The closeout to 2020, an already troubled year underpinned by the coronavirus pandemic and political strife, was marked by Cyberpunk 2077‘s disastrous launch. One of the most highly anticipated games of all time, fans were promised a living city built to be explored, with the only restrictions being the rules players imposed on themselves through roleplaying. What they got was not that. Instead, Cyberpunk 2077 launched as a technical disaster, with countless fans reconciling that even under all those issues, it was still a regular RPG with a few new ideas.
It would be unfair to say that Cyberpunk 2077 is alone in its troubles. Countless games have launched to underwhelming review scores and mountains of technical issues, a persistent issue in an industry where massive companies are competing for the attention of millions of consumers, all under a veil of utter secrecy while new projects are in development.
With so little transparency during development, it’s no wonder that gamers feel the burn of a bad game from time to time. After all, it isn’t until players push start that they really know what they’re in for, previews be damned. When it comes to dirty launches, blame can and should be directed towards mismanagement by studio executives most of the time, but the true enemy is the marketing that, almost without fail, leads consumers here.
The issue with video game trailers should be immediately apparent. The goal isn’t to show what a game is at the time a trailer releases — video games notoriously tend to come together during the final stretch of development, making it difficult to represent the product in an appealing way. Trailers depict what a video game could be, and on top of that, trailers are what a game could be at its very best. It’s a highlight of an experience that does not yet exist, a slice of a concept rattling around in someone’s head that must then go through a years-long process of iteration and reassessment.
Even E3 demos, frequently criticized for presenting an unrealistic version of the end product, deserve something of a pass. Demos have cracks. Problems representative of the full launch tend to slip through from time to time, whether that’s wonky AI misstepping in The Division or a glimpse of quirky parkour in Assassin’s Creed. Developers aren’t putting problems on full display, but fans can at least get an idea of what will go wrong when it’s their turn to hold the controller. It’s easier to spot uninteresting gameplay when it’s unfolding right in front of the viewer, even if those moments are more polished than the end product or scripted.
Trailers only prove that the footage included could conceivably be turned into a short film. Just look at the adrenaline pumping snippets presented every year in Call of Duty trailers. Sure, one might manage to cap off a triple kill with a well-placed throwing knife for a play worthy of a highlight reel, but average players chasing that kind of moment might as well be asked to kick the game-winning field goal at the Super Bowl. Doubly so for CGI trailers, which are essentially as representative as concept art when push comes to shove.
So, then, what’s the solution? The marketing machines that pump out top-tier trailers for content-hungry players to analyze every second of isn’t going to stop, and as long as they’re being made, fans are going to continue to consume them. What it comes down to, as unfortunate as it sounds, is a shared agreement to not buy too heavily into what’s being presented. Hype trains can and will continue, but everyone wins by shoveling less coal in.
It all comes back to tempered expectations, the best weapon fans have to combat overhyped games. Cut features between a reveal and a launch are commonplace in the game industry, and it’s always impossible to tell when a game is going to launch in a buggy state. On top of that, trailers can spur fans to fill in gaps on their own, imagining gameplay mechanics and concepts that seem like no-brainers, but that don’t end up in the final game.
The ideal scenario is one in which developers and publishers release raw gameplay demos for fans to watch, rather than trailers. It’s an approach that would be rougher around the edges, but far better for consumers in the long run, especially considering the cost of an individual game. The scope of a game often changes throughout development, so it wouldn’t totally fix the problem, but fans would at the very least have a better idea of what they’re getting themselves into.
The unfortunate reality is that video game trailers aren’t going anywhere. For all of those who tune into Nintendo Direct livestreams, PlayStation events, or The Game Awards, there are millions more who are only exposed to the next big titles through trailers on TV or streaming services. It’s easy to forget the mass market appeal of video games, largely because of how varied the level of interest in them is, but as the medium grows so does the necessity for trailers to get the word out to the general public.
That leaves the only real solution as tempering expectations. Luckily, with things like the Summer Game Festival starting to gain popularity, there’s a chance that game demos will start to become an industry standard once again, which would do wonders in fueling experiences that are as representative of the final product as possible. There’s no guarantee that will happen, but it’s clear that video game trailers aren’t serving the purpose they once did.
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