Timing Sports Game Releases

[WSUCougar]

Woe is me! College football season is bearing down upon us like Hell Atlantic on a pastrami sandwich, yet I’ve got no new college football sim to keep me warm. I have to admit, I am quite bummed about this. I had my hopes set high, and figured – surely! – either TCY2 or Bowl Bound or “Trojans and Bush” or “Jason White 6” or some damn college game would spring forth in August to ease my pain. Yet no. Thursday night marks the beginning of the gridiron battles, and here we are empty handed.

I’ve lost the willingness to dive into another TCY campaign. I can’t make myself do it, as much as I love that game, for fear that I’ll have wasted my energies when the new model (or a rival) arrives. And it’s not that I don’t have other games to occupy my time. Between FOF2004, FM2005, and the rest of my well-populated game shelf, I’ve got more games than I can possibly play in the few miserable hours (yeah, right) that I can scratch out.

But the point of this thread, really, is just to say how much the time is right. The autumnal onset of football season marks a special time of the sports year, much like spring does for baseball. What better time to release a college football sim?

*****Disclaimer:*****
This thread is not at all intended as a dig at any of our friendly neighborhood game developers. It is meant to be simple grounds for discussion, and not a bash session. If it crosses the line, I will delete the thread and PEOPLE WILL LOSE POSTS. Be advised. :D

[Marc Vaughan]

Its unfortunately a well known thing that the vast majority of games are targetted according to two things:

* The start of a related event (ie. start of a sport season or peak interest in that sport)
* Just before a holiday season (so they can be picked up as presents for someone)

For example with SI's soccer game this generally means we release just after the start of the season and in the run up to the xmas holiday period ...

[Bee]

I wasn't expecting a release at this point, but I was expecting an announcement of one of the two games being released in September by now.

[mhass]

I too expected to have something by today. As I said in some other thread, I'm hoping the longer quiet period means that Jim has updated both titles. I realize it's fantasy, but a guy needs a dream.

And I buy Marc's holiday timing. If there's nothing in the next week or two, I'm guess it will be a few months. <sigh>

[Galaril]

I like a lot of people only can buy limited games so release dates or release date time frames ie weeks is a big factor in buying games. I want to pick upthe EHM nhl 2005 north version but their release date is not clear and looks now like sometime in October so I will take my limited funds (not working currently between jobs) and go get NHL 2K6 game for xbox. Iwill definitely buy Arlies game since he is a very dedicated guy with some good people skills IMO. Greydog Studios GDS won me as a fan with there excellent Total Pro Baskketball game last year.

[DaddyTorgo]

I like a lot of people only can buy limited games so release dates or release date time frames ie weeks is a big factor in buying games. I want to pick upthe EHM nhl 2005 north version but their release date is not clear and looks now like sometime in October so I will take my limited funds (not working currently between jobs) and go get NHL 2K6 game for xbox. Iwill definitely buy Arlies game since he is a very dedicated guy with some good people skills IMO. Greydog Studios GDS won me as a fan with there excellent Total Pro Baskketball game last year.
Galaril, just buy the EHM 2005 digital download version if you want hockey action. the september update will still be free.

[cthomer5000]

What's next for Solecismic Software?

At this time, we're not ready to release information about our next project. Look for news releases on this web site later in 2005.
Is it "later" yet?

[mhass]

Is it "later" yet?
Oh how I wish it were.

[riz]

I like a lot of people only can buy limited games so release dates or release date time frames ie weeks is a big factor in buying games. I want to pick upthe EHM nhl 2005 north version but their release date is not clear and looks now like sometime in October so I will take my limited funds (not working currently between jobs) and go get NHL 2K6 game for xbox. Iwill definitely buy Arlies game since he is a very dedicated guy with some good people skills IMO. Greydog Studios GDS won me as a fan with there excellent Total Pro Baskketball game last year.

You can already pre-order NHL EHM from GameStop btw ;)

And we do know the planned release date for the NA version but we would like to wait until it's 100% sure that it will be the day before we start announcing it around. Personally I would be pretty upset if I got release dates given to me every two weeks only to see it slip further every time.

As Marc said above, release dates are planned around season starts most of the time. This is our aim for NHL EHM from now on as well, but comparing our release dates with a game that only includes the NHL is a bit pointless as we have a bit more data to update and some leagues only start filling their rosters at around the time NHL rosters are usually about 80-90% complete (at which point the purely NHL based games seem to have their data locked by latest). So for a game like NHL EHM which includes a good number of leagues where we need to have reasonable rosters setup for the start of the game, I would expect the general "release window" to be a bit later to balance it with the starting dates of multiple leagues rather than just one.

[MizzouRah]

Good thing I have a ps2 and NCAA 2006. This game is the best in the series.

[Greyroofoo]

I'm sick of waiting, maybe I'll go off and make Front Office FOFC in visual basic

[Galaril]

Riz,
I now understand the situation. Since that is the case witht hteother leagues I can understand having to wait later then others. Thanks.

[Mac Howard]

It is astonishing how much sports games sales are influenced by the real world season. You can see a 75% step change at the start and end of the season.

[ThunderingHERD]

It is astonishing how much sports games sales are influenced by the real world season. You can see a 75% step change at the start and end of the season.

Does that mean that all the WNBA sim sales are about to take a nosedive?

[Bee]

Does that mean that all the WNBA sim sales are about to take a nosedive?

I believe the WNBA is the exception that proves the rule.

[WSUCougar]

I’ve lost the willingness to dive into another TCY campaign. I can’t make myself do it, as much as I love that game, for fear that I’ll have wasted my energies when the new model (or a rival) arrives.
Okay, I've gone and done it. I couldn't stand it any longer and I fired up a new TCY campaign last night.

I'll expect a new college football game announcement by COB tomorrow.

[WrongWay]

Greydog Studios GDS won me as a fan with there excellent Total Pro Baskketball game last year.
BowlBound ? Your not at all spooked by the fact that this is the same brain that brought us TPF?

[sterlingice]

I'm sick of waiting, maybe I'll go off and make Front Office FOFC in visual basic
You're not a real man unless you make it in COBOL

SI

[gstelmack]

BowlBound ? Your not at all spooked by the fact that this is the same brain that brought us TPF?
Well, yes, but the more you bash it the better it sounds.

[gstelmack]

You're not a real man unless you make it in COBOL
(shudder) One of my early proud moments as an employed computer programmer (I was actually a co-op at the time, but employed nonetheless!) was writing an internal rate-of-return calculator in COBOL. Figuring out how to do complex floating point arithmetic in COBOL was quite the achievement. I had to write a converging series algorithm, and it ran slow enough that I dumped the intermediate values to the screen so the user could see it converge on the answer http://dynamic.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/images/smilies/wink.gif

[CamEdwards]

(shudder) One of my early proud moments as an employed computer programmer (I was actually a co-op at the time, but employed nonetheless!) was writing an internal rate-of-return calculator in COBOL. Figuring out how to do complex floating point arithmetic in COBOL was quite the achievement. I had to write a converging series algorithm, and it ran slow enough that I dumped the intermediate values to the screen so the user could see it converge on the answer http://dynamic.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/images/smilies/wink.gif

I can read every word that you typed, and yet I have no idea what it means. :(

Yeah, I'm ready for a new college football sim. As fun as NCAA 2006 is, I just don't have the time to play it all that often. I'd love to have something I can put on my laptop and mess around with while I'm at work.

[HomerJSimpson]

I'd love to have something I can put on my lap and mess around with while I'm at work.


A man can get into big trouble that way. :)

[sabotai]

You're not a real man unless you make it in COBOL

SI
Pffft, COBOL....I say do it in FORTRAN!

[sterlingice]

(shudder) One of my early proud moments as an employed computer programmer (I was actually a co-op at the time, but employed nonetheless!) was writing an internal rate-of-return calculator in COBOL. Figuring out how to do complex floating point arithmetic in COBOL was quite the achievement. I had to write a converging series algorithm, and it ran slow enough that I dumped the intermediate values to the screen so the user could see it converge on the answer http://dynamic.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/images/smilies/wink.gif
Well, then you can call it a "Verbose Internal Rate-of-Return Calculator" :D

SI

[sterlingice]

Pffft, COBOL....I say do it in FORTRAN!
Well, COBOL and FORTRAN are the two "ancient ones" that still are around today. It's a coin flip as to which to use. But I went with COBOL, in this case, since it seems even less suited to the application than FORTRAN due to the math applications in a sports sim.

SI