When people think of seasonal games they usually think about the natural conclusion of releasing horror games rounf Halloween but strangely enough in the current day there aren’t that many same experiences when it comes to Christmas themed games when the movie industry is absolutely full of them, so why is that?
Well I think the main difference is that releasing a scary game around the scary season works due to horror being an entire genre and as such you don’t need to directly tie it in with the seasonal event itself but instead just use the current atmosphere in order to boost the interest in your game. Christmas however almost always requires a direct reference to the holiday itself in whatever medium it’s being portrayed and as such can prove to be a disaster when it comes to making the game timeless due to it not feeling right to play when it is out of season. It also makes it much harder to theme a game around the concept of christmas with the only recent example I can think of being Dead Rising 4 which just so happened to take place during christmas and with it being a shopping mall the themeing here made sense I suppose.
Still it’s certainly odd that the gaming industry doesn’t have as much interest in the jolly winter season as the movie industry. I suppose instead of that they instead focus on just releasing a bit title around the end of the year in order to make it the ‘hot game’ for parents to buy children during this time which in my opinion is the smarter move as it means you get the boost in revenue due to the extra christmas spending and it doesn’t tie the title to only being played during December giving you the best of both worlds. The movie industry should really take some hints here.
Anyway I’m curious, are there any dedicated christmas games you can think of and enjoyed (probably retro let’s be honest) and why do you think the gaming industry doesn’t make christmas games? Share your thoughts with us all! That’s all for now, and as always. It’s not just a game, It’s a Life.