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
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
Holy F, it really did. How did I forgot about that?
(I know of course, lack of advertising and online buzz around it)