[Wii] Release Date Mentalism

[Petrousgyre]

It's unbelievable. How hard can it be to co-ordinate releases?

An interesting question. There may be an issue surrounding publishers talking about release dates and altering them based on their competition as I'm guessing it could be seen as collusion and engaging in anti-competitive practices.

[scottcr]

I view motion plus release almost as a new console release/push... I think it's in the publishers interests to get games to tie up with that. It's like getting a game out in time for release. You want to be the '2nd game' that everyone buys with their shiny new console. I really do think Ghostbusters is going to do well because of this ... I may be (probably) wrong.

[AK Bell]

I'm a good enough kinda guy to give credit where it is due.

Just saw the most recent Overlord video and it does look pretty nice. A lot better than other screens and videos they've released previously.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/05/01/overlord...-and-a-trailer/

They seem to have pushed the machine quite hard, but what's more impressive is the knowing when to push it and how.

[Lasers are brilliant]

An interesting question. There may be an issue surrounding publishers talking about release dates and altering them based on their competition as I'm guessing it could be seen as collusion and engaging in anti-competitive practices.

It's because there are four parties involved - the game's publisher, Nintendo themselves, the distributor and the retailers. Between those four, there are shitloads of variables to account for before you get a game on a shop shelf. Publishers don't really talk to each other about specific dates and, in the modern market, a lot of publishers won't make committed street dates until the retailers commit to a certain stock allowance. Retailers might not commit until they've seen everything that's out in the quarter they're buying for. Then Nintendo have to slot in a manufacture time, which they have the right to bump around as they see fit. Also, ballpark dates are often set way before a product hits final approval at the platform holder, so a typo in the manual or game text, along with all manner of other minor bugs or even game design issues can lead to date shifts.

It's complicated.

[Stanley]

Yet all other mediums (books, cinema, music, dvd) seem to manage ok.

[northy]

Yet all other mediums (books, cinema, music, dvd) seem to manage ok.

Someone obviously didn't read the post above properly. Having to jump through a series of arbitrary proprietary hoops to make it to retail is obviously going to be more complicated that a single company producing products to a non-proprietary ISO standard.

I mean there's a can-do attitude and then there's just ignoring complexities of reality.

[Stanley]

I'm not suggesting there aren't reasons behind it, but those reasons are pathetic.

[northy]

I'm not suggesting there aren't reasons behind it, but those reasons are pathetic.

I suggest you go look at Play.com and see what books, CDs and DVDs are due for release on the same day and you'll see it's far from the optimum spread to avoid duplication of big releases in certain genres.

[Stanley]

The problem is that CDs, books etc have a much wider audience than games, so they can get away it more. Gluts of videogame releases always means that some games end up being ignored. The other thing of course is that music and films, even books are far 'consumable'. Games are still far too expensive and take up a lot of time.

Considering the time, effort, and money spent, they really need a better system.

[AK Bell]

This system is the publisher shouting "Quarter 4" repeatedly with his fingers in his ears and eyes shut to avoid acknowledging games like Call of Duty will destroy all competition.

If you're lucky, they may agree to October so they can catch people out before they have spent all their money.

So I say grouping a fair few things in June is a victory.

[Lasers are brilliant]

Another thing is that 3rd-party publishers tend to have individual relationships with game retail, either by themselves or through their distributor. Game X might get an instant commitment of say 2k units from a nationwide retailer, with a view to bumping that to 10k if a previews are favourable, or if a certain marketing requirement is met (TV advertising, a magazine cover, non-gaming press prominence and so on). Then there's the magic of sell-in vs sell-through. The retailer may want to sell through a certain amount of stock of game Y before he commits to the publisher's required sell-in of the game X. And that's for one retailer. Multiply that by between 5 and 10 and you have a pretty complex events chain before you can nail a solid date in place.

Other shit that factors into release dates are things like when reviews can or will appear (so you can put favourable quotes on the box and advertising), when trade press coverage is relevant (so retail are aware of your stuff), when the retailers can offer you point-of-sale prominence (which is scarce and highly timetabled), when you can run a big ad campaign (when billboards and TV/radio slots become free) and so on.

[Petrousgyre]

It's because there are four parties involved - the game's publisher, Nintendo themselves, the distributor and the retailers.

Aren't publishers also the distributors? I'm sure you're right though, bureaucratic ineptitude is always the most likely culprit in these sorts of things.

[cantonarv]

I've just taken a quick peek at the US Wii release list. Picking out some of the titles that have caught my eye, I get this:

Grand Slam Tennis - 16 June 2009

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 - 16 June 2009

Let's Tap - 16 June 2009

Ghostbusters - 16 June 2009

The Conduit - 23 June 2009

Little King's Story - 23 June 2009

Overlord: Dark Legend - 23 June 2009

So, that's 4 games on 16 June and then 3 more on 23 June. 7 decent-looking third-party upcoming Wii games all being released within 7 days of one another (and with the first-party behemoth that will be Wii Sports Resort just a month after).

Why on earth do publishers do this? They must know that there will be casulties in a pile-up like that? What possible benefit is there to that kind of scheduling for them? Surely a savvy move would be to pull one of them up to say a week earlier and grab some dollars/WoM before the others hit?

It's like crazy movie scheduling gone even more mental. Javelin.

I could not care less - its not as if everyone has the money to buy everything at once.

Also waiting to prices to drop so never really buy anything at launch anyway