bugs in Dead Island, Deep Silver was trying to beat the other titles into the market – judging by their sales, a smart move.
I realize there are a lot of factors that go into a release date. I work in the software industry (albeit on the B2B side), so I understand the amount of work - design, development and testing - that goes into a software release. Holiday shopping is starting soon (if not already). Perhaps I’m being naïve, it just seems to me that if the studios planned their releases a bit better, they could get some more exclusivity, and therefore higher sales.
(No. "Thor" is not my Game Center nickname.)
Game Center is Apple's take on a "social gaming network." It keeps track of most all of the games I play on any iOS device (iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch), showing me my high scores and giving me achievements for different in-game challenges I've completed. On some games it will connect me with someone else (a friend or otherwise) so that I can play with them. It will also compare my scores to players all over the world, including my Game Center friends.
Wait. Game Center friends?
That's my problem.
Apple, Game Center, iOS, iPad, iPhone | in Commentary, Reviews, iPad, iPhone All the talk about the “Gameification” of video games in the Dead Island review Jason posted yesterday reminded me of a great TED Talk I watched about a year ago. In it, Tom Chatfield discusses the seven ways games reward our brains, from random rewards to purposeful tasks to receiving rewards on a schedule. And at the end he spends a few minutes talking about how these principals might be applied to the world around us.
I’m excited by the possibilities of applying these theories to real life (non-virtual) situations, if only because I’ve seen how video games have motivated me in ways that seem meaningless and silly to anyone who hasn’t experienced online gaming.
If you’ve got 20 minutes to spare, I think it’s definitely worth a watch.
TED, gameification, video | in Video, Web 
Too Many Great Games In Fall 2011? I Don't Like It, But I Get It
I wanted to write a quick response to Jason's great post last weekend about how, after the months and months of no new releases of any great console games (Portal 2 being the only real exception I can think of), we have loads of great titles all coming out between now and Christmas.
In many respects I agree with Jason. We've been having a lot of fun playing Battlefield Bad Company 2 (terrible name by the way) but it's a really old game. I'm psyched for Battlefield 3, but by the time it comes out I'll have only had my hands on Gears of War 3 for a few weeks. It would be way better to have more time with each. And in spreading out the titles there is a chance that I'd end up buying more games.
But what it all comes down to is the holiday buying season. Jason and I (as well as most all avid gamers) are extreme cases. We're going to buy these games anyway - they don't have to worry about getting our money. BFBC2 is a perfect example. We didn't play that game when it first came out because we were playing GoW2 horde mode for hours-on-end. But in the summer of 2011 - almost two whole years after it came out - we bought the game and (thanks to Stats Verse) we got really into it. For everyone else - the people who are more casual with their console gaming play - they are going to pick one of these games. And they are likely going to get it for the holidays so it's important to have that "new" game released during (or shortly before) the holiday season.
The movie industry staggers its releases as Jason says, but they have one big advantage over the video game industry. Even though the time, money and effort it takes to create a major video game is absolutely comparable to a major motion picture, the amount of time it takes someone to consume that content is vastly different. With a movie, after two hours it's over. You've seen it, loved it or hated it, and are ready to move on to the next blockbuster. A video game takes hours and hours to play, and often it takes many hours to just be able to figure out if you like it or not. Staggering release dates for movies means one per weekend which is pretty easy to do over the holiday season. For video games staggering releases while keeping everything in the holiday season is almost impossible.
And don't let Jason fool you. He'll end up buying them all anyway.