Caveat Emptor (Let the Buyer Beware)
Let the buyer beware. One of the most important concepts in a free market economy, and yet, consistently Gen Z and Millennials haven’t seemed to have learned this lesson anywhere as it keeps happening time and again, especially in the video game industry. Cyberpunk 2077 was the latest “scandal” in which a game didn’t deliver on its very high promises. And yet, still so many were taken in by the company and the game. How?
Cinematic Trailers Masquerading as “Gameplay Trailers”First, we have to look at the idea of trailers, those small pieces of advertisements that purportedly give gamers an idea of what the game is going to be about. Cinematic Trailers are much like their movie counterparts: they show you characters, settings, and sometimes narrative situations to give you an impression of what the game is going for. These are loved by companies as they can suggest the game without having to show “actual” graphics, mechanics, and assets of a game still in development and whose look may change before the final release. Gamers hate them for exactly the same reason–there’s no way to know exactly what type of game they’re going to be getting, how it looks, performs, etc. Gameplay Trailers, on the other hand, show elements of gameplay, the graphical fidelity of the game, mechanics, and sometimes gives an idea of the story. Length, advanced mechanics like skills, any RPG-like mechanics are either minimized or not covered at all. The goal is to give you an impression of the minute-by-minute gameplay loop for the game. Gamers love this as it acts as “shorthand” for them so they can quickly sort the game by genre, play style, graphical fidelity, and a host of other categories and factors that may influence their potential buying decision. Again, companies hate this because it means potentially alienating customers before the game is finished. Companies have learned how to “cheat” the system: trailers that look like “Gameplay Trailers” showing HUDs, mechanics, graphics, etc., but are actually cinematic trailers in that the game that they are showing hasn’t actually been built yet and represents the target for the game. Anthem and Cyberpunk 2077 have been reported (by the investigative journalist Jason Schreier) to have developed in this way.
Microsoft vs Sony (Round 6,523)It is important to note that both Anthem and Cyberpunk 2077 both had co-marketing agreements with Microsoft and this is something that should not be ignored as each of these games didn’t live up to their trailers shown on Microsoft’s stage. However, as per usual, Microsoft never gets any blowback from these trailers that were later reportedly discovered to have been “targets” rather than representative trailers. Yet, let’s turn back the clock to 2005 when Sony was promoting their Playstation 3 and talked up the “infamous Killzone 2 trailer.” Sony, as per usual, caught “heck” from the gaming community and was derided (and still is in certain circumstances) for its overly ambitious trailer for what the game, and what the PS3, could be capable of doing in the game environments.
Sony was so stung by this that they changed their approach to their E3 stage shows. The actually cut away from the game (much to the ire of players and those watching streams) to show that real people were actually playing the game. Games like God of War clearly show someone playing the game and Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End actually had a live “mishap” because Sony was keen to show that the game being shown was the game you would play.
God of War E3 Demo (Stage)
Uncharted 4 E3 Demo (Freeze) & Uncharted 4 E3 Demo (Full)
Microsoft has no such compunctions–they seem to only want to be #1 and seem to be willing to do anything to get there, including showing games without verifying whether or not those games actually represent what they are showing–and the gaming industry doesn’t seem to be interested in holding them as accountable as they are holding Sony accountable for its missteps/mistakes.
What You See Is What You GetWYSIWYG is a computer abbreviation that basically is an acronym of “What you see is what you get.” This is what companies are purporting to show with gameplay trailers, but many aren’t actually operating in good faith as they are showing targets rather than what actually is. There is a game I’m planning on buying who is releasing a DEMO later this week (Outriders for those who are wondering). If the demo is good (and I’m expecting it to be), then they will have earned a purchase through WYSIWYG. They’ve shown what looks like representative gameplay since it was released, and they are giving me the opportunity to try it out for myself. This is the way ALL gaming companies should operate if they don’t want the backlash that Anthem and Cyberpunk 2020 generated. Let me see if the game that you’ve shown actually matches the game that I want and, if so, you’ve earned a sale. Mass Effect Andromeda showed me that Bioware/EA are more interested in the investors than me, so I began to practice the caveat emptor philosophy more diligently in the video game industry than I had in the past. Until more people embrace this same philosophy, and until they hold platform holders like Microsoft accountable when they “co-market” and hype up these deceptive trailers (and not go ga-ga over celebrity endorsements like Keanu Reeves on their stage), we’re going to continue to see such disappointing products and backlashes. Remember, the money the companies want is yours, not theirs, and they have no obligation to it. Caveat Emptor! Make the companies show you the actual games that you will be playing (demos) and if they choose not to, hold your purchase until reviews are released, regardless of the Preorder bonuses they shower you way.
Caveat Emptor! Let the buyer beware!
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