There's a New Mario Game Out This Week (and Assassin's Creed, and Wolfenstein), 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. 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.