Asynchronous release dates nowadays

I write this post because I´m upset, upset about the current situation with big game releases.

Let´s take NieR: Automata for example or Horizon Zero Dawn or Mass Effect Andromeda, when will this games be released around the world? Right, asynchonous. Japan gets NieR on 23rd February, NA on 7th March and Europe on 10th March, same pattern with the other two games, even tho the releases aren´t that split up. So, what´s my problem here? They clearly need time to finish and localize their game for the different languages, so of course they have to split the releases!

The Problem

I have no problem with games that only get released in their country, like many JRPGs that need to get translated by a western publisher first, but this isn´t the case here, this is what makes me wonder why they do it. Both, NieR and Horizon reached their gold status a while ago, meaning that they´re 100% done. Heck, even magazines around the world, no matter what language reviewed it on the same time. Same with NieR, the japanese PSN versions already has all languages.

Even if that wouldn´t be the case don´t try to tell me that you could translate your AAA game in in 2 weeks or 2-3 days in all european or NA languages. This is a fairly new phenomen that starts to get popular during the past months. Why are so many pubishers releasing their games so asynchronous even tho they´re done and clearly don´t need it? These big AAA games don´t need the translation time, nor the polishing time.

The Reason

So, why do I think is that happening? All these AAA game publisher artificially push the release dates of their games back, they don´t even try to hide it, they clearly say, you our game´s done. Sure, games like Persona 5 etc. aren´t such cases since they really need a translation and localization first but I don´t talk about them.

I thought about their reasons and came up with one quite logical possiblity:

Hype. Nowadays everything´s about hype and how to create it and this is by far one of the easiest and riskless ways. So, imagine your a bit hyped for a game or only fairly interested, browsing the web or youtube some days before it´s Release and suddenly you see a video named “NieR Automata playthrough” and since you wanna see if this game´s something for you you click on it. And suddenly you see how great and awesome it is and get hyped or even more hyped. This is basically what the publishers try to accomplish with this.

The thing you can´t have will interest you the most, they hang a carrot right in front of your face, saying that this game´s out and it´s awesome. Of course you get hyped if you´re interested in it, of course the chances raise that you will buy it. Just by pushing back some release dates they can accomplish that. They abuse their “power” and their fans to get more money, oh and if you´re really hyped you might just buy it from the other the american or japanese online store and spend some extra bucks to play it earlier, double cash-in!

Conclusion

Of course this might not be the reason but for me it seems fairly logic, it´s an easy and cheap way to get a lot PR before the worldwide release and generating some last hype before it launches. I mean, why should a company push the release of a finished product back if they don´t think that they can earn more money with that? And now even american publishers do it, cause they saw the potential in it, they will start small with only 2 days delay seen at Horizon or ME Andromeda but if it works they may expand it, that´s what scares me.

It´s not as bad as ingame shops or DLC-overloads but I wanted to spread awareness of it with this little post because it´s a greedy and anti consumer tactic but understandable if you consider the publishers view. I just don´t want to see that it becomes a common practice for America too or that it gets even worse, one day we might do something about it than just accepting it but this might be far away.

Till then this post may show some people that you can´t trust publishers as often as you may think.

What´s your opinion?`Leave a Comment below!

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