Out of the new games that I follow, I noticed that most (if not all) of them tend to launch on a Tuesday, BGEE being no exception. Does anybody know the reason for that? It can't just be a coincidence.
As far as I can tell. It's probably a holdover of an era gone by, but because that's the way it was done continuing to do so ends up being cost-effective. It's cheaper to ship new product according to the natural cycles of shipping companies, when ALL of their trucks will be busy with EVERYONE's stuff.
Digital releases for PC break the trend and that's about it.
while most games are reviewed in advance, not all are. Plus, most people are paid on a friday, so anyone who will buy the game with either pre order or already have the money. This will let those who bought the game on release and enjoy it tell others about it, so that on friday (payday) the game will still be new, should have reviews up, and can be bought by others who wasn't watching/expecting the game.
Be advised, though, that this is mainly the case for the US. As the internet apparently has oceans, quite many game releases happen on Tuesday in the US and two to three (or more) days later in Europe, Asia and the rest of the world. It's basically just "digital only"-releases like BG:EE that are an exception to this rule. Nearly all games by major publishers follow this strange delaying strategy.
I think it's a standard who is used by the industry at large that was first lauched to accomodate the selling store so the delivery are all done the same days @The_New_Romance it's also true for Canada
Yeah, I'd say it's a combination of people hating Mondays and the desire to have buzz build over the week to fuel end-of-week sales after pay day. I'm sure it isn't just tradition - with the huge amounts of money invested in AAA titles I'm sure publisher's marketing divisions have done their research and concluded that a Tuesday will make them the most dollars. I'm dubious about the costs of shipping being a significant factor, but retailer convenience maybe - releasing on a Tuesday would give retail staff a slow Monday before to better prepare for a launch.
@Lock The convenience of the stores was what i meant when i talked about the delivery thing, i'm sure they favor having all the week release sended to them at the same time than getting it every day and have to change the layout of the game on shelves every day to show the new releases
We selected our launch day to allow us as much time as possible to fix things if they explode before the weekend hits. We are taking every preparation to ensure a smooth launch, but we've been around the block long enough to know something always explodes. Explosion-mitigation, yup that's us.
Comments
Digital releases for PC break the trend and that's about it.
while most games are reviewed in advance, not all are. Plus, most people are paid on a friday, so anyone who will buy the game with either pre order or already have the money. This will let those who bought the game on release and enjoy it tell others about it, so that on friday (payday) the game will still be new, should have reviews up, and can be bought by others who wasn't watching/expecting the game.
@The_New_Romance it's also true for Canada
People underestimate the costs to ship goods. Doing it in bulk the way it's currently done cuts down on it dramatically.
-Trent