I've been talking a lot about animations and videos done to promote videogames recently, and today Kotaku covered a new "teaser" out for an unknown, upcoming FPS.
The name of the game and gameplay will premiere during the VGAs on December 12 at 8pmET/PT on Spike. A Halo: Reach trailer is also scheduled for the broadcast.
Teasers are an excellent way to build viral buzz, if done well. Cloverfieldis a great example of this for the movie industry. Mystery can become allure very quickly, and 2K Games (the folks behind BioShock, Civ IV, The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, and many other blockbuster titles) is hardly a small-time player.
And when you've got that kind of industry clout, why not exercise it in a less conventional way?
Assassin's Creed II, which launched this week along with L4D2 put out an interesting bit of content to promote their new game. Most fans are used to seeing cinematic trailers which span 3 to 5 minutes and try to capture you interest much like a movie trailer would. However, Ubisoft took the traditional cinematic a step further when they released a 30 minute short film to tell the story of what happened between the final scene of Assassin's Creed -- a total cliffhanger that frustrated many players (I, on the other hand, kind of liked it) -- and where Assassin's Creed II picks up.
The idea that more companies might take this route in the future should make any gamer happy: more content is almost always better than less, especially when it comes from big name players. As for advertising, it's hard to say if anyone not already inclined to play the game would sit through a 30 minute movie for it. On the other hand, it's a brilliant way to remind those people who enjoyed the first game to get out there and purchase the sequel!
I've mentioned Left4Dead and Left4Dead2 in a few blog posts, and the leak of this trailer is another opportunity to look at some nifty advertising, specifically the pre-launch type.
Like in the film industry, many videogames -- especially those created by successful publishing companies -- release cinematic "trailers" before the actual launch of the title. Trailers for videogames, like those for movies, obviously have the job of trying to sell you on purchasing a product (whether that is a game disc, a movie ticket, or a DVD).
What's trickier about videogame trailers, however, is that generally the content cannot just be ripped from already-shot scenes of the film. This is especially so in the case of "cinematic" trailers, which people believe represent the highest animation quality of which the graphics engine running the game is capable). That, and not only do you have to tell a story -- you have to show off what the gameplay will be like, which is easier said than done. Representing the way it feels to actually play the game through a passive medium, like watching a Youtube movie, is definitely more art than science.
As a devoted fan of the first game, I can only hope that the quality of this trailer indicates the "feel" of the upcoming game. Even if I had no experience, no familiarity at all, with the original game, this trailer would certainly be enough to make me go find out more about the upcoming release.
