One of the worst things about the AAA marketing cycle these days is that we almost know too much about a video game before we even buy it. Big publishers and developers share so much about the game in order to generate hype that there is almost nothing left for the player to discover, no surprises- it’s all been laid bare already. This is why games with shorter and relatively more constrained marketing cycles, such as Fallout, Grand Theft Auto, or Persona, generate so much more hype- the fanbase is left to speculate, and is eager to dissect the game and share information on the game once it is out.
Thankfully, Guerrilla Games seems to realize this, and it appears they will be employing this same marketing tactic for Horizon: Zero Dawn. Today, they confirmed that they don’t plan on sharing too much about the game.
“You will know everything about the Old Ones and you will also find out where the machines are and why. You will also learn about the relationship between Aloy and the machine. But I’m not going to say anything about it in advance. Players should experience it all themselves and find out,”Senior Producer of the game, Mark Norris, said.
He actually cited Fallout as an example for this, though in this case, he picked an instance where Bethesda actually got it wrong.“There isn’t a greater Fallout fan than me, I always talk a lot about Vault-111 and I even have a Vault 111-Hoodie. And they have showed in the trailer when the bomb struck. And I said, no, why did you do that? You ruined the whole mystery for me that Fallout always had,” he said.
Personally, I like his ideas of generating hype, and I am glad he will be doing things this way. Horizon will launch exclusively for PS4 some time in 2016.
Thanks, Gamespresso.
