October brought its true fury and grandeur to New York today. It took three days, but the nattering leftovers of summer finally drifted out to sea like so many dead leaves and left behind the lowlight and intent wind so particular to the month. Walking down the street, I could smell it, looming like bonfire smoke and Halloween parades: game season.
I hold no love for the business structure that sees some ninety-percent of the year’s most ballyhooed games releasing all within a tight ten week window. It leads to sensory overload and, for the devoted gamer, it adds to already-big backlogs. But I’d be lying if I said it isn’t always exciting. All of the hype, all of the previews, leaked screens, developer showcases, and high, high hopes all lead here and it always begins in October. Holiday 2008, as it were, is going to be a particularly interesting season considering that it is gaming’s first to witness true third-party agnosticism. Nigh on every publisher from East and West is releasing their biggest games on any and all platforms available. (There are rare exceptions. See Sega’s Valkyria Chronicles, Valve’s Left4Dead, and a number of Wii titles.) This brings even closer scrutiny to the console holders' offerings; more than ever, first-party games need to be system sellers. They have to act as ambassadors, convincing casual and hardcore gamers alike that if they put money into such and such a system, there will be more where that came from.
I’m fascinated by what the Big Three are bringing to the table and how those games reflect their mutual identities. Nintendo is Nintendo, releasing just two Wii games, with the new god of the Touch Generation, Wii Music, and its long tail economics prophet, Animal Crossing: City Folk. I have no idea how people will receive Wii Music giving Guitar Hero’s ubiquity. If everyone with a Wii is already used to one type of music game, one that requires you to actually, you know, play, will they actually want to pay fifty dollars for a gimped version that offers none of the manufactured exhibitionism?
Microsoft has got the quantity and the most traditional variety. Between Fable 2, Gears of War 2, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, and (possibly) Halo Wars, they’ve constructed a blanket of sequels covering the genres of old so thoroughly, it’s a wonder most players don’t curl up inside and take a nap. Microsoft is also taking two more stabs at currying casual favor with You’re in the Movies and Lips. Gears will do spectacularly (though not Halo spectacular), Fable will do well, and provided it actually comes out, Halo Wars will sell on its name alone, but it remains to be seen if Microsoft can finally, after so many attempts, steal a slice of Nintendo’s pie. Kids don’t know who Banjo is and it’s not clear that the young adults who do still care, You’re in the Movies doesn’t seem like an obvious draw, and Lips has Singstar to deal with in Europe and America’s apparent ambivalence towards purely karaoke games. Low, low price or not, the Xbox 360 still looks to be the gamers game box during the blitz.
And then there’s Sony. Two of Sony’s four games are pure Playstation standards, totems of a threadbare empire: the basketball game and the racing game. NBA ’09: The Inside and Motorstorm: Pacific Rift should do respectably, catering to the audience they’ve always had on Sony’s boxes (though Motorstorm is filling in for Gran Turismo and Namco’s seemingly adrift Ridge Racer series.) Though, admittedly, that audience is not quite so big as it once was. Insomniac’s Resistance 2 is also interesting, the sort of first-person shooter heavy on single-player, narrative thrills and massive multiplayer variety that gamers were desperate for in 2007, before Halo 3 came out. Given the success of the original, though, and Insomniac’s pedigree, Resistance 2 could be a break out moment for Sony when it goes head to head with Gears 2.
Sony’s fourth game, due in just two weeks, is this fall’s true wild card. I have absolutely no idea what LittleBigPlanet is going to do when it finally comes out, whether the massive marketing push Sony’s put behind it has impregnated the world’s mind with that game’s intimidating possibilities and inviting façade. It’s impossible to say that LBP will draw in a traditional audience. As much as it’s a platformer, the fact of the matter is that the game can be anything you damn well want to be. It could change everything, a game that fundamentally alters the mainstream’s perception of what a game can be, or it can shrivel and die on the vine, a fondly remembered ambition years ahead of its time. I honestly have no idea what to expect from LittleBigPlanet and that’s exciting in and of itself.
Game season’s started. You can feel it, taste it, and see it all around. Get ready, dear reader. We’re going to have some very tired thumbs by the time 2009 comes knocking.
Related links:
Lowering the Standard: Why Nintendo’s Hardcore vs. Casual Commitments Aren’t the Problem
Christmas in Nintendoland: The Tokyo Conference
Miyamoto Says, "It Would Be Great If Music Education Started With Wii Music."
Five Games That Will Be Awesome to Remake in LittleBigPlanet
E3 Day 4: No Blades, No Bows. Leave Your Weapons Here.
E3 Day Two: Spin, Malaise, Sony’s New Clothes, and Nintendo’s True Disruption