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By
David Jenkins
Gamasutra
December
4, 1998
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 News
Analysis
Eurospeak
Christmas
Traditions in the Gaming Industry
Christmas
is a time for long established traditions. Some of these traditions are
enjoyable, like the giving and receiving of gifts, and eating vast quantities
of diet defeating food. And some of these traditions are less enjoyable,
like perhaps Jingle Bell Rock and Brussels sprouts. Some traditions however
are so down right stupid you wonder why we all even bother. For instance,
the combination of over affectionate aunts and a few too many eggnogs,
and, of course, games publishers deciding to release 75% of their products
within the same four week period each and every year.
The insanity continues this year as ever. Mistletoe sales are on the rise
and 77 new games titles have been release in the past two weeks alone.
Tomb Raider III, FIFA 99, Populous 3, Toca 2, and Actua
Soccer 3 have all managed to appear at exactly the same time in Europe.
A couple of factors make this ridiculous state of affairs even more perverse
this year. For starters this has been a pretty poor year for game releases
in Europe overall. Apart from the appearance of Gran Turismo and
Resident Evil 2 in the Spring (only a few weeks apart from each
other) there has been precious little else, in terms of true "major" releases,
for either customers or retailers to get excited about, on any of the
main formats.
The N64 release schedule in particular appears to be the result of some
bizarre gentleman's bet at Nintendo
to see how few releases they can get away with. Thus far this year, the
only notable releases in Europe have been Banjo-Kazooie and Yoshi's
Story (for God's sake!). Now though, in the space of four weeks, we're
getting 1080, F-Zero X, Zelda 64, Turok 2,
Body Harvest, and Silicon Valley. Why? Does Nintendo honestly
think all of these titles are going to sell at their full potential against
such competition? It would have been more understandable if they'd erected
a two-month exclusion zone of releases around Zelda 64, rather
than this moronic cavalcade of simultaneous product.
Nintendo is hardly alone in their stupidity though. EA
actually pushed the release of Populous 3 forward a week so that
it came out at exactly the same time as Settlers III. Why? Anyone
that enjoys Settlers III is likely to enjoy the similarly themed
Populous 3, and many would have in all likelihood bought both,
except now they have to make a choice. There seems to be no particular
reason why they should choose Populous 3 over Settlers III.
If put to the test - both are of a similar quality, so what is EA doing?
Presumably they feel, despite plenty of conflicting evidence, that Populous
3's larger marketing budget will win the day. This must be their strategy,
because they've also pushed FIFA 99's release forward a week (presumably
they can do without all that QA nonsense) in order to steal the thunder
from Gremlin's
Actua Soccer 3, or as they put it, to maximize sales. Meanwhile,
FIFA 99 is actually a superior game in all respects, and was already
coming out a week earlier than its rival. Perhaps EA just thought it'd
be funny if this latest FIFA game came out even sooner than the
last one - which coincided with this summer's World Cup.
One could go on. The fact is that having all the top games released during
Christmas is damaging to the whole industry. It drowns out otherwise high
quality games. It legitimizes the view that games are just toys and unsuited
for the mass market. It restricts the expansion of new consoles, which
will presumably will have to wait another 12 months for any additional
hot releases. And it strengthens the monopoly of derivative and unimaginative
sequels. It is, in short, stupid. Everyone seems to know this except the
publishers. Perhaps this year they could ask Father Christmas for a new
desk calendar, one with all but December torn out.
On a rather more upbeat note, Virgin's
ridiculously unfair ordeal appears to be at an end. The management buyout
led by Tim Chaney (previously Vice-President of Business Planning) has
been completed, and Viacom
has confirmed that they have completed their "disposal" (a repulsively
unkind phrase) of their interactive entertainment business. Chaney has
lost the US side of Virgin's operations, which are going into liquidation,
but the deal does give them Virgin's offices in the UK, Spain, France,
Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore, and Australia. With the deal now complete,
the new Virgin is planning to enter into a distribution agreement with
Interplay
- one of the previous favorites to buy the group outright. Clearly keen
to be seen as quick off the mark, Virgin has already started to feed it's
now emaciated portfolio. Already they've signed up a pan-European deal
for Capcom's
Resident Evil and Street Fighter EX Alpha on the Color Game
Boy. Virgin has also reaffirmed their association with Mythos
Games - creators of MicroProse's
X-COM series - and have set in motion a high-profile ad campaign
for the company's latest title, Magic & Mayhem. This might
be a far cry from handling the likes of Westwood
and LucasArts,
but it's a start.
Continuing the strange synchronous relationship with Virgin, Psygnosis
- who were also on sale for most of this year, but ended up being reabsorbed
by Sony
- are also in the news. It seems that in the wake of the upheaval and
job losses which accompanied their re-assimilation, six employees have
broken off to form their own development studio. The problem for Psygnosis
is that these six are responsible for Colony Wars and Wipeout
1, 2, and 64, arguably the only truly triple-A products Psygnosis
have released in the 32-bit era. The team, now calling itself Curly Monsters,
has relocated to Birkenhead in the UK and are currently in discussion
with an unnamed publisher.
During the scourge of the foreign and European release schedules, Konami
is planning to float a number of subsidiary units in Europe. Company founder
and CEO Kagemasa Kozuki and a team of top execs are scheduled to arrive
in London later this month, and their flotation plans are expected to
be a hot topic. If all goes well the rumor is they're also looking to
carry out similar plans in New York and Frankfurt. 25% of Konami's existing
subsidiary shares are held by foreign investors and they're keen to increase
this percentage. Now if only they were so keen to actually release Metal
Gear Solid in Europe. Right now it might be stupid, but under my tree
it would look quite smart.
David
Jenkins (david.jenkins@dial.pipex.com)
is a freelance writer working in England. He has previously been the editor
of the Develop newsletter, worked on British Telecom’s Wireplay news service,
and contributed to CTW, PlayStation Plus and many other video game publications.
He has also been involved in the organization of the Develop! and Online
conferences in London.
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