Today’s Massive Poll has been suggested by philbert8. He is unaware that he suggested it, but his comment here gave me the idea.
Concept trailers, pre-rendered trailers and teaser trailers are popping up on TSA more frequently than ever before. As part of the TSA news team I’ve posted quite a few of these videos and I’m beginning to wonder if we should be posting them at all.
The Dead Island teaser trailer contained no game-play footage at all, but went viral thanks in part to hundreds of gaming websites posting it. Overnight, the title went from being almost unknown to a must have pre-order.
The trailer was a fantastic two minute movie and went on to win the Gold prize for Internet Film at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Since the teaser was released it has become clear that the game is more about smashing zombies with a chainsaw – heart wrenching scenes of children being bitten are few and far between. Alex previewed the game and said ‘What it’s not, for good and bad, is anything like that teaser trailer. ‘
I appreciate that publishers need to build hype for their games, it’s a tough market and bad sales can close down an entire development team, but do these teaser trailers serve any purpose other advertising the game? Obviously all trailers are adverts – to a degree – but most include game-play footage, which allows you to judge the title. We certainly see a decent amount of activity on most of the teaser trailers we post, suggesting a good level of interest in them. But is that just aimless curiosity or an actual desire for information on the game being shown?
So dear readers, my question today is, are you actually interested in these teasers? Are they big adverts that publishers are sneaking in to gaming websites under the guise of a trailer or do you like watching them to get the ‘feel’ of the new game?
xdarkmagician
“…do these teaser trailers serve any purpose other advertising the game?”
Yes, but just recently. Rockstar stock price will rise when they announce/show the GTAV teaser. Adverts today just don’t help the game, they also help the shareholders.
I personally love trailers and teasers, they get me excited for certain games, and they help me make a more informed choice. There was hardly any advertising in the 80’s and I also bought alot of bad games, coincidence? I think not because nowadays theres alot of trailers and I’ve only regretted 1 game I bought since ’07. IMO the more trailers and teasers the better, after all nobody is forcing anyone to watch them. Although I’ll add that the game should have an estimated release date before they start advertising, cause it should be considered cruel and unusual punishment to advertise a game like Duke Nukem Forever for 14 years. And I actually perfer teasers over gameplay trailers because a teaser can’t spoil anything, but a 8 min video on game mechanics spoils alot
Liam
A lot of the time I prefer the cinematic cgi / live action trailers more than the game. For instance; the Halo Reach: Hope Delivered (Extended) is one of my favorites ever, and really made want the game although it’s not exactly reminiscent or the real gameplay
Burgess_101
i tend not to watch many trailers but i do like teaser trailers as long as they are done well as everyone seems to be saying the dead island one was amazing and got me interested so i bought it . Deus EX was one as well i loved . As long as it keeps me entertained i like teaser trailers .
Lymmusic
Would motorstorm and killzone 2 have been better received had their trailers been so outlandish?
Killzone 2 managed to just about got close to the trailer, but imagine if it had been unnanounced until actual alpha footage was available… I personally think the marketing there actually harmed sales, and by the time the game came out the impact was almost entirely lost. Same with motorstorm, except the finished game looked awful by comparison.
Its more dangerous at the start of a new console generation as it is almost false advertising, remember the ghost recon pre rendered ads? People have less ability to extract from the bullshots what the game will actually look like… Four or five years on now and we can tell when something has been doctored favourably or running on high end pc. We all know that bf3 won’t look anything near as good as the pc trailers on consoles, but dice haven’t claimed the footage is from console so we wont be horrified when we finally load the disc into our ageing hardware, more likely we’ll be pleasantly surprised at how close it is to the pc version (from a normal persons view not from a digital foundry pixel counting view).
Live action trailers dont really do it for me… The reach adverts were poor, and actually put me off buying the game for a long time. Could be worse though, could be a mix of game and live action and cg, like the kinect star wars ads… Boy that trailer really makes me wanna kick lucas in the pills. Game footage that looks dreadful, like a jedi on heelies, annoying lifestyle family teens with two haircuts on one head, and cg footage that looks like the kind of cg you get on channel 5 kids tv shows, fake, plastic, dull.
Rant ends in 3… 2… 1
gideon1451
I think they show a vision for the game, rather than the final product. For that purpose, I tink they’re useful.
cc_star
Depends how far out the game is, I love a launch teaser or two to announce the game, as was the case for Dead Island etc, but I didn’t like the Bf3 teaser that people went gaga over the other day.
I think we’re far enough into the Bf3 launch schedule to see unadulterated gameplay now, rather than 2 secs of gameplay followed by a visual effect followed by changing camera & 2 more secs of gameplay… just show us sections of the game already!!! like a while ago.
Phil_E
I do like them, they are great cinematic trailers for a game. But they rarely convey the gameplay or even the type of game.
Bladesteel
I like them, but there should also be gameplay trailers.
OllyBobs
I like them, helps to build up hype for the game. And it’s a good way for the video editors (if that’s what they’re called?) to show of their skills to the consumers.
PoorPaddy89
I love them, and often prefer them to gameplay trailers. I cannot stop watching the E3 Assassin’s Creed Revelations trailer – it’s so good!