By John Walker on July 14th, 2009 at 11:55 am.
It’s going to be a quieter Christmas than we were expecting. A bundle of big-name games have announced in the last few days that they’ll no longer be bulging Santa’s sack, but instead offering themselves in the colder months of 2010. This year your Christmas tree will not be towering over 2K games BioShock 2, Mafia II, nor Max Payne 3. Indeed they’re not alone. A smattering of console-only titles have also slipped, as well as Activision’s Singularity. What’s a jolly-bellied man to do this holiday season? Deliver Modern Warfare 2 an awful lot, it seems.
It’s with perhaps some slightly poor timing that I received a parcel of viral BioShock 2 bumph. But it’s a nice collection of well-rendered children’s drawings of Big Daddies with weapons dripping in blood, along with a letter from one Mark G. Meltzer in New York appealing for my help to find his missing daughter. Mr Meltzer, racked with grief, invested his efforts into building a ludicrously elaborate flash teaser site, as so many panicked parents will. He saw fit to include a hand-scrawled note linking me there. They’ve filled it with clues and teases and puzzles and so on, although the hype it’s intended to build will have to stretch a little further than perhaps planned.
Take Two issued one of those frightening financial updates, explaining within,
“The decision to shift a release date is never an easy one, especially with a product as highly anticipated as BioShock 2. We felt that it was essential to invest the additional time to ensure that this title will deliver what its fans expect and deserve. As a result, we will now be launching sequels to several of our strongest franchises – including BioShock 2, Mafia II, Max Payne 3 and Red Dead Redemption – during the next fiscal year. These titles will anchor our lineup for fiscal 2010, and along with other products planned for next year, provide a platform for enhanced financial performance in what we hope will be an improved retail environment.”
(I also like the bit where they explain there will be a $0.12 expense per share due to “unusual legal matters”. I imagine them being sued by a shark, or taken to court for wearing too many socks.)
It really does look like a stunning 2010 line-up for 2K, and it can be welcome news when a game’s being delayed to make sure it’s good enough. It’s welcomier when it’s finished on time, of course, but better to get the best game possible a few months late. Although you’re going to have to start thinking of new things to put on your Christmas list or – hell – if you only wanted those games take the opportunity to just be naughty. What’s Father Christmas going to do?
The other recent slippage announcement is Singularity – Raven’s first “new IP” – which looks to be a Lost-inspired first-person shooter, meddling with time and physics. It’s also being held back to 2010 by Activision, although for a different reason. They don’t want to hinder their own sales by launching it against the all-conquering goliath that Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will inevitably be.
Speaking to IGN, an Activision spokesperson said,
“The level of excitement for Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2 coming out of E3 well exceeded our expectations and therefore we have decided to move Raven’s upcoming sci-fi first person action title, Singularity, from 2009 to Q1 2010, said the spokesperson. We believe that the March quarter will provide a better opportunity to establish the new cutting-edge action IP as a must-have title and clears the way for Modern Warfare 2 to dominate this holiday season.”
This of course gives Raven a few more months to polish the game, and they’ve still got Wolfenstein coming out next month. But it means Christmas is a quieter period this year. Of course there will still be two million squillion games competing for your cash. In fact, it seems to work out rather well, giving you a chance to spread out your purchases across the year… It’s almost as if that would make sense as a release model for all publishers! I can dream.
14/07/2009 at 12:05 jon_hill987 says:
Probably for the best, when huge numbers of games get released together in the Christmas rush they sell worse and they blame piracy rather than the publishers stupidity at releasing it alongside several other AAA titles.
14/07/2009 at 12:10 Mr Pink says:
Well, at least we’re still getting L4D2! *Hides*
14/07/2009 at 12:10 Acosta says:
Translation: With Halo:ODST and Modern Warfare 2, we don’t want to see our others FPS taking dust on the shelves.
I’m ok with it, I hope Mafia II gets all the polish and care necessary to deliver, the ones who loved Mafia have a huge standard for the sequel and we have waited for years, we can wait a bit more. Same goes for Bioshock.
I’m a bit puzzled about Red Dead Redemption, I guess that in this case is not only a strategic date move, but a real need to have more time.
14/07/2009 at 12:15 Ali D says:
I’m glad actually. Three’s still too many games coming out during the October/November glut. I know I for one can’t afford all of them at once, so I’m glad to see Bioshock 2 moved to early next year.
14/07/2009 at 12:15 The Poisoned Sponge says:
I’m glad to finally see Developers stop thinking that all gamers buy their games at Christmas. The majority of the games talked about above are going to be 18 rated, so (theoretically), only adults should be buying them, and adults buy their own games, for the most part. No point having them vie For you attention when they can occupy the ‘dead’ months.
14/07/2009 at 12:18 phil says:
Perhaps this is less to do with development time and more to do with shoring up the stock price over the course of 2010 – Grand Theft Auto 5 is probably still a looooong way away.
14/07/2009 at 12:28 Owen says:
“They don’t want to hinder their own sales by launching it against the all-conquering goliath that Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will inevitably be”
I wonder how many of these delays are directly related to that in fact. “aggh, the bigger-boy-game is coming to the park! RUN!” :)
14/07/2009 at 12:31 Optimaximal says:
They’re just worried they can’t compete with the Night Vision Goggles…
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/07/13/modern-warfare-2-prestige-edition-includes-working-night-vision/
14/07/2009 at 12:37 Winston says:
This isn’t so much about improving quality as it is about reducing team size, burning cash more slowly, and hoping that people will be buying more games in 2010 than they are in 2009.
It’s also a coded call to other publishers to stagger their releases to effectively reduce competition within the industry so that fewer companies go bust.
I clearly have my cynical hat on today.
14/07/2009 at 12:43 Dominic White says:
Another game that won’t be making 2009 is Kingdom Under Fire 2, the ridiculously ambitious looking Action/RPG/RTS/MMO hybrid.
http://www.kufii.com/ENG/
Check out those screenshots/trailer. Seriously pretty stuff. The game itself has been in development for ages – since around when the 360 first came out, I believe. Guess they’re going for a ‘done when its done’ approach.
Seems to be working, though. Hard to look at a shot like this and not be impressed:
http://www.blueside.co.kr/root_file/products/screenshots/2009000000000032.jpg
14/07/2009 at 12:47 Andy says:
Still plenty coming out this year without these though.
I suppose we can count L4D2 in this providing there’s no repeat of the Valve-time-prophecy. If it’s on time I’ll eat my hat…without ketchup.
Personally this year I’m mostly looking forward to Gearbox’s Borderlands and Cliffski’s Gratuitous Space Battles above all else.
14/07/2009 at 12:55 Jonny says:
I’m genuinely glad! I still haven’t completed BioShock, plus last Christmas was games overload. I’m still yet to complete half of the great games that arrived in October/November 2008. We’ll just have to make do with L4D2 and CoD: MW2. Ah well!
14/07/2009 at 12:56 Hmm-Hmm. says:
There are already way too many games coming out. I mean, sheesh.
That is, as a mac gamer I’ve never been used to the veritable deluge of games Windows users have available to them. And although I feel we could have a few more, the number of games appearing for Windows is staggeringly overwhelming to the point of me not buying games at all (unless something -really- enticing comes along).
14/07/2009 at 12:58 Clovus says:
@Mr. Pink: Haha, ya, while AIM love to complain about L4D2, I look to my 13 year old brother for a good idea of what will actually be selling big. For his birthday/Christmas there are two games at the top of his list: L4D2 and Modern Warfare 2. We can complain all we want about L4D2 being a glorified expansion, but can anyone really hate on Valve for not accepting boatloads of cash? Also delaying other games makes sense. My mother and I (the people who buy his games) aren’t going to be buying anything else after dropping $120 on those in the 4th quarter.
@The Poisoned Sponge: Rated 18 (or M here) will mean the game will not end up in the hand of a couple poor loser teens with hand wringing parents. Those ratings don’t mean anything to parents. In the states I guess parents would freak if they saw some boobies, but any non-retarded teen knows not to go in the GTAIV strip club when Mom is watching you play.
14/07/2009 at 13:07 cliffski says:
Gratuitous Space Battles will be out this year. Everyone can buy that instead :D
14/07/2009 at 13:09 jsutcliffe says:
Please do not use the word “Midwinter” in post titles. It gets me all excited…
14/07/2009 at 13:10 Rei Onryou says:
I’m glad that they’re at least being sensible about the release dates and I’m hoping that also means the games will have more work put into them, rather than being ready at XMas and just being shelved until March.
Finally, perhaps a 1st quarter with reasonable releases (excluding DoW2 and Empire).
14/07/2009 at 13:15 Gabanski83 says:
Any word on Half Life 2: Episode 3 though, maybe hitting next year? Or are Valve 100% concentrating on L4D2?
14/07/2009 at 13:24 Azazel says:
Oh yeah, Half-Life 2: Episode 3: Leyton Orient 0…
Whatever happened to that? A trailer will be released before the end of the decade presumably?
14/07/2009 at 13:24 Legionary says:
>”(I also like the bit where they explain there will be a $0.12 expense per share due to “unusual legal matters”. I imagine them being sued by a shark, or taken to court for wearing too many socks.)”
Well played, sir.
14/07/2009 at 13:26 Owen says:
“Please do not use the word “Midwinter” in post titles. It gets me all excited…”. Likewise. Jim mentioned it in passing in a podcast a few weeks back actually. I had an immediate, “fuuuuuck, Midwinter. Oh yeah!” blast-from-the-past moment.
14/07/2009 at 13:33 kevlar says:
I’m actually kinda down on it as I’m a big fan of shooters but I don’t like the Halo Series or the Infinity Ward games so it’ll be slim pickings this holiday season. If none of them gets delayed however, it looks like a huge holiday for me to play RPGs, though: Dragon Age, Divinity 2, Risen, Alpha Protocol.
14/07/2009 at 13:34 cyrenic says:
It’s about time publishers start to wise up and stagger their release schedules a bit. There’s only so many games you can buy around Christmas.
14/07/2009 at 13:34 Super Bladesman says:
The more games slip, the more time I have to look forward to and enjoy playing Borderlands.
I don’t know why I’m so eager for it, but I really am.
14/07/2009 at 13:39 JKjoker says:
what AAA releases are set for xmas (other than L4D2 and MW2) ?
i used to check in gamerankings but since they changed their site design they removed the ability to check the release list (or at least i cant find the link to it)
14/07/2009 at 13:52 ChaosSmurf says:
StarCraft II unlikely to be this year as well.
But yeah, only a good thing – I wasn’t even expecting Bioshock 2 this year <.<
14/07/2009 at 14:10 Dracko says:
Fine by me either way. I’d rather put down a decent amount of money for two guaranteed instant classics (Halo: ODST and Modern Warfare 2 – with NVGs and Soap bust to dress up in luchador masks, natch) than be swamped with mediocre titles heavy on glitz and hype.
14/07/2009 at 14:14 Paul says:
Read: 2010 will the single greatest year for games ever (or at least in a long time). Mark my words.
(Although, everything we know, suspect or hope to be coming out in 2010 will probably be delayed until 2011 :D )
14/07/2009 at 14:23 JKjoker says:
@ChaosSmurf: if they start the beta now they might make it to xmas and they already announced it (no date tho)
14/07/2009 at 14:27 Dracko says:
Paul: Yeah, somehow, I’m not seeing retreads and sequels we as of yet know not a whole lot about doing it.
14/07/2009 at 15:11 Markoff Chaney says:
Good news. Last year was horrible with the quantity of AAA titles being released within a month of each other. New baby means little gaming anyway, so that’s double plus on my end.
14/07/2009 at 15:26 Dracko says:
The term AAA is pretty much dead now considering how everyone uses it to describe everything ever.
14/07/2009 at 15:42 Thiefsie says:
Wouldn’t it be hilarious if MW2 was delayed. hahaha
14/07/2009 at 16:22 lilgamefreek says:
I suppose we’ll have to settle for HL2:EP3
Eh? ;)
14/07/2009 at 16:55 Dracko says:
The pre-order will come in actual crate along with a crowbar to smash it open with and the game will come bundled with a framed apology letter.
14/07/2009 at 16:56 negativezr0 says:
What about Splinter Cell: Conviction, its my most anticipated game for sure(along with L4D2). I have a few console games I hope come out this year, Mass Effect 2 and Assassins Creed mostly.
14/07/2009 at 17:01 Jeremy says:
I can’t blame publishers for not wanting to release a game at the same time as Modern War 2. That game will dominate any and all sales.
negativezr0, Mass Effect was never planning on getting out by the end of the year. It was always slated for a 2010 release, sorry to ruin more of your Christmas dreams. I’m almost certain AC2 will be a 2010 release as well, guess you’ll just have to hope for some other goodies.
14/07/2009 at 17:15 Anthony Damiani says:
[quote]The term AAA is pretty much dead now considering how everyone uses it to describe everything ever.[/quote]
I used to think so, but that’s not as much the case now. Between the burgeoning, increasingly sophisticated indy scene, the continued existence of crass mid-budget tie-ins for larger media properties (‘B games”), the expansion of casual, web-based games, and “light” gaming options for portable platforms, I think there are plenty of games that shouldn’t be called AAA. I’ve come to associate the term as being synonymous with “traditional” big studio releases aimed at the core gamer market.
I mean, Defense Grid: The Awakening or Plants vs Zombies were great games that shouldn’t be lumped into the AAA category. Neither is something like Evony, most of the free-to-play MMOs littering the landscape, or most GBA and iPhone titles. There’s a real difference in the amount of production resources that go into these things.
14/07/2009 at 17:22 Jeremy says:
Everyone stills uses that term to describe everything ever. That’s why it has lost its meaning.. we need to add a 4th A, to classify the new Quad A titles.
14/07/2009 at 17:50 kuddles says:
@Dracko: When you complain about “retreads and sequels” and “mediocre titles heavy on glitz and hype”, and also proclaim your excitement for MW2 and HALO: ODST, you’re trying to be intentionally funny, right?
14/07/2009 at 18:39 Dracko says:
No, I’m dead serious.
Hate on the best lightgun game ever made and one of the most iconic mechanistically sound shooters ever designed all you want, but the sequel to the former is heading in even bigger directions with bigger ideas and the latter’s expansion pack turns out to be anything but and has ambitions to create a full-scale city under siege as an arena for a paceful FPS (Not to mention the Firefight mode which boils down Halo to its essential game design and that’s pretty much an option all games with recognisably solid game design should provide), which is the sort of thing BioShock and its imitators have failed miserably at creating and should probably take notes, stat. Not that that will happen because while everyone is satisfied taking potshots at Bungie’s products, they’ve never even bothered trying to imitate what makes them work, even when they purport to be Halo-killers.
Whether these two succeed at their goals is another thing entirely, but they both have exceedingly good pedigrees and are created by teams that know what they’re doing and let the content speak for itself.
14/07/2009 at 18:44 DMJ says:
I hereby patent the term “infinity-A game”, any marketing department which wishes to use it may do so for a nominal (huge) fee.
14/07/2009 at 18:55 Dracko says:
“Instant classic! Game of the decade! A∞+++”
14/07/2009 at 19:39 Funky Badger says:
Halo = meh.
Big noise because it was the first decent FPS on Xbox. Nothing at all to write home about, although the vechicle sections are fun.
14/07/2009 at 22:30 Dracko says:
Yeah, but I’m talking about Halo 3 and its upcoming expandalone.
And there was actually a lot to write home about the first one, not least of which was recognisable AI patterns, not just limited to tactics but also as reactions to situations, each different depending on enemy type, wide expansive arenas to play in, weapons with character, building on top of old-school frames and yes, indeed the vehicles. Stuff that no FPS since has decidedly touched upon, for whatever reason, instead ripping off the more obvious – but nonetheless smart – design choices such as rechargeable shields, a key for throwing grenades instantly, a limited inventory, etc.
I mean, if you want to dismiss it, you may as well dismiss Half-Life² along with it. It’s far from flawless and hasn’t aged all that gracefully either.
14/07/2009 at 23:18 TheColonel says:
NEWSFLASH: Min Sleep release on PC moved to 2045! Surely there’s not much that can delay Left5Dead – they’ve already got all they need except the maps and a bit of coding. When November comes I’ll probably forget all about the rest anyway. Except Mafia 2.
14/07/2009 at 23:21 TheColonel says:
Surely the biggest news is the rumoured cancellation of Max Snooze on the PC? If the new Call of Duty is as deep and engrossing as the last one I might have to rush out as soon as it’s released and buy something else. Please put Grim Fandango on GoG?
15/07/2009 at 00:11 Stupoider says:
Unfortunately, I see the CoD and Halo series being milked for sequels and spin offs for eternity, copy-paste after copy-paste, and in seeing that lost my interest in them. :/ But I loved the first Halo.
Shame about the delays! I can see the positive side to it, mind, especially Mafia 2. I’d like that to be a great game. :> Maybe I’ll have a chance at getting my computer ready for it.
15/07/2009 at 00:25 Dracko says:
How do you figure?
15/07/2009 at 00:27 malkav11 says:
Frankly, I am almost never going to complain when any game gets pushed back (as opposed to cancelled) unless it’s already just short of vaporware or it gets pushed back -into- the Christmas stampede. I’m always overwhelmed with stuff to play as it is.
15/07/2009 at 01:24 Feintlocke says:
@Dominic White: Oh my, that game/video looks ridiculously good. Ambitious as hell too. What were they calling it? An MMO-Action-RTS? Sounds too much to be true.
From what the little that I have gleamed (plus a little speculation) it sounds like an overworld map that somehow sets up 1v1 to 3v3 matches against the opposing factions. You then fight as a single hero (a la Dynasty Warriors) while somehow also directing your army. You then level up your hero and recruit for your army as the game persists.
I’ll be watching this one closely.
15/07/2009 at 01:34 Feintlocke says:
“From what the little that I have gleamed…” I have an incredible knack for deleting sentences (in part) and rewriting them without checking that the old and new parts combined make sense. Think I’ve shown that a good few times already on this site. Edit button come back! ;_(
15/07/2009 at 01:36 DSX says:
As a PC only gamer, “Halo” is an adjective.. that’s all I can say politely.
It’s really nice to see a major studio has the wherewithal to push back dates and deliver better quality then give in to whatever marketing or competition has driven so many other titles to release really crappy code just to make a date. *cough ARMA*
15/07/2009 at 06:02 malkav11 says:
If you really want to know what Kingdom Under Fire works like, the new one’s a followup to two on the original Xbox. They’re quite neat. (And -those- are followups to a rather lackluster PC game that contains both RTS and RPG modes but doesn’t really do anything to mix them and isn’t much good at either.)
15/07/2009 at 08:17 Dominic White says:
Yeah, the KuF series has a weird history. It started out as a weak PC RTS by a small Korean studio, and then seemingly dissapeared into nothingness.
A few years later, it re-surfaced as KuF: The Crusaders an Xbox game that kinda played like a hybrid of Dynasty Warriors, the battles from the Total War series, and with more than a dash of Warhammer Fantasy in terms of theme. It was good. It was also ungodly hard, as you often had to micromanage your own personal melee (you only directly control your main character), as well as odering around 5-6 regiments of troops at once.
It also had the funniest, weirdest bit of censorship ever, if anyone wants to hear it.
It then surfaced again a year later as a straight update/prequel – KuF: Heroes. Even harder, more units, better graphics, etc. All good stuff.
A couple of years pass, and they apparently begin work on a new KuF, but in the meantime, they (I think a third-party studio were involved in some major way) produce a spinoff to keep the money coming in on the 360. KuF: Circle of Doom is born, and while it got bad reviews in general, it was a fun enough Diablo-esque (tons o’ loot, random maps, etc) dungeon crawl with friends.
KuF2 has been in the works for ages though, and I notice one of the screenshots shows you controlling no less than 12 regiments. That’s gonna be complicated if you’re also running around as your general as well.
15/07/2009 at 13:19 CdrJameson says:
It says ‘Fiscal year 2010′, not ’2010′.
Fiscal year 2010 starts on 1st November 2009 for Take Two, still well in time for Christmas if they want that. They might just be ‘massaging’ the games into next years financials by releasing them a week later.
15/07/2009 at 17:51 Geoff says:
Wow, I actually agree with Dracko here. Halo attracted so much mainstream gushing, especially from unlikeable 13-year-old console fanboys, that it’s cool to hate – doubly so if you’re a PC Games Only zealot.
But in addition to their generally admirable level of polish, Bungie put a lot of innovative stuff in there, almost all of it positive, and much of it has since been appropriated by other games going forward. I’m currently playing Far Cry 2, and I have to admit that both the weapon system and the vehicle feel very Halo-esque. If your take was “meh, nothing to write home about”, then you weren’t paying any attention to the game design.
15/07/2009 at 18:49 Dominic White says:
Likewise, I’m one of those people who think the Halo series really did a lot right. I also liked Far Cry 2 a lot, which has actually gotten me accused of being a Ubisoft developer…
Such an odd insult.
16/07/2009 at 03:39 Dracko says:
There’s also something very satisfyingly arcadey about the Halo games which put it more in line with classics like DooM and Quake in my mind over the likes of Half-Life or Modern Warfare. I think it’s on account of a clear focus towards constant conflict, and a lack of puzzles and such.
So yeah, I think the backlash is solely on account of its popularity even towards tweens (As if Valve’s or Infinity Ward’s games were spared).
I didn’t really want to bring it up in the free-roam article above, but even as a PC-only site; I think ODST should be worth keeping an eye on to see how it handles its sandbox exploration.
16/07/2009 at 05:08 Baris says:
@Dracko: ! I’ve been trying to figure out why I love the Halo games so much for years (I’m an elitist prick, you see). I think you may have just figured it out for me.
16/07/2009 at 05:44 Spectre-7 says:
Wait, wait… What? Did I just slip into an alternate universe where Heretic/Hexen never happened? Gah! I hate when that happens…
16/07/2009 at 16:08 Dracko says:
P.S. http://rezcycle.livejournal.com/18860.html
04/08/2009 at 04:51 Susan says:
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Susan
http://onlinegamesforgirls.net