MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
No one’s given up on 2009: With supermarket price slashing and customer demand at fever pitch over the new Call of Duty, plus a new Assassin’s Creed in the offing, there’s clearly money to be had on the High Street this side of Christmas.
But certainly this year doesn’t really send the decade out on a high, given the arguably barer-than-usual release schedule.
So maybe 2010 will prove this recession year was just a blip?
There is certainly a more rounded release schedule ready to kick off the next decade.
But the big priority for the trade is making sure these releases are spread across the year. Key titles in 2008 were well paced and not released in drips, drabs and the Q4 glut as they were once upon a time – and were again in 2009.
Publishers still have a real responsibility to make sure this isn’t the case in 2010.
Retail can only work with what it is given, after all.
And our regular explorations into digital distribution have proven that the High Street is still an important revenue stream.
Project Natal and Final Fantasy XIII could well bookend the year, with specifically timed key titles from Nintendo, THQ and Blizzard around them. But that leaves plenty of room for others – so who’s brave enough to step into the gaps?
