Open Forum: The Big Summer Digital Takeover

Summer has always been a strange time of year for gamers. As we slowly trundle towards mid June, the constant wave of new releases is often reduced to a feeble drip before almost drying up completely. However, with E3, Gamescom, and the accompanying flurry of announcements, sometimes we’re often too transfixed to notice this dry patch. It’s not all bad news though. Many of us take these two or three months to sit down and blast through our backlogs or, at the very least, play through a handful of games that were starting to collect dust.

It’s also a strange time for the industry too – big name publishers and indies alike. For them, it’s the fear that their hottest new game will struggle for sales as punters busy themselves elsewhere. After all, summers are arguably best spent retreating from day-to-day life, severing the mass of cables and cords that threaten to swamp us every time we glance behind the telly. Certainly, there are idle patches, yet these vary for each family and individual.

That hasn’t stopped game companies from challenging the status quo during June, July and August. Sony and Microsoft turned to the humble remaster, with God of War III, Rare Replay and Gears of War, but we also saw high profile games like Batman: Arkham Knight, F1 2015 and Until Dawn, which snuck in just before August’s close.

However, looking back on the past few months, most of the real stars of the summer gaming gala weren’t to be found on store shelves or shipped around the country in little jiffy bags. No, most of them were digital exclusives, the industry reins temporarily handed to a network of smaller, and often independent, studios. For them, the summer provides an opportunity to get their games out there before the inevitable end-of-year cascade of heavy hitters, and it’s meant that the release schedule has barely skipped a beat all summer long.

For me personally, the dominance of digital games had a notable impact on my usual summer playing habits. With mountains of work to wade through at the time, I had to set aside The Witcher III while promising myself it would get thoroughly rinsed as soon as June came rolling in. However, there was one bump in the road I’d completely overlooked: Rocket League.

Although it didn’t exactly come out of nowhere, the news that it would join June’s PlayStation Plus lineup did. Instead of mulling over whether or not to buy Rocket League, I was already strapped in on day one with thousands of players to compete against online.

Aside from being free to download, Rocket League’s quick five-minute bursts of fun made it a summer essential. Whether duking it out with mates in the same room or getting a quick couple of ranked matches in, it was there. Although desperately wanting to get back to Geralt’s quest in The Witcher III, Rocket League would somehow manage to seduce me every time.

Of course, the sheer abundance of such digital titles also gave them a more pronounced status than during the rest of the year. Games like Volume, The Swindle, Galak-Z, and Q.U.B.E Director’s Cut stood out without having to lurk in the shadow of power-selling annual franchises. Episodic games, which had began to stale somewhat, also saw a notable boost in popularity with Life Is Strange turning plenty of heads.

Where some of these series were well into their third or fourth chapters, building up to a climax, I was surprised that a new episodic adventure could tear me away. That’s exactly what King’s Quest did, however, and I’m convinced it wouldn’t of had the same effect if it launch later into the year.

For Dave, his summers usually consist of mopping up his backlog with the occasional Steam sale splurge. Despite what the the papers would have you believe, he – like plenty of self-confessed gamers – also enjoys a frequent stroll in the sun. However, the surprising onslaught of digital games released over the summer has forced him to move several big hits to the rear hob of his backlog burner. The culprits for this diversion are Life is Strange, as well as Rocket League, and Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture.

Stefan was also caught on the back foot by the summer’s digital takeover:

Where previous summers have maybe had one or two small surprises, what struck me this year was the relentless stream of digital releases. I found myself being pulled the way of N++ one weekend, The Swindle the next, Volume in the middle of August, and, of course, Rocket League.

While they wouldn’t have been for everyone – N++’s visual style and minimalistic gameplay, for example, was a sticking point for many – indie devs really came forward with a lot of quality titles that you could get your teeth stuck into. That’s before you think of how there were still millions bound to be chipping away at huge open world games like The Witcher 3 and Batman: Arkham Knight, weeks and months after release…

And now we hand it over to you. After all, this wouldn’t be an Open Forum if we didn’t encourage readers to get stuck in and discuss there summer gaming habits!