Can't Write, Playing Mass Effect

I've tried to play Mass Effect several times since it first came out in 2007. I rented it when it was first released, and didn't really get into it. About a year ago I bought it again, played it for a while then abandoned it when I got to the end-game and didn't feel like I had seen enough of what it had to offer. It was starting to seem like a game I was never going to finish.

Last week, I picked the game up again, inspired by all the praise Mass Effect 2 received during various gaming sites' Game of the Year deliberations. Now I'm completely hooked. I finished my abandoned game, and immediately started over (I did keep my Shepherd, though, having experienced the "My Shepherd is the Real Shepherd" phenomenon). I got so wrapped up in my second playthrough today that I actually forgot about blogging until just a few minutes ago.

In an effort to make something useful out of this post though, my extremely late blooming affection for Mass Effect makes me wonder why publishers continue to declare a game's success or failure within the first week of its release. With the exception of Nintendo, how many publishers even give their games a chance to have a long tail? Is it really impossible for a video game to ever be a Boondock Saints-style late-blooming success, plucking sequels from the jaws of obscurity?

I have no answers to these questions, and...look, Shepherd's waiting. Maybe I'll have time to think more about this after the universe is safe.