Not that we necessarily needed to remind you of this, but the fall season means lots of big games all coming out at the same two, maybe three month period in the hopes of capturing a sizable hunk of those sweet, sweet holiday season monies. Now that BioShock Infinite has sky-hooked off to February, one can imagine that most publishers (that aren't 2K Games) are breathing a bit of a sigh of relief right now...until, of course, they realize that Halo 4, Assassin's Creed III, Borderlands 2, Resident Evil 6, Far Cry 3, and, of course, Call of Duty: Black Ops II are all still coming out within a ten-week span of each other. And that doesn't even take into account all those Grand Theft Auto V release rumors. Yeesh.
Let's toss two more promising, though perhaps not as immediately brand-recognizable titles onto that heap, as both Square-Enix's assassination sequel Hitman: Absolution (I'll never get used to not calling that an Eidos game) and Bethesda's steampunk stealth action game Dishonored, will be headed to store shelves around that very same time.
Dishonored, which is in development at Arkane Studios, is set for release on October 9. This looks to be the game that could benefit most from Infinite's delay, given that Infinite was originally set for a later October release. Given that this is a new property--and we all know how often new properties tend to struggle when put up against behemoths like Halo and Call of Duty--every little bit helps.
As for Hitman, buried in a press release full of pre-order bonus information for a Sniper Challenge available exclusively at GameStop (there, I mentioned it, okay?) was the helpful note that Absolution will be arriving on store shelves November 20. That puts it squarely at the end of the current fall release calendar, and the closest to "Black Friday" of any of the other games with announced dates thus far. It's also the week after Black Ops II hits shelves, which wouldn't bode well for anybody, really.
If you thought last fall looked expensive, this one's starting to look just as nuts, if not a whole lot nuttier.
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