Should All the Best Video Games Come Out During the Holiday Saeson?

It is a known fact that the biggest video games are released during the holiday season. This can be a stressful time for gamers everywhere. With games retailing for $60 a pop (in some cases well over $100 for the peripheral-loving music games), even the hardest of the hardcore gamers will have a limit to how much they are willing to spend especially if they plan on giving gifts to other people.

Publishers like to release their biggest games in the holiday season for one reason: money. The holiday season is by far the biggest spending season for consumers. Of course, what else could their love ones want than the latest and greatest video games?

The problem is that the releases are bunched up against each other. As a result, one high profile game will have to go directly up against the other. Unless you have a bottomless pit of money, you have to pick and choose from the best of the best. In an age where high profile games cost tens of millions to developed, this can be quite a dangerous time for publishers especially considering that the U.S. is in a depression.

For every success story in the holiday season for games like Halo and Call of Duty, there are equally depressing stories about games not meeting sales expectation. Perhaps the most famous case in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, which went up against Halo 2 and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Despite being considered by many as the best game in the series, it sold the least.

Released in the month of June, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots sold exponentially better. Much of it is due to having lesser competition. A few other publishers may be setting the same new trend as well with Super Smash Bros. Brawl released in March and Grand Theft Auto IV released in April.

In fact, video games sales have been rewriting the records book on a month to month basis in 2008 so far. High profile games have shown just as much success, if not more, when released outside of the holiday season period.