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Remedy's Thomas Puha: "You never know what's going to land on your launch date"
05.03.2024 - 16:59 / gamesindustry.biz / Bret Robbins / Thomas Puha
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On this week's GI Microcast, Remedy's Thomas Puha said finding the best launch window for your game is harder than ever, as there's no telling what else will launch alongside you and which of those titles will steal the most attention.
His comments came as part of a conversation looking at our interview with Ascendent Studios' Bret Robbins, who observed that the company's debut title Immortals of Aveum may have launched at the wrong time due to its proximity to Baldur's Gate 3, which became a smash hit last August.
Commenting on the notion of there being a 'wrong time to launch,' communications director Puha said: "At some point you have to launch. You never know what's going to land on your date."
He acknowledged that moving the launch is sometimes necessary, as Remedy did with Alan Wake 2 last year – pushing it back ten days to avoid launching alongside Marvel's Spider-Man 2.
" We wouldn't get visibility on the storefronts, the media was only going to talk about [Spider-Man], and understandably so," Puha explained. "That made sense. But we absolutely wanted to come out in October, make sure we hit the Halloween [window], make sure we were out before December, when consumer spending is up and more people are buying games.
"There's also the awards seasons – when I was a journalist and you're choosing games of the year, we were like 'What came out the in the Spring?' Nobody remembered. You want to come out in the Fall.
"We know all about bad dates – the original Alan Wake came out at the same time as Red Dead Redemption," he laughed.
Even if you do move your release date, there's no guarantee your game will fare any better since, as Puha puts it, "the wheels are [already] in motion."
"You're not just spending so much mental capital on all working towards the same date – and after four years, you really want that game out, it's been long enough," he said. "We could spend an infinite amount of time on each game, but you have to get it out and so much is lined up: publisher support, partners expecting you to come out, hundreds of things being lined up. So moving the date is difficult – and you never know what else is going to come out. Some companies can afford to just go 'oh, we'll launch in two months' and you're like, 'ah, fuck.'"
Elsewhere, the conversation turned to expectations for new AAA games – including Immortals of Aveum – and the fact that its sales actually improved long after launch. Puha talked about how risky it is to sell a new IP at any time of year, but said the opportunity for long-tail sales is a welcome change in the industry.
"You go back a decade or so and the first two weeks were like 90% of your sales. And sure,
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