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[Flutta]

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.

Sadly we have to many crybabies that have nothing more important going on in their lives that they hold on to a game reveal with their dare life and then bitch about it taking to long for the game to release.

It’s sad. I miss the excitement, you had amazing leaks, fun threads and insider talks. Most of it is all gone. All we talk about is Phil and his damn interviews instead.

Funny thing is we have the same crying babies crying about why some pubs are not
”communicating” with fans, no announcement, no stage shows, nothing. Whatev. Nothing last for ever i guess.

 

[RAIDEN1]

I saw an interesting article I think it was earlier in the week when Hideo talked about how challenging it was to get the classic "Snatcher" off the ground, Konami were new to the whole graphic adventure/point and click scene at the time circa 1987/1988..it really pushed Hideo and his team to their limit to get the game done for the platform it was initially released on...

 

[Kerotan]

1 year is perfect

 

[cash_longfellow]

That’s because most of the games are hot garbage now.

 

[Warablo]

Too long of a hype window makes the game never live up to the fantasy.

 

[TheInfamousKira]

I see the merit in announcing closer to release, and my logical mind thinks that's the best business model.

However, I was a child of the Final Fabtasy Versus XIII, Kingdom Hearts 3 and Twilight Princess days. It was almost infuriating the amount of hype and trailer replays this type of shit garnered in me.

I guess my official answer is "do what you want, Game Company, but don't do it in a way that fucks over consumers,"

Ten year dev cycles where the entire team or studio or title or scope of a game gets changed is nonsense. Announcing a game when you only have a 45 second CGI teaser is nonsense.

 

[Synless]

Announcements with one year or less is the ONLY appropriate timeframe.

 

[tomato shrub]

meh, of all the things to be nostalgic for.. dumb waiting and overhyping isn't one of them.

I'm getting old, I don't want to hear about shit that's 5 years away.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

Sorry but once companies have been caught presenting fake gameplay trailers they've lost all credibility.

Also, these companies now play too safe with what they show to their consumers, to the point there's nothing to get excited about.
They only show some very boring "walkie-talkie" cinematic segment (as if they were showing off a movie or something) and that's it.

Tears of the Kingdom for instance, got people very excited after they presented some unique gameplay features of the game.

And that's another difference:
Most games today have NOTHING new and exciting to show off.
It's mostly cinematic cutscenes, real-life actors, very safe and basic cookie-cutter gameplay that adds nothing new to the mix and photorealism.

EVERY GAME LOOKS AND PLAYS THE SAME.

TOTK was exciting because it really felt like something fresh and new.
Same thing with Dragon's Dogma 2;

 

[rofif]

1 year is enough or maybe even too low.
Nowadays, the longer I wait, the less hyped I get because there are leaks, opinions, this and that. I get fed up with the game as the time goes on.

 

[John Bilbo]

Hi-Fi Rush

 

[Dice]

6 moths or less please. Too many projects shitting the bed. Just wait until it's basically done.

 

[DeepSpace5D]

I’m actually fine with reveals that are 2-3 years from release. I don’t really mind waiting for games to come out because there is always something new to play every month and I can never keep up as is.

Beyond 3 years though when it gets to 5 and 6 years waiting for a game to release, I think it can start to have a negative effect due to some who were initially hyped starting to feel apathetic towards the game due to too much time passing.

 

[Sleepwalker]

I agree which is also why I don't like Sony's current approach of not announcing stuff.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

I don't really care.

I'm fine with an announcement a few years before release, but it's always nice to have an announcement a few months before release.

It's not like I'm spending every moment in between waiting for the game.

 

[LavitzSlambert]

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.

I think they've honed in on that. 1 to 2 years of showing anything meaningful (the bigger the game, the longer the gap) and same year for small/indie games. Announcements are a different story, I am talking about showing off real gameplay.

I agree with publishers too, any longer and any effect the marketing had wears off.

 

[Madonis]

Multiple years of hype quietly building up in the background worked for Baldur's Gate 3, but I know that's not something everyone can hope to replicate.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

well mr trolljima, we are still waiting for Abandoned.

 

[semiconscious]

Kojima is just disappointed that he can't create as many game trailers and visit as many game shows as he used to do.

this's very likely true. but you can't really blame'm - he really enjoyed it, & was damned good at it. not to mention, he almost always delivered...

 

[mitch1971]

The problem for me now is that regardless of the amount of time they let the game cook in our minds, my first thoughts are, how are they gonna monitise it? Is it going to be released broken? How are they going to piece meal it, or fuck over its customers in the many ways they can. These days I take no delight in seeing a game trailer anymore because of the formentioned concerns.

 

[Success]

OP, your poll options are GOLD.

 

[Knot3D]

/Kojima rant mode/
Says the guy who;
- made the MGS2 intro cinematic basically spoil the entire game (so many MGS2 blind playthroughs pn youtube and most of them play that entire cinematic)
- never bothered to inform new MGS3 players about the D-pad function, which is probably THE crucial key to CQC centric playstyle....you know, the heart & essence of the game.
As a result, I see so many MGS3 playthroughs tranq shooting their way through the game without even a single grab and choke playstyle instance.

 

[intheinbetween]

Creating a game that makes players waiting for it for multiple years with fantasy and anticipación is missing these days

​

 

[xrnzaaas]

No more than a year since the official annoucement. It's enough time to build hype & a solid marketing campaign.

I especially hate announcing games in very early stages (like TES 6 or The Witcher 4) just to make the investors happy or the fans forget about the last shitty release.

 

[mckmas8808]

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.

Of course he is right. We will look back 5 years from now and truly understand why waiting so long to show your game and Market it was always stupid.

 

[POKEYCLYDE]

Those long wait times where you fantasize and discuss what the game could be, ultimately always lead to disappointment.

Being a huge Bungie fan when they gained their independence and there was discussions around every little new piece of info dropped about what would become Destiny was fun, employees wearing these new T-shirts was thrilling and would cause endless theories of what kind of faction that T-shirt represented...

Only for it to come out and be this weekly grind for years and not at all what anyone imagined. "Shared World Shooter" meant fuck all what we thought. And the promise of 10 years of progress was immediately dashed with the sequel.

Same thing with Starfield. New Bethesda IP?! The hype and the discussions around a Skyrim in space were dashed when Starfield came out and was missing the magic that makes an elder scrolls or fallout what they are.

I can't really think of any game that met the hype after years of build up. Death Stranding sure didn't.

 

[kvltus lvlzvs]

The release of mgs5 after years upon years of hype absolutely destroyed quite a few peoples belief in hype, permanently.

I was already jaded but I've heard this from multiple people

 

[MagnesD3]

Shadows of the Erdtree comes to mind against this.

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

Sorry but when is the last time we got a game that wasnt announced YEARS ago? Some random indie shit coming to gamepass overnight, who cares. Any big game so far we knew years about them.

 

[NeverYouMind]

 

[Johnny Concrete]

It’s not always a good thing to be hyped way in advance.

I remember after seeing the reveal trailer of The Division that my mind went places for years.
I fantasised about being in that big abandoned city, scavenging apartments and stores for supplies to survive. Meeting other players and either fighting together or against them. Slowly making the city more inhabitable again.

When it released years later I played it and it was just another fucking video game.

 

[KXVXII9X]

In short, I do miss the anticipation of waiting for a big game to launch. I grew up mostly playing Japanese made games, so they took even longer just to come globally. The thing though is these games were usually of high quality and usually had great reception from fans. Maybe it is due to me not following online gaming sites until 2010, but gamers were usually more positive and it was fun to dream up how the game would be. These kinds of games were pushing something whether it was graphics, soundtrack, gameplay, etc.

Nowadays, games just feel less special when they come out. There are still amazing games coming out, but I notice the ones I'm not into get all the marketing and hype and the ones I am into were projects that were worked on for a while and get very little buzz from journalists and YouTubers so it feels like the game/series is less exciting than it is.

I'm stupidly excited for Level 5 games to come out and Vanillawares new game Unicorn Overlord. There are so many excellent looking Japanese games releasing in 2024 it is almost sickening. There are also a lot of anticipated indie projects and AA games too. This is already coming from a solid year for gaming.

The landscape has definitely change and moved more towards live service games where a younger audience is anticipating the next Season events and Battle Passes for their chosen game. There are so many games releasing that people don't rely on a few big games a year. I think Xbox also is trying to erase the excitement about exclusives which were usually the best showcases of advancements for the industry. They were something to be excited about regardless of what platform you had. EA, Activision, Ubisoft, Bethesda, etc., all used to have games worth waiting for way back, but now almost every game is more of the same anyways.

 

[Hudo]

I've waited years for Homeworld 3, motherfucker. And I am still waiting for Half-Life 3.

 

[KXVXII9X]

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?

I agree. I love the anticipation of waiting for a game only if there are constant updates about the game leading to release. I don't understand studios who release a game 7 years out but then release a dozen trailers like 6 months before without giving any progress or updates about the game's development.

I was put off by the response of the indie Dev behind The Last Night. The announcement trailer was one of the best-looking trailers I have seen and of course people are wanting it to come out. Their response is basically keeping people in the complete dark until it comes out. It has been like 7 years since. I think people should be kept informed at least every 2 years at least. I think it erases trust from the consumer and eventually they get tired of waiting so they move on.

 

[NecrosaroIII]

Disagree with Kojima here. The industry had a history of announcing games too early. Announcing a year before release sounds about right

 

[SHA]

Idk, cause there are more appealing games than before, people used to waste time on ebay for rare copies, Technology made things more accessible and worth investing our time to use it.

 

[EverydayBeast]

The greatest example of anticipation is MGS4 they showed that one E3 trailer

 

[Trogdor1123]

6 months for me. Anything more than that opens up delays and I hate those

 

[poodaddy]

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.

This. I just see hype as a result of immaturity these days. 90 plus percent of these games ultimately disappoint, leaving one feeling silly for being hype over it for years.

 

[PaintTinJr]

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.

Kojima showing me a teaser for a game 5-7years out is better IMO, he's got impeccable taste and past success and stature to release a game when it matches his excellent taste, which delivers. The problem for too many games was their director didn't have all these elements.

 

[Bernoulli]

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.

If you have too much anticipation you are going to fail like starfield
All that time the community got hyped and expected to have something big with all those years in the making, instead the majority got deceived

 

[Camreezie]

Announcement 1 year off, release date announcement within 6 months of second trailer is how like it

 

[Robb]

Nah, keep it short and make sure you reveal a full-fledged functioning product. Too many releases are already revealed too early and end up being buggy messes.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

There is a handful of games that can still instill that feeling, but by and large - we have too many games to play to bother. In the past you had a handful of games every year.

 

[RaduN]

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

Best post right there

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

Personally I’d rather not know about a game until 6 months or less before it comes out. The waiting is pointless especially since games take 4-6 years nowadays and change drastically over time between announcement and release, if announced early. Avowed looked great in that trailer but nothing at all like that reveal and clearly a much smaller scope game than people were initially anticipating.

 

[NightmareFarm]

About 1 year, preferably a little less than a year like 9 ish months. Just the right amount of time to build up maximum hype without getting bored of waiting and forgetting about it.

 

[Mythoclast]

Kojima working for Rockstar confirmed?