As an indie developer you have to keep so many things in mind that it sometimes seems overwhelming. Especially setting a release date for your game can be very stressful and challenging. Should you launch during a sale or rather during a time other companies try to avoid? Let’s take a look at the best time to publish your game and what things you should look out for.
Release Dates Have To Be Thought Through
It is very important to do proper research before choosing a release date for your game. There are lots of things to consider & it depends a lot on the type of game you want to publish. The timing of your launch can make or break the success of your game. So, if you’re reading this article you’re probably already on the right track!
Mind you that there is no overall solution on when you should publish your games. AAA or popular games in general can release games almost any time of the year and people still buy it. I am often putting the game release dates in my calendar so I wouldn’t miss out on them. They also have huge budgets to be able to compete during very sales-heavy periods like Christmas which smaller studies can’t.
That’s why we’re going to focus on what you can do as a small studio or even a solo developer. At least if you’re searching for a way to gain traffic for your game with little or no budget. Even if you are working for a bigger company our tips can also help you to optimize your game release!
Release Your Game During Less Busy Months
Games are being released throughout the whole year but there are months where not as many games get launched. For example the beginning of the year (January-April) and the summer lows in June and July. But we have to point out that March has become more and more popular over the last year. That’s because a lot of studios took advantage of the lack of games to really push their sales.
Steam alone has released 14463 games in 2023. Those numbers don’t even include any of the XBox, Playstation or Nintendo only games. This is exactly why you should try and keep an eye out on the different releases throughout the year. That way you can time your own one just right.
Don’t Launch Your Game Together With Similar Ones
Let’s say you are planning on releasing an Outlast like horror game. If your only competitors during the week are a bunch of farming simulators and dating sims… Go for it. Your audience is so different that it probably won’t impact your sales. However if it’s Halloween and there are 100 other horror games being released… Maybe think about postponing your launch or even release it earlier if possible.
If you release your game with other games that are too similar, the audience gets divided. Even worse, your game may slip under the radar and vanish completely. Especially if a well-known developer releases a game in the same genre as you. So you really have to make sure that your game stands out among the others.
Don’t Be Afraid To Release Your Game Near AAA Titles
The same principle we mentioned in the previous paragraph goes for AAA titles. Don’t be scared to launch your game when a major studio also drops a new title. As long as it targets a different audience, you should be fine. Just because the newest FIFA came out doesn’t mean that everyone is going to buy it. Also, a lot of indie studios are afraid to compete with a AAA release. Which means your game will have less competition on the market during that time!
Find Out The Best Time To Reach Your Audience
Every game has a different audience and if you know them, you also know the best time to launch your game. Horror games do best during Halloween so releasing it shortly after wouldn’t do you any favours. So maybe you should release it in Summer so you can already put it on sale during the spooky season. While games like Mario Kart, Just Dance or other party games will do best during holidays when people can play them with their family and friends.
As you can see, different games have different seasons so trying to sell a Christmas themed jump ‘n’ run in August might not be the best idea. Try to figure out if and when it would be the best time of year for your game to be released.
Avoid Any Kinds Of Sales During Your Release
Joining sales or other special offers is not a bad thing if you look at it long-term. But if you are just releasing your game you should pick a time where there is no Steam Winter Sale or Black Friday rush. During those times the market gets flooded with a lot of very good games at very low prices.
Steam for example even changes their whole layout. While they usually feature upcoming and new releases, during that time you’ll find that the shop mainly shows the participating games.
If you are going to release your game closely to an upcoming sale, make sure you don’t immediately participate or else people who bought it for the full price will be upset. Maybe wait for one or two sales before reducing your price.
Try Incorporating Conventions & Events Right Before
It never hurts to plan around an event to help market your game and to make people aware of your upcoming release. You can let people get a taste of the game and they can then buy it a week later on the platform of their liking.
Of course you can and should participate in events throughout the year to advertise your game. Though people might forget about it or your game could have changed so much over the years that people won’t recognize it. But if you participate in conventions right before the release, people will most likely want to buy it as soon as it comes out if they enjoyed it.
Don’t Be Afraid To Adjust Your Release
Don’t be scared of changing your release if it’s going to benefit you. I am not talking about the times when a studio pushes back the release because the game isn’t ready, because that is a whole different matter. No. I am talking about when competitors or other events are getting in your way.
Let’s say you have done everything right and you also found the perfect release date for your farming sim but suddenly another big studio announces out of the blue that they are going to release a similar game in exactly the same week and maybe worse… On the exact same day. Of course you could just be stubborn and keep the release date as it is but that also means your audience is probably going to be split up between the two.
In that case we would recommend that you push back the release for a week to a month to make sure your audience doesn’t have to decide between you and your competitor. Keep an eye on your competitor either way. A week might sound like a short time but maybe your competitors’ game isn’t well received and you can be the hero in shining armour providing the others with something better.
Keep Third-Party Providers In Mind
When you plan to release your game on platforms like Steam, Playstation, XBox etc. you should look a little bit more into them. When do they have maintenance days? Do they have 24/7 support or are they not reachable during the weekends? Maybe you need to get your game approved before you can sell it on their platform and so on.
Don’t just blindly pick a date without making sure the stores are ready for it. The same goes for shops that sell hard copies. They need time to order and stock the shelves and maybe they are even closed on your release day thanks to holidays or company policy. So before you pick a day to publish a game, make sure the platforms are up and running and you have the support needed if you run into any emergencies along the way.
Picking your release date is very important so you get the most visibility and sales out of it. Take your time and do your research so you can figure out when there’s going to be the best time for your game to go public. You probably aren’t going to be able to tick off all the boxes we mentioned above but it’s definitely going to help you optimize your launch.
If you’re planning to release your game but are afraid it might isn’t as good as you wanted it to be, you might be interested in this article over here:
Learning From Mistakes: Why Designing Bad Games Is Important
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