Will wonders never cease? EA has finally seen the light about the timing of game releases.  It seems like common sense to gamers to spread out the game releases throughout the year rather than cramming them all in for the holiday season, but apparently it took Dead Space and Mirror's Edge's failure to meet sales expectations for a publisher to “get it”.  The video game industry has changed. The kids from the time of the Atari 2600 and the Nintendo Entertainment System have grown up and many of us are still playing games. Video games, while still struggling with stereotypes, are coming to be accepted as a form of entertainment for all ages rather than simply as toys for children.

It would seem common sense to me that if someone is looking to purchase a game around the holiday season, they're more likely to spend their money on something that seems guaranteed to be fun rather than risk it on an unknown.  Mirror's Edge and Dead Space never had a chance against the rest of the big titles like Gears of War 2, Fallout 3, Resistance 2 and Call of Duty: World at War.  Most people have budgets to stick to, especially in this economy, and don't want to be disappointed if they decide to take a risk on a new IP that has released.

Not only is the holiday season too jammed full of big games, the rest of the year is generally bleak. These empty months are the perfect time to introduce new games to us!  We're hungry for something new, have money in our budget and will take a risk on something that promises to be good.  EA seems to have finally realized that games can do well outside of the holiday season and promise to re-think their strategy on release dates.  I can only hope they take their lesson to heart and that other publishers get on board.