Since the dawn of video game time, the "holiday" season, typically from September to November, is a very busy time for gaming with a major new release seemingly every week. It's always made sense why. Kids are back in school and everyone is looking for Christmas gifts. While that remains true today, the industry has begun to see the beginning of the year as a great time to release games. However in early 2025 things are about to get silly and I'm not sure it's a good thing.
With today's announcement from Ubisoft that Assassin's Creed Shadows has been delayed til February 14th 2025, the release schedule for next year, and specifically in February, is a bit nutty. As of this writing there are 7 major releases that month.
- Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 – February 11th
- Civilization 7 – February 11th
- Assassin's Creed Shadows – February 14th
- Lost Records: Bloom & Rage – February 18th
- Avowed – February 18th
- Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza In Hawaii – February 28th
- Monster Hunter Wilds – February 28th
That list alone is enough for a half a year, let alone one month. And while the gamer in you might be saying "oh man this is such a stacked month" if you peel back the curtain and dig into the ramifications of this, it won't end well for everyone. Gamers in general usually don't have an excessive amount of two things required to get to all these games. Time and money. Most gamers only have the time and money for 1, maybe 2 major games in a month. Add to the fact that basically everything there is a rather long game and it's a potential recipe for disaster for a few of these games.
Incase you haven't noticed, games are having a harder and harder time bringing successful. While revenue in gaming is up, it's a select few games that are raking in the money. AAA games are a bigger risk than ever because as I said, there's only so much money gamers have to spend. We hear almost every week about a AAA game underperforming.
Star Wars Outlaws was a disappointment to Ubisoft and a reason why they delayed Shadows. DON'T NOD, the developer of Lost Records, just reported their latest game Banishers: Ghosts Of New Eden significantly underperformed and it's caused them to shift directions.
Something's Got To Give
Simply put, if all 7 of these games launch within 17 days of one another, at least one of them, and potentially all of them are going to underperform which isn't what anyone wants. Publishers generally will avoid giant games to avoid their sales being squeezed. Everyone got out of the way of Cyberpunk 2077. Everyone gets out of the way anytime Rockstar drops something. A couple of these games are going to have to move dates or risk just that.
The potential problem here is outside of Lost Records and maybe Avowed, every other game and it's publisher may think "we're the biggest fish in this pond so why should we move?" Avowed was already pushed to February by Xbox so that it could have more space. So much for that. Also, most of these games are owned by publishers who have to answer to shareholders. What's an easier sell to them? Hey we have to lower our projections, or hey we gotta delay and therefore our quarterly results will change?
Remember when EA effectively killed the Titanfall series launching Titanfall 2 between Call Of Duty and Battlefield? does Warhorse really want to test their luck with 4 other RPG's in that short time frame for its Kingdom Come sequel?
It's a fascinating and fun topic to discuss today in September, and it very well may turn out well for everyone and be massive celebration for gamers and the industry. I truly hope this is the outcome we get. But history suggests otherwise. And unless some of these companies listen to some Ludacris and gets out of the way soon, someone might just get stomped out instead of receiving flowers next Valentine's Day.
