Weekend Reading: Take Advantage of This Summer Void

Summer is not good for gaming and from late June to late August the big publishers avoid launching any significant title, with the more hardcore of console gamers having to subside on a thin gruel of summer blockbuster tie-ins and indie games launched on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network.

But it seems to me that Electronic Arts, Activision and Ubisoft are missing a major chance to give a boost to some of their video games and make gamers happy by putting the launch date of at least one high-profile game smack in the middle of July.

I can remember a time when the months of January and February were similarly bleak when it came to new high-profile releases, but in recent years a number of publishers have gotten the courage needed to put out important games during that calendar segment and soon everyone was ready to do the same.

In 2010 and 2011, the period between late January and late March has been so filled with blockbuster releases that some of the industry observers have named it “second Christmas,” in part because of the fact that many releases of the period were delayed from the fall of the previous year.

It's likely that the early months of 2012 will be similarly filled with great games, mainly because it's hard to believe that all the big names lined up for October and December of this year will stay there.

Competition is generally good for the gaming industry and it makes sense for big rivals, like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3, to launch close together in order for customers to have their say and decide, via sales, which is the better game, but it's clear that there are some games, especially new intellectual properties and maybe reboots and lower-profile titles, which will clearly benefit from moving to the hot months of summer, as others have benefited from the cold months of winter.