LAUNCH TITLE

A 'launch title' is a video game that has been made available to consumers synchronously with its respective video game console, meaning they are the only available games at the time of the console's launch. Because they provide first impressions of the console's features and technical abilities, they are extremely important in the video game industry, and many launch titles have been killer apps.

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Quality vs. quantity

Launch titles

Quality vs. quantity

Historically, the number of launch titles has been an important factor in deciding the success of a gaming platform. The more games available at launch, the higher the chances that players will find something that interests them. However, the same importance applies to game quality: poor quality games don't sell as well in the long term as high quality ones.
When gearing up for a major console launch, developers and publishers have a decision to make. They can release a large number of launch titles, often accompanied by the promise of more soon after launch, or they can release a few extremely strong titles, or a killer game. Whilst releasing a large number of extremely strong titles is of course preferred, this may not be practical. To balance these choices, developers will often supplement one or two strong titles with third-party or licensed titles to bolster the number of launch titles.

Launch titles

Main articles: List of video game console launch titles

Here are a few popular games that debuted at launch.

★ ''Duck Hunt'' and ''Gyromite'' '1985' 'Nintendo Entertainment System' (U.S. launch)

★ ''Super Mario Bros.'' '1986' 'Nintendo Entertainment System' (U.S. re-launch)

★ ''Super Mario World'' and ''F-Zero'' '1990' 'Super Nintendo Entertainment System'

★ ''Ridge Racer'' '1994' 'PlayStation

★ ''Panzer Dragoon'' '1995' 'Sega Saturn'

★ ''Super Mario 64'' '1996' 'Nintendo 64'

★ ''Sonic Adventure'' and ''Soul Calibur'' '1999' 'Sega Dreamcast'

★ ''SSX'' and ''Tekken Tag Tournament'' '2000' 'PlayStation 2'

★ '' and ''Project Gotham Racing'' '2001' 'Xbox'

★ ''Call of Duty 2'' '2005' 'Xbox 360'

★ '' and ''MotorStorm'' '2006' 'Playstation 3'

★ ''Luigi's Mansion'' '2001' and '' '2001' 'GameCube'

★ '' and ''Wii Sports'' '2006' 'Wii'
EGM listed[1] the 10 ''worst'' launch titles as:
# Night Trap (Sega CD)
# (PlayStation)
# Cybermorph (Atari Jaguar)
# Altered Beast (Sega Mega Drive/Genesis)
# (Sega CD)
# Army Men Advance (Game Boy Advance)
# Mortal Kombat Gold (Dreamcast)
# Donkey Kong Jr. Math (NES)
# Fighting Street (Turbografx CD)
# Perfect Dark Zero (Xbox 360)