Valentine's Day

The festival of love falls just at the right time for games addicts.

Yes it’s that time of year again when love is in the air. Card and gift shops are bedecked in a shower of pink and red, and anxious looking forgetful men can be seen running to the nearest petrol station looking for some last-minute flowers.

I’ll be honest and say that for most of my life Valentine’s Day passed me by, it wasn’t of much interest to me. To say I was a cynic would be a major understatement, but given my history with evil girlfriends you’d also want to forget the occasion too.

However that’s by and by, the reason I’m talking about this particular festival is because it falls so fortuitously for the average gamer. Now I’m lucky, my fiancée likes games too and she knows I’d never dream of having a games session on a romantic evening such as Valentine’s Day. But plenty of people live or are romantically linked with total games addicts.

That’s why having the celebration around this time is perfect, because the games business is pretty much dead at this time of year. You can tell that hardly anyone buys games at this time of year by the state of the charts. A couple of weeks ago the Xbox 360 game Dead or Alive 4 topped the chart, pretty amazing given the relatively low installed base of Xbox 360 consoles at the moment.

You’d be surprised if you knew how few games it took to get into the chart at this time of year, we’re talking hundreds not thousands. Visit most game shops at the moment and you’ll see bored looking staff cleaning shelves and wondering if they’re ever going to get a customer again.

So it’s just as well that Valentine’s Day doesn’t fall around Easter, because it’s that time of year, long enough after the Christmas rush, for the games business to pick up again. Some big releases are on the way for March and who would want to celebrate romantic love when Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter is available? Not me, that’s for sure.

Count your blessings, be glad that you can celebrate with your loved one tonight without having thoughts drifting to the latest games releases. She/He’ll be grateful and you can rest easy. Just don’t forget to by them Easter Eggs amidst the wave of new games that will be hitting around that time.