November's Insane Release Schedule and the Industry

"Are all these tightly packed new releases a mistake?"

Personally, I don't see that big name games released on the same day, or the same week, would really affect each other that much. Games like MW3 and Skyrim have had people drooling about em' for months, if not years already, as soon as people hear these games are in development, they want em. The fact that they will be released on the same day isn't really going to make a difference to the people who buy them, unless they happen to be too broke to buy both at the same time. But if they really want the games, they will still buy them, they just might wait a week, or a month, or whatever. Its not like developers don't make money on new sales outside of the first week. Good games will always attract buyers, its the sh*tty ones that get forgotten quickly. Which kind of makes me wonder how you're figuring all these games are swept under the carpet several weeks after release? Granted, I don't pay that much attention to gaming news outside of GR, but it seems to me like the big popular games are still popular and still being played months after their release dates, they just don't have the same hype because they aren't being advertised, reviewed, or talked about obsessively like they are prior to release.

But then again, I could be wrong, it happened once before...

I think the issue is more so the "B" category game developers who will be impacted which is a rather large segment in and of itself. I think to revitalize these games developers will release DLC for titles like Dead Island and Warhammer intermittently throughout the winter. Posing the purchasing decision of due I cough up $60 for the next big blockbuster or do I dust off Deus Ex or Batman and purchase the DLC for between $6 - $10. This will also play a more significant effect for those who have their "Big" purchase for the holiday already but want a break from MW3 or 200+hrs of Skyrim. Should be interesting to see the price markdown strategy as well. Witht the shenanigans Gears pulled I hope the price is halved due to reduced sales within the first quarter of release.

It is a mistake if you look at the industry as a whole. A lot of games are going to be released in the next few weeks that people may want to play, but won't because they spent they're gaming budget on the big releases. I personally do not have the money or even the time to play all of the games I want to from this season. Some of them are just going to have to wait.

For some reason game companies have gotten in their heads that if they don't release their games in time for Christmas that means no one is going to buy them. The problem with that thinking is that it's sort of a self fulfilling prophecy. They plan all of their big releases for November and they do sell, but not because of the season, but because that's when the games that we've been hearing about all year are released. Then sales slump after Christmas, again not because of the holiday, but because all of the big games of seen their initial sales spike.

Maybe I'm wrong, but that's how I see it.

Honestly, does anyone around here truly believe that Skyrim, Uncharted, Arkham City, BF3, and MW3 wouldn't still sell millions of units at release if they were released in March or April?

You are forgeting one thing that many games are purchased as Christmas gifts. So if they released in April that would not be part of the sales equation. Mass Effect 3 is releasing March 2012 so there is a pretty big title launching then too.

They wouldn't. No one buys games around that time.