Or rather, when release dates collide. We’re all too familiar with the typical “holiday rush”, where a number of overhyped “A” titles show up within a short time of each other.
It’s been going on for years, and not likely to stop anytime soon. For instance, both BioShock 2 and Dragon Age: Origins are slated for an October release. That’s October of this year ;)
You’d think companies would stagger the release a bit, because gamers do buy product the year around. But according to a report from research firm EEDAR, the Christmas season is the best time to bring out a game:
Regardless of how you slice the data, games that score 85 or above in quality sell 15 to 20 percent more in their lifetime if released in the holiday than in the off-season.
If that’s accurate, then we can expect the usual glut every year beginning in late fall to continue. Which brings to mind the question: how do you decide which game to buy?
Especially when there are several titles you’re anticipating, and you can’t get them all. At least not right away. Of course, I know a lot of you will wait for that first (second, third…) patch before buying anything.
Even so, are you annoyed when you have to choose from among multiple products? Ot does it no longer matter that much to you, and you wait for games to drop into the bargain bin?
Well, personally, I have a lot more time to play games in the winter, so that works pretty well for me. And I don’t mind waiting awhile to buy a game (as you point out, waiting for the first few patches is often wise).
Bottom line: I’m just glad to see games released, and if there are two or three at once that I think I’ll like, that’s even better. Whether it’s also good for the game companies, I don’t know.
I would tend to doubt their conclusion.
Most of the highly hyped games are released in the holiday season. These games will sell a lot of copies regardless of when they are released. I also find that these highly hyped games tend to get higher scores. Although the statistic may be accurate, I think the interpretation may not be.
wait 6-9months when it’s in the bargin bin.
I have to say bargain bin. I was at the store last night deciding between the $50 new game and a $20 three pack of classics. Got the 3-pack. Dungeon Lords, Gothic 3 and Loki. Enjoying DL quite a bit, despite the poor reviews. The only bug I’ve hit is due to being on Vista, you have to “run as admin”, and I can’t really blame the developers for that. Of course it’s well patched by now, another good reason to wait.
Bargeral,
Most of the reviews for Dungeon Lords apply to the original release which had so many bugs that even a case of Raid couldn’t touch, missing features and spells, etc.
The only version of DL that can be found now would be the highly polished DL Collector’s Edition.
yep it’s the CE. I just realized that some of the quests I accepted drove my guild choices, so time to re-roll. I could go back to a early save, but I think rouge isn’t doing it for me anyway. Off to find a class guide….
Bargeral, hint, THE best starting class would be the celestial. This is the only class that starts with 2 charges in a healing crystal and 2 charges in a pacify crystal. The healing crystal saves you from using a lot of healing potions, Whereas, the other crystal stops one monster from attacking for each use of the crystal.
I really don’t care when the game is released. I think a lot of problems we currently have with buggy releases are because that they are rushing them out the door to make the holiday ship date. A good game will sell regardless of whenever it is released, though I concede it might get a larger bump due to holiday spending.
What happened to the summer rush? In years past there seemed to be a huge number of titles being released around June, coinciding with the end of school. I don’t see that as much anymore, but 10-15 years ago it was the norm. I guess we might have that to some extent with the Sims 3 coming out tomorrow or Infamous on the PS3 last week but not like it used to be.
It’s the rare title I buy at release. Bioshock was the last that I remember buying the day it came out, and Oblivion before that. I prefer to stay 6 months to a year behind the curve. By that time the patches are out and the price has dropped. Dragon Age is the only one I see on the horizon that I might buy at launch. I got to play a lot of things when they first came out when my oldest son was still living at home since he would buy them as soon as available, but myself, I would rather wait.
I like the “vote with your dollar” philosophy. If it’s got what I think makes a game great, they get my new (or relatively new) release money for the game. Otherwise, I try to stay behind the curve. Got what would have been $500 in XBox games that way.
celestial is cool. I threw one up for the starting area and had I known that’s what I’d roll. I’m not sure I want to start over right now. Just got my Fighter/Mage into town and that sewer isn’t something I want to tackle again right now.
Side note, playing multiplayer with the youngest and some quest type bugs. Like my char doesn’t have the resurrection celestial token since I (apparently) never got the letter from the campfire guy. I don’t know if I could have pooched that in singleplayer. We are now through the town into next forest, but I know she doesn’t have some of the quests - mulitplayer isn’t the best way to progress in this game it seems. Not if you like to follow the plot.
Hum…..
No post for Saturday, 5/30
No post for Sunday, 5/31
No post for Monday, 6/1
No response from Scorpia for several days.
Is the Scorpia’s Gaming Lair deserted?
Did Scorpia deserted us?
Does Coyote want to move into this Lair?
Did Scorpia and the Scorpionslayer had an epic fight?
And lost???
So, where oh where has our Scorpia gone?
Oh where, oh where has she been???
Heh - I was gonna ask the same thing. If she’s having technical issues, I hope they are resolved. If she’s on vacation (and I missed the announcement), I hope she’s having a lot of fun.
Most of all, I hope she’s okay.