Support NeoGAF

[Men_in_Boxes]

With the way the industry is changing, longer deep dive esque trailers are probably the superior way to market games now correct? Enough of the 23 games with 3 minute trailers from the past.

 

[Punished Miku]

Marketing is just a sales strategy.

I think if you want to sell a game on existing popular IP, high end visuals, a celebrity actor, you can put out a shorter trailer and they pop at something like the Games Awards. I think if your game is difficult to understand immediately, not cinematic, gameplay and systems driven, it needs a longer demonstration to explain it like Starfield or Breath of the Wild. If your game is too small to even have a budget for a main event, getting shown at all in a sizzle reel is still better than nothing.

 

[diffusionx]

The Starfield Direct proved that the people who make these can lie with long trailers as well as they do with short ones. So, maybe.

 

[The Cockatrice]

The Starfield Direct proved that the people who make these can lie with long trailers as well as they do with short ones. So, no.

Fixed.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

Yeah, for sure. The format is nice, some games are quite big for a single trailer and so on.

 

[IDKFA]

With the way the industry is changing, longer deep dive esque trailers are probably the superior way to market games now correct? Enough of the 23 games with 3 minute trailers from the past.

Hard to say. You haven't provided an argument as to why a direct is better than a 3 min trailer.

 

[KimDongHwan]

The Starfield Direct proved that the people who make these can lie with long trailers as well as they do with short ones. So, maybe.

I didn't watch the Starfield Direct neither play Starfield but is it true that they lied?

 

[gothmog]

I like both but prefer the shorter trailer for getting me interested. Deep dives on games suck if nobody cares about the game.

 

[Punished Miku]

I like both but prefer the shorter trailer for getting me interested. Deep dives on games suck if nobody cares about the game.

You didn't like that Suicide Squad segment?

 

[Damigos]

 

[Hudo]

Not if they fill it with bullshit like devs talking without showing the game. If you're not showing the game, you're wasting everyone's time. I am not interested in seeing the devs.

 

[Kurotri]

Yeah I agree OP. I love longer videos that have deep dives like that, so I really appreciate Warhorse coming through like that. Back in the PS3 and 360 days dev diaries for instance were way more common than they are today if you ask me. Keep those direct style videos coming.

 

[feynoob]

That was a garbage showcase, which hid the actual problem of the game and gave us a false gameplay.

 

[mortal]

That gameplay deep dive arguably peaked the hype for Starfield before many felt disappointed.
Cinematic trailers can be good for setting the tone, but when it comes to getting me genuinely excited for a game, gameplay deep dives are the next best thing to playable demos, even when the final product falls short.

Same thing with Cyberpunk 2077, when that first gameplay reveal dropped back in 2018 the hype was palpable. 48 minutes of pure gameplay.



The 2019 deep dive was also a great showcase of the game that built up the hype for the game even more.



Even though they're not quite a deep dive format, some of Sony's most memorable E3 conferences were when someone from Naughty Dog or Santa Monica Studio played a vertical slice of the game on stage. Nothing screams confidence like showing off straight-up gameplay.

 

[Loomy]

Do you want to be lied to for an hour or 3 minutes?

Also, those long deep dives really only work if you're introducing a lot of new systems. They also absolutely do not need to be an hour long. 15 minutes is enough.

 

[Katajx]

I’ve always enjoyed seeing actual gameplay so I know what I’m getting myself into.

A cinematic trailer just doesn’t give me that. It’s pretty much the box art in the 80s and 90s, but I want to see how I am going to spend my time outside of cutscenes.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Hard to say. You haven't provided an argument as to why a direct is better than a 3 min trailer.

Now that we're in the era of "big games" I think the 3 minute format has become ill equipped to showcase the largest titles of the year.

The 3 minute format was created when games were 5 hours long and simple. Todays big GAAS games and big, open world RPGs have so much depth, complexity, and longevity that 2 minutes and 42 seconds feels woefully short.

And let's face it, Starfield was at its buzz peak at the time of that Direct.

 

[Woopah]

Games can have multiple trailers. It's not a situation where developers have to choose.