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Stop announcing release dates so early.

Umbasaborne

Banned
Now with Marvel midnight suns being the latest in a long line of circus clowns to announce a release date they couldn’t hit, it feels like most major games scheduled for this year have been moved to 2023. Why are they announcing these release dates just to move them? I legitimately dont understand it. Why not wait until you are certain you can hit a date before announcing it, like nintendo seems to do these days (for the most part)? This industry is something else, and ive run out patience for these delays. Whats the harm in hold off on giving a date or a window until you are sure?
 

Mr Reasonable

Completely Unreasonable
Because Gamers respond to being drip fed information, and announcement is an opportunity to remind people to preorder. Would be my guess.

Announcing a date = preorders.
Reveal voice actor = preorders.
Reveal cover art = preorders.

Etc.

Also, gamers like it. Half the time, I think Gamers would be happy to have someone show everything before the game is released.
 
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Represent.

Represent(ative) of bad opinions
This is only an issue in the games industry because not a single company can meet a deadline without a delay.

Release dates upon announcement should be the norm - but its a shame they are never met
 

cormack12

Gold Member
This will be the norm now, covid will have had an impact no doubt but the delay tail shouldn't be this long.

I think this has normalised delays and to be honest I'd consider this batch of games to be the least polished at launch in a long time.
 

Fbh

Member
Some seem intentional, people still get mad when I mention it but I'm 100% sure the 2021 date for God of War was completely bullshit from the very beginning. Just a sales tactic to hype of up the first year of the Ps5 and move more units.
Others seem like the publisher is not sure if they'll release the game by the end of the year, but they still announce what amounts to a "best case scenario" date to keep the game in the conversation (all the "what are you getting this year threads on forums", all the "winter releases preview" episodes on podcasts, all the "my most anticipated games of the rest of the year" youtube videos, etc).

Anyway, props to Nintendo on Xenoblade 3.
- Big $60 title
- Announced in February with a September release date
- Then moved the release forward to July (meaning that by the time they announced it they were already 100% confident they'd be ready in September).
 

Umbasaborne

Banned
Some seem intentional, people still get mad when I mention it but I'm 100% sure the 2021 date for God of War was completely bullshit from the very beginning. Just a sales tactic to hype of up the first year of the Ps5 and move more units.
Others seem like the publisher is not sure if they'll release the game by the end of the year, but they still announce what amounts to a "best case scenario" date to keep the game in the conversation (all the "what are you getting this year threads on forums", all the "winter releases preview" episodes on podcasts, all the "my most anticipated games of the rest of the year" youtube videos, etc).

Anyway, props to Nintendo on Xenoblade 3.
- Big $60 title
- Announced in February with a September release date
- Then moved the release forward to July (meaning that by the time they announced it they were already 100% confident they'd be ready in September).
Yep, outside of zelda and prime 4, nintendo have been great with announce to release
 
Some seem intentional, people still get mad when I mention it but I'm 100% sure the 2021 date for God of War was completely bullshit from the very beginning. Just a sales tactic to hype of up the first year of the Ps5 and move more units.
Then there is the other side, they play it conservative and wait to announce the true release date for GoW and have to go through months of negative rumors by "insiders" and developer harassment because they won't give a date.
 
Then there is the other side, they play it conservative and wait to announce the true release date for GoW and have to go through months of negative rumors by "insiders" and developer harassment because they won't give a date.
God of War deserved to not be trusted on their 2022 release date considering the obvious lie of "2021" that they did purely to hype ps5. Also, so many games were getting delays around the time fans turned up the heat on Sony and Santa Monica. The "harassmemt" always comes from a very tiny minority of morons and immature fanboys. That's not at all indicative of the majority of gamers. I'm glad gamers kicked up a fuss over Ragnarok. Time and time again it's necessary to complain ad nauseum just to get a developer to listen. It's like the SW BF 2 scenario. Gamers in general have NO voice whatsoever. Our options are limited to get a dev to take action.

The industry is skewed so heavily in favor of major publishers versus gamers these days. They can pretty much act with impunity and still make record sales. That's why they're not worried about backlash from breaking a release date.
 

graywolf323

Gold Member
Midnight Suns only had it's actual release date announced 2 months ago at Summer Games Fest though, sure before that they had a release window but I feel like 4 months in advance isn't too early for giving an actual date
 
I wish Jason actually would do some journalism and shine a light on this issue instead of just increasing his ego with agenda-driven articles.
If there's no clickbait title like this, what's the point?

Screenshot-20220809-003133-01.jpg


This article summed up: "Days Gone sequel rejected by some at the studio. The last of us remake was in development with a small team that couldn't handle it and it went back to naughty dog"

I still remember the shock everywhere with that title. He knew what he was doing.

About the complaints in the OP. If no new games are announced it's boring, if it's announced too soon it's also bad...I don't know anymore
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Anyway, props to Nintendo on Xenoblade 3.
- Big $60 title
- Announced in February with a September release date
- Then moved the release forward to July (meaning that by the time they announced it they were already 100% confident they'd be ready in September).
Best part is Monolith Soft absolutely delivered with XC3, how big this game is and the amount of content it has and not getting delayed but actually moving date up.

You rarely see that in these days. Other devs need learn from Monolith Soft how announce their games.
 
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AmuroChan

Member
Now with Marvel midnight suns being the latest in a long line of circus clowns to announce a release date they couldn’t hit, it feels like most major games scheduled for this year have been moved to 2023. Why are they announcing these release dates just to move them? I legitimately dont understand it. Why not wait until you are certain you can hit a date before announcing it, like nintendo seems to do these days (for the most part)? This industry is something else, and ive run out patience for these delays. Whats the harm in hold off on giving a date or a window until you are sure?


For pre-orders and investors.

I know people think the games industry is unique, but they really aren't. You brought up Marvel Midnight Suns as an example. Guess what Marvel just did a couple weeks ago? They announced a dozen or so future movies in their MCU slate, with a couple of them dated all the way out to 2025.
 

Roni

Gold Member
Now with Marvel midnight suns being the latest in a long line of circus clowns to announce a release date they couldn’t hit, it feels like most major games scheduled for this year have been moved to 2023. Why are they announcing these release dates just to move them? I legitimately dont understand it. Why not wait until you are certain you can hit a date before announcing it, like nintendo seems to do these days (for the most part)? This industry is something else, and ive run out patience for these delays. Whats the harm in hold off on giving a date or a window until you are sure?
money, investors like to hear fairy tales. makes them less anxious when splitting with their money.
 

Draugoth

Gold Member
They do this to attract investors and new staff, not because the games are unfinished, most of the time, the development didn't even start.
 
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AmuroChan

Member
When was that announced? They just said back in 2019 the game would be released without an online mode and that would be released much later. They didn't announce a title, a name, a date, nothing.

Factions is kind of a weird example because the scope of the game actually changed. Originally it was just going to be the MP mode for TLOU 2. Most games out there aren't going to have this kind of scope change so late in development.
 
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Factions is kind of a weird example because the scope of the game actually changed. Originally it was just going to be the MP mode for TLOU 2. Most games out there aren't going to have this kind of scope change so late in development.
The fact we call it a name we don't even know if it's the real one, we got no pictures or videos... nothing. We just have a concept image released a few months ago. No date, nothing.

Knowing a game is in production is different than being announced too soon. They didn't announce it. They were managing expectations back then basically.
 

Pallas

Member
You aren’t wrong but considering what’s been happening the past few years, these are unusual circumstances. I don’t mind cutting developers some slack.

11 - 11 - 22
Any reason why you are only pointing that game out? They are far from being the only game delayed.
 
I wish Jason actually would do some journalism and shine a light on this issue instead of just increasing his ego with agenda-driven articles.

Jason is anti-crunch, so he's part of the problem

He turned ND from an ambitious studio to one that can't even make a ground up next gen remake
 
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Rickyiez

Member
Some seem intentional, people still get mad when I mention it but I'm 100% sure the 2021 date for God of War was completely bullshit from the very beginning. Just a sales tactic to hype of up the first year of the Ps5 and move more units.
Others seem like the publisher is not sure if they'll release the game by the end of the year, but they still announce what amounts to a "best case scenario" date to keep the game in the conversation (all the "what are you getting this year threads on forums", all the "winter releases preview" episodes on podcasts, all the "my most anticipated games of the rest of the year" youtube videos, etc).

Anyway, props to Nintendo on Xenoblade 3.
- Big $60 title
- Announced in February with a September release date
- Then moved the release forward to July (meaning that by the time they announced it they were already 100% confident they'd be ready in September).
Nintendo always announced release date that isn't far away , they should be given more credit for this .
 
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