I think I've solved why the gaming industry work in secrecy more often than in other industries

[delete12345]

Because the consumers don't want to be spoiled in advance and wanted to immerse themselves in the hype.

Suppose we have this graph that shows your hype levels over time.

Ideally, we wanted something like this:

Where, we would sustain the hype levels around where we wanted them to be, in line with the reveal trailers. We will never reach the initial hype levels, though.

But, in order to pull this off, we tend to decrease the overall time of the announcement windows, compact them together, and concentrate on the reveal.

Because of the compaction of the time frame, there are those who wanted to be hyped about the new revealings. In response, the consumers would do whatever they can to avoid getting spoiled ahead of time. Leaks and human errors are the bane of these hypes, and they will cause this downwards trend:

And we don't want that. We don't want to feel the negativity of the reveals to ruin someone's day or hype levels.

Thus, it becomes a vicious cycle of, fearing of missing out, and avoiding spoilers whenever possible near the start of the announcement reveal time frame, and then waning off as time goes by.

Marketing and advertising depends on the hype levels. If the hype levels are there, and has reached to the ideal levels we wanted, it will have a positive impact on how we proceed with selling the consumer on the product. The more positive impact, the greater to an extent our marketing can reach and engage.

With this in mind, the gaming industry relies on the hype levels hitting a sufficient level to sustain economic trades between the goods (the games) and the need to consume (playing).

Am I wrong on this?

 

[Nikus]

I need a pie chart.

 

[Kevers]

No, I want to be spoiled at every available opportunity so please don't speak on my behalf.

 

[grimrepo]

Hmm pie

 

[purseowner]

Gamers are often ADHD. Knowing about something too far in advance can breed impatience and, when there's so much else out there, eventual disinterest in favour of something else.

 

[4859]

This is a blatantly manufactured and marketing conditioned state.

 

[GazRB]

I just want them old school E3 feels man

 

[boxter432]

this isn't different than other industries though.

 

[MiDoZ]

Remember that artist that worked with 343 and almost got his career ruined because everything that he said was mistranslated/taken out of context?
Yeah

 

[modiz]

Should also mention how video games are very prone to cancellations/signifcant changes/reboots in development and announcing a game 5 years early only leads to more risks.

 

[Arex]

Because people don't understand that games in development are unfinished.

 

[dancingphlower]

Games change so much over time. Gamers get irrationally angry at "downgrades", so I can't say I blame developers not wanting to show stuff too early.

 

[Vincent Grayson]

I don't have numbers, but my gut tells me that the vast majority of money made by the game industry doesn't come from the small percentage of people invested to the degree that they're worrying about hype cycles and watching every preview/trailer/etc. They work in secrecy because they can. It's not like the film industry wouldn't prefer to be more secretive, but the necessity of filming movies in real life places means lots of stuff gets out.

 

[Deleted member 41520]

Yeah I don't think this is it.

And without any data, it's pointless speculating on it.

My hypothesis would be that high-budget games are also often bleeding-edge products in terms of design and software engineering. Thus it's more important protect exactly what you can achieve technically - and how - than in other industries like cinema. Just like how rival car manufacturers would keep the tech beneath the hood secret as long as possible.

 

[JoJo'sDentCo]

It's because games are so hard to make it's impossible to make good marketing plans about them until very close to release.

 

[androvsky]

Because the consumers don't want to be spoiled in advance and wanted to immerse themselves in the hype.

Suppose we have this graph that shows your hype levels over time.

Ideally, we wanted something like this:

Where, we would sustain the hype levels around where we wanted them to be, in line with the reveal trailers. We will never reach the initial hype levels, though.

But, in order to pull this off, we tend to decrease the overall time of the announcement windows, compact them together, and concentrate on the reveal.

Because of the compaction of the time frame, there are those who wanted to be hyped about the new revealings. In response, the consumers would do whatever they can to avoid getting spoiled ahead of time. Leaks and human errors are the bane of these hypes, and they will cause this downwards trend:

And we don't want that. We don't want to feel the negativity of the reveals to ruin someone's day or hype levels.

Thus, it becomes a vicious cycle of, fearing of missing out, and avoiding spoilers whenever possible near the start of the announcement reveal time frame, and then waning off as time goes by.

Marketing and advertising depends on the hype levels. If the hype levels are there, and has reached to the ideal levels we wanted, it will have a positive impact on how we proceed with selling the consumer on the product. The more positive impact, the greater to an extent our marketing can reach and engage.

With this in mind, the gaming industry relies on the hype levels hitting a sufficient level to sustain economic trades between the goods (the games) and the need to consume (playing).

Am I wrong on this?

Click to shrink...

How does this explain the difference between the gaming industry and any other industry? It just explains managing hype levels in general, yet movie studios are happy to announce titles when they're literally nothing more than titles and casting hasn't even begun.

It's because games are so hard to make it's impossible to make good marketing plans about them until very close to release.

Click to shrink...

That sounds reasonable.

 

[Glio]

Do you remember that video that was leaked from the alpha of Pokemon Sword?

Gamers are unable to understand how video games are made. And they don't want to understand it because they think they already know. No marketing department wants to deal with it.

 

[Mimosa]

Game development is a long and complicated process during which time many, many changes and iterations and experimentation happens. It only leads to disaster if gamers are aware of every half-step forward and 5000 steps back that a project takes, especially as they rarely understand the reasons behind these decisions.

So it just makes sense that things are under wraps until the vision is clear and the overall structure of the project is more or less finalized.

 

[trashbandit]

I think this is a pretty big oversimplification. Secrecy can't be solely attributable to hype around certain games when secrecy also extends to cover the process of making any game. It does not explain why, for example, game companies are cagey around talking about how their iterative process works, or what goes into canceling or giving a game another chance.

 

[Deleted member 10737]

there's so many projects that get cancelled or rebooted mid-development. i don't think the general enthusiast gaming audience would handle it well if they were aware of every single project from the day it was greenlit. to me it seems like a better idea to make them aware of games when they're in a solid, presentable state.

imagine knowing about the new zelda from the day it was in pre-production. we've known about botw 2 for 2 years now and already it's pretty annoying how it dominates so much of the discussion around nintendo and switch, imagine if it was for a few more years.

 

[EntelechyFuff]

No, I want to be spoiled at every available opportunity so please don't speak on my behalf.

Click to shrink...

 

[Falk]

Am I wrong on this?

Click to shrink...

virtually a majority of the time anyone talks about some facet of how a game is made 50 gamers show up to mansplain how it's actually done and no one wants to have to constantly deal with that shit unless completely obligated to like kickstarter/patreon updates for backers

 

[My Blue Heaven]

it's because game marketing has trained your brain to think you can't and shouldn't be spoiled and that trailers are christmas presents

 

[FliX]

I need a pie chart.

Click to shrink...

 

[Jaded Alyx]

this isn't different than other industries though.

Click to shrink...

Why do we know when a new movie or tv show is greenlit, sometimes years before production starts..and then we know who's directing, producing, acting..then we know when production starts, where it's being shot, etc etc etc. long before the first trailer.

 

[Kid Night]

No. It has very little to do with hype cycles.

Games are software. They take a long time to make. Many things get cut or changed before release, entire games can get canceled multiple years into development. The audience reacts negatively when announced things are cut, and it's wasted money to market cut features and canceled titles.

If you have a key feature, another developer could put together their own version of it and release sooner, better, or otherwise reduce what would have been a unique selling point of a game.

These are just a couple reasons. The software and electronics industry, which video games are a part of, has a culture of secrecy. Corporate espionage is a thing, and innovation can be the difference between a million dollar product and a billion dollars.

 

[Skel1ingt0n]

It makes 100% sense to me why games are made in secrecy. There are a billion changes that happen over the course of development, and it's not in anyone's interest to know "how the sausage is made." We sometimes get glimpses of this - even in an official capacity - with things like the RE: Village or God of War "making of" videos that follow the release of huge titles. All a developer/publisher would be doing is setting up their customers for disappointment when plans change or cool ideas get scrapped. Or instill undo worry when the game hasn't fully come together, yet.

THAT SAID, IMO, my issue is and has never been with the games industry. The issue is in how "insiders" like to report, and even journalists seem to love the attention this brings. In almost any other major industry - automotive, sports, camera gear, actual political and world news, etc. etc. - there's a constant rush to get as factual information out as possible. Video game rumors are trickle fed and hidden in Twitter riddles and literal emoji winky faces. If you know something, JUST SHARE IT. The argument will always be "things change" and "can't hurt my sources," and all this... but in pretty much every other interest I have (outside of Mac computers, holy hell is Apple stuff worse), reporters have the gumption to share info as soon as they have it, regardless if it aligns with the manufacturer's/producer's/publishers marketing plans.

 

[hey it's that dog]

Gamers are stupid and annoying and should not be given information under any circumstances.

 

[Composer]

I know you put some thought into this but it is incorrect. Hilariously incorrect.

The reality is thay the consumer base has not responded positively to game developers and companies being open about their game development process (mainly AAA game companies). There is a history of backlash and negative sentiment that occurs if even one minor detail is a) missing in the final game b) misconstrued to be more important/fun/etc.. during game development or c) changed in the final product.

It's the game development company basically taking a risk averse approach. There is almost no good that comes from being open about the game development process (unless it's at a talk at GDC, etc...). The fans just aren't matured and respectful. Gaming has come a long way but as an art form that can be critiqued, it's unique. It's passionate fans can really make things challenging.

I have first had experience of this. For example, when I worked at a fairly known entity, we were overhauling a feature that 100% was better than the prior. However we could for months not day a single word about it. And the tech was really cool! Eventually we got to do a blog post but it took weeks of editing and marketing/legal approval. And once we did the blog? It was mostly a sea of cynical and negative reactions. Once the feature was out there? Everyone loved it.

 

[IlGialloMondadori]

I know you put some thought into this but it is incorrect. Hilariously incorrect.

The reality is thay the consumer base has not responded positively to game developers and companies being open about their game development process (mainly AAA game companies). There is a history of backlash and negative sentiment that occurs if even one minor detail is a) missing in the final game b) misconstrued to be more important/fun/etc.. during game development or c) changed in the final product.

It's the game development company basically taking a risk averse approach. There is almost no good that comes from being open about the game development process (unless it's at a talk at GDC, etc...). The fans just aren't matured and respectful. Gaming has come a long way but as an art form that can be critiqued, it's unique. It's passionate fans can really make things challenging.

I have first had experience of this. For example, when I worked at a fairly known entity, we were overhauling a feature that 100% was better than the prior. However we could for months not day a single word about it. And the tech was really cool! Eventually we got to do a blog post but it took weeks of editing and marketing/legal approval. And once we did the blog? It was mostly a sea of cynical and negative reactions. Once the feature was out there? Everyone loved it.

Click to shrink...

I have a friend at a very well known indie company/working on a very well known indie game, and they were open about features and things and interacting with the community about changes/feedback, and it got insanely toxic, where people were telling the devs they were idiots etc.

 

[Zen]

What even are those graphs

 

[Nikus]

Click to shrink...

Thank you. I knew we were missing some data, I just couldn't figure out what it was. It all makes sense now

 

[Chakoo]

Game development is a long and complicated process during which time many, many changes and iterations and experimentation happens. It only leads to disaster if gamers are aware of every half-step forward and 5000 steps back that a project takes, especially as they rarely understand the reasons behind these decisions.

So it just makes sense that things are under wraps until the vision is clear and the overall structure of the project is more or less finalized.

Click to shrink...

Pretty much this, plus also marketing taking more control over the messaging of a game.

 

[Nightengale]

Show me your dataset.

 

[Broseph]

Why do we know when a new movie or tv show is greenlit, sometimes years before production starts..and then we know who's directing, producing, acting..then we know when production starts, where it's being shot, etc etc etc. long before the first trailer.

Click to shrink...

Exactly. Not even close to the same thing

 

[boxter432]

Why do we know when a new movie or tv show is greenlit, sometimes years before production starts..and then we know who's directing, producing, acting..then we know when production starts, where it's being shot, etc etc etc. long before the first trailer.

Click to shrink...

bc there are more than 2 industries in the world? also they are usually out in the world filming so are seen anyways.

we don't hear about phones, the next coke flavor, snack food, car models until closer to ready normally. there is massive NDAs and secrecy in almost every product

 

[Chumunga64]

it is funny how the moment a movie is finalized studios go "alright, we're making this shit" while games are more secretive

 

[Cupcake Knight]

we don't hear about phones, the next coke flavor, snack food, car models until closer to ready normally. there is massive NDAs and secrecy in almost every product

Click to shrink...

Phones leak very often very early.

 

[take_marsh]

Years of development that can be quashed for a hard reboot, like Destiny or Destiny 2 or whatever Bungie's next big project might be, is exactly why you don't always want to be open about development. I imagine the contract, publisher's demands, and the developer preference play a much larger part.

Gamer outrage ain't it.

 

[delete12345]

What even are those graphs

Click to shrink...

Desmos graphing calculator.

 

[Dyle]

Games are just hard to make, much harder than tv, music, or movies. That's all there is to it.

 

[345]

Why do we know when a new movie or tv show is greenlit, sometimes years before production starts..and then we know who's directing, producing, acting..then we know when production starts, where it's being shot, etc etc etc. long before the first trailer.

Click to shrink...

exactly this. marvel fans know the roadmap for the next four years of movies/TV shows and i don't think that diminishes hype for the first trailer in the slightest

 

[foxuzamaki]

Phones leak very often very early.

Click to shrink...

We aren't talking about leaks lol

 

[Composer]

I have a friend at a very well known indie company/working on a very well known indie game, and they were open about features and things and interacting with the community about changes/feedback, and it got insanely toxic, where people were telling the devs they were idiots etc.

Click to shrink...

Sorry to hear that, but I believe it 100%. The backlash isn't worth it.

 

[Falk]

i wanted to guess the game but it's probably true for majority of indie games with larger communities

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

Maybe we should move away from games being sold on industry show reveal hype, and more on in depth, frank discussions of content and gameplay systems?

No?

it's because game marketing has trained your brain to think you can't and shouldn't be spoiled and that trailers are christmas presents

Click to shrink...

.

There's no reason that the development team or the composer behind a project should be a secret after it has already entered production.

 

[Pyro]

Nah it's this:

Should also mention how video games are very prone to cancellations/significant changes/reboots in development and announcing a game 5 years early only leads to more risks.

Click to shrink...

Plus games can change a LOT over the course of development and with how little the audience of players know how games are made, they want to say secretive and cover-up games that are buggy and/or broken (even though it's par for the course really) until they're in a ready enough state to be shown.