I think dropping titles out of nowhere is a good move.

[Michealgomes]

Persona 4 Golden is being played by a ton of people. I honestly think its the element of surprise. What do you do when you see the trailer for a new game? Play it, right now. Persona 4 just dropping and being available I think really taps in the impulse buy. Instead of that immediate dopamine of the trailer, that tapers off months before the release, you get hit with the trailer rush then you buy the game.
I don't know, it would not work for a game like Cyberpunk 2077. But if a new Dark Souls game just dropped tomorrow. People would watch the trailer and then immediately say **** YOU IM BUYING THIS GAME NOW RENT IS IRRELEVANT.
Anyone else hope games just "come out suddenly" more often? Its more exciting than 6 months of trailers to me anyway.https://solitaire.onl/ https://9apps.ooo/

 

[SWard]

I admit in presentations when they go "And you can play it riiiiight nooow!" I lose my mind

 

[Rensje]

It's a shame that this tactic mostly applies to free-to-play games with fairly agressive monetisation schemes. One notable exception to this was Apex Legends, which was free but also didn't bombard you with premium bundles, a battle pass and all kinds of loot boxes right out of the gate. The launch mostly seemed to be about building an audience first and holy hell, did they succeed. For weeks that game was the only thing the internet could talk about. I think it took them less than a day to hit 10 million players, which is a stupendous achievement.

It is also very good, so that certainly helps!

Do you know what I think it is? We're just so incredibly tired as consumers of getting our hopes up for a new release that's being hyped, only to be disappointed by the final product. If there's no fanfare around a product and you just launch it, you can't really lose. Word of mouth is more powerful than all those millions spent on marketing. If a game is good, it will carry itself forward.

 

[Pifanjr]

I agree. I've been burned by an over hyped game before and I've missed releases of games because I'd been seeing trailers for so long that the actual release didn't even register.

If you want to build hype for your game, do it over the span of a month, max, instead of over 2+ years.

 

[Johnway]

Its certainly a good strategy. Save money from marketing and prevent overhyping a game to disappointment. Duke nukem forever and daikitana i'm looking at you.

Its also a pleasant surprise especially when its something that's good. i mean seeing persona 4 gold come out was a surprise and give me hope that P5R is coming to the pc. Even if i have to wait just as long. Maybe 7 years?

But will it work with less well known titles? probably not. just looking at TTLG studios thief series and system shock games. brilliant games but no one knew about them and they died. What about Clive barkers undying? that was considered pretty decent but sold poorly and can't help but wonder if it would have done better with super marketing. Then again they did get clive barker to create the game and jericho wasn't that great.

But for popular well established franchies? i believe it will work. I mean who doesn't know about Star wars or COD? The fanbase is already there and more marketing should be invested in lesser known titles. Instead we have this strange habit or spending millions on a well established franchise and releasing the same game again and again. Chances are, fans of the original will pick up the sequel. magazines, websites and youtube will do the rest. I bet for less then what they spend on marketing i might add.

 

[Zloth]

What do you do when you see the trailer for a new game?

Wish list it right now!

Play it, right now.

!?!? Are you mad?? No guides? No mods? A weak sale at best? No patches!? For all you know, it's a 32-bit program that isn't even large address aware! <ahem>

I used to do that long ago. Especially at the end of the summer doldrums when there hadn't been anything new to play since March. That started to change when Steam showed up. Unlike the stores, which typically only sold a game for 6-12 months, Steam sold them forever - and at deep discounts when the sales started. Instead of playing a game until I could finally find another one to play, I could buy enough games to last for months! It didn't take long before I would buy enough games to last me until the next sale and just try to remember to get them later when a new, cool game showed up. (Thank Gabe for the wish list feature!)

Honestly, I think what's getting you isn't just the surprise, it's the video trailers. They're GOOD! The best clips of a game combined with the best music (and decades of marketing experience) can really hit.

 

[Frindis]

Hype means more money, so I hardly think this will become a new trend. I do like the idea though and it would have been very, VERY good for the gaming industry overall when it comes to showing authenticity and not hiding behind greedy marketing decisions.

 

[crocoyesnine]

It's a lot easier to do with digital only, as you don't have to worry about getting physical boxes to stores or worry about gauging demand to know how many to produce, etc.

 

[Hveðrungr]

This thread definitely needs a mention of XCOM Chimera Squad, which combined a sudden release with a hefty discount, and thus attracted far more buyers than it would otherwise have had.

 

[Brian Boru]

It's a lot easier to do with digital only

Right. I don't think the big corporate marketing depts, which used to ship physical, have got their heads around digital yet. All that advance hype was aimed at gauging likely demand so they'd have some idea how many of each variation to produce, and which distro-retail regions to ship them to.

When I see a new trailer, I ignore it. Are you guys saying that they've changed trailers back again to when they showed actual game-present footage? Those were good times…

I'm with Zloth. When I see a new game, I either add it to Ignore or Wishlist. Wishlisted means I'll see it in a year or more at a big discount, after all the bugs that are going to be fixed have been patched, most of the DLC is out and included, and the best mods have risen to the top.

Re smaller games, a pre-release period may be life or death—eg on Amazon pre-orders all get included in Day 1 sales, and if you sell well on Day 1, Amazon's algos will treat you nicely.

 

[Dakkon]

Saw Spiritfarer on Steam launcher, investigated a bit and bought it.
Yesterday I couldn't stop playing and clocked 4h long session.

 

[aromavid]

It's a lot easier to do with digital only, as you don't have to worry about getting physical boxes to stores or worry about gauging demand to know how many to produce, etc.