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Why announce a release date…

Umbasaborne

Banned
If you’re not 100 percent confident you can hit it? I think the game industry is the only industry out there that does this shit almost 99 percent of the time. What was the point of rocketeady announcing a may date that they couldnt hit, what was the point of bethesda announcing a november 22 release date for starfield just to delay almost an entire year? I just don't for the life of me fucking get it, why are companies announcing hard release dates in this industry before they are sure they can actually hit them. Im sure no fucking developer is happy to release their shitty tweet thanking the community for their patience because hey, turns out they lied about that original release date. Games are hard to make, thats fine, i get it. Then Why the fuck are these unrealistic release dates getting announced in the first place?
 
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phil_t98

#SonyToo
If you’re not 100 percent confident you can hit it? I think the game industry is the only industry out their that does this shit almost 99 percent of the time. What was the point of rocketeady announcing a may date that they couldnt hit, what was the point of bethesda announcing a november 22 release date for starfield just to delay almost an entire year? I just don't for the life of me fucking get it, why are companies announcing hard release dates in this industry before they are sure they can actually hit them. Im sure no fucking developer is happy to release their shitty tweet thanking the community for their patience because hey, turns out they lied about that original release date. Games are hard to make, thats fine, i get it. Then Why the fuck are these unrealistic release dates getting announced in the first place?

films get pushed back, software gets pushed back even release dates for hair products get pushed back. it happens in every industry not just games
 
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phil_t98

#SonyToo
Im aware its not easy, as i said in my original post, so why are release dates getting hard announced that developers cant hit? Why not just give a vague window until like a month or 2 before it actually comes out?


people want to get excited about a product and to build up hype
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Im aware its not easy, as i said in my original post, so why are release dates getting hard announced that developers cant hit? Why not just give a vague window until like a month or 2 before it actually comes out?

A longer window is probably there to map out preview cycles well in advance, and the most cliche albeit likely true answer: appease the shareholders and publishers to get continued funding for development.

Publishers look at milestones and decide continued funding based on that. Announcing a release window is a major milestone.
 
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Investment and logistics.

Investment: shareholders need to know when your company expects returns on various investments so they can gauge performance of the company.
Logistics: Marketing, retail distribution.
 

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
why not just announce a game 1 or 2 months before you're absolutely 100% sure it will come out? the only reason you're complaining is because they announce this shit far too soon.

We should have games more like Hi-Fi Rush where they announce it a week or less before it comes out. Keep development under wraps so if it ever gets cancelled or delayed no one will know and no one will care
 
Im aware its not easy, as i said in my original post, so why are release dates getting hard announced that developers cant hit? Why not just give a vague window until like a month or 2 before it actually comes out?

Developers need to scope the project and have deadlines.

It's meaningless unless announced to the public.

Also, watch Psychodeyssey.
 

Knightime_X

Member
Publisher: So.. how much longer until the game is ready?

Developer: Um, our project is about 87% complete but still needs polishing and QA testing. Maybe 1 year tops?

Publisher: Cool so we're going to say it'll be ready in 4 months. You can patch it up later.
 
The game is "ready" to release by shareholders' standards, but I have a gut feeling that the backlash was enough to make a convincing statement about the delay. I can already see they held a meeting and use Avengers/Gotham Knights/Anthem as examples for games that got a BAD reception and flopped hard + the live service fatigue gamers have been showing lately.

It wouldn't be crazy to think they will try to revamp a lot of game systems to prevent a huge flop. Another example in favor of the delay could be the Sonic movie like the Sonic movie where Paramount delayed it, redesigned the whole of Sonic, and the reception was astoundingly positive, reflecting on the box office being above what Paramount expected, which lead them to do a second movie.

At the end of the day, all these decisions are made with MONEY and PROFIT in mind. I think it was the smart call.
 

Duchess

Member
It's not just the shareholders - publishers have to book promotions, advertising, etc. This all needs to be setup months and month in advance, and delays can cause all sorts of problems.

Microsoft suffered that issue - they had a promotion with Monster (spit) for Halo Infinite, before the game was delayed a year. The promotional cans were still sold, all with the original (wrong) information on them.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Making Hollywood movies is hard yet we don’t see big budget movies get delayed left and right or worse delayed more than once or twice. The game industry problem is a management one.

Movies do get delayed / pushed around every now and then, just as much as games if not more.

It's not like every single announced game gets delayed either.
 

phil_t98

#SonyToo
They said one thing, and that didnt happen, its lying to me.

that's not lying its missing the date they hoped to hit. lying is intentionally misleading you thinking the date is when its coming out and them know it won't come out on that date.

look at different industries and missing launch dates happens all the time, various reasons for this can happen. work force get ill, data corruption anything you could possibly think of.
 

Three

Member
Making Hollywood movies is hard yet we don’t see big budget movies get delayed left and right or worse delayed more than once or twice. The game industry problem is a management one.
Honestly from a project management perspective big budget movies are easier.
 

ToadMan

Member
Why not apply your own timescales?

I basically ignore news and marketing about games that are more than a month or two out. Or to put it another way - I only take interest when I can see final form gameplay and get a feeling of how bad or good it is.

There’s plenty to enjoy right now - just let them come when they come.
 

22•22

NO PAIN TRANCE CONTINUE
Psychology 101

By way of interacting with (non) potential buyers by setting a release date I'll become less abstract and thus more "real" in their psyche. It's just marketing.
 

Umbasaborne

Banned
Making Hollywood movies is hard yet we don’t see big budget movies get delayed left and right or worse delayed more than once or twice. The game industry problem is a management one.
Disney may shift around their schedule every now and then, but usually not after a movie is advertised to the public for months with a hard date
 

phil_t98

#SonyToo
Disney may shift around their schedule every now and then, but usually not after a movie is advertised to the public for months with a hard date

your forgetting that Disney announced a rogue squadron movie that was meant to be out this year and cancelled it.


 

phil_t98

#SonyToo
That doesnt happen nearly as often as it does in the games industry. And its not like that movie got made and had trailers falsely advertising a hard release date


How many trailers release for movies that don’t have scenes in the movie itself?
It’s a common thing

Games are more complicated these days so more to go wrong in productuon
 
Release dates are announced up front to drum up interest and anticipation as part of the game's marketing cycle.

Try releasing a game without telling anyone it's coming out and the game will be DoA regardless of how good it is.

I think your question should have been, why announce release dates so early? That's a better question, and the obvious answer is because at that time the studio had some confidence in its ability to meet that release date; where later down the line things changed and roadblocks hit meant a delay was necessary.

Sometimes early release dates are purely a result of over-eager publishers who want to enforce a release date in order to start counting game sales revenue within a certain fiscal reporting period. You're never going to be able to eliminate this. So it becomes more of a question of whether the game project management and producers are able to align the scope and development timeline with the dev studio resources within the allotted timeframe given by the publisher schedule. Some producers/studio managers can, and some can't.

It's also heavily influenced by how efficient the studio is and how well it can predict its own production timelines. Veteran studios with slick toolchains and overall working process workflows can do this very very well, e.g. Naughty Dog, Insomniac Games etc... While some other studios are complete shit at this.
 

Husky

THE Prey 2 fanatic
I've heard it's easier to get a project done on time when you've set up some accountability by publicly setting a deadline.

Lots of games probably need to be marketed early on, and that's much easier if people have a specific release date to look forward to.

They also do it to troll you, specifically.
 

Black_Stride

do not tempt fate do not contrain Wonder Woman's thighs do not do not
Im aware its not easy, as i said in my original post, so why are release dates getting hard announced that developers cant hit? Why not just give a vague window until like a month or 2 before it actually comes out?

People kinda need to know when they can start atleast counting when they are gonna get their money back.

What industries do you know that dont have release dates for investors/shareholders?
 

phil_t98

#SonyToo
Another way to look at it , like films they get announced super early to book that date for their film/game. You don’t wanna announce a game the same day as summit like god of war and your game will be harmed in terms of sales
 

Laptop1991

Member
No idea now, they rarely stick to them in the AAA market, and i don't pre order anymore, so that won't work with me, i don't take any notice and just assume it will get delayed anyway lol.
 

deriks

4-Time GIF/Meme God
Im aware its not easy, as i said in my original post, so why are release dates getting hard announced that developers cant hit? Why not just give a vague window until like a month or 2 before it actually comes out?
Because consumers need to know when they're receiving their shit
 
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