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I think most companies at this point learned that no launch date is set in stone. Sure, if you're doing AAA games, you might not want to launch right next to GTA, but for most others? Matters way less than people think.

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Tell that to the indie developers that launched games alongside the surprise release of Silksong.

> Tell that to the indie developers that launched games alongside the surprise release of Silksong.

Huh? Is your argument that it would be bad for Silksong to surprise release next to GTA? Or that indie developers should have planned around the surprise release of Silksong? I really don't understand what argument you're trying to make here.

The point is that no indie dev was able to plan around the surprise release of Silksong, precisely because it was a surprise.

Ah, so then just an agreement with "Matters way less than people think" in the end?

No.

A lot of devs delayed their launches:

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/silksong-release-date-has-...

Those that didn't or couldn't think it hurt them pretty badly:

https://www.dexerto.com/gaming/hell-is-us-boss-slams-silkson...

In general I think you are probably right. But there are definitely exceptions and this is one of them.

The argument is that Silksong will completely absorb any potential market for you new indie game had during that period. People will be too busy playing another game, leading to poor numbers during launch. It's hard to recover from that.

Right, but what does that have to do with "every other developer has to time their release and development around GTA 6", especially considering that Silksongs release was a surprise, so what exactly could you even plan for?

My original point that there is so many things at play, GTA 6 launch date, which may move, together with other things outside of your control, that "planning your release and development around GTA 6" doesn't make sense, unless you're a big company doing a AAA release.

This implies Silksong was the stronger title, either in gameplay, marketing; or both. If the indie game was better, people would be playing that over Silksong. Isn't this just market forces applied to games?

That’s the point. If possible, you don’t want to release your game at the same time as a much stronger title.

I'm saying that's defeatist to your game. Have faith yours is the stronger title

You should also be mindful that there are marketing budgets you can’t outcompete.

Even if your game is better, you’ll probably make much more money if you don’t time it to launch at the same time as the new GTA

It sounded like you were saying other games launching at the same time yours does matters less than people think.

My argument was that other releases can and do impact sales.

O wow, capitalism in action.

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