Eighteen months ago, whilst combating poor previews of his imminent release Too Human, Denis Dyack expressed his opinion that videogames should not be previewed in any way, shape, or form until they near completion. I can appreciate the sentiment, to a degree, especially in Too Human’s case. That game used to look like this:
And now it looks like this:
That’s what happens when you show a game ten years before it actually comes out. Dyack, hypocrite or not, isn’t wrong. Showing a game too soon can give a very poor impression of what it will ultimately be, particularly with original concepts and new characters, but you need to get the game in the public eye early. Videogames, outside of marquee titles, are rarely advertised anywhere, let alone on television where they would get the greatest exposure. So you have to preview that sucker for a long time before it releases, seed the enthusiast press, and let people pay attention. Otherwise games die on the vine, even established franchises.
Unless, of course, you’re Nintendo. Nintendo’s policy in the past five or six years is to not show the majority of their games until they are a few months away from release. Mario Kart Wii exemplifies this strategy and its successes. While it was announced at E3 2007, no one got hands-on time with Mario Kart until February ’08, just two months before the game’s release and subsequent sales success. Not showing off the game until it was all but done worked quite well, just as it did for Super Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros Brawl. The problem is that these games are part of the best selling franchises of all time; when your central mascot is more recognizable than Mickey Mouse, you don’t need to make sure people know that mascot’s games exist. Lesser known titles don’t fare quite as well. Even much loved and recognizable franchises like Metroid fall prey to poor public familiarity leading up to their release. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption was announced early – it was the first devoted Wii game ever seen actually, with teaser footage revealed at E3 2005 – but the preview cycle didn’t start until July 2007, a mere month before it hit shelves. It did well on release, selling just over 385,000 units in its first two months, but it’s sold poorly since, far from the millions of copies Mario Kart and Smash Bros moved in just a few weeks.
The bottom line is that Nintendo needs to start making sure more people know about their titles and not just those with Mario or the Touch Generations name on them. If they don’t, games like the upcoming Wario Land: Shake will continue to flag at retail, and ensure that Nintendo stops making quality, traditional titles altogether. Being secretive to the extent that you won’t even allow your marquee creator to talk about his hobbies in interviews is just bad business.
Related links:
The Art of Metroid Prime, Echoes, and Corruption
So I Hear Folks Are Upset With Nintendo
Wii MotionPlus a Surprise to Dev’s
Where is Wii’s Disaster: Day of Crisis?
Metroid Prime Trilogy Retrospective