10 Video Games Released At The Wrong Time
What could go wrong launching at the same time as Halo 2, Half Life 2 & Metal Gear Solid 3?
Gaming is an expensive hobby. Consoles are pricey, systems have online subscriptions, and unless you’re willing to blast through titles quickly then trade them in, buying a handful of new releases at the same time gets extortionate.
Because of this, most players are quite selective. Unless you’re wading through the bargain bin of old games, it’s rare for people just to wander into a game shop and pick up random stuff that catches their eye.
This means that sometimes great games are overlooked simply by virtue of their release date. At full price, no one’s going to grab three or four different games at once; you pick your favourite, go home and play it. Consequently, an unproven title releasing alongside a massive game often guarantees that sales will take a huge hit.
As a result, if some of these games had picked a better launch window, it stands to reason they would have sold better, and become a much bigger deal.
It’s not all down to brushing up against a major franchise though; some games miss an opportunity to cash in on hype, some fail because of poor timing in regards to the consoles they're launching on, and others are just in the wrong era. Regardless, all these games all hit shelves at the wrong time.
10. Resonance Of Fate
Resonance of Fate is a good if slightly niche JRPG which was released just one week after Final Fantasy XIII, and so struggled to really get any traction.
It didn’t help that the game was a slow burner either, built for a grinding approach. Though the title was massively engrossing once it got going, it didn’t smack you in the face immediately. In order to dethrone Final Fantasy, it needed to hit the ground running, but it quite simply didn’t.
Having been developed with a Western tilt (heavy steampunk imagery, gunplay, inspired by The Matrix), its approach to battles is more typically Japanese. Final Fantasy XIII on the other hand has a more Western ‘in at the deep end’ in medias res style, yet a more Japanese aesthetic.
The over-the-top stylings mixed with some unique gameplay kept it alive, though the clunky, drawn-out story did it no favours.
Resonance of Fate did manage to cling to life (even getting a recent remaster), but you have to feel that without Final Fantasy launching so soon before, it would have excelled.