The answer to the title of this article is yes and some of the reasons are obvious. When looking at what is coming out this quarter, I can state proudly that this quarter is the strongest first quarter in the past five first quarters. This statement may be bold, but it’s true and I’ll give you a few reasons on why. Before I go into what is going to be released this quarter I want to explain what I mean by Quarter One, Two, and Three. I’ve stated Q1, 2, and 3 a few times in past articles, but not everyone who reads these articles may know exactly what I mean. The year is split into three quarters each quarter has four months in them. The first quarter starts on the first of January and ends the 30th of April. The second quarter begins the 1st of May and ends the 31st of August. Lastly the third quarter is what buyers call the holiday season, which begins on the first of September and ends the thirty-first of December. Now that I’ve explained what makes up the video game industries quarters let’s dive into it and see why we should really be excited for the first quarter.
Firstly, we have the launch of Halo Wars 2; a strong start for Microsoft and Xbox. The company knows that Project Scorpio is very far off, two quarters to be exact. This will lead into the strength of Quarter two which is when E3 will be taking place, in which Microsoft will most likely be revealing the official name of Project Scorpio, so be prepared to call this new system something new very shortly. Although Microsoft shot themselves in the foot of canceling Scalebound which looked absolutely amazing and disappointed a lot of Xbox One players we can forgive them if they give us something worthy to replace Scalebound and quickly.
The second and most noticeable reason to be excited for Quarter One is the release of the Nintendo Switch in two weeks. Not only are we getting an INCREDIBLE new video game system from a nostalgic company, but we are receiving the long-awaited Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as well as a few new releases such as Bomberman R and 1, 2, Switch. Unfortunately, our wallets cannot afford everything at launch so choose your games wisely when buying the Switch. My advice is if you can afford to pick two games on day one of the Switch, if you cannot, which is not the end of the world; pick the one you have been dying to play. I promise you that after playing this system at PAX South 2017, you will not be disappointed with this purchase. Purchase you’re Switch as soon as possible, especially in Quarter One. By Quarter Two the chance of price rise is possible, if the Switch is to be as successful as we predict the chance of price is slightly possible for the balance of supply and demand. But this is only a prediction; only time will tell if a price wise is going to happen. But we should hope for a price rise in Quarter Two for if the price rises over the summer, come the launch of Scorpio in Quarter Three and Nintendo could lower the Switch’s price to balance competition and sell more over the holiday. But again, only time will tell.
Lastly, we have a few more releases coming in Quarter One especially this month. Ghost Recon: Wildlands, Lego Worlds, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 Remix, and Has-Been Heroes all releases in March. These are the biggest and most anticipated games to hit the shelves in Quarter One. There is a full list online of what is going to be released through all three quarters this year.
