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Pete Hines, Bethesda Softworks’ vice president, believes that there are going to be games that suffer in the run up to Christmas this year. As always, all the big-hitters have been saved for a Q4 slot, including Bethesda’s own Skyrim.
“It’s probably healthy for the industry because the industry gets a lot of attention when there’s all these things happening, just like the movie industry gets a lot of buzz when there’s a bunch of really big things at the movies and everyone’s talking about them all,” Hines explained to Eurogamer at QuakeCon.
“It’s probably not healthy for everyone who has one of those titles, because as you rightly pointed out usually someone gets the short end of the stick. Someone ends up falling short and not doing quite what they expected to do.”
In the few short months before Christmas, gamers will be treated to Uncharted 3, Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Saints Row the Third, and many more.
“This is also fairly unique – it’s not like it happens every year, it’s a bit cyclical,” Hines added. “And it’s not even specific to when we’re out in early November – starting in September all the way through to November, stepping out of my job and looking at the period of time as a gamer, it’s amazing.
“How long do I have in order to play and finish this game before that one comes out?”
Despite believing that some games will suffer, Hines isn’t worried about Bethesda’s own line-up.
“We’re feeling very good about both Rage and Skyrim and very good about our line-up for this holiday season,” he said.
Skyirm is due for release on November 11, while Rage launches October 7.
Who’s going to get ‘the short end of the stick’ then? Certainly not Activision or EA, that’s for sure. Warner choosing to launch Lord of the Rings: War in the North in November is certainly worrying, and If I was Hines, I’d be slightly concerned for Rage, too. We’ll see.
