2009: Was it all that bad?

On Google Wave there is a Bitmob community edition of the Game of the Year debate going on. If you have Google Wave and you want to be a part of the debate, then send me an email and I will get you in that wave. If you don’t have Wave and you would like an invite I have about two handfuls to give out. Again, send me an email: JEFFGRUBB (AT) Gmail (dot) com.

Here is my first article about the end of 2009:

As we inched closer to the start of the 2009 holiday season it was as if a seer had whispered into the ears of videogame execs that Q1 was where all the Benjamins were and that releasing games in time for Christmas was passé. A lot of industry observers and forum posters lamented that this was looking like the weakest Q4 in recent memory. These judgments were based on what moved from late 2009 to early 2010 and not on what remained. Now that we are at the last big name release of the year – the DS’s Zelda: Spirit Tracks – let the actual value assessments begin.

Was it really that bad?

If the holiday season started with Batman: Arkham Asylum and ended with Assassin’s Creed 2 how bad could it possibly have been? In between there was The Beatles: Rock Band, Scribblenauts, and Mario & Luigi 3. These were followed by big name releases that seemed to have been forgotten like Halo 3: ODST and Brutal Legend.  There is a whole series of articles that could be devoted to the lack of attention we pay to good games after their release, but that would require me to pay attention to them after they have released. We talk about these things so much before we ever play them that it becomes relieving when they release and we can talk about something else.

Then we have the big games — games so big and so good that if the holiday season only consisted of them we wouldn’t have any reason to complain — New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Uncharted 2. You could fill the back of several different special edition SKUs with the stupid number of glowing reviews for these games.

Finally, there is the game that scared the rest of the games away — Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. A time suck, “the biggest entertainment release of all time,” or whatever you or Kotick want to call it. Regardless, it sold a crap-ton and a handful of the games that moved into next year were probably wise to do so.

Of course, there were games worthy of your time that I didn’t mention, but I don’t want to regurgitate a release list. I also don’t want to make this a Q4 vs. Q1 debate. I think we just need to be grateful and expand the length of our memories. In this economy — with all of the sadness and pessimism — there is no reason to downplay how great of a year it was for videogames. I’m not asking you to look at the glass as half-full. That is horseshit. The glass IS full, and gamers are what are empty if they are incapable of realizing that.  

Besides, Q1 2010 should be interesting. Darksiders and Bayonetta both come out on January 5^th. Seems kinda silly to bump the date because of MW2, but then release your similar games on the same day for the same platforms. Who makes these decisions? I don’t really care; I’ll be happy playing MW2 still. The only downside to all of this is that there won’t be that nice slowdown in early 2010 to catch up on all the great games that came out in 2009. Good luck finding the time for Dragon Age: Origins after Mass Effect 2 comes out. For a gamer that is an awesome problem to have to deal with.