Dear Gaming Publishers: We don’t need another Quarter 1 2022 again.
First World Problems: Entitled gamer complaining about too many new games alert. But, this is the reality currently facing anyone who doesn’t play 8 hours per day every day: a monumental backlog brought on by an eruption of releases, and many great releases to boot.
I can’t believe I’m actually writing these words, but there have been too many games released so far in 2022, especially February and March, and believe it or not, it’s not a good thing either.
In the first few months of 2022, major releases have included, Elden Ring, Horizon Forbidden West, Ghostwire Tokyo, Destiny 2 The Witch Queen, Cyberpunk Next-gen upgrade, GTA V next-gen upgrade, Gran Turismo 7, Tiny Tina’s Wonderland, Bablyo…never mind – just to name a few, and that’s before I think about some great indie games like Sifu and Tunic, again to name just two here.
If you’re reading this, and you have somehow even gotten through half of those games, then fair play, because I am nowhere near. What doesn’t help is that I’ve gone against my old rule of only playing one game at a time, I am currently juggling 3 games; Elden Ring, Cyberpunk and GTA V. Elden Ring has me hooked, you can read my thoughts here, but I was genuinely enjoying GTA V when I needed something lighter, and I absolutely love Cyberpunk and do miss playing it, again you can read my post-patch thoughts here.
Having this sheer volume of new releases isn’t good for the industry, never mind the gamer backlog. Unless you happen to be Elon Musk, affording all those games in such a short space of time won’t be feasible for most people, meaning choices have to be made. There are industry rumours that Horizon FW hasn’t sold as well as expected, due to Elden Ring sales, and there is no way it’s only HFW affected by this.
Take Ghostwire Tokyo as an example, released on March 25th: People I know who have played it have really, really enjoyed this game, yet I know more people who HAVEN’T bought the game yet, because they don’t need to. They have a backlog, probably still including the likes of Horizon, or maybe going back to Sifu, or possibly, like me, in the early hours of Elden Ring. So why would you buy Ghostwire unless you really wanted it, or pre-ordered? Your best bet now is to wait for the sale or second-hand pickup*. All of this snowballs to the negative: Will Ghostwire hit the numbers Arkane was hoping for? I hardly doubt it, I’ll happily be proved wrong.
*I wrote this paragraph around the 1st of May, and I’m now adding this on the 4th of May, and Ghostwire Tokyo is ALREADY discounted 34% on PS Store.
Everyone is tightening their belts at the moment, the cost of living is rising, energy bills are scandalous, unless you are ready to start a game on the day(s) around release, why would you outlay and buy it to sit in a drawer until you’re ready? Or in the case of digital-only, sat downloaded without playing?
So, here we are in May with what I can see are 3 months of no MAJOR releases, and frankly, it feels marvellous. That gives me so much time to concentrate and enjoy and finish games, and clear some of the monstrous backlog of games I now have. Believe me, I appreciate this a ridiculous thing to complain about, actual games on a games console. But it needs to calm down, we don’t need and can’t play this many in such a short space of time.
One last thing to consider is the lack of game sales and the effect that has down the line. We all remember the stories of Days Gone which launched poorly, yet gained traction and sales over the next 3 years, but it was too little, too late for Sony. A combination of low launch sales and middling review scores meant we aren’t getting Days Gone 2 any time soon (if ever), and that is a real shame because Days Gone is bloody fantastic. So I’d hate to see other brilliant games, not get retrospective sequels due to lower launch sales, all because of too many games.
I know we all want games to play, we want variety and we want quality, but we need to be careful what we wish for. And what I wish for right now, is a quiet summer to finish and enjoy all the spinning plates.
First World Problems…
-Dony