Ben-DutkaWe all talk about the best years in gaming history (1998 and 2001 are my personal favorites; I'm not alone) but what about individual quarters?
Because if we look at it this way, there's a chance that the first quarter of 2013 (January – March) could be the single best quarter we've ever seen in the industry's history.
After more delays and more confirmations for that quarter, the list has gotten borderline ridiculous. Those that are essentially set to go for Q1 2013 are: DMC , Bioshock Infinite , Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time , Crysis 3 , Dead Space 3 , Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch , Tomb Raider , God of War: Ascension , Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance , and Splinter Cell: Blacklist . That alone would put it in contention, I think. But a whole lot more could be dropping during that insane three-month period.
Grand Theft Auto V probably tops the list, as most analysts and industry insiders still believe Take-Two and Rockstar will deliver this blockbuster before the company's fiscal year is over (that ends on March 31, 2013). But there's also the possibility of seeing The Last Of Us , which could be the best damn game we've seen the entire generation, and now we're hearing that Final Fantasy XIII-3 might just get in there. FFXIII-2 launched in January of this year and Square Enix keeps saying they want to release their games at a faster clip. And that announcement might just come this week at the Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary celebration.
Plus, with the Wii U available, who knows what we might see for that, and speaking of the next generation, that hype could be through the roof during the first quarter. I'm not saying we'll see either the PS4 or Xbox 720 before April, but isn't part of the gaming culture the attitude and excitement about the industry in general…? Personally, I think that would be a contribution to a period of gaming, even if the systems aren't officially here yet.
