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Words Of Wisdom on 26 August 2008
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bardicverse said:
Words Of Wisdom said:
bardicverse said:
Perhaps then videos and screenshots should be totally done away with until the game is ready to ship, since that's the version that you'll be buying?

Would make for an awful lack of info for gaming sites like this one. Imagine games not releasing any visual data until the week before the game launches. Hell, we would barely have anything to see from PS3 developers at that rate, since they're good for 6+ month away launch previews.

Marketing is for the sole purpose of selling copies.

No one releases screenshots for the fun of it, they're aimed to build excitement and anticipation for the title in question. If they thought they could sell more copies by not showing anything until the shipping date you can be absolutely sure that that's exactly what they would do.

Likewise, if they thought that showing footage would lower anticipation and cause the game to sell less (*cough* bait'n'switch *cough*) then they would refrain from showing such. It's the way business works.

Right, but why bother to spend a serious amount of time in advance amping a game that doesn't require it, like FF13? The game MIGHT show up next year if SE plays their cards right, but there's a lot of games to get before then. It'd make more sense to drop the bomb while showing the first videos. Imagine, for example, the next Zelda game. Then at the end of the video "Available next week". Gives people an "oh shit" moment and want to scramble to the stores, and it will be fresh in their mind.

 

Keep in mind that there are two markets out there that a company is interested in.

There are the fans who will likely buy the game anyway and there are the new people who may not even know what Final Fantasy is.

Releasing more material has the benefit of keeping the former happy.  You see what happens to hopes and expectations when games go for long periods of time without PR.  It also has the chance of garnering attention from the latter group.  The people in the latter group aren't going to have that "OH SHIT MUST BUY!" mentality but they're also not going to be highly affected by a single advertisement either.  A steady stream of it not only has a better chance of getting their attention but in keeping that attention.

Many commercials aren't just around to try to sell something but also to remind you that a particular brand/product is still around. You may be excited for something today, but without reinforcement that excitement will slowly wither.  PR is what keeps it fresh (or attempts to).