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Hideo Kojima: Waiting for a game for multiple years with fantasy and anticipation is missing these days

What is your ideal game announcement to game release window?


  • Total voters
    227
I paraphrased Kojima, but I completely agree. Shorter marketing cycles are more efficient for both developers and gamers however they lack the fantasy and excitement element of games. From announcement to getting screenshots, to small tidbits of developer interview, to teasers, to trailers, trailer breakdowns and finally game. It is an enjoyable ride that is getting rarer these days. It seems it is even looked down upon if games are announced "too early". Gamers want developers to shut up till they have gameplay to show, which I dont agree with. Gaming is always evolving and not every game needs to follow the same practice however I would like more games to follow a more fun marketing approach leading up to the game release even if the game at the end doesnt reach the pre-release hype.

 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
As much as I like shorter announcements, I do agree with Kojima here.

There is a sense of anticipation and excitement that you get while waiting for a highly anticipated game. There is definitely some fun in that.

I just think developers and publishers need to find the right balance: an announcement window that isn't frustratingly long but is just long enough for the excitement to build up.
 

GymWolf

Member
Perfectly ok with multiple years of wait, i like getting hyped over the course of a couple of years.

Just present your game with a 10 min vertical slice gameplay like old sony did in the ps4 era and release at least 1 trailer per year and snippets of news to maintain the hype high so people actually have something to talk.
 
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Three

Member
My discussions with my friends about an upcoming game don't need to span more than 1 year. I think they would probably fit into a weekend.
 

Gojiira

Member
Agreed. He recently posted on Insta about MGS2 anniversary and nostalgically I recalled just HOW FUCKING HYPE that trailer was back in the day, the music, the sound effects of the title slamming together, ‘No! That is not Solid Snake!’…My fucking gawd, not a single trailer since has been as good as that one, all the intrigue, the beautiful visuals, that promise of a leap ahead from the first, just doesnt exist anymore.
Hell just think how fucking insanely hype it was when ZoE2 bundled a MGS2 demo with it leaving a crazy amount of speculation and hype for the final game.

I think MGSV came close, that initial reveal was incredible, one hell of a ruse, all the psychic projections and the burning whale etc, hype trailer, so mysterious.

Kojima really does know how to get the mind going with his trailers.
 

kruis

Exposing the sinister cartel of retailers who allow companies to pay for advertising space.
Kojima is just disappointed that he can't create as many game trailers and visit as many game shows as he used to do.
 

Guilty_AI

Member
Not a fan of hype machines with games. I understand the appeal of getting excited for a new thing with friends, but that works better with cinema.

For a game where you'll be playing by your lonesome self most of the time it just doesn't feel like much.
 

GrayChild

Member
Hype machines are rarely worth it, especially when they often oversell the game and raise expectations to unreasonable levels.

It's fun the first few times, but every new cycle gets less and less exciting, up to a point where the only thing that's going through your head is "just release the damn game already".
 

tommycronin

Banned
Yeah can't we all go back to waiting 5 years to be dissapointed instead of almost overnight disappointment. If your game is good your game is good. If its not the best ever, hype will kill it more than it would have without the hype.
 
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FeralEcho

Member
Yeah can't we all go back to waiting 5 years to be dissapointed instead of almost overnight disappointment. If your game is good your game is good. If its not the best ever, hype will kill it more than it would have without the hype.
Except its not overnight.... it's the same stupid 5 years only now it's full of speculation,leaks,drip feeded texts of information with no actual footage and short as shit trailers.

I'd rather take the 5 years of hype full of blowouts and trailers.

Even Kojima is done with this industry's bullshit secrecy.
 

j0hnnix

Gold Member
Kojima is cookoo.. we have this already. We have been waiting for years for a good game by MS Studios and all we do is talk about it in anticipation. Lol.
 

Elios83

Member
Both approaches have pros and cons.
While it's true that fans want to know and dream about what's coming in the future announcing things too much in advance creates other issues. People at some point will inevitably say they're taking too long, that the game is in development hell, that it was downgraded compared to the debut trailer, that the wait was not worth it and so on.
This all adds a lot of pressure on the development team.


In any case looking forward to the new DS2 trailer at TGA Kojima, right? 👀 🤣
 

Little Mac

Gold Member
Suspicious Weighing Options GIF



This is just Kojima's pretentious way of saying Death Stranding 2 is delayed.
 
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Thirty7ven

Banned
The problem is that it does more harm than good because the audience of today isn’t the same as the audience of ten or fifteen years ago. They don’t behave the same.

You want to create an hype cycle years long for your game? It better deliver or you’re going to get dragged to the mud.

Look at Starfield, shit backfired spectacularly. I would personally preferred if games were announced just like movies are, early, but only shown a year in advance at most.
 
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Don't really agree with Kojima here. Lots of games are hyped waaaay before they should be.

And more often than note these days, hyped games are huge disappointments.
 

The Cockatrice

Gold Member
His opinion would be valid when games were being made in max 3 years or so. Now big games take at elast 6 years so gtfo with that shit.
 
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Yoboman

Member
Certainly works for story games

I don't think it matters with other types of games

I do think Devs really underestimate a powerful trailer these days. Both Ragnarok and TOTK dropped insanely hype trailers just before launch but the rest of their marketing cycle was a bit of a malaise
 
We’re adults now, our mindset and lives are different than when we were kids. Media is also drastically different than back in the day when you’d read about a game announcement in a magazine and then maybe get 2-3 previews leading up to release. Now you get trailers and deep dives, behind the scenes, alphas, betas, leaks, etc.
 
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brian0057

Banned
Nintendo is the best and the worst at this.
Sometimes they'll have titles that release just a few months after being announced while others will launch after the heat death of the universe.
Give me more of the former and fuck you for the latter.
 
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Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
Kojima is a marketing genius. He's better at building hype and anticipation than anyone else I can think of.

P.T. being a bigger deal than any title in the franchise (Silent Hill) that it was ostensibly promoting being a perfect example.
 

StueyDuck

Member
People can't control themselves these days and fantasizing about a game just creates warriors and anger etc.

It doesn't help that game companies play into these fantasies with their marketing and getting Twitter warriors to play into it as well for "benefits"

So while I agree with kojumbo, it also just would never work in today's gaming ecosystem as say it did when half life 2 was announced and coming out and then leaked and so on. Today you just gotta release the game and make sure it works
 
It rarely pays off and we're usually left with a game that doesn't deliver on promises. Unless the game studio goes completely radio silent, years of marketing feeds into the hype and people start to set unrealistic expectations (see: Cyberpunk 2077).

Elden Ring pre-release hype was fucking crazy tho and absolutely nailed the landing.
 

Belthazar

Member
Yeah, I agree. Short turnarounds between announcement and release are great, but a lot is lost in the process. I feel like even the biggest games releases don't feel like events anymore, everything just comes and goes.
 

Danknugz

Member
i feel sometimes that this is the kind of thing the fuels the industry for the wrong reasons (just giving people jobs so they can have families, make money and generate companies revenue, actual fun games comes second, take forever because they're "working" on the game when in reality just bureaucratic nonsense by design so companies can wrong out every drop of positive / fake spin and attention from a game that hasn't been released yet so no one can point out how bad it is, in fact i'd say a lot of executive probably hate when the games are actually released because then there's no more tricking people into thinking the game is awesome and everyone should be excited.
 

ChoosableOne

ChoosableAll
No, It's only true for your new game, Kojima. I've waited all those years for the Elden Ring and I got what I wanted. Now I'm waiting for it's DLC. MGS used to be like that too.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
What's also missing these days is games being complete, tested and working before they're released. Not to mention the constant delays. People get hyped and they they're disappointed by delays, then at launch they're disappointed by the lack of care that went into the product.
 

Paltheos

Member
Yeah, I agree. Short turnarounds between announcement and release are great, but a lot is lost in the process. I feel like even the biggest games releases don't feel like events anymore, everything just comes and goes.

I feel like this is more a function of saturation of the market and newsfeed. There are so many big games and so much news that it's hard to process all of it. Very few games can reach the level of a big event anticipated by nearly everyone as a result.
 

yurinka

Member
I hate super long waits. I think that an announcement + teaser around a year before release and a gameplay reveal around half a year before release is the best spot.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
I like Capcom's approach, they don't fully reveal their games until they're 5, 6 months away from release.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
He's not talking about the game industry right? I've talked about and anticipated the next Perfect Dark about as long as I possibly can at this point...and it's still likely 1+ year away.
 

Perrott

Gold Member
He means that Sony is not letting him do six different "Edited by Hideo Kojima" pre-release trailers for DS2 this time around.

Which I think it's really unfortunate.
 
  • Thoughtful
Reactions: Fbh
I think the people voting 6 months to a year are full of shit. The only other option to multiple years updates is absolutely silence and I'm sorry nobody likes that.

Look at the reaction to Sony's showcase nobody was saying good job Sony only show stuff when it's ready.

No people were pissed at the complete lack of first party reveals.

Personally I'am fine with stuff being announced early and yearly updates. Better that than nothing.
 

mortal

Gold Member
I've been burned more often than not waiting on announced games for several years. Rarely lives up to expectations.
Games released within a year of the announcement are the most ideal when it comes to maximizing hype.
 
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Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Cygames/relink
Awkward Season 4 GIF by The Office

#FucKojima - do it like Nintendo (yes some times they fail too, MP4 etc.), announce 6 months before release or less/shadow drop.
 
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Arachnid

Member
Fuck that! Kojima made us wait like 5-6 years for MGSV and Death Stranding. DS wasn't even worth the years of hype for me. NO ONE should announce a game more than a year out.
 

LordCBH

Member
Yeah not so sure I agree with this one.

Waiting half a decade from the announce of Square titles to their release was pure ass. Waiting like 3-4 years from Uncharted 4’s announce to release was also pure ass.


If you’re game isn’t within a year and a half of release, don’t announce the damn thing.
 

Fbh

Member
No thx.
1 year from release to announcement seems more than enough to generate hype. If anything I think I'd have been less disappointed by Death Stranding if Kojima had just shown what the game is from the beginning instead of years of cryptic trailers and speculation only for it to be post apocalyptic Fedex: The game.


Also many of these games that over promised and under delivered are usually those announced way too early.
 
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