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NO. ONE WITH A BULLET<br />
The top selling PlayStation game<br />
in the UK during Xmas week last<br />
year was (and try not to faint)<br />
COD: Ghosts. Folk clearly love<br />
that dog: the FPS sold 363,718<br />
copies on PS3 that week alone.<br />
TheBig 10<br />
STORIES EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT<br />
10<br />
just one more question…<br />
the team debate this month’s burning issue<br />
Is the traditional ‘Winter Rush’<br />
good for the games industry?<br />
MATTHEW PELLETT<br />
EDITOR<br />
PHIL IWANIUK<br />
GAMES EDITOR<br />
DAVE MEIKLEHAM<br />
NEWS EDITOR<br />
DOM RESEIGH-LINCOLN<br />
PRODUCTION EDITOR<br />
021<br />
FOR GAMERS, THE<br />
XMAS RUSH IS FAB.<br />
FOR THE INDUSTRY…<br />
NOT SO MUCH.<br />
FESTIVE ROMANCE<br />
ASIDE, IT’S HURTING<br />
ONLINE DISTRIBUTION<br />
PLATFORMS.<br />
DECEMBER WITHOUT<br />
A SANTA’S SACK OF<br />
GAMES WOULD BE<br />
HO-HO-HORRIBLE.<br />
STOP CLUMPING THE<br />
BEST RELEASES<br />
TOGETHER FOR MY<br />
WALLET’S SAKE.<br />
Every year there’s always<br />
a deluge of games from<br />
September onwards –<br />
a period we’ve come<br />
to know as the ‘Winter<br />
Rush’. And every year<br />
there are casualties.<br />
Good games big and<br />
small are released on the<br />
same day as a new Grand<br />
Theft Auto or the latest<br />
Assassin’s Creed and are<br />
just killed in the sales war.<br />
Many a studio’s been<br />
shuttered because of it.<br />
Personally, I love the thrill<br />
of the Christmas run-in,<br />
but more even releases<br />
through the year would<br />
end those drought<br />
months and help more<br />
studios make money.<br />
Anyway, isn’t this moot?<br />
Bloodborne, The Order,<br />
The Witcher 3… isn’t Feb<br />
the new ‘Winter Rush’? <br />
There was a time when<br />
I’d defend the winter<br />
smörgåsbord of<br />
big-hitters with my very<br />
life, so voluminous are<br />
my festive memories with<br />
those anticipated games.<br />
However: it’s an outdated<br />
concept. The Winter Rush<br />
exists because in the<br />
olden days everyone<br />
bought their games<br />
from shops. More people<br />
visited those shops in the<br />
run up to Christmas, so<br />
publishers deployed their<br />
games at the opportune<br />
moment. But online<br />
distribution platforms<br />
are stunted due to this<br />
continuing practice –<br />
we’re all online 24/7,<br />
perpetually one click away<br />
from buying a game, and<br />
publishers haven’t quite<br />
adjusted to that yet. <br />
What’s the best thing<br />
about Christmas? Well,<br />
aside from eating enough<br />
selection boxes to put<br />
you into a sugar coma?<br />
That’s right: ignoring all<br />
friends, family and festive<br />
well-wishers to tuck into<br />
those new PS4 games<br />
Kris Kringle and his merry<br />
bag just unloaded under<br />
your tree. Some of my<br />
favourite ever Xmas<br />
memories centre around<br />
shunning carols for<br />
console time. If publishers<br />
start spacing out game<br />
releases over a more<br />
even annual schedule,<br />
giving me fewer winter<br />
PlayStation treats, I may<br />
actually be forced to talk<br />
to my nan this Crimbo.<br />
God, she’s going to make<br />
me watch an Eastenders<br />
double bill, isn’t she? <br />
Anyone who knows me<br />
will almost certainly dread<br />
my sickening love for<br />
all things Christmas.<br />
Yet even my rabid Noel<br />
affection takes a kick to<br />
the baubles when I see<br />
the crowded, cashchewing<br />
release schedule<br />
that comes as part and<br />
parcel of the bell-jingling<br />
season. Far Cry 4? That’ll<br />
be 50 quid. Dragon Age:<br />
Inquisition? Another half<br />
ton gone. Two Assassin’s<br />
Creeds in one day? 100<br />
sheets, my good man.<br />
Such a high concentration<br />
of big titles crammed<br />
into one itty-bitty launch<br />
window does nothing but<br />
alienate those of us who<br />
can only afford to pick<br />
one (if any) in an already<br />
expensive season. Spare<br />
some change, guv?
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