Second Take: Too Many Games?

[bennyblanx]

Ben and Rob discuss the GTA 4 delay, what this means for other titles being released during a busy fall gaming season and the marketing beast that is Halo 3.

Watch Video: http://www.twitchguru.com/site/flash_videos/second_take_too_many_games_.html

Are there too many good games being released at once? Are there titles coming out this fall you like, but are not planning to buy because other titles?

Also, we welcome feedback on the show.

Cheers,
Ben

 

[Little Jon]

This "holiday season" crunch has been ridiculous for years. It's a self-fulfilling prophesy. The industry says that games don't sell well at other times of the year, but that's because nothing gets released!

The industry is out of touch with gaming demographics. When the vast majority of gamers were kids, then holiday season releases were necessary as most kids obtained their games as presents. Now that gamers are aging and most have disposable income this old marketing model doesn't make any sense. Sure for games aimed at the younger audience it still applies, but not for 'M'-rated games, surely!

There have been many great games that have done relatively poorly due to the marketing monkeys choosing to release during the crunch. Obviously examples are "Prince of Persia: Sands of Time" and "Beyond Good and Evil". In the case of the former, the disappointing sales led the team to the wrong conclusion that the failure was due to the game not being "bad-***" enough, in turn producing the mistake that was "The Warrior Within".

Of course this kind of thing is just emblematic of the in-the-box thinkers who by and large dominate the marketing world. Mindlessly following dogmas learned at school leads to a destructive herd mentality. Sadly the other members of the development team (the ones who do the real creative work) end up suffering.

 

[Antigravity]

I never thought I would say or even think anything remotely near this but: "I think I agree with Little Jon" (WHAAT?!.....YEAH!!!)

When I clicked on the link and started to download the video, I found myself wondering why it was worded the way it was. Frankly, I've been sitting at home playing CS:S and Lost Planet over and over because nothing has come out that pushes my graphics card to the level I expect from the dx10 titles. There haven't been any PC games released lately that draw a massive audience and stir up some hype. The regular gamer has been waiting patiently for the next generation in gaming to blow their socks off. Here is a short list of the games we are all hyped up to play but still they continue to be pushed back:

Crysis
UT3
BioShock
TimeShift
Quake Wars
Gears of War

All of these games for the PC are supposed to rock. Yet nothing has been released to satisfy us until that time comes. I'd rather see them all come at once so I can have somthing else to play for the next 10 months when the season begins again for releases.

Bought this awesome GPU and nothing to really bring out the best in it. Just an increase from 40 fps to 80+ ...wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

 

[stemnin]

I got my gaming fix, i'm in the North, as in Eye of the North (Guild Wars expansion during August - SeptembeR), then i'm invading Earth as a Strogg Inifiltrator in Quake Wars in October, and 1 month after that, I fight North Koreans and aliens in Crysis, then I kick some Necris *** in UT3 (no release date).

I haven't been this excited since I saw the Starcraft 2 announcement trailer. I still believe that it will be out in April '08, maybe before then, but i'm not counting on it.

And that's just the surface of the iceberg for pc gaming in the near future.

 

[Trebuken]

Lots of complex issues in the gaming world this year. Vista has halted and advanced PC Gaming at once -- slowed developement but increased potential. The PS3 has not sold enough units to get the developers excited, so they put everything off until the holiday season to maximize sales (they gotta' do it to sell enough copies). Xbox360 is rolling...they have helped start an exclusive/not exclusive war which is what us primarily PC Gamers have demanded. Nintendos with the Wii have saved their big guns for the holidays, wait a minute, those are the only guns they've got outside the handheld market.

Anyways, Quake Wars shoulda' been out. Lair got pushed, it should of been out. The Phantom Hourglass and Dungeons and Dragons Tactics were anticipated in March. Warhawk was supposed to be a launch title. Blue Dragon came out some time ago in Japan -- do we really belive it took that long to translate and adopt this to our market? Heavenly Sword, Bladestorm, Mario Galaxy, and Metroid Prime were all supposed launch titles, they could have released them by now.

I'm betting Halo 3 was initially in developement for the original Xbox judging by the Beta and early screenshots. I least they have taken advantage of the intervening time to make it better.

GTA IV will benefit from the delay but I have no doubt it will slip to further to Christmas next year.

It sucks too much at once. Lost Planet and Crackdown sold very well early in the year and they could have kept going -- gaming dies not stop any more. We want games every month, not just for Christmas. Oh well, I'll by what I can play, the rest will wait until after Christmas when I can find them preowned.

 

[Antigravity]

Yeah, I finally just broke down and bought a fileplanet subscription so I could get into the Quake Wars beta.

So that and Tabula Rasa are whats keeping my gaming fix these days.

You can only play the same CSS maps over and over so many time before wondering....is 25 the age where my skills as an FPS gamer start to decine? Cause I am getting owned and I used to be awesome.

 

[ivanski]

This "holiday season" crunch has been ridiculous for years. It's a self-fulfilling prophesy. The industry says that games don't sell well at other times of the year, but that's because nothing gets released!

The industry is out of touch with gaming demographics. When the vast majority of gamers were kids, then holiday season releases were necessary as most kids obtained their games as presents. Now that gamers are aging and most have disposable income this old marketing model doesn't make any sense. Sure for games aimed at the younger audience it still applies, but not for 'M'-rated games, surely!

I totally agree,I'm aging fast and want to play'em all before I lose interest.
I upgraded my hardware just to play these so called "next generation" games.Ask me what new games I've been playing ....Stalker,it sucked.
By the time the games I upgraded my hardware for come out,there will be newer,more powerful cards and so basically I bought these for nothing.RELEASE THE FRIKEN GAMES ALREADY