Are video game companies getting their release dates wrong?

This week on the Game Business Show, Epic Games announces long-desired additions to Fortnite's monetization. Microsoft raises the price of Xbox in the US again. GDC is rebranding with a new focus. And our big topic looks at video game release dates. Hello and welcome to the Game Business Show. My name is Christopher Ding and our guest host for today is Emanuel Rosia, director of market intelligence at Nuzu. Rosie's nearly 11 years stint in video games has included nine years electronic arts in various strategic planning and insight roles. Emanuel, welcome to the show.
Hello.
Yeah, it's good good to have you on. Um, and it's good to have such an expert in in this area, but you've just had a big report launch this month, which I know we've already talked about a bit on the show um without you, the 2025 global gains market report. How has that gone down? Has it been good?
Yeah, absolutely. I I mean being at Nuzu for for a little bit more than one year now, it was really my first global game market report and uh I'm quite happy with the result and with the the feedback we've received. So yeah, so far

so good and uh hopefully creating more and more discussions.
Yeah. Well, it's um the n the topline numbers, you know, there's some growth, but it's probably not in line with inflation. Still clearly quite um tough out there, but you know, they're going up, I guess.
Yeah. I I think it has been worse before you know looking at at previous years and all the trend was and then I think now at least even if it's uh it's it's just not really adjusted for inflation we are still above the peak of 2021. So that's that's kind of the positive messaging and uh we expect the market to further grow in the coming year. So at least the trajectory seems a bit better after the correction of the last two or three years. Hm. Yeah. Well, we'll talk a little bit more about the report and some of the other data that you've got in in a moment, but there are few few stories I want us to kick off with. Um, there's actually been quite a few video game stories this week. Tokyo Game Show is about to kick off when we were we were uh recording this. Um, but I'm going to focus on three in particular to

begin with. And the first is around Fortnite. Um, Epic Games has made changes to how Fortnite creators can get rewarded. Uh, there's increased rewards for bringing in laps players. There is a temporary year-long increase in the value of V-Bucks that creators can earn. You have to read about that
to explain it, but the big one is that starting in December, Fortnite creators will be able to create and sell their own items in Fortnite. Epic says that creators can sell, and I'm going to quote them here, digital, durable, and consumable items that they build for their games using Unreal Editor for Fortnite tools. Now, um, for those that aren't into the Fortnite development ecosystem, currently, Fortnite creators, uh, receive a cut of the money from the Fortnite item shop. So, that's B and they get it based on player engagement within their experience. The idea is consumers, players can buy something from the shop, use it across any of their games, and that's how they did it uh, before. Now, we've spoken to Fortnite creators on the game business before who have been crying out for Epic to allow them to sell their own in-game items and earn better revenue from those

games, particularly considering Roblox does allow for that. But back in June, I put this complaint to Tim Sweeney, Epic CEO, and I'm g I'm going to read out his full quote. It's quite long, but his was his answer to, you know, why they don't do it or why they do it. And it said Fortnite is for players first and foremost. Players love the ability to buy outfits and then use them everywhere they go. They love the fact that Fortnite is a game where everybody has an equal chance. There's no pay to win and there is no scenario in which spending a lot of money gives you a benefit over players who haven't spent money. If you look at how Roblox monetization works, when you're spending money in an experience, you're mostly buying items that only work there. You go play another mode or go into another work Roblox experience and it doesn't work. That's something we are worried about as a concept. If that becomes the way gaming works, there's going to be a lot of poor deals offered to consumers. And then he finally bit the idea that somebody built a better game and now I'm going to have to go to that game and have to buy everything again. That's not what players want. And then you get into the pay to- win mechanics. you get into scenarios where there's loot boxes or things that resemble loot boxes and you're paying for a chance at something

rather than buying something specific specific identifiable thing. Generally, we've rejected those forms of annotations for our own games and we really think that we can build an economy that's better for players and that rewards creators more as a result of increased player trust and avoid falling into the pitfalls of the pay to win and loot box mechanic games. He then goes on to point out the discuss the initification of smartphone games as the reason why we should be wary of increased monetization
but clearly they've caved to pressure um Emanuel it's um it's strange cuz I sort of agree with Sweeney in principle
but at the same time you can see Fortnite isn't the unreal editor of Fortnite isn't gaining the same traction as Roblox is and perhaps that principal stance was holding them back a bit. Yeah, I would say this is planned all along. This is not the kind of decision you take from one day to the other probably. So the question is whether it was already planned but it was accelerated or or whether it was just a coincidence that like yeah Fortnite is is bit challenging right now in terms of

active user. You see that it doesn't have the breaking the record that Roblox is is breaking right now. So it's difficult to tell if it's tactical or more strategic.
I wouldn't be surprised it is reactive. It it doesn't seem to be in line with what they wanted it to be. But you're right. You know, we are seeing um we are seeing Roblox really just skyrocket. And you see things like Grow a Garden and and I forgotten the name of the new one that's uh doing ridiculous numbers.
Steal your brain rot.
Yeah, that's it.
I have two kids playing it. So I know I know everything. So that needs to Yeah.
Oh, really? I I I've avoided Roblox. I was on the BBC doing an interview about um Grow a Garden. So, I had to download Grow, you know, I had to play Grow Garden and
it I mean it was rubbish, but it was it was I could understand why people were into it.
It's grinding back of type of experience. And um but
it's also social, right? And there's people around
and you can you can help each other, you know, when you have a friend joining, you can give him seeds and like help him to progress faster.

Yeah. This gifting element. But yeah, I'm curious to see where it will go. It feels from the outside that Fortnite is trying is putting different levels right now. I mean, they just uh they just brought some iconic weapons in the game. I also play regularly Fortnite.
No, really.
They brought these weapons that were vaulted for for a very long time. They also have revealed a collab with Death Bank that will be their next big big event.
So, I I don't know. Of course, there is things that are planned, but it feels like there is a lot of stuff being being given to the players or thrown to the players right now. Fortnite.
Yeah, I did quite like they have this thing where they've for Fortnite creators if you bring back in laps players. Yeah,
you get a better reward. It seems to be
and they were very keen to compare their monetization to Robloxes, which is um which is always
shows they're being they really are being competitive with Roblox. Um, we'll move on to a second story which is oddly

last week's show, Emanuel was all about game consoles. Um, I used a bit of news statistics um, from the report in that, but as soon as we launched that episode talking about whether video game consoles are in trouble, we talked about the price being an issue. Xbox announced that straight away that they're raising the price of it Xbox Series S and X consoles once again in the US. The price increase will start from October 3rd uh, due to changes in the macroeconomic environment. And for those that don't speak corporate, that means US tariffs. Price increases include the baseline Xbox Series S model increasing by $20 to $400. That's the 512 GB version or $450 for the 1 TBTE edition. The Xbox Series X models have also increased by $50. The Xbox Series X digital machine is now $600. That's up from $550. While the model uh well the baseline model, the normal one, the one that has the disc drive has gone from 600 to 650. Um uh I mean yeah it it's it is it's it's a lot of money. I mean and uh and

they're eye watering numbers. Um I know uhu I think expects a 5.5% growth in console revenue um across the board this year but it's the slowest area of user growth. So I that's high it's the high pricing right.
Yeah absolutely. I I mean GTA 6 will basically drive some of that growth. I mean not this year it will be more the Switch 2 which which is there as its own ecosystem. We we also debated for a long time about the price of the the Switch 2 and the price of the of the games on the Switch too. Yes, it's been an interesting generation of console because they've kept they basically kept increasing. They've been going the opposite than than the previous generation of console and you start to wonder how high do they want to go and when would be the tipping point where basically players are like okay I'm going to buy a computer. I'm going to buy a different platform because it's really becoming the entry barrier to play on console becomes like500, 600, $700.

Yeah. I think there was a time when they used to get, you know, used to get the platform holders a discount, wouldn't they? Um, in order to, you know, bring in users and for Xbox as, you know, because they've shifted their model, um, it's not quite so important to them anymore and there's no reason to take the hit or not as much of a reason to take the hit. They obviously want to sell more consoles. We talked about this last week. It was a big whole show about it and one of the things I said about how game consoles used to be the entry level these entry points for games where started they started with a with a $150 Wii or whatever it was right um and and game and stuff whereas um now it's it's now you know PlayStation's tagline is best place to play like it's now we're the premium option um which is quite a shift really but yes it's an ongoing challenge I think for consoles um in this you know not just rising prices but also younger generations coming through games like Roblox and and mobile.
And let's not forget that this younger generation, the the alpha mostly, it doesn't really matter where you play Roblox because you can play Roblox on any piece of hardware. So what if you

want to play Roblox, why do you spend so much money to play on a console while the experience is probably similar on a tablet or or or in any any other device? So that's that's that's challenging for the the the console manufacturer to really sell a better version of Roblox or or for type maybe is a different different story. But I think that's also this element where um we see more the resurgence of games as a platform that are hardware agnostic you know just you you can play it on any platform doesn't doesn't change that exper the experience that much. I think I read you had given some comments to the media around because there's this expectation or this belief or this opportunity maybe to upgrade people from Roblox to other experiences and the idea that young road people age out of Roblox they'll come back they'll come to console eventually which might be true consoles have to do something to encourage that obviously you can't just expect it to happen naturally but you're you're if I remember correct if I'm trying to remember your quotes correctly you're a

little bit skeptical about that
I I'm more on the wait and see attitude rather rather than being convinced that yes the the young player will will promote into the call of duty or like the more uh adult type of games because I think there is a there is a massive community effect everybody has to move because most of these these games and these platforms are social experiences and they have to move from a free-to-play environment to a potential non-free environment anymore and bringing their friends with them. Um, we I I think we see that the the average age of a Roblox player is increasing and we believe it's just the actual players aging. It's not like new older player jumping jumping in and and where is the limit? Why why would people have to leave Roblox? Because as older gamers, we judge Roblox a little bit based on on visuals, based on the game play. But we were not born in Roblox. So we we might

be very we might uh negative about it but for the the gen alpha that has been born with Roblox that just how they play video game. It's this not the best environment of this to play games like like Roblox. So um yeah we we might not understand that but I would really leave the door open that maybe the player will stay they will stay in this ecosystem.
Yeah. It's interesting though because you talked about the community aspect was not something I thought of before. I used to think about I remember I was being told by Nintendo somebody at Nintendo years and years ago about the Nintendo DS and about how lots of people came into the Nintendo DS for brain training and then and then they and then the idea was Nintendo tried to get them to play Professor Leighton. So brain training to Professor Leighton that's a natural growth and then Professor Leighton to Zelda, right? That's the way they sort of viewed it. And they did a similar they tried a similar thing with the Wii where they basically made a Zelda game which used all the Wii Sports mechanics, right? and and the idea was to upgrade people, but that was obviously a mechanical upgrade and but clearly they left people behind. There

were people that just played brain training, they didn't go to Professor Leighton and maybe some did upgrade, but with Roblox, even if they even if I was sitting there thinking it's, you know, even if most people still carry on playing Roblox, if they can get even a 10% of the people to upgrade, it'll be a huge a huge thing. But obviously there's that community aspect today where, you know, people um go where their friends are. they and that's the one of the reasons why I used to say the first to 10 million console sales was so important because that decided which you know what console your friends were playing was the one that you bought. Um but now it's all ecosystems and you sticking you stay in them and you have to be encouraged out of them. It's
yeah we don't know it's it's a different dynamic and I think looking at the past I think is what you're saying looking at the past is not necessarily a a way of judging this. from where I come as long as I don't have data to back up some of the of the of the opinions I I prefer to wait and be neutral. So I think there is a chance that this player will stay like a big chunk of this player will not promote to to other games. they they

might play like like everybody plays uh different type of games but uh ultimately it might just stay their their gaming platform because let's not forget Roblox will also evolve and they will probably provide um like offer more and more compelling experience within Roblox. So maybe Roblox is the steam of uh the f future players. We've just run an interview with Jagex and you know a lot of people when they were younger in the early 90s played Runescape very popular game and now the most popular game version of Runescape is old school Runescape. It's it's it's like nearly got quarter of a million um monthly uh sorry daily users back in August and that's that was driven by um uh I've got to imagine the people that are playing old school Runescape aren't kids.
Yeah, I've got to imagine that they are adults. Um, so, um, yeah, we'll see. We'll see, I guess. Um, well, I'll move on to one final story as part of our news roundup. Um, and it's actually about the GDC rebrand. So, uh, GDC is

changing its name. It's now GDC Festival of Gaming, despite how it sounds. That's not a consumer event. It is a is a business event still. Um, I haven't cut through all the PR. There's a lot of quotes that sort of just say they're going to be awesome. Um, and they probably are, but GDC is positioning itself as a citywide sort of event. There's the core GDC content which they're also shaken up a bit by the way. There's loads loads of stuff in the press release. Um but they're adding a number of additional events or partnering with additional events, off-site meetings, networking events, awards. Um now here's the thing. These things were happening already. Um you know, you go to GDC and I think I probably spent 80% of my time at GDC, not at GDC. I was I was at um I was at the hotel room of that company that was showcasing that game. I was at the Xbox event. I was like um I did go on GDC a bit. Um you've got exhibitors that are um not exhibiting. They're buying a booth. They're taking out a hotel room blah blah blah. Um this is this is actually an unusual it's a quite difficulty situation because GDC was facing an issue where it was losing not

losing money but it was it was making generating less revenue, less tension because um companies but companies were still there in the city that week. Um this feels like an attempt to sort of rectify that, unite everything under one on one banner. Um but uh which makes sense and and but it's is a challenging balance to get right. Um and and there'll be a lot of companies like even you know I'm looking into doing something at GDC and I'm like do I do I need to be part of the GDC umbrella in order to do this? There's there's what is that's that that's the that's the challenge I think they've got but I think it probably needed a shakeup. You're a GDC fan?
Yeah. No. No. I I was at Gamescom this year and I think at Gamescom also a lot of things are happening in the hotels. You know the the good discussion they there are just outside of the the traditional area. No, that that's interesting. As a professional you you wonder where where is my my time best spent? Is it at the GDC or is it at Gamescom? It feels like Gamescom is is

better than ever for for sure for the the public part.
I I will argue that DevCom which is okay. It isn't as a developer event.
Um I don't think Gamescom holds a candle to GDC in every other regard. Yeah.
Yes. But um but and it's it's also because it's such a big venue, such a big event
and they don't necessarily have all the sort of costs that associated with putting on events in the US. There is um
um you know a lot of people, yes, there were people in hotel rooms across the street and stuff. There are lots of people on the show floor as well. I probably spend 80% of my time at Gamescom. At Gamescom.
Yeah.
Yeah. And obviously there's a 365 event, you know, Gamescom. They've got the business there, they've got the consumer bit, they've got the you've got all sorts going on. It's quite I think internationally though GDC does have a challenge. Um I think in fact all US events have a challenge at the moment. Um if you look on I I was linked to the uh uh GDC announcement. I was linked to a blue sky link and the blue sky responses are all just people refusing

to go to the US at the moment. And obviously it's not easy for a company like I it might not even be possible
for an event like EDC to just to change countries. Um they'll have contracts, they'll have sponsors, they'll have, you know, that people who run it and and the relation the Moscone contract that they'll inevitably have will mean that, you know, they can't just go, "Oh, we'll move to France or whatever or or Canada." But um but it is a challenge sort of that international thing. There's a lot of people nervous about going to the US based on the political environment at the moment. Um, but I don't know. There probably isn't an easy solution to that.
I'm I'm curious. I I don't know why they choose like Festival of Gaming because it's already games. Maybe they wanted gaming in the title, so it's even more obvious for the for the the other media. I don't know. And I don't know if if or do they want some kind of public presence because it's going to be there are going to be stuff around but not it's a bit weird.
Yeah, I festival again. Here's the thing. I don't mind the festival term,

you know. It's because I get festival is just a series of different events that connected together. I get it. I I understand the festival. The festival of gaming does make it sound like a consumer thing. If you read the um there's a deck that's doing the rounds of of what they're doing it and it it's very B2B. It's still a very business event. It's still GDC um in in terms of its audience, but yeah, Festival of Gaming does sound broader. Um it does sounds well, it's about gaming, but it's not supposed to be about game development. Um so, and it's not just game development, game publishing, it's all that kind of stuff, but it's supposed to be about the business
of games. So, um
it's certainly an interesting naming convention. Um I'm sure they they spent many hours arguing over it. Uh yeah, and there'll be people internally that would agree. This is GDC fog.
Yes. Well, San Francisco can be a bit like that.
Well, let's move on to our main topic then because uh Anezy has just released a lovely little article actually really insightful around release schedules. In the report, News revealed that five

months of the year on average account for 70% of AAA video games. This is based on it 2021 to 20 to now
sort of looking at the release schedule looking at
AAA games, single player games. um those five months that everyone releases games in or 7% of the games are released in as fee AAA games February, March and then mid August to mid November. Um I enjoy these stats. I I'm data nut. Um since 2021 only 22 titles were released in Q2.
Uh despite the fact it carries more engagement per title uh um um than
um sorry that's that's 14% of titles. uh despite the fact it carries more engagement per title uh than news you sees in September and November. But it's interesting because when I think of I mean I was Q2 2023, right? And I remember Dead Island 2 and Star Wars Jedi Survivor and Breath of the Wild and Street Fighter 6 and Diablo 4, Final Fantasy 16,
which feels like quite a busy Q2, but it

does fluctuate. like one minute you've got a absolute a May choa block of releases and then you then you don't it does feel like to me maybe it's post pandemic maybe it's even goes back further than that it it feels there does seem to be a little bit more of a fluctuation in terms of when games are coming out I know that everyone perhaps avoided GTA this year
what months do you see though as the biggest opportunities developers are missing out on what's the month you think why is people not releasing games in this one
yeah I I I think if we look a little bit first at that story. Uh let's go back to package Christmas holiday season that historically that's when people would buy present and would give to the kids and and you had to launch your game around Christmas. So between October October, November and I think with the shift to to the digital transition, it kind of stays in the mind of people that it needs the the the game still needs to be released around the holiday season. And then some publishers have have noticed that you you can spread the

release through the years. I think uh Sony is doing quite a good job with their exclusive but also because they are their they are 10 pole games. They they can release them almost any anytime they want but I think they have a few successes in the in Q2 in in recent years. Then there is always the question how far can you release in Q2 before you get into the holidays because July is kind of bit challenging to release uh games because people are are traveling they might not be able to play um August I think what you see also in August it feels like more and more games are releasing are releasing earlier in August. So Madna obviously college football this year was mafia mafia
the old country. Yeah, I actually I actually I I challenged cuz they announced that date after the GTA delay, right? And I and I thought as soon as GTA was delayed, I thought I wonder if the mafia will come out in November, right? And then they announced it for August. And that surprised me because um

2K 2K released on like five or six Nintendo Switch 2 games over the summer.
Um they then they then released Mafia. They then got Borderlands in September. They have NBA. And I just went that PR and marketing team got a lot of games to launch in a very short uh window when a lot of them will be on holiday during the summer holidays as well.
And so I was like what? So basically I asked Stra Selnic, you know, what was the thinking behind it? And I have to say the answer he gave me sounded to me like him saying what a stupid question. And I'm like is it a stupid question? I genuinely don't know why you released Matthew in August. I don't know. He seems to have done fine but I don't know why you
I don't understand that. Um but and it might be because it doesn't matter when you launch it. I don't know.
It might be that the IP is not strong enough to just impose itself am among the competition. Um I mean Mafia is is a good game is a good um good IP, but it's not uh it doesn't have the status of maybe a Spider-Man or or a God of War.
Yeah, there are many things to consider

when you when you want to launch a game because you also have to look at your audience. If if it's kind of a young audience, do you want to release in June? what is the exams you know uh there's also things or do you prefer trees around Easter because you know that that the kids they will have more time to play so I think there's also a bit a bit of that to be to be taken into account
I cannot really say this is the month you know this is the perfect timing for your game because it really depends on who who you are trying to reach
well we had so this isn't on this show my previous podcast we had Thomas Puhar who is the communications boss at remedy on
and I was interested to know why they released Alan in October 2023. It was a very busy October. Um, Spider-Man 2 was out that month. It was a very, you know, Anom Wake 2 being a horror game, it tends to do single player horror game, PlayStation associated with that. I was a bit s even though it is legacy is an Xbox game but um I was quite surprised by their decision to release in October and I just outright asked him I said what was the thinking and he went his

answer was you know we sort of announced first and there was an element of that but he also said that you know if we had delayed we probably would have delayed to let's say February and we would have ended up going up against hell divers 2 and power world and um and it's like you know when you don't know when these things are going to hit you know we're talking about I remember looking at September thinking oh who's going to go near Borderlands. That's a bad idea. But Borderlands wasn't even in the biggest game of September. Hollow Night is, right? So, it it's it's that you've got these it's a really you can pick a date
and then Sonic can although I still think Sega were mad for not delaying the Sonic 2D Sonic game they had um back in 2023. They launched on top of Mario Wonder which was I still think a crazy decision. But yeah, I I I I'm I'm always trying to work out what the thinking behind, you know, um releasing the games and the data that you've got seems to suggest that um moving away from that Q4 thinking, even for even if your game is typically that's the window, it can it doesn't matter necessarily.
Yeah. Another thing to consider is that

with again with the digital transition uh the pre-order campaigns are much shorter than before which means that you don't have to commit so early to a release date. So I think many publisher they keep it they keep their options open for as long as possible until they have a better understanding of the of of their release window what what would make sense when they look at the competition. And that's also that allows maybe to be a bit more creative than than before because before you were in package, you had to commit to that that holiday window. You had to to book your marketing budget, your your advertisement and your
shelf space. You secured Yeah. orders. Yeah.
Yeah. And now it's just like you can just do really you can shadow release if if you want. So there are way more way more flexibility for the publishers. That's why maybe they at some point they're like my game is ready. I think is was it Borderlands or that they released a bit earlier than initially expected? So yeah, yeah, there there's there's always a reason behind that

cuz I'm an old retail journalist, right? That's why I started. I started off on NCV magazine. It was a weekly magazine. It was a trade title and I wrote about um the games retail space. So I I've got that mindset and Christmas mindset as well. That's when all the games come out. That's when our magazine was 100 120 pages long. That's when all the magazines were in. Um, and that was a fun thing to put out in a week. I have to say this wasn't my first story on MCV, but one of my early cover stories I wrote was about, this is November 2008, right? So, between November the 7th, 2008 and November 18th, 2008. So, this is um 11 days. These are the games that came out in that 11-day period. Call of Duty: World at War, Gears of War II, Pokemon Ranger, Banjo Kazoui Nuts and Bolts, Mirror's Edge, WWE Smackdown versus Raw, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Provolution Soccer 2009, and Provolution Soccer was very big back then, Football Manager 2009, World of Warcraft Wrath the Lich King, and World of Warcraft was very big back then, Left for Dead, Need for Speed Undercover, Tomb Raider

Underworld, Sonic Unleashed, Animal Crossing: City Folk, Mortal Kombat versus DC Universe, Sha White Snowb Building, and there are loads of others. They were just the really they were the big ones. That was in a 10day period. And that 10day period came after in October where sort of mid-occtober to the end of October, we saw the release of Fallout 3, Fable 2, Far Cry 2, a new Spyro game, a new Spider-Man game, Little Big Planet, Dead Space, Motorstorm.
Yeah.
Ow. That was the retail day. Uh it was I remember putting the release schedule on the front page of MCV and it just took up the whole front page. It was just absolutely
Yeah.
bedum um back then. That was a particularly extreme examples, but that wasn't unusual, right? You know, that's what you had. You had four or five big AAA games come out weekly.
Um, and you compare the numbers that you're showing here, which is like 11 games in September for I might was nowhere near that.
Yeah, absolutely. One thing also that that's interesting is um so Black Friday has always been a big thing in the US, but it also became a big thing in Europe

and in the rest of the world in recent years, which means that
sometimes Black Friday in terms of sales is more popular than the Christmas sales.
It is. Yeah.
So, I mean, when do I release my my game? Do I release my game earlier in September, October so that I can start my first promotion in in uh at the end of November or not? And and I think you've seen that in recent years some of the games uh like the Call of Duty, the Assassin's Creed, Battlefield, they're like, "How close do I release do I release to Black Friday or do I give me a few more weeks before so that it doesn't feel like I'm I'm I'm discounting my game just straight after release."
Yeah. Yeah. I can imagine Matthew the Old Country release it at the beginning of August and you've got a nice halfp price deal on Black Friday and you get a second second bite of that, right? And so yeah, it does he definitely changes that a little bit.
No, I think the thing also is probably video games compete with other purchase or other gifting during the Christmas holiday while the rest of the year

there's there's no not that gifting element that much. So I I think Yeah. Well, you me you mentioned Sony earlier and this is it just triggered something in my brain because I remember years ago and I think it might have been Jim Ryan. It might be Andrew House and I asked him at that point PlayStation stopped releasing by occasional exceptions PlayStation didn't release games in Q4. They always released games like before it. I think it might have been the release of Spider-Man when I asked that question.
And the view of PlayStation because third party was such a big part of PlayStation. They were like we don't want to compete with our third party partners in Christmas. we will release our games in June, we'll release our games in September, whatever, May. Um, and we'll get out of their way. There's occasional titles like a little bit Planet here and there, a kids game that they sort of did put in that slot, but it wasn't that often. That seems to have changed a little bit. Spider-Man 2 launched in October, God of War launched in November. Some of the bigger games on PS4 have launched that. I do wonder if that's because people have I know that with the data you've got says that people still aren't spreading them out very much,
but people do people ask perhaps there

PlayStation still need to sell consoles and probably the best time to sell cons and I know from the data that they sell most their consoles in in Christmas and holiday period. So um and they need these products to help drive that those sales. So it was a thought that occurred to me. It wasn't a question. Um, I do wonder if that might have triggered PlayStation slight shift away from being uh Q4 reverse. I guess
maybe there is more space available. I mean, Assassin's Creed used to to release every single year at that time. It's not the case anymore. Even title like Need for Speed and some other title were more regularly released during that time. So no, no, probably Sony felt like they they have the momentum. They can they can release that. They don't have like to to fill another time of the year. So, but yeah, it will be interesting to to see what they do what they do in the future. I don't think they would release a multiplayer game in or PVP game in uh in Q3 or or during Christmas because there there is there is Call of Duty. Um but for the single

player and we we've also
what what we've noticed is that you know people they play their live service game all year long uh free to play or not free to play and then they want this this kind of break to their usual game and they just play this fid type of single player game and then I think maybe that that becomes more of the the right time than before at least for the Sony exclusive
but surely consumers you know I think back to I remember I was talking about this a friend earlier about 25 years ago Christmas I was 15 years old and um that Christmas day I remember opening my presence and I got a copy of I was an N64 boy back then I got a copy of The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask and WWF No Mercy, right? Two games that cost £50. There was no point I was ever maybe my birthday but really I was never get there was never any other time of the year where I'd get two games 50 quid and I'd also worked at Paper Browns and I think I bought myself a copy of two or three in the Boxing Day sales. That was that was what it was for me in um in you

know 25 years ago. Surely that's still the case now that people there's there's people might not have as you know um you know you might be able to release your game whenever but surely Christmas is the time when or holiday period generally is the time when you can you've got people who might be who might be able to buy more than they would do at other points or at least the season
they get more budget to buy games. Yes, that that's absolutely possible. But
at the same time it feels like every weekend is a different sales there. But there is just uh you know the sales are through the year and you're like maybe I wait the January sales and I and I buy the games there. I I think it's uh it's becoming so fragmented when you look at the the the price um discounting through the years know that it's not just like big thing in in Christmas anymore. So that has spread the the the purchasing habits of the players because they will buy when it's cheaper if if they are they are ready to wait and and also um there's this old phenomenon of the the patient gamers that they just they don't

need to buy the game at launch anymore and they they can just wait until they get they get a good price.
Yeah, I've certainly seen that. I mean, I've been looking I've been watching the sales figures year on year from games and it certainly seems like the idea of you know you can get a game like games like the Avatar game that came out in December and it was a solid game a big IP it didn't do very much and Star Wars Outlaws I know that was sort of earlier that was
September I think yeah
yeah but you know it didn't do huge things there were certain games I was I would have put not put money on but I thought they would do all right
and they sort of didn't and and and I and actually I sometimes think that perhaps they might do better outside of those.
Yeah, I it's interesting. I would really love to see what the player habits are around how that's changed and that's shifted because there are certainly although on the one hand it's still the busy time. Most people still release games in September and October and I think you're right. I think part of the reasons why that we're getting more released in September, October than November than we used to is because of Black Friday pushing that pushing things

further out. Um, and that's not unless you're a new thing, but I I'm I'm interested to see and this year is interesting because
you have to wonder how much of this year is to do do with GTA, right? Um, because um September was it I think I've got your stats here. Um, uh, you looking at single player games of a $60 plus price tag in 2025, nearly 25% of them were in September, right? And um and and I had to wonder if that's just people going, "Yeah, we going to try and get away from October and November when we think GTA might."
Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the whole GTA story is going to be very interesting next year. I hope hopefully there's not too many delay because personally, every time they are they are shifting the date that we have to redo all our forecast because of the the magnitude of of this event for for the industry. I did find it funny that your one of your takeaways I guess from this is that Q2 can be really successful, but obviously you wouldn't recommend release

the game in May next year, would you?
Yeah, I I would say there is still some people that will not play uh GTA at launch or that they don't even play on console. So there's still the the the PC audience might be where you have a you have a shot, you know, because all the PC players will be not playing GTA seats or I mean some of the the ones that don't have a console. Um I I think yeah, it really depends on if you think you have space in the shadow of GTA 6. Even if your game is completely different, there might still be an opportunity, a niche of players that they just just don't care about GTA 6.
Well, yeah. Well, I've got two thoughts on that. One is that Nintendo Direct, there was a lot of spring 2026 games in the Nintendo Direct. Nintendo's probably thinking
that's not our market. You know, we can release a Yoshi game in that period of time. It's fine. Um I don't know. I think but but my my counter to that had been historically

um I there's a guy I've mentioned this on the show before so if anyone listening has heard this story before I apologize um there's a I'm a big fan of the game Conquers Berde and the creator of Conquers Ber Chris Evil
made a game called uh the legend of Rusty Puck I can't remember the exact name of it but it's a great game on Steam
and they decided to release that game the same week as Red Dead Redemption 2 and their thinking being there'll be people that not playing Red Dead Redemption 2 they can play our But the problem was all the influencers, all the media weren't talking about an indie platform game. Um, they were talking about Red Dead Redemption. Yeah. But here's the thing. Your in your report, you tell something we've talked about on the show before is actually that's not necessarily where people are doing their discovery anyway. Traditional games journalism is appearing to be losing much of its influence as audiences are shifting their news sources into into more fragmented clusters. According to news 2025 global gamer study, only 24% of players say they get their news from gaming websites compared to 32% from

content creators and influencers. So maybe that the situation that the uh the Conquer Bad Verde creator found himself in in 2018 isn't necessarily the same situation he might find himself in if he did it again against GTA. Um
yeah, you you see all these vi viral game, you know, they're just appearing out of nowhere. Few people start to stream them to play them. you you start getting the Tik Tok videos and then it become the the new the latest hype and then is it disappear quickly and most of the time it's not even orchestrated by by any marketing team it's just happening organically the challenge that you is very difficult to predict and you can it's not because you invest so much money that you will be successful sometime it just it just you can't really control the hype and that's that's what makes it also interesting because we've seen recently some some like surprise success I Because again I have I have two kids. They are very useful. It's really cool to discuss with them because I understand what's

happening. What is it? It's Clash Royale is is doing super well right now just because one single streamer I decided to make it popular again somehow. And then then there's been some snowball effect and now everybody's playing Clash Royale again. They all all play out of nowhere. I don't think it was really pushed by by the publisher. It just happen like that and it's super interesting.
My favorite story of this and you might remember this from your EA days. I was at E3 and I went for a lunch with um one of the heads of game and head of game said that they've had a load of people come into their stores asking for Skate 3. I can't remember the exact date. This was years and years ago. And um and I was like, "Oh, really?" And he went, "Yeah, I think somebody's playing it online." And it was it was PewDiePie. Pewdiepie had been playing Skate 3 online and it caused a huge spike in interest. So people asked game if for copies of the game but the game didn't exist anymore. It been discontinued. You know they hadn't been manufacturing anymore. So EA so game went to EA and

asked them to manufacture more discs. They manufactured more discs. Game sold them and the game got back in the top 10 years after its release because of this. And it was such a great story. I was very excited. I wrote up the story on MCV, the website that I worked for at the time. I wrote it up and then Kotaku saw the same story. They wrote their version of the story perfectly, legitimately, really wrote it like it normally did. But um PewDiePie retweeted the Kotaku story, not the MCV story, and it broke the website.
Oh yeah.
And I always feel a bit I was a bit bitter about that. But the um anyway, that's a side story. But yeah, that's what you that's the thing. These sort of these sort of things come out of nowhere now. And it and that's what and that's what I think what Thomas is saying from Remedy. We can sit there and go, why are you releasing a game in October? Why not release it in February? But the reality is you have no idea what's going to come out and what's going to do really well. We talk about AAA, but it's indie stuff that really that's that's the stuff that breaks through that's hard to predict. And actually, the industry has changed. There was a time, you know, I looked at the 2008 data, right? That was the peak of pre-owned, right? So all of those games that came out every week, I might

get one of them and then I would next week trade it in against the next one, which is great for consumers but terrible for the in well for certain publishers and developers who felt that they were they were um
you know they had a week to sell their game before it ended up in the pre-owned bins and then it became they weren't selling it anymore. Alan Wake 2, sure it went up against Spider-Man and it lost.
But Remedy is able to keep selling it. They won awards at the game awards. they were able to keep talking about the game throughout the game and it's now got to the point where I wouldn't call it a breakout hit, but it's it's made its money back, right? And and so and so, um, it it's it's it's, uh, we don't live in, you know, you can release your game and it's not over if you get the wrong release date. Um but um
but I I I think Steam sales have replaced basically the second end market in the sense that it's becoming so cheap to to to get get the game at some point you know like uh every everybody yeah the publisher managed to sell two times the game one time at full price and the other time at maybe 50% and then

ultimately you well the the middleman disappear there's not so many video game retailers anymore so it's just transformed into into digital copies. Yeah.
Yeah. Although I'd argue the retail and Steam is is the retail in this know. But in the but I do wonder about the attention economy. You talk about those patient gamers. If there's a big game that I love and it's an IP I love, I'll get it day one. But I've got to the point where I've got so much to watch and see and read these days that I I really don't feel the need to buy things on day one like I used to. And I don't know if that's that's an anecdotal thing. I don't know if that's that's something the data is showing as well. with a a game costing $70 $80, you really have to wonder, is it worth buy? Do I need that game? No. You know, it's it's really the thing. You probably need to to buy Battlefield 6 at launch because then you're part of the the story of the the multiplayer, but there was just the new Silent Hill game released releasing this week and I'm a really fan of the the re of the remake

of the of Silent Hill 2, but I like I'm not in a hurry to play it. So, I can I can wait. I can sit and wait for a few weeks. So, it really depends on how appealing your your game is.
I have found myself predicting games that will be in the Black Friday sale and going I'll wait for that cuz I'm never going to not because I don't want to play it now because I've got loads of other things to play now. Yeah.
It's like is it just going to sit on a shelf and 80 if I'm paying $70 for it, is it going to sit on a shelf for 3 months and then it's going to be half the price and then I'll be resentful? We we we've had these conversations are being had on the internet all the time and it's not a new conversation, but I do wonder if it's we're reaching a bit more of a tipping point around it. I think release dates are really fascinating and I I always want every time I ask about them to companies, it's it's not because I'm I I'm challenging them why you're releasing the game then. I genuinely want to know why haven't we had that many games in April in the last few years? Like, you know, we had a couple, but we haven't had that many. I understand January, you know, I get why people don't release games in January. Everyone spent all their money at Christmas. people have got all these games for Christmas that they're playing

throughout January.
Mhm.
You still get some, but I understand why you don't, you know, I did like I think somebody at Ubisoft told me that they like to release games middle of February because or early March because at that point people have finished the games they got for Christmas. And I I like the logic behind that. It's really interesting. And that's interesting. That's more about time than it is about available capital.
Let's not forget the earnings.
Yes. No. No. Yes.
Let's not forget the the the fiscal year. I mean when you release a game and and back then it was even I come back to the package story. You would ship you know you would do your selling in March you would release the game for one or two weeks but you had already shipped all all your your package game because the the the retailers they needed some stock. Uh so that was a good bonus for the end of the fiscal year. It's ending end of March and in April it doesn't really have an added value from a financial standpoint. Just release it in March. So you just you still capture. The only the only moment where you could decide that you push back your release is if you've made enough money in this fiscal year. So you don't need to

release your game in March and then you wait. But then yeah, it wouldn't be April. It would be maybe. Uh but April doesn't seem to be like a like a a very popular month when when you look at the the release and I think there is this hangover effect of the of the endear result and and fiscal year end result. Yes.
Yeah. Maybe I always used to think Easter was a good time. There used to be a thing around Easter back in when I was on retail magazine. But yeah, a lot of them was Easter sales. It was discounts they did rather than them rather than new releases.
Um Emanuel, I'm sort of out of time, but it's been an absolute pleasure to have you on.
Y
I would love to have you back um talk about I release dates and it's a wonderful report news put out um the global game. We've got um will be links to it in the newsletter if you haven't read it already. But that's it for today's episode of the Game Business Show. We will be back with more news, analysis, and interviews next week. And we are also launching a new paid subscriber only version called the Game Business Micro Show on Monday. So stay

tuned for that. Um until next time, thank you Emanuel again for for for joining us and um and thank you for everyone for tuning in.