The poor sales of Titanfall 2 and less than stellar sales of some other large franchises in the past few years have got me wondering. With so much competition in the September - Dec months, why do AAA publishers keep insisting on releasing their games during the fall?
The two big reasons I can see for releasing in the fall, off the top of my head
1. Holiday season / Gift-giving season
2. Easily timed to end-of-year for business/financial reasons?
But I have a big problem with #1. For holiday timing, mass-audience games (think Nintendo titles, annual sports titles, annual tentpole titles) make a lot of sense. This is gift-giving season after all. This is the perfect time to release titles for people who aren't normally buying games the rest of the year but enjoy a handful of titles annually, because it allows them to be gifted. Same for "everyone" titles like Nintendo games, because, well, kids are less likely to buy games for themselves anyway. It only makes sense to load a lot of releases near the year-end so that parents have more eyes on the titles their children want for the holidays (Pokemon is the obvious example title falling into this category).
But what about the rest? Let's think for a second about what we've got coming this year. We just had Titanfall 2, Battlefield 1 and Gears of War 4 as well as Civ VI and Mafia 3. Soon we'll have Call of Duty, Dishonored 2 and then soon after Final Fantasy XV and The Last Guardian. Apart from BF1 and CoD, I'd argue these are less than general audience titles (in relation to "general audiences" and not necessarily familiar to those who aren't plugged into gaming as much). And yet,all these titles are competing with each other, But why? There's a whole swath of the year games can be released in, and yet many publishers ignore it? Summer is notorious for being a lull in releases. Hell, it seems like this year Overwatch ran away with the whole summer in part because there was just nothing else around (OK, Battleborn was a thing. I guess.).
As for #2, well, i don't know the inner workings of each publisher (and I don't want to), but it seems like this isn't reason enough to consistently target Q3/Q4 for literally every large-scale release they have.
So I have to wonder, what's the point of releasing in this timeframe, among all these other titles, when the advantages seem to be disappearing year after year, unless you are a huge tentpole title like CoD? Is it just some old tradition from the '90s and early 2000s that publishers just don't want to stop?
Speaking of advantages, here's the clear disadvantages:
- Much, much steeper competition between titles releasing on the same day
- Crowded market (especially for shooters / multiplayer)
- Tighter internal deadlines with no wiggle room (game must be done by Q4)
And there's probably even many more I'm not considering.
Here's the really confusing bit of all this. Back in the '90s, most games were targeted to mass-market (e.g. kids, adults, everyone). Big titles made sense to go for holidays: kids hardly bought games on their own, and if they did, it might be limited to some allowance spend once per year. So publishers had to take advantage of the time of year when parents were giving their children gifts, and releasing right before the holidays just made sense.
But today? Well, we've got more and more games targeted to the 18-35 demographic than (by my estimation) we've ever had before. You can just tell by seeing how many M-rated titles are slated for release. And yet many of these titles are going for Holiday 2016. But here's the thing: adults can buy games whenever the hell they want. I know I do. I know you do. So why are they so obsessed with the magic 4-month stretch of September - December? Is it just some old, hard-to-die tradition publishers are clinging to for some reason? Or is there something I'm just not realizing? People getting holiday bonuses or something? I'm reaching here. I, for one, think they are too afraid to release outside fall because it's what has worked for so, so long. But now, when the signs are pointing to it not really working as much anymore, publishers keep doing it because it's all they know. They are afraid to risk a summer release at the cost of loosing that holiday market, but at the risk of going up against Call of Duty at retail? I just don't get it.
Sometimes I wonder how some titles would perform if they weren't released the same time as every other huge franchise installment.
Any thoughts, GAF?
The two big reasons I can see for releasing in the fall, off the top of my head
1. Holiday season / Gift-giving season
2. Easily timed to end-of-year for business/financial reasons?
But I have a big problem with #1. For holiday timing, mass-audience games (think Nintendo titles, annual sports titles, annual tentpole titles) make a lot of sense. This is gift-giving season after all. This is the perfect time to release titles for people who aren't normally buying games the rest of the year but enjoy a handful of titles annually, because it allows them to be gifted. Same for "everyone" titles like Nintendo games, because, well, kids are less likely to buy games for themselves anyway. It only makes sense to load a lot of releases near the year-end so that parents have more eyes on the titles their children want for the holidays (Pokemon is the obvious example title falling into this category).
But what about the rest? Let's think for a second about what we've got coming this year. We just had Titanfall 2, Battlefield 1 and Gears of War 4 as well as Civ VI and Mafia 3. Soon we'll have Call of Duty, Dishonored 2 and then soon after Final Fantasy XV and The Last Guardian. Apart from BF1 and CoD, I'd argue these are less than general audience titles (in relation to "general audiences" and not necessarily familiar to those who aren't plugged into gaming as much). And yet,all these titles are competing with each other, But why? There's a whole swath of the year games can be released in, and yet many publishers ignore it? Summer is notorious for being a lull in releases. Hell, it seems like this year Overwatch ran away with the whole summer in part because there was just nothing else around (OK, Battleborn was a thing. I guess.).
As for #2, well, i don't know the inner workings of each publisher (and I don't want to), but it seems like this isn't reason enough to consistently target Q3/Q4 for literally every large-scale release they have.
So I have to wonder, what's the point of releasing in this timeframe, among all these other titles, when the advantages seem to be disappearing year after year, unless you are a huge tentpole title like CoD? Is it just some old tradition from the '90s and early 2000s that publishers just don't want to stop?
Speaking of advantages, here's the clear disadvantages:
- Much, much steeper competition between titles releasing on the same day
- Crowded market (especially for shooters / multiplayer)
- Tighter internal deadlines with no wiggle room (game must be done by Q4)
And there's probably even many more I'm not considering.
Here's the really confusing bit of all this. Back in the '90s, most games were targeted to mass-market (e.g. kids, adults, everyone). Big titles made sense to go for holidays: kids hardly bought games on their own, and if they did, it might be limited to some allowance spend once per year. So publishers had to take advantage of the time of year when parents were giving their children gifts, and releasing right before the holidays just made sense.
But today? Well, we've got more and more games targeted to the 18-35 demographic than (by my estimation) we've ever had before. You can just tell by seeing how many M-rated titles are slated for release. And yet many of these titles are going for Holiday 2016. But here's the thing: adults can buy games whenever the hell they want. I know I do. I know you do. So why are they so obsessed with the magic 4-month stretch of September - December? Is it just some old, hard-to-die tradition publishers are clinging to for some reason? Or is there something I'm just not realizing? People getting holiday bonuses or something? I'm reaching here. I, for one, think they are too afraid to release outside fall because it's what has worked for so, so long. But now, when the signs are pointing to it not really working as much anymore, publishers keep doing it because it's all they know. They are afraid to risk a summer release at the cost of loosing that holiday market, but at the risk of going up against Call of Duty at retail? I just don't get it.
Sometimes I wonder how some titles would perform if they weren't released the same time as every other huge franchise installment.
Any thoughts, GAF?
