EA exec: 'Industry' slowly discovering rest of calendar

Personally, with my huge backlog, I wouldn't mind if all the best games were crammed into the end of this year :P

A few DUH moments from the source article:

"I think the industry has finally gone, 'Wow, we could probably just come out just like the movies do'. Movies launch on Christmas day, they launch blockbusters during the summer, and we're now learning that we could probably launch a game at any time, and if it's a good game it will be well received. DUH

And Schofield effectively confirmed that a sequel to sci-fi horror title Dead Space is in the works, remarking: "We haven't announced anything yet, but I don't think you take a game that's rated 89 and just go, 'Well, that was a failure'.

"And you know what, we'll figure that out, because the hardest thing is the quality. If you figure out the quality, then at some point we're going to figure out how to get that out there." DUH

If we figure out the quality, ahhhhh that's priceless...

Duh

I've never understood why the summer is a no-fly zone for high profile releases. The summer is huge for blockbuster movies and video games are a similar entertainment. The gaming market is still largely students who more time to game during the summer months. And since the summer months are largely dead, it's a perfect time to corner the market with a big release.

October - December 08 was ridiculous for releases. I thought it did all titles a disservice to cram so many in such a small time frame. I know I skipped a few games that I otherwise would've bought/rented if they had been spaced out a bit better. I guess everyone was wanting to be the holiday winner.

Yes please. A year-long release calendar is a win for all: gamers, reviewers and for titles that would otherwise get drowned out by bigger ones.

You guys forgot to add Metal Gear Solid 4. Middle of June last year, sold through the summer. I'm sure it did pretty well during the holiday rush season as well.

If game companies would discover the rest of the year, then my wallet has a good chance of discovering their games.

I think this is a hold-over from when most gamers were under the age of 18. Now that many of us are beyond college age and have our own money to spend, we can afford to buy our own games rather than hoping to get them for Christmas. While I still get a few games as gifts for Christmas and birthday presents, the majority of my games are bought by me when they're released.

There have been enough examples of blockbuster games selling very well during the "off" months recently that I believe publishers are recognizing that it's a viable time to release games. I don't know why it's taken them so long to realize this.

All the reason for ESA to move up E3 for summer releases.

I think the industry already has awoken, considering Mario Kart Wii and GTAIV in late April, and Wii Fit in early May were the three best-selling titles of last year, and MGS4 in June was one of the top PS3 titles (if not the top, i don't remember exactly)

Sony is Still beating us over the head this Holiday Season with Uncharted 2 & God of War 3. not to mention all those PSP games mentioned yesterday. something tells me at LEAST 2 will come out after August

I still haven't gotten around to picking up a bunch of games that came out at the end of 08. I still have a huge backlog to conquer, not to mention games I want to run through again.

I'll echo everyone else, this is one of those thing that have always baffled me. It's right up there with "Why are all women so stupid?" and "Why are good tv shows canceled, while NCIS remains on the air?"

Just lifes enigma's I spose.

About time... so many good games that suffer from neglect on my PC because they came out at the same time as other good games.

Halo 3's September release also comes to mind.

HMX released its first albums in the summer. I bought SfV, Pixies and The Who, in total 30 something dollars. This is in addition to other DLC i bought. Do you want to know why I could buy so much stuff from bands I'd nevered listen to before? Because I had no other games to spend my money on.

And I'm a RB whore. Not quite a DLC yet but this summer I should be.

I don't personally mind a large amount of games coming out at the same time of year - by the time I work through my log enough to justify picking them up, they've usually dropped in price.

Granted, this is only really good for me - not developers trying to make money or get new IP noticed.

The crowded Q4 release window is all about limited retail space combined with the fact that 25% of the industry's sales come in December. If 25% of movie ticket sales all happened in December you'd see a whole lot more movies coming out in November/December.

The main difference this past year was that Nintendo sucked up all the dollars. Look at the sales numbers for AC in 2007. There's no way they sell that many units if they released it earlier in the year.

I think everyone thought exactly the same thing I did after reading this article:

"WHY DID IT TAKE THIS LONG?"

Yeah I always thought how stupid it is to have ZERO games to play during summers,finally someone noticed.

Dunno about you guys, but I have at least one game coming out that I will buy at launch every month from here until June, including Feb. There are other titles that will probably be coming after that obviously, but it just reinforces this article. Seems this year I'll be putting game money in my budget, because htye will be coming out at a pretty even-steven rate.

Not complaining, although I don't think I'll ever find time to get 100% trophies in full length titles anymore. Like, I'll probably not have a chance to do a Crushing run on Uncharted before the sequel comes out. I started a second play through of Dead Space a while ago, as well as started the Time Trials in Mirror's Edge, then I got wrapped up in Condemned 2. KZ2, Eat Lead, and RE5 just around the corner. I'll barely be able to finish these games once at this rate!

I resorted to PC gaming and modding last gen, as the console games didn't really appeal to me. I bought so few games and mostly just played Counter Strike. This generation is so different. I'm buying new games at full price instead of eBaying them long after price drops, I'm playing a TON more console games than PC, reserving and buying games on release day... hell, this is the first gen that I've actually known any release dates off the top of my head.