Why do publishers announce games that are years off?

Someone help me understand. For instance, Everwild has been reportedly rebooted and targeting a 2024 release date. They didn't even know what the game was when they announced it so why bother?

What's the point of these cinematic trailers with no gameplay? Does anybody tell themselves "Oh I wanna play that!" when there's nothing to be played? I understand getting hyped for sequels or spiritual successors because you have a good idea of what you're signing up for, but for these brand new IP's that show off a cinematic trailer 3 years before they even have a release date, I just don't get it.

It can't be for marketing purposes because we tend to forget about these games after a few weeks until they reappear years later. At least when they got something to show, they can keep the hype train going until release day rather than let it die and restarting the engine every time.

Thoughts?

If it's a public company, then the announcement can at least keep shareholders at bay. Other than that, I have no friggin clue why developers do this.

Building hype, which builds interest, which tickle's investors' fancies in a game.

Xbox once tried this but then got fucked in the arse by Sony who announced all the games (and great games too).

To see reactions and feedback. Adjust the direction of the game. Maybe, I dunno.

Not sure 100% why they do it, just not sure it's become the new thing to hate on this site.

Everwild is not the first and it wouldn't be the last. There are so many examples of this practice. Deep down and Beyond Good and Evil 2 comes to mind. Then you have gamers always demanding to show something new. Why they didn't show this or that? If the media and gamers encourage developers to only show games when they are in a launch window of no greater than a year, then this trend would not be as common.

Any game that has no gameplay shown, should not exist in any gamers mind.

I don’t mind if they announce games that are 1 or 2 years off something to look forward too

Gotta build hype. And the goofballs on YouTube are free marketing, and will talk about “how good the game looks,” with or without actual gameplay. Keeping the hype high is good for awareness. Just ask CDPR. They executed prelaunch marketing, during a pandemic, flawlessly. If only the production and QC departments were as good.

First Duke Nukem Forever trailer looked amazing then 13 years later after many cancellations the game was not the same.

First they tease to implant the memory and the hope.

Then when the game get's closer, they announce it again and open up pre-sales.

Then all you suckers, for some reason, pre-order a game you don't need to pre-order.

That's why they do it. To git you, suckas.

They're announcing games they don't even have ideas for because the gaming industry is all about money. They'll find a niche they can fill or look at another popular game to copy in the mean time. It doesn't even take 3 years for an AAA studio to build a game especially when most of them have in-house engines they build on top of anyway. An indie team can knock out a better game than most AAA developers can in under half the time and charge a fraction of the price for it.

I agree, its dumb. Nothing should be announced if its not coming out in the 12 coming months. If it gets delayed, that's fine, but don't announce a game such as Fable, Perfect Dark, Avowed, ES6 and Hellblade 2 when none of them will be released before 2024.

I think it’s different for MS/Sony than for the others. They have to make it seem like there are a ton of interesting games coming to their platform. So if something has a logo it’s going in there.

A lot of it is to do with meeting unrealistic expectations of certain people to show a huge amount of games, when they clearly aren't ready.

Better to announce a far off date then delay the game.

Because they are excited about what they are working on.

And this is probably the #1 reason. Those who sell consoles want people to buy consoles and the more great games people think will be coming out for a console, the more they may be encouraged to buy it.

They looked at Sony E3 of 2015 or something like that which announced games with nothing but CGI that won't be seen for 5 a decade later and whole internet/media went crazy.

The industry in general should follow the Rockstar's lead on this.

So they can Cyberpunk yo ass.

Came to say the same. And if it's a platform publisher (Sony, Microsoft for ex) it also gives excitement for the future of that platform.

Generally to stir up hype, but it's hard to tell. Sometimes the current console tech is not up to par for the games to be announced for an earlier release date.

To give the illusion u got something brewing to keep people investing into there platform.

Bet you Metroid 4 will come out 5 years after its annoucement. Half a decade. OOF.

I think by law any PLC has to announce projects to their shareholders. If you are going to spend millions on producing a game the shareholders have a right to decide if they want to continue to have shares in the company.

If there are any privately owned companies not listed it may be different.

@Juub1990: If they are a public company, or owned by a public company, it is good for stock prices.

Mostly for shareholders, I think.

A lot of reasons:

• To get ahead of leaks, eg. "I heard developer X is working on a massively-multiplayer dating sim!" Er, no. We know what they are working on because they announced it a year ago.
• To gauge interest and overall buzz. If they announce it early and nobody gives a hoot, they can figure out what to do about it, whether to change the marketing pitch or change the game itself, or cancel it altogether. This is much easier when the game is three years out than when it's six months out.
• Simply to let everyone know "hey, we're still here and making a game!"
• To aid with hiring. Drop a well-received teaser three years out, and you'll attract more developer talent as you staff up for full production.