Game trailers – friend or foe?

It seems like you can’t call yourself a AAA title these days (you know what? I’m not even sure what that means, although I think we can safely rule out ‘three times as good as an ‘A’ title) unless you’ve got a massive-budget, zero-gameplay trailer to go along with it.

Like this one.

There was a lot of controversy after Dead Island’s stunning, voyeuristic look at a family’s last moments in the zombie apocalypse sent expectations of the final game skyrocketing in the wrong direction. The problem was it all focused on the failings of the game itself, with side notes questioning how such an epic mismatch in marketing tone could even have occurred. What was missing was the debate about whether or not the trailer itself, as a marketing tool, was a good (or even necessary) thing.

It was by no means the first, but its been followed by a number of high profile visual successes (notably Skyrim, SWTOR, Far Cry 3, and Mass Effect 3) – none of which gave any useful information about the games they represented. Gorgeous as they are, do they actually result in anything beyond a few minutes of excitement, some inflated expectations, and a correspondingly increased risk of disappointment and disillusionment with the finished product?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m very much enjoying watching them – as stand alone entertainment pieces they’re awesome – and if you’ve not seen any of the ones linked above, I’d advise you to check them out post-haste. Its just that a part of me is starting to wonder if I should be suspicious when people spend this much time and effort trying to sell me something, (and another, deeply buried part of me remembers how much another glossy trailer once resulted in sky-high expectations and subsequent heartbreak) so I’m forced to ask the question, do we need them?

Did you buy any of the above games simply because the trailer convinced you it would be awesome? I didn’t. Those I’ve bought, I would have bought without a trailer of any kind, on the merits of the game (or series, or developer) alone, whereas for those I didn’t want, no amount of well choreographed CG fighting could have tipped my hand.

More importantly, have we come to expect this kind of fan service (assuming, most generously, that that is what this is) as an integral part of the experience in the lead up to a massive blockbuster, or is it simply a necessary investment as part of creating a profitable product in an overcrowded marketplace?

Relatedly, how many of these games lived up to the expectations their clever marketeers created? I’ve got some thoughts on those I’ve played coming in a future post, but in the meantime, lets get a nice healthy flamewar happening in the comments.