The pre holiday period – September, October and November – is generally a pretty busy time for gamers. Last year, we got Gears of War 3, Uncharted 3 Modern Warfare 3, Skyrim, Battlefield 3, Arkham City, skyward Sword, Rayman Origins and a whole lot more all within days of each other. This year? It looks like it’s going to be just as crazy.
We’ll be getting Medal of Honor: Warfighter, Hitman Absolution, Assassin’s Creed 3, and the next Call of Duty at the very least. Also, Bioshock Infinite, my enthusiasm for which is hard to restrain. Irrational’s Ken Levine isn’t worried that Infinite might get lost in the wave of AAA releases for that period.
"We don’t have the problem that, say, a Battlefield had last year – and I don’t think they viewed it as a problem, they viewed it as an opportunity – of going up in a head-to-head," Levine told Eurogamer.
"It’s hard to categorise BioShock for people in their heads. It has its own vibe. It’s a strange and different game. In the same way Portal didn’t compete directly with anything. So you don’t worry so much about, oh my god, we’re competing directly with this, what are we going to do?
"Obviously, when you go into that time period you have a positive and negative. The negative is there are a lot of games competing for the dollar or pound of the gamer. Or the euro – I want to be inclusive here. But also there are a lot of people going into stores at that point, and a lot of people buying gifts. It’s a yin and yang situation."
Irrational opted for an October release not because of some marketing science that dictates that’s when games should be released, but rather because it fit in with their development cycle.
"I don’t think there’s a tonne of science in our industry about these things at this point," Levine affirmed. "A lot of it is your gut. You hear, you have to release at Christmas. Others say, you can’t release at Christmas. At the end of the day, the product is pretty unique and will sink or swim on its own merits. If it’s a great game I think it will do great. If it’s not a great game, it won’t do great. It’s pretty simple with BioShock."
Last Updated: March 15, 2012
