Assassin's Creed dated Comments by Tom Bramwell

Dear Santa

Please could I have Assassins Creed, a pony and Natalie Portmand for christmas.

All the best

Biggest Autumn for gaming releases ever? All 3 new consoles finding their stride; Halo 3, GTA4, MGS4, Assassins Creed, Mario Galaxy, HL2 Orange. And thats just the tip of the iceberg. Really dont know how I will be able to fund all this.

I hate this fall...er... holiday season...erm... whats the un-American term for that part of the year?

autumn?

Dear Santa,

Please can I have Assassins Creed, Jade Raymond, and a bondage kit for Christmas.

Kind regards

Fall is Autumn in the rest of the world, and the "Holidays" comprise of the made up American holiday "thanksgiving" and the real holiday "Christmas" and so are the period around late November-December time.

Jade Raymond's teeth are scary.

@ RAZZ

omg why didnt i think of them... Jesus im gona have to write another letter...
Jade Raymond would play games with me

Woo!

Scary Teeth indeed!

Why the long face?


richardiox +1

Xiphos, what the Dickens are you talking about?

I'd give J. Raymond a "huge launch" and "achieve both critical and commercial success."

I'd give J. Raymond a "huge launch" and "achieve both critical and commercial success."

Does that mean i get sloppy seconds

I would imagine by this point Ms Redmond is too terrified to leave the house.

Poor girl.

Great! :D

"Does that mean i get sloppy seconds"

You can sit in the corner with Tony Key frantically "typing press releases" on his "Blackberry".

What the shit happened to September?

Dear Santa,
can I have Assassin's Creed, Keira Knightley, the scriptwriter of the last Pirates! movie, and a box full of nails for XMAS?

Obviously, the box is for the scriptwriter, Keira is for me.

7/10

Wasn't this meant to be out 3 months ago...?

What's so special about Jade? Have you guys never seen a woman before?!

The fact that the majority of big IP titles still gets released around year-end each year, with huge draughts in between, shows the immaturity of the video game industry. I believe this is caused as much by conservatism as it is by business acumen.

edit: removed Americanism

What's with everyone saying "fall"? If you're American, I guess I can forgive you :P

Big releases come in autumn because it's a time when people are likely to be indoors playing video games. Every industry does it, with movie blockbusters in summer and greatest hits CDs at Christmas.

The fact that the majority of big IP titles still gets released around year-end each year, with huge draughts in between, shows the immaturity of the video game industry.

Or it's the time of year where you're most likely to buy whatever shit EA throws at you. *ahem* Most likely to buy your stuff, it's a common business model.

“Big releases come in autumn because it's a time when people are likely to be indoors playing video games. Every industry does it, with movie blockbusters in summer and greatest hits CDs at Christmas.”

Greatest hits CD’s are released around Christmas because people only buy them as gifts. Back in the days when consoles were just for kids, it made perfect sense to release the games in Autumn/Winter but not so anymore. Of course there can still be seasonal patterns (kids games around Christmas, mature games in summer, like family movies versus action movies in cinema) but within the video game industry they are much more exaggerated than in movies or music. It’s just stupid to release your big title at the same time all the other publishers release their heavy guns. There’s always a couple of AAA titles that go under the radar and are only picked (if at all) when they’re heavily discounted. If they were released at a time with less competition, they probably would have fetched full price.

@les

Do you ever see any other women get as excited about games as her?

i mean attractive women

^ You've convinced me (Les, that is).

Now I think about it, I've not bought a game since Company of Heroes which, surprise surprise, was released in autumn of last year.

"It’s just stupid to release your big title at the same time all the other publishers release their heavy guns"

It's called competition Les. *Company A* release a good game so you don't buy *Company B's* good game, there for making *Company A* more successful. Makes perfect sense to me. I mean I can't see Sony/MS (or any games dev) saying "yeah lets not release our game this Xmas because we want to give our rivals a better chance of selling their software, lets release our title in February when fewer people will buy it coz that'll make Les happy"

“It's called competition Les. *Company A* release a good game so you don't buy *Company B's* good game, there for making *Company A* more successful. Makes perfect sense to me. I mean I can't see Sony/MS (or any games dev) saying "yeah lets not release our game this Xmas because we want to give our rivals a better chance of selling their software, lets release our title in February when fewer people will buy it coz that'll make Les happy" “

No, it’s called stupidity. I’m not saying you shouldn’t release anything at all during the Christmas period, just spread it more evenly. With the ridiculously high concentration of releases around year-end, publishers are competing against their own games as well and I just can’t see how that will lead to increased revenues or damage the competition.

"Do you ever see any other women get as excited about games as her?

i mean attractive women"

Not many. But I don't really get excited over girls that like video games, rather the opposite. Guess I'm quite traditional when it comes to that... And I don't like to share my console. ;-)

Les, games sell more at Christmas, end of. That's why they are released at that time, I don't see how you see that as stupid, but hey, each to his own...

I agree with Les. This business model got us gamers starving for the first half of the year and then spoiled to death the second half. Just look at the release calendar, as richardiox put it, to which could be added Bioshock, QuakeWars, UT3, Crysis, Metroid, Age of Conan, etc. Canibalisation !!!

First Forza...then Mass Effect, Bioshock, Blue Dragon, Halo 3, Half Life 2 Orange Box, Unreal Tournament 3, GTA IV, Splinter Cell: Conviction, NFS ProStreet and Burnout Paradise....all before Christmas. I think this is going to turn out being the biggest year in game console history!! Hopefully more than one of these games will dethrone Madden's yearly becoming the top seller.

Sadly, games like Assassin's Creed, John Woo's Stranglehold, Mercenaries 2, Hellboy, Army of Two and Turok may get overshadowed by all those killer IPs. We'll probably see a few of these games mysteriously delayed. And I want to play all of them too, especially Assassin's Creed....what a year!

BTW, MGS4 isn't coming out this year

Looks, this whole "its daft releasing games at Xmas" thing is just bollox.

The model exists because we the customers created it. Its not a games industry thing, it affects every industry focussed on selling services or goods to the general public. The Disney store stocks up on product, Odeon cinemas hire more students, MsDonalds bring out a special rayndir (tm) burger, etc. This is because we spend more cash at Xmas (which is surely obvious to everyone).

Are people really suggesting that huge companies like Ubisoft are staffed by imbeciles? That if only they would listen to us they would make loads more money? They release their games at Xmas because experience and history have both shown that this is when they will make the best returns on their advertising campaigns. If they could make more money by releasing at Easter, be assured they would already know this and would be doing so.

More pics of Jade please...

But with her mouth closed.

And her ti-

"Are people really suggesting that huge companies like Ubisoft are staffed by imbeciles?"

Yes I am. You have way too much confidence in the sanity of corporate managers. Managers are very conservative and rarely stray from the beaten path. The ones that do can become hugely successful (Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, etc.) but most are just average and the only thing that keeps them alive is the fact that most of their peers are just as incompetent as they are.

Christmas has always been the best season (dating back to the period when video games were just for kids) so looking at the sales statistics, there'd be no reason to release AAA titles outside of that window. But I think this is a self enforcing charade, founded on little actual economics. Unless the vast majority of games is still bought by parents for their children that is. But I believe we're past that.

@Les

"Yes I am. You have way too much confidence in the sanity of corporate managers."

Yes thats right, its always easy to apply the Gilbert rule and assume all managers are unskilled. Heck, its even fun to do so, and no one ever actually checks the facts of these things because that would spoil the fun.

I know plenty of managers that are poor managers in many regards, but I also know they are still better at their jobs than I would be if I was dropped into their shoes with no prep or experience. Competance is not a binary state.

Given that Ubisoft and 1) still in business and 2) making money, I think it is naive to suggest that are incompetent on such a basic level that they have not examined the profound concept of 'selling their product at other times of year'.

There is no shortage of figures out there to demonstrate peaks and troughs in sales across the year. Have you looked those numbers up? 'Cos you can be damn sure Ubisoft have, and will continue to do so.


"Christmas has always been the best season (dating back to the period when video games were just for kids) so looking at the sales statistics, there'd be no reason to release AAA titles outside of that window."

You see that is what seperates you from the people that actually do this sucessfully for a living. You assume that just because Xmas 'appears' to be the best time for selling games that proper companies would assume the same and just leave it at that. You assume that only you have the wisdom to suppose that selling at other times would be a better plan.

The truth is that companies Ubisoft don't suppose, and they don't assume. They collect hard data (spending real money in order to do so) and react to it when deciding their strategy. And like I said, this is not specific to Ubi, this is not specific to games.

When you say that selling at other times would reap more profit, and that Ubi are being dense to not see that, you are actually levelling the same accusation at Disney, McDonald, Odeon, B&Q and every other company that ramps up production for Xmas sales.

So either all of these companies are wrong.... or you are. I think the truth lies in comparing the balance in your respective bank accounts.

Will it make that date for the PS3 version though, huh? :)
It would be a bit of a kick in the teeth if it was delayed, seeing as originally it was meant to be an exclusive.
I'm reeeeally looking forward to this, there's quite a few biggies coming out for the 360 between now and Chrimbo, I'm going to skint as fook.

"There is no shortage of figures out there to demonstrate peaks and troughs in sales across the year. Have you looked those numbers up? 'Cos you can be damn sure Ubisoft have, and will continue to do so."

What I say is that looking at the traditional figures is useless. All the good games come out in Autumn/Winter, rest of the year is crap. Those numbers tell you nothing. I'm not disputing that Christmas is the best period of the year sales wise. And it would probably be a good idea to release your number one AAA title at that time of the year. All I say is that it's a bit stupid to also release your number two and three at the same time and have them compete against your number one.

"When you say that selling at other times would reap more profit, and that Ubi are being dense to not see that, you are actually levelling the same accusation at Disney, McDonald, Odeon, B&Q and every other company that ramps up production for Xmas sales."

No, I'm not. You're oversimplifying things. Like I said before, there can be very good reasons for putting emphasis on Christmas. E.g. if your primary customers are kids (Disney, McDonald) or if your products are primarily things that people wouldn't buy for themselves (best of albums, hardware (as in tools)). But those companies don't come close to focusing so heavily on Autumn/Christmas as the video game industry does.

To summarise, I wasn't saying the video game industry shouldn't put more emphasis on the Christmas period than on the rest of the year, just that they shouldn't do it to the extreme like they are doing right now.

"So either all of these companies are wrong.... or you are. I think the truth lies in comparing the balance in your respective bank accounts."

That's never been a very good measure of the truth to be honest. But I'm probably getting a better return on my savings account than I would have had, had I invested in the average video game publisher... Anyway, it's quite obvious that all of these companies are wrong...

"It would be a bit of a kick in the teeth if it was delayed, seeing as originally it was meant to be an exclusive."

How original, some more FUD...

What the fuck is FUD? I'm not really big on all of these cool 'net abreviations :/
If it's something to do with winding people up on the internet with a silly, obvious, flame inducing comment, surely you ignoring my post would have led to me failing that supposed intention.

"What the fuck is FUD?"

One of MS's favourite marketing strategies: create Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt around the product of your competitors. So don't attack the product directly, because that could be easily disproved with facts. Their other favourite instrument is astroturf: paint a bright picture of the future that looks way better than anything your competitors currently offer. Then fail to deliver but repeat indefinitely.

The reason Bill Gates always talks about the future is because his current products are crap: It's a smoke screen. The reason Steve Jobs never talks about the future is because his current products are good, they don't need a smoke screen.

"In case of Jobs/Apple, they traditionally launch new products after WWDC in September."

iPhone will be released in the middle of Summer... Apple in general releases products two times a year: around April and around September. I never disputed there can't be very good reasons to launch products around Christmas (products that make good gifts are a prime example like I said before). I just said the video game industry is overdoing it: It's not just for kids anymore, there are plenty of adults playing the games that have money to spend all year round.

And I suspect the main reason for this is that they've always done it like that. But times have changed.

And I suspect the main reason for this is that they've always done it like that. But times have changed.

Times changed? Or you grew up, changing your perspective of things altogether?

"Times changed? Or you grew up, changing your perspective of things altogether?"

If I'm not mistaken, there have been some studies to track the average age of gamers. If I recall correctly, the average age has risen and is well past 20 nowadays.

So I think it's not just my own perspective that has changed. ;-)