What peev's me about the endless surge of titles every Fall is quite simple...
Every year we go for six months or more of a drought period. Where nothing remarkable is ever released (usually big movie tie in's that suck major ass, but sell becuase there is F'all else on the shelves) , but if were lucky the odd gem may slip out of the woodwork...
And yet come fall / winter we are served masses and masses of great eagerly anticipated titles. This can not be good for the industry. It doesnt even matter if a game is a pure glitter of gold like POP:Sands of Time, or Beyond Good & Evil... Hitting the market at this time is always a complete gamble, and there is no doubt in my mind that if publishers held a couple of these titles back till the new year, or spring - then they would do consierably better at retail.
It's pure madness. A studio like Ubisoft will put out maybe 10-20 titles in the vein hope that at least 1 or 2 will sell well and cover the costs of the others that bomb.
Too much choice is bad in this instance.
OK you could argue too many games is better than none, and whilst this is partially true, it's still not a good thing because people only have a certain budget to work from.
They do not save up the rest of the year to hit the stores at christmas. If no games are released in June or July, people still spend the money they may have spent on a game, on somthing else... They dont have a little game piggy bank....
With game budgets geting bigger and bigger...................... This gamble publishers are playing at the end of the year is getting bigger and bigger too.
Eventually the industry is going to have to try and create some balance, because at the moment there certainly is a disturbance in the 'gaming' force... And it's veering too close to the dark side....
So gamers need to take a firm hold of their lightsaber and beging tossing around the idea of getting some action during the summer for a change
