Launch Wars: Coda to The Art of Timing the Product Launch

This is maybe a neat little coda to my posting about Activision Blizzards delaying Cataclysm, but DC Universe Online have just announced a delay to their much publicised and committed to November launch date. Again, the advantage is obvious to do so. DC Universe Online was going to launch in November and had actually sold quite a few pre-orders already. Now, they get all the benefits of picking up in early 2011 all the dis-satisfied and disheartened Cataclysm players who, a few months after launch, will be wanting their "next big thing" (TM).



As much as I praised Blizzard for delaying their (rumoured by quite reputable sources) November launch to December, I have to similarly hugely praise Sony marketing execs for biting the bullet and delaying a marketing engine which was just about to launch into full drive in the next few weeks by many months to be able to avoid the Cataclysm death-knell that launching a month before Blizzard's huge product would have brought.

They've, at the very least, given the game a chance. They've also shown that they're quite willing to play the launch game quite well, and realise that the costs incurred in delaying their game a few months is quite reasonable when compared to the otherwise potential outcome of becoming road-kill in front of the Cataclysm machine.

Is this just the start of Product Launch timing "wars"? We already see it with the launches of major movie studios "blockbusters" when studios strive to make sure they aren't clashing too much with each others huge releases (The fallout of the "Jurassic Park" vs "Last Action Hero" will forever be embedded upon movie execs). Is this the start of similar in the games industry, an industry that already borrows so much from it's movie industry cousin?