My opinion: Yes 

Imagine waking up tomorrow, firing up the computer, visiting your favorite gaming news site, and discovering that a sequel to your favorite game is coming out in THREE WEEKS.  You had no idea it was in development.  Sure, there were rumors and people hoping it would happen, but the developers never officially revealed their future lineup.  And now you can look forward to three blissful weeks of details, videos, and screenshots.

What do you think?

I guess my posts aren't interesting or controversial enough to spark discussion. Oh well...

BUMP ;)

As somebody who tries to adhere to a strict budget of one new game per month, I like having some advance warning to plan my purchases.

Also, general videogame hype gives me something to do when I'm kicking around the internet.

I think the only problem this idea has is that Hype works alot by word of mouth, and three weeks just doesn't seem like enough to get the same level of hype and therefore of sales that games see now. I could easily be wrong but that's my idea on one issue this idea might have.

Also, for myself personally I've always been one to plan ahead a long time in advance and like knowing about stuff coming out months ahead of time so I can look forward to it. So I guess I prefer things the way they are.

Yes too much hype

Perhaps three weeks is a bit extreme. But some games tease us for over a year (sometimes two or more years). I think it's gotten a little out of hand. I can't "plan" on a game purchase when it's release date is Q3 of next year. All that does is give me more time to stop caring about the game.

Ahh...if you mean games without a definite release date then yes I can agree with you, I would much prefer that the hype machine not go into full swing until the game has a set and definite release date.

Well Killzone is a good proof of a game who is hyped to long;.;

But hey how longer it is hyped how better the sales can be I guess..

Three weeks is too short. I'd say about 6 months for a minor title and 9 months for a major one.

Well, there are a number of things to consider here:

-Hype generates extra sales. Tn the late-SNES/N64 era (which I assume you're talking about), games usually only cost at max a few hundred thousand dollars to make. When that was the case, they didn't need to advertise the hell out of every big game. Selling 50-60,000 copies made them a nice little profit, and they didn't go bankrupt if the game failed. Can't say the same about games now.

-It depends on your personal views, but I like knowing that my favourite game is, in fact, in development, even if it won't be out for a long time. I likely wouldn't have bought a Wii at launch if I didn't know ahead of time that I could get Zelda with it, or DS if I didn't know I could get a portable Mario 64. With my 360 (which I got at launch), Dead Rising, Halo 3, and Gears of War (along with Perfect Dark I admit) were what made me buy the console even though they weren't coming out for a long time. Would MS have made that sale if I didn't know about those games? Not for at least six months.