Video Game Release Dates, and why do so many come out at Christmas?

(The written opinion here is that of Rob Potchak and not that of any company he has worked for, does work for, or will work for in the future)

Hopefully, by now, a lot of you have had the opportunity to listen to the 9-12 episode, where Ward and I discuss all the upcoming titles, and how a once thought light holiday is now shaping up to be overflowing with digital dreams.

We've talked a little about how we aren't upset about the games that continue to get pushed back, mainly because we are tired of incomplete games shipping and waiting for fixes, error corrections, or downright updates for the game to run properly (yes, I'm looking at you, Battlefield).

Dragon Age and Assassin's Creed have both been pushed to about the last possible week that a title can be pushed to and still really be successful in the arduous holiday season, or 11/18, which now means that your local game store will be opening for midnight, because DA, AC and FarCry4 all come out on the same day, and it's ramping up to be a really strong week, albeit much weaker than last year, when that's right between the PS4 and XboxOne launches.

Rockstar has now entered that same date as the day Grand Theft Auto V will launch on PS4 and Xbox One, once again, pushing those midnight launches, and this is the first time in recent memory that Grand Theft Auto hasn't beat to it's own drum, but more to the checkbook guys in accounting for 2K and Take Two. But that leads me to the real point of this blog, games like Grand Theft Auto do not get caught in the holiday frenzy too often, and the reason that is, is because it doesn't have to. It creates it's own "holiday," shattering sales records every time they ship a new game, and it isn't just GTA, as Red Dead Redemption, Max Payne and others have done the same thing in the past.

For this, I applaud Rocksteady and WB Games for stating this week that BATMAN: ARKHAM KNIGHT will ship on June 2nd, thus taking it out of ANY other launch window, but totally giving the industry exactly what it needs, and when it needs it. Think about it, in June, don't you feel that the world needs a TEEN rated game, just as school is going out of session? An amazing concept that video game publishers have all but forgotten, leaving retailers to fend for themselves in a dried up market for 2-3 months. I know I want a game at that time of year because I won't have played anything new for months by that point.

Look at Warner Bros launch lineup for the next year (so far). The ONLY game they are launching in the holiday window that is AAA is Lego Batman 3, and that's because it needs to be out before Christmas as another option for the Pokemon kids. Their other games? Dying Light? January 27th. Witcher 3? February 24th.

It's a bold but calculated risk on their part, and I'm more excited about their possibilities from it. More companies should take that bold step and create a holiday for their game releases. Heck, we may not have even seen their biggest game, since Mad Max wasn't even shown this week.

I'm all for every month getting a major game launch. It allows players that always want something fresh to be able to have a 30 day window between releases, and doesn't pull from their own possible sales.

Look at the EA Sports window...Madden 8/26, NHL 9/9, FIFA 9/23 and NBA (I know, 2k isn't their's) 10/7...that's too much sport, not enough time. I'd be putting them out about every three months, and their sales would probably increase because it'd give the sport guy more time to play one before jumping to the others.

Just one man's opinion, but logic dictates success, folks.

Rob