“That’s a lot of marketing spend, trying to find potentially elusive eyeballs, in a compressed period of time.”
TheEditor Selling all of the games, in half of the time Sony recently announced that it will be releasing its pair of exclusives this summer – The Last of Us Part II will arrive in June, and Ghost of Tsushima in July. Marking the beginning of a long and busy period for the industry. The dates are not a huge surprise, but their reveal brings into focus an increasingly large problem: Trying to get through a packed launch schedule, alongside the ongoing uncertainty of the epidemic, plus the added curveball of new console hardware. In short, that’s a hell of a lot of product and a hell of a lot of marketing spend, trying to find potentially elusive eyeballs, in a compressed period of time. Coming back to Sony, we’re only five weeks away from The Last of Us Part II, with no idea of when retail stores might reopen. In any other year, one or both exclusives would be shifted back to the autumn. But with Sony’s current strategy seeming to be: ‘release the exclusives now on PS4 and then bang the drum for PS5 later,’ that’s not an option. Sony wants to get these games out the door. All of which means this year’s big release season is longer than we’ve seen for a while, with space for other titles already incredibly limited from even before summer is over. Cyberpunk: 2077 moved back to September already, where it’s currently joined by Square Enix’s Marvel’s Avengers. Ubisoft is bringing us Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla (most likely in October), but it has other major titles to release too, such as Watch Dogs: Legion. Then there’s Call of Duty obviously, rumoured to be set in Vietnam. EA will of course have FIFA, which is proving more reliable than ‘real’ football at present, and surely it must have some other release up its sleeve for Q4 too. And then to top all that off, there are two brand new consoles to sell to consumers. Alongside presumably at least some kind of PS5 exclusive or headline title, maybe Gearbox’s Godfall, plus the Xbox exclusive Halo: Infinite. With a number of marketing avenues not currently performing as usual, such as events and outdoor, there will be increased competition for the best space. And even as lockdown starts to ease, the pent-up desire to get out-and-about could impact gaming time, which might then take a correctional dip in the autumn. Looking at all that, the furloughing of WWE 2K 2021 and Nintendo’s barren release schedule both look rather canny – the rumoured Mario remasters should ably fill the gap. As a whole the industry will do well, but someone, somewhere will see a potentially big hit squeezed out of the running by the sheer competition. So plan carefully, be flexible, and don’t be afraid to pivot or delay if you can’t find the space to launch effectively. Seth Barton seth.barton@biz-media.co.uk
May 2020 MCV/DEVELOP | 05
