The Hype Machine

Video games come and go, existing in an unremittingly rapid cycle; each week new games come out and within precious few months, significant releases fall off the collective minds of gaming’s commentators. There are constantly new experiences to be had and we move through them at an alarmingly brisk pace.

But with hundreds of new games on the horizon, and even more in your backlog, how can publishers successfully get you to hone in on a single release? What methods are used to ensure that one game rockets to the top of your wish list and how can publishers guarantee that it occupies your mind until it releases?

In the long run, hype can’t be manufactured; it can’t be bought and it can’t be generated by the marketing team alone. If game sales were calculated by the number of press releases, screenshots, developer diaries and videos that were released by PR, Atari’s Alone in the Dark reboot would be triple platinum.

Hype relies on people; once gamers have something to grab onto – a teaser trailer, a countdown, a screenshot – the excitement builds. Using forums and social networks, Twitter subjects and blogs, podcasts and videos, it doesn’t take long for an exciting new product to wash over the masses of online gathering points and for anticipation to thrive. As long as influencers are stationed in the right places, the excitement will bloom. Take NeoGAF’s “Official Topics” where member BruceLeeRoy straddles the line between voluntary PR manager and enthused fan with his 20,000 word MGS4 hub.

As for the side of the publisher, the public information blasts must feel genuine and in earnest, which comes almost naturally when there is a face to associate with the game. There is a massive difference between the shotgun blast of a press release or uncreative trailers and Cliffy B extolling the virtues of active reload or Peter Molyneux fantasising over procedurally generated trees. Almost every game that’s received massive levels of hype has had a company side advocate; Far Cry 2’s Clint Hocking, Bioshock’s Ken Levine and Spore’s Will Wright, to name a few.

But no matter who’s advocating the product, the schedule for new information is absolutely integral to keeping hype balanced, strategically stoking fires under excited gamers without burning them. Too much information and the message will be saturated, too little and gamers will forget about the product.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl flooded the internet with information, giving new tidbits and reveals every weekday by designer Masahiro Sakurai. While it kept the game on people’s mind for an entire year, gamers knew almost everything about the game by the time it released. Call of Duty 4, on the other hand, launched a tactical attack that would put the game’s SAS soldiers to shame.

April, the game was announced. July, the game was shown at E3. August, the Xbox 360 Beta was released. October, the PC demo was released. November, the game was shipped. In a whirlwind year Activision didn’t give you time to forget about Call of Duty 4 and didn’t have enough months to over-saturate the press. It was almost the perfect media campaign.

Video game hype is complex and confusing formula, with thousands of variables to consider. Both the publisher and the fans play an equal role in generating enthusiasm and excitement for a product, but with so many botched launches, information overloads and over-hyped games, it’s obvious that very few companies hold the secret.