As the modern gamer knows all too well, video games can be fickle. You can wait years for a game, only for it to be delayed again – sometimes, the end product isn't even worth it. Video games can sometimes follow unique marketing and rollout strategies not shared by their film, TV, or literary counterparts: games can be revealed years, sometimes up to a decade, before their official launch. The general strategy seems to reveal a game and continue within a year, but there are delays, and some games have a very long cycle.
Why do video game companies do this? Why, for example, Bethesda will announce The Elder Scrolls 6 Back in 2018, almost nothing to say about the game in just seven years? The obvious answer is hype-building, keeping players hooked, even when the game is far from complete. That answer is predicated on the assumption that these announcements are for gamers, but since most voices in gaming disapprove of this practice of premature disclosure, you may be curious why it still happens. The truth is: it happens because these announcements aren't for you.
The real reason the games are announced so early
Notable AAA games that haven't been released yet, despite being announced years ago
- Grand Theft Auto 6
- The Elder Scrolls 6
- Project Orion (Cyberpunk 2077 sequel)
- Star Wars Eclipse
- Mass Effect 4
Publishers rely on investors to keep the lights on
Gamers may be the ones forking over their hard-earned cash for the latest and greatest releases, but such releases usually don't pay off if not for shareholders. Video games don't make money until they're released, but they take years to get started, during which time the developer is essentially bleeding money. In the case of large developers such as Rockstar Games and Bethesda Game Studios, game development is funded by their respective parent companies, which in turn are funded by individual investors, hedge funds, and private equity firms.
let's see GTA 6 As an example: Rockstar's publisher, Take-Two Interactive, is a public company whose largest shareholders are The Vanguard Group and BlackRock – two of the biggest investment companies on the planet. These companies aren't investing millions of dollars in take-twos from charities; They are looking for a return on investment. In a publicly traded company, this return comes from stock growth, with game hype having the most material impact. like a game GTA 6 Word-of-mouth marketing doesn't require hype, hype is needed to attract investors and keep them in line.
Notably, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick went on record as saying: GTA 6 There won't be another delay, just months before its most recent delay, and it's clear why: Take-Two's stock price dropped dramatically after the delay was announced.
Take-Two's stock has once skyrocketed GTA 6 The projection, likely to rise even after a year, translates into huge profits for shareholders like BlackRock. But the same philosophy applies to private company games as well. Cyberpunk 2077 A great example of this is: revealed in 2013 and released in late 2020, Cyberpunk Often cited as one of the most infamous examples of a company revealing its game too early. Presumably, at least part of the motivation for this initial disclosure was to pique investor interest, raising funds so that CDPR's vision could become a reality. It may seem backwards, but in general, before a developer can make their game great they have to actually start working on it.
Of course, there are other factors that influence the development timeline as well. In cases like management issues, world events, economic downturns, and the like STALKER Developer GSC Game World, a real-world battle, may result in a game where everyone can take longer than expected to reach the finish line. It's a versatile industry, but as is often the case, money is the biggest motivator. Building trust with shareholders plays an important role in getting a game off the ground, and as developing a game takes longer than ever before, it seems likely that more early disclosures will become more common.
