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November 18: Welcome To The New Release Battleground
Back in April, I penned a story about the biggest day of the gaming year: October 7. At the time, that date featured a clash of titans, including Dragon Age: Inquisition, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, and Alien: Isolation. As you probably know, a few things have changed.
Since then, Dragon Age: Inquisition has been delayed and Shadow of Mordor has received a week promotion on new-gen and PC and a delay of its own on other platforms. October 7 is still a battleground day, with Alien: Isolation, NBA 2K15, Project Spark, and Driveclub (plus the slightly advanced release of Skylanders: Trap Team on October 5). Those titles offer enough diversity that there’s plenty of audience to go around. While October 7 isn’t quite the killing field it was a few months ago, another date has risen to take its place. Your wallet has reason to fear November 18.
Up until last week, November 18 was an important date, with Dragon Age: Inquisition, Far Cry 4, LittleBigPlanet 3, Sonic Boom and Watch Dogs on Wii U. Then, two changes altered the landscape.
First, Warner Bros. announced the delay of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Because of the still significant install base of last-gen consoles, even a partial bump to November 18 creates a matchup against Dragon Age (especially if Mordor reviews well on new-gen and PC). The big change though is Rockstar stomping into November with the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of Grand Theft Auto V. Make no mistake, GTA is the 800 lb. gorilla, and it wouldn’t surprise me in the least to see another tweak to the schedule as EA, Ubisoft, Bandai Namco (Project Cars) and Deep Silver (Escape Dead Island) take notice.
Given Nintendo’s decision to put The Wonderful 101 up against Grand Theft Auto V last year, I don’t expect movement on Sonic Boom. Even though this is published by Sega, the exclusive relationship means Nintendo has some sway.
The problem for Ubisoft is that Far Cry 4 releases just one week after both Assassin’s Creed Unity and Assassin’s Creed Rogue. If we find out about a delay on our trip to Kyrat until 2015, I won’t be surprised in the slightest.
Alternatively, Ubisoft found success with a December release for Far Cry 3. It’s conceivable that the publisher will try to make lightning strike twice with a post-Black Friday launch.
We’ve got our eyes firmly fixed on the November release schedule. There’s still time for publishers to shuffle things (though not much). Should the picture remain as is though, expect to see big software sales in the middle of November, with some titles falling just a little shorter because of the Rockstar effect.
Update: Take-Two is doubling down on November 18. The new-gen versions of WWE 2K15 have been delayed until (you guessed it) November 18.
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