There’s a New Mario (and Assassin’s Creed, and Wolfenstein) Game Out This Week—But Fall Ain’t What It Used to Be

On October 27, three of the biggest videogames of the year arrive, all at once: Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus, Assassin's Creed: Origins, and Nintendo's Super Mario Odyssey. Together, these three titles represent a cross-section of the big-budget gaming industry, from a family-friendly run-and-jump romp to a bloody rampage through a Nazi-filled alternate history. From power fantasy to primer on Ancient Egyptian architecture, this one day showcases much of the best of what triple-A gaming—the biggest, costliest games by the biggest, wealthiest publishers—can do.

It represents enough money to balance the budget of a small country. Maybe even a medium-sized country. Accounting for years of development time, bleeding-edge machines and software, and astronomical advertising budgets, these three games, all told, are worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

None of this is new, of course. The holiday season has been the destination for the most expensive, most hyped games and consoles for just about as long as the industry has existed. But every year it feels a little more stark. It used to be that the fall release window, which nowadays stretches from mid September to early January, was a veritable deluge of titles from all corners of the market. Now, fall releases are broad but shallow. Fewer than 10 of these games come out every year, representing the combined hopes and pocketbooks of all of the industry's major players. A Call of Duty, maybe a new Star Wars game, a couple of Nintendo entries and, if we're lucky, some big-budget original titles. Otherwise, the fall release season looks remarkably like any other part of the year. In fact, unless you're someone like me, who's obligated to play all of these big games, it's even a little dull.