We’re essentially going to get two year’s worth of games compressed into one. March is already stacking the deck, too, with Gran Turismo 7, Kirby and the Forgotten City, Marvel Midnight Suns, and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands leading the pack.Īnd that’s only the first three months. That momentum keeps rolling in February with Horizon: Forbidden West, Destiny 2: The Witch Queen, Saints Row, and Dying Light 2 Stay Human. The year is set to kick off with three heavy hitters: Elden Ring, Rainbow Six Extraction, and Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Instead, January and February 2022 look more like what you’d expect from the fall season. After that, the industry goes into hibernation for a few months before picking back up. That lets them end the year on a strong financial note, buoyed by parents who need to get gifts for their kids during the holidays. Generally, September through November is the busiest time of any given year, as companies release their biggest games in a few densely packed months. Games that were supposed to be huge holiday hits this year will now launch early next year, and that’s creating a bizarre change in how we’re used to seeing games launch. The 2021 spillover is exactly what’s driving 2022’s overly packed schedule. We’re lucky that any major releases that involved tens of thousands of moving parts came out at all. The challenges of developing games during a pandemic added extra complexity to an already complicated process. Delays ultimately gutted 2021’s schedule, though for good reason.
Sony originally claimed God of War: Ragnarok was coming in 2021, which felt like a laughably unrealistic goal designed to better sell the then-upcoming PlayStation 5 in 2020. Pandemic upsets routineĬompanies also tend to drop aspirational release dates for games that they can’t always keep. And don’t even get me started about Cyberpunk 2077. Games like Kingdom Hearts 3 drummed up excitement heading into 2019, but ultimately ended up slipping off the radar come “game of the year” season. The reality is that not all of those games end up being good the hype cycle is always viewed through rose-colored glasses. With so many major studios churning out major releases, any year can look good on paper. Gamers tend to make that claim at the start of any given year.
That statement might elicit some initial eye rolls. As it stands, 2022 is shaping up to be the biggest year in gaming since 2017. If you feel like you haven’t played many new games this year, that’s about to change.
0 kommentar(er)
