2010 is looking to be even more amazing than we previously thought. Dozens of games that were supposed to be out in ’09 have been pushed back to ’10. Some of these games were pushed because of technical issues like bugs. Others were held up to receive a little extra polish. The rest were pushed back because of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

“Huh!?” you say with a confused look upon your face.

Well, Intrepid Reader read on to discover why.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is set to release November 10, 2009 and developers, publishers, and marketing business types are scrambling to deal with it. Rather than going head to head with the juggernaut that is the Call of Duty franchise, many games are choosing the wiser course of holding off until next year.

Even if you have never felt the call yourself, you probably know someone who has played/is playing/ or will play a Call of Duty game. Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare sold a bajillion copies (according to some guy I know) and the sequel looks poised to sell a bajillion more (according to some other guy I know.) Modern Warfare 2 is like the 900 pound Gorilla in the room, wearing battle armor, holding some kind of futuristic acid shooting weapon. It’s eyes feral and red, small wisps of steam rising from its flaring nostrils.

Publishers might be afraid to admit it, but they are terrified about going up against this well armed and obviously dangerous creature.

I am sure you have heard by now (or probably heard 12 times just today) that the economy is down. Video game publishers have access to all sorts of pie charts and bar graphs which let them know that, in the midst of this downturn, people are hesitant to spend their money.

Publishers find themselves competing for fewer dollars. When you are unsure about your job or your money, you might buy 1 game instead of 2 or 3. In this climate, your best bet is to avoid the afore mentioned gorilla.

What ends up happening is games get pushed back rather than going head to head with COD: MW2. This creates a ripple effect which causes other games to get shuffled around.

The last time this happened to such an extent was with the release of Halo 2 for the original Xbox. Holiday 2004 saw dozens of games getting delayed to avoid Halo 2 ,which lead to the great Spring of 2005 (which saw the release of: God of War, Resident Evil 4, Devil May Cry 4, Gran Turismo 4, and others.) I am not saying that these games were scared to go head to head with Halo 2, but the logical choice was to avoid the fight entirely.

Gamers will benefit from these delays. Extra time means extra polish. Extra polish means extra awesome.

Just remember: “A delayed game is eventually good, a bad game is bad forever” -Shigeru Miyamoto

Tags: battle gorilla, call of duty, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, First Person Shooter, Infinity Ward

This entry was posted on Monday, October 19th, 2009 at 5:00 am and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.