Game Announcements: How Early is Too Early?

Noah Zuckerman

June 6, 2017

With E3 right around the corner, we’re in for some really big announcements in the gaming industry and further information on games that have already been announced. It’s an exciting time for gamers. However, I know I personally always get hyped after E3 only to find myself waiting months, sometimes even years for the games I’m anticipating. That begs the question: how early is too early for game announcements?

An example of this problem was at E3 2015, where Mass Effect: Andromeda was announced. Keep in mind it was June 2015 back then and the game was originally slated to release sometime late in 2016 over a year later. Even then it was delayed until March of this year, leading to a nearly 2 year wait for fans. Of course, it wasn’t anticipated to be delayed, but it’s still a possibility that should be considered when a game is announced so early in its development.

Speaking of which, Star Wars: Battlefront (2015 edition) was announced at E3 2013. There was an incredibly minimalistic, 20 second trailer of a snow speeder and a walker then the logo and that was it. There was absolutely no need to announce it that early. Even at E3 2014, there was barely any content shown off about the game. They spent their time on stage at that E3 showboating the system they used to recreate the maps from the original Star Wars trilogy with a quick snippet of a speeder bike in alpha. This game finally came out November of 2015, two and a half years after its original announcement. The very fact that they didn’t have anything concrete to show to gamers until the 2015 E3 shows that they jumped the gun here.

I personally think games shouldn’t be announced unless they’re realistically coming out within a year of the announcement. When Fallout 4 surprised audiences at E3 2015, everyone was even more shocked that it was coming out that November. Bethesda made a really good call there since the hype behind that game was unreal leading up to its release and it didn’t need to be delayed. Considering Red Dead Redemption 2 has been delayed after a lackluster teaser earlier this year, it’s safe to assume the game isn’t far enough into development to warrant an announcement. Delays are very common after announcements in the gaming industry, which just goes to show that this is something developers should take into consideration.