I’m not so sure - I’m in the world of indie game dev and silently publishing a game without any advertising is usually a death sentence for a game. Especially in a busy market where finding anything decent is a chore.
Granted, the more effective advertising is usually getting streamers or reviewers to check a game out. Traditional ads, in my experience, have not been valuable.
It can kill even a AAA game; Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2 came out, a sequel to VTM after 12-18 years.
No one had a clue and no one bought it for that reason
The ideal time to release a trailer or promo materials is around 1-2 weeks (4 weeks tops) before the game’s formal release, it gives people time to adjust schedules and/or get word of mouth out or even allocate funds (if they need to)
Half Life 3 could open drop on Steam with zero advertising and people wouldn’t have a clue unless the Steam front page informed them about it
A certain percentage of gamers shamble forwards in a haze of marijuana smoke, whose long term memory or executive function may not be the best
You are right, but Bloodlines 2 is a bad example. I only heard bad things about that game prerelease, more advertisement would not have convinced me to buy it. And the fans were rather taken aback by the changes to gameplay, namely focus on action and removal of RPG elements.
I’m not so sure - I’m in the world of indie game dev and silently publishing a game without any advertising is usually a death sentence for a game. Especially in a busy market where finding anything decent is a chore.
Granted, the more effective advertising is usually getting streamers or reviewers to check a game out. Traditional ads, in my experience, have not been valuable.
TLDR: I agree with you
It can kill even a AAA game; Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2 came out, a sequel to VTM after 12-18 years.
No one had a clue and no one bought it for that reason
The ideal time to release a trailer or promo materials is around 1-2 weeks (4 weeks tops) before the game’s formal release, it gives people time to adjust schedules and/or get word of mouth out or even allocate funds (if they need to)
Half Life 3 could open drop on Steam with zero advertising and people wouldn’t have a clue unless the Steam front page informed them about it
A certain percentage of gamers shamble forwards in a haze of marijuana smoke, whose long term memory or executive function may not be the best
See: Arc Raiders
You are right, but Bloodlines 2 is a bad example. I only heard bad things about that game prerelease, more advertisement would not have convinced me to buy it. And the fans were rather taken aback by the changes to gameplay, namely focus on action and removal of RPG elements.
Holy F, it really did. How did I forgot about that?
(I know of course, lack of advertising and online buzz around it)