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.
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.