Figuring out what to get for your video gamer friends and relatives this holiday season is about to become a lot more complicated.
Over the next two months, the game industry is pushing out one of the more crowded product line-ups of recent years. What’s different is the sheer amount of stuff: not just blockbuster titles for gaming consoles, but also new hardware, independent games and a bigger emphasis on virtual reality.
They are all jostling for attention during the end of the year, which is when around 40 per cent of the industry’s sales take place, according to Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Securities.
“The line-up of hardware and software this holiday will look to some to be an evil conspiracy specifically designed to drain the wallets of hard-core gamers,” Pachter said.
The choices might be made even more complicated by the question of whether to buy a game title or just rent it. NPD Group, a research firm that tracks retail sales in the US, is projecting an increase in spending on rental games from services like GameFly and Redbox, as more people opt to try titles before they purchase.
Redbox, which makes games available to rent for $3 a day, said in a February earnings call that video game rentals surged 84 per cent during Christmas week last year over the same week of 2014.
The wealth of options underlines how console makers and game publishers have to work harder to keep people interested in games, especially with more entertainment options than ever. As a result, the game industry has embraced new technology like virtual reality, as well as new approaches to current products.
The appearance of new consoles, for example, is notable because the hardware is coming partway through a typical five-to-seven-year cycle for new consoles.
On November 10, Sony will release the PlayStation 4 Pro console, which will offer more processing power than the PlayStation 4 and include 4K display resolution. The $399 console will support Sony’s new virtual reality headset, PlayStation VR. Also costing $399, PlayStation VR is competing with other virtual reality systems like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.
Seasoned gamers may opt for the Xbox One S or the PlayStation 4 Pro, both of which promise more power and a better visual experience.
So what games are set to be big this holiday season? Shooter games. Again.
This year, virtual reality became widely available for the first time with the introduction of headsets like the Oculus Rift, the HTC Vive and, most recently, Sony’s PlayStation VR. For many of the headsets, virtual reality games have been crucial.
Some virtual reality games that consumers can look forward to include Rock Band VR by Harmonix, a rhythm game that lets players bust out a guitar solo in front of a bustling crowd; The Unspoken, made by Insomniac Games, which allows people to cast spells at rival magicians; and a game called Wilson’s Heart, from the studio Twisted Pixel, in which players must try to escape an abandoned hospital.
© The New York Times News Service
