In the video-game industry, publishers usually release all their top titles during the weeks preceding Christmas, leaving the rest of the release calendar a veritable digital desert.
Many game publishers delayed their biggest releases this cycle to early 2010.
Local gamer Jeremiah Pitner, a sales associate at Play-n-Trade on South Terrace, said companies wanted to avoid competing with the season’s 800-pound gorilla.
“With ‘Call of Duty (Modern Warfare 2),’ they just couldn’t do it,” Mr. Pitner said. “I read online that they just didn’t want to compete with them.”
“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” set a first-month sales record of more than 6 million copies last November, according to market research group NPD.