Highly anticipated PS3 exclusive Heavy Rain has been pushed back to 2010 because developers Quantic Dream believe that the game needs “its own release window”.
“The first and most important reason [for the delay] was the fact that I don’t think that such an innovative game like Heavy Rain and a new franchise should be released at the end of the year in the crowded period when everyone’s releasing their games,” co CEO Guillaume de Fondaumiere told Computer and Video Games.
“A game like Heavy Rain needs space, needs to be explained and shown. At the end of the year, people can’t afford to buy all those games so we wanted to give Heavy Rain the chance to have its own release window, and for us to really talk about it so people really understand it.”
The last quarter of 2009 will see some massive titles being released including Modern Warfare 2.
Heavy Rain is not the only major title that has been pushed back due to sales competition. Bioshock 2 was also rescheduled some months ago. Starcraft II was also delayed, although this has been attributed more to Blizzard polishing Battle.net than the threat of the Call of Duty franchise.
Nonetheless, developers need to remain mindful of established franchise competition when releasing new IPs.
“If Heavy Rain doesn’t succeed it’s going to have important implications for other developers and for ourselves – maybe people will think ‘those innovative games don’t work, games cannot really convey realistic emotions.’ And they will continue to do the standard shooters and the like that we have been doing for however many years,” said de Fondaumiere
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