Victim of Culture

Our game is coming soon…as in three to seven years

There is no such thing as bad publicity, right?  But in media that is not always true.  Too much publicity, especially at an early stage and then drug out over a long period, can be poison.  Duke Nukem Forever is the latest causality of such a problem, but it’s hardly alone.

It used to be that a film or game would start production and really only those on the inside knew about it.  Eventually maybe it would make its way into genre publications, but for the most part the public was unaware until shortly before launch.  A new film, for most of the public, made its debut with a trailer before an appropriately similar film.  Video games maybe got hyped with a preview in publications like Electronics Gaming Monthly or Gamepro.  Personally, I can still recall reading GameFan Magazine’s enthusiastic preview of Resident Evil and it was a revelation to me.  I knew next to nothing about the game before then, and it instantly jumped to the top of my must purchase list.

But that’s not how things work anymore.  Rumors begin to spread before a film even has a script.  They’re working on a Green Lantern film?  Great, web sites are abuzz years before the movie will ever film a frame.  With video games the lead times are often even longer.  A game like Final Fantasy XIII can be in production for half a decade before it releases, to say nothing of the pre-production chatter.  What’s a public relations professional to do?

Worry.  There’s the belief that since these are fans, letting them build hype for years is safe.  After all, you want them at a fever pitch when the game or film releases, right?  Except, again, over the years we’ve seen things such as Duke Nukem Forever, Chinese Democracy, and other high profile media releases have their die hard fans turn on them.  People like anticipation, but some media releases feel more like waiting on the Second Coming for some fans.

To counter this potential pitfall, media producers should be weary of hyping products at  the start of development, especially with games.  Their extra long production time means any slight delay could change hype to apathy among fans.  If you do choose to announce at the time of release, then control the feed on information to fans.  Nintendo brilliantly led up to the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii with a blog that slowly introduced the new characters, items, stages, etc. over time.  Instead of one big media dump of information, they let out a slow trickle.

With social media sites such as Facebook this becomes an even more beneficial manner in which to build the hype slowly.  Build a page and have fans join up to read the leak of info.  It’s easier for them than signing up for your own personal site, and it gives you a valuable conduit to communicate and learn about your audience.

In recent years Marvel did this exceptionally well with Iron Man.  Its footage premiere at ComicCon was a slow introduction of information on their schedule, but also along the same schedule fans were clamoring for info.  It’s a tough balance to strike, and again, most games would benefit from holding back the announcement of their development until they were in a place to begin such a campaign.  With E3 in just a matter of days, we’ll see how many have learned this lesson, or not.

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