Don't bury Alpha Protocol

[phimseto]

It is regrettable if AP has to miss the holiday sales season, but I take a Blizzard view of delays: the game should release when it's ready and not a moment before. I especially appreciate this because Obsidian has been screwed before in having to push an unfinished game out the door to make a seasonal deadline (KOTOR2).

 

But...

 

Releasing the game in June is a horrible, horrible, horrible idea. A June release is the game equivalent of having your television show placed on a Friday night lineup. June is a transition time, with all the transitions working against you.

 

- Kids are leaving college, and are looking to get *rid* of stuff, not pick stuff up.

 

- Most people are transitioning out of the academic year and into the summer, and especially for familys with young kids, a lot of income goes to camps, day care, essentials. Not games.

 

- Good weather means less time indoors, less inclination to want to start a game, much less a (presumably) fairly lengthy RPG.

 

- Summer movies and summer concerts have all the entertainment hype, not summer games.

 

 

A better time, if you are shooting for that time period, would be mid/late-August/early September. A lot of those same transitiions are in reverse, and this time working for you. The sports game hype (Madden mainly) combined with thinking about school/fall gets people back into a video game mood. There's a reason why Square owned this period for a number of years back in the PSX/PS2 days. Much like Arkham Asylum did this past August, you can own that period as the big "non-sports" title for people to think about while at the same time using that Madden hype to draw attention to yourself.

 

Just not June, please.

[alanschu]

- Kids are leaving college, and are looking to get *rid* of stuff, not pick stuff up.

 

As as recent student, this would NOT be a negative, as I'd actually have time to play the game. I tended to buy most of my games in line with the holiday times from school.

 

 

Your other points can have merit too.

 

Others will point to some games doing pretty well in the summer, due to the lack of competition (the recent one being Red Faction: Guerrillas)

[Slowtrain]

People will buy anything if you shove a product down their throats hard enough.

[kreese12]

If the game needs to be delayed than that's ok I guess -- but it would have been a great time to release, if it was coming out in October. There isn't that many RPGs (or big games period) coming out in October. On the PC the only competition might be Borderlands, but that is a pretty different style of game. The competition goes up by a huge factor come June, if that is going to be the case.

 

Summary == ugh wish it was coming out.

[Cl_Flushentityhero]

I'm not sure I could handle another delay past next summer.

[Purkake]

I'm not sure I could handle another delay past next summer.

 

Geez, dude, it's just a video game, no need to do anything... drastic.

 

[Dark_Raven]

I take it I should not hold my breath on this being released soon?

[phimseto]

You would think that post-school *would* be a great time, but I have thought about this for a while and did some research. I can only find one game that had any kind of real impact: Metal Gear Solid 4. Except MGS4 had a few things going for it.

 

- To start with, it was Metal Gear Solid 4.

- Secondly, Sony gave it a huge, huge, huge push because it desperately needed a big, exclusive title to sell more systems at that point.

 

MGS4 is an aberration to another wise historical trend: June and July releases underperform, no matter what the quality. Think about how many times you've seen games pushed back from spring to early fall. Production time isn't the only reason. In fact, it's probably not the real reason. It is simply not a good time for moving video games, unless you have some kind of mega name brand recognition (and even then you'll see those games in September/October/November).

 

Yes, people will buy things if you jam it down their throat, but does AP have that kind of brand recognition or Sega the money to put out that level of press? No. And besides, why work harder when you can work smarter and latch your game onto someone else's hype machine: whether it's some counter-sports programming in August/September, the general holiday slam, or a little mid-winter heat (mid-February to mid-March).

 

And, finally...holy s#%t, Dark Raven, a 2010 screen shot in your sig? That's pretty darn awesome. I approve.

[Purkake]

We already had a thread about releasing it in the summer.

[phimseto]

We already had a thread about releasing it in the summer.

 

Interesting read. Props to Uzivatel in that thread:

 

QUOTE (WILL THE ALMIGHTY @ Sep 1 2009, 11:53 PM)

Obs should delay it until June/July 2010. /QUOTE

 

Unless you have some huge IP, those months are pretty much dead.

 

And to be fair, that was more of a thread about the game's fall release date, and what might be a better time - not a discussion about when and where the game should be released now that it's been pushed back. )

[Anarchosyn]

June is better than October.

 

1. Less games to clog up the market so AP stands out better.

2. Less games equates potentially more impulse purchases by starved consumers.

3. Regarding school, June is better than October since the latter is further into the academic session.

Edited October 1, 2009 by Anarchosyn

[Nepenthe]

June is better than October.

 

1. Less games to clog up the market so AP stands out better.

2. Less games equates potentially more impulse purchases by starved consumers.

3. Regarding school, June is better than October since the latter is further into the academic session.

 

All I know is that I'm a (grad) student, and I was really gagging for a game in June. Now I got Broken Steel (finally released for PS3), Pinnacle Station (that started finally working yesterday), Complete Galactica (blu-ray FINALLY hit Europe last week) plus a bunch of other movies I'm trying to juggle. And yeah, I was on a working trip abroad the last two weeks when all those came through, so I've already lost one week of excellent entertainment.

 

Looking back at last summer, the completely dead June-July allowed for some real outsiders to shine - might not be a bad slot for AP, but I'll take it whenever I can.

[mksystem74]

I just want someone to come out and confirm the delay. I have it pre-ordered and paid off already so I can switch that to another game. A lot of them are coming out soon and I'm sitting here trying hear something about this game.