14 DAY TRIAL // One of leaders of developer BioWare has said that the current release schedule from high profile publishers leads to a lot of video games being released too close together, making hard for gamers to choose between them and leading to complications for those who create and distribute them.
Talking to Develop as part of a bigger interview Dr. Ray Muzyka, who is one of the co founders of BioWare, has said, “There are too many games released today”, adding, “It’s interesting, because it’s very, very busy – it makes it very hard as a player to keep up. The releases clump up – even though that is changing a little bit.”
He added, “For us, we have to play our games, play competitor’s games, play other relevant games and play the handful of games we just really want to play more of and finish. I try and play two-or three hours a night, but that’s hard and it’s not enough.”
Publishers like Electronic Arts and Activision have said since 2009 that they plan to spread out their big video games over the whole years instead of clustering them all together between September and December of the year but so far the launch date for blockbusters like Call of Duty still lies firmly in November.
At the moment BioWare is working on putting the finishing touches on Dragon Age 2, which is set to be launched in March of next year.
The company has avoided the crowded fall season and hopes that the strong fan base of the Dragon Age franchise will attract gamers in the spring.
BioWare is also working on the MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic which could arrive as soon as fall 2011.
The company has also teased a new project through a video and several images, with a full reveal of the new game set to arrive on December 11 at the Video Game Awards.