Consolation Prize

Luke Plunkett has put together a good article over at
Kotaku about the global release of games.

As someone from the European marketplace I’ve frequently felt very disgruntled with the delays of some key titles but it’s very interesting to see some of the facts laid bare. Europe is not (surprisingly) always bottom of the pile with Japan receiving delays on some western big releases, however these are mainly genre’s that are less favourable in the east i.e. first person shooters.

Did you notice how many titles Europe led the pack on? Just the one: Pro Evolution Soccer 2008, which makes sense considering just how football mad we all are, but I would have liked to see additional titles in there if possible. Some of the delays I just don’t feel are acceptable: Pokemon: Diamond / Pearl: 302 days, and worst of the bunch Final Fantasy XII arrived a staggering 344 days later on European shores than in Japan.

As Luke points out the usual excuse is localisation, a term branded about for many years. I do think things have slightly improved recently, Nintendo has shown some improvement with key titles for the Wii (Mario Galaxy, Mario Kart Wii, and Zelda: Twilight Princess) being released in fairly quick succession, and we got our hands on some other high profile titles like Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, and BioShock shortly after our cousins across the pond.

What I thought would be interesting would be to amend Lukes original stats with a European slant, that is after all the video game market I have to adhere to unless I import, listing the number of days between the first release and the European release.

Nintendo
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - 19 days
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption - 60 days
Super Mario Galaxy - 15 days
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass - 118 days
Super Paper Mario - 139 days
Pokemon Diamond / Pearl - 302 days
Mario Kart Wii - 1 day

Microsoft Game Studios
Halo 3 - 1 day
Gears of War - 10 days

Activision
Call of Duty 4 - 3 days
Guitar Hero III - 26 days

Capcom
Devil May Cry 4 - 8 days
Dead Rising - 31 days
Lost Planet - 22 days
Okami (PS2) - 295 days

Sony Computer Entertainment
Uncharted: Drakes Fortune - 28 days
GT5 Prologue - 106 days
Heavenly Sword - 2 days
Resistance: Fall of Man - 3 days

Konami
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 - 0 days

Ubisoft
Assassin’s Creed - 3 days

Square Enix
Final Fantasy XII - 344 days

Valve
The Orange Box - 9 days

2K
BioShock - 3 days

Those kind of delays would drive me crazy. I don’t know how gamers in Europe deal with seeing review of these games and then not playing them for a year.

It can be quite difficult seeing reviews for a game and then having to “twiddle your thumbs” until it’s released. In my case if there’s an overly long delay I just lose interest in the game. By the time it comes out there’s a good chance that another game has caught my attention instead. Case in point, “Rock Band” has just been released in UK today, but I’m now busy playing GTA4, and Racedriver: Grid is just around the corner.

As you know I’m rom Australia and we have an almost idetical problem over here as our release calenders are essentially the same.

I guess it is not all that bad for me personally as I play a lot of older, retro games so there is always something on the table for me to play. I guess we just have to learn and adapt.

Even in situations where we do actually recieve the game earlier or on the same date as other countires are stock is often limited. Metal Gear Solid 4 is a perfect example that I want to look at in my own blog in the coming days.