They need to announce things somewhat early, because while some of the talk surrounding games that are far away might not filter through to the mainstream market, it matters quite a lot in gaming circles that there's something to talk about and look forward to. Try going back to the games shown in 2020's tradeshows, many of which are not gonna release until 2022 or possibly even later. Imagine what Microsoft's mindshare would look like right now, if every (presumably) 2022 and later title wasn't known.
The only announced games would be what's coming this year or even only 2020. If we set the inclusion line at games releasing in 2021, the 2020 tradeshows would tell us about stuff like Halo, Psychonauts 2, but nothing about games like Avowed, Fable, Starfield, State of Decay 3, Hellblade 2 etc.*
What would Microsoft's mindshare look like, if we didn't know about those games? If every discussion on social media didn't know about them, if every gaming podcast dicussing upcoming games only had the option to mention games like Halo and Psychonauts 2?
It would be pure poison to their mindshare in gaming circles.
Perhaps sometime when they're fully up and running, they can rein the announcement-to-release-time in a litte, due to them having the worlds largest first party, but even then having a list of announced games coming to your platform is valuable.
*For the sake of argument let's just assume the games release those dates.
The only announced games would be what's coming this year or even only 2020. If we set the inclusion line at games releasing in 2021, the 2020 tradeshows would tell us about stuff like Halo, Psychonauts 2, but nothing about games like Avowed, Fable, Starfield, State of Decay 3, Hellblade 2 etc.*
What would Microsoft's mindshare look like, if we didn't know about those games? If every discussion on social media didn't know about them, if every gaming podcast dicussing upcoming games only had the option to mention games like Halo and Psychonauts 2?
It would be pure poison to their mindshare in gaming circles.
Perhaps sometime when they're fully up and running, they can rein the announcement-to-release-time in a litte, due to them having the worlds largest first party, but even then having a list of announced games coming to your platform is valuable.
*For the sake of argument let's just assume the games release those dates.
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