The evolution of video game trailers is comparable to games themselves. While 20 years ago we were content running across 8-bit worlds, now we expect vast 3D areas with lifelike visuals. As the video game industry became bigger and better, so too did the most powerful way of marketing a new game.
In fact, publishers hire people that focus specifically on creating cinematics and trailers that will make the game look as attractive as possible. While how well a game sells will mostly be determined by its quality, a game trailer plays a major role as well.
The following is a brief look at where game trailers began and how developers have in time improved them:
The Odd, Early Years
In the early ‘90s it was all about the Super NES and Sega Genesis. Sega pulled out all the stops to compete with Nintendo, who up until then had dominated the industry. As the console war heated up, both companies realized they needed to step up their marketing by providing top-notch commercials for young gamers all across the globe.
But much like that decade itself, the commercials were all about being “dope.” Not satisfied with just showing the games in all their 2D glory, developers and their marketing teams went with intense, action-packed commercials with people to hype up the game.
They Get Better
As video game consoles got got better, so too did the visuals they could produce. Consoles like the Sega Dreamcast, N64 and PlayStation could produce breathtaking 3D characters and environments. Now with impressive graphics to show off, game companies finally decided to use them in their trailers.
Live adults were ditched in favor of quick cuts of gameplay to give players a taste of what they could be playing. The trend to add dramatic music that wasn’t specifically in the game, which is still done often today, also arose during this time.
https://youtu.be/lhUpx4QHuaw
They Become An Art Form
Video games have become one of the most powerful ways to tell a story. Games offer an interactive experience that lets you feel like you’re actually in an enchanted forest, heated battlefield, or wherever your favorite games take you. In order to make their games stand out above the rest, developers began trying to make their trailers do the same as the games themselves — evoke emotion.
Companies began creating cinematics made specifically for commercials, even if they never appeared in the actual game. Moving soundtracks combined with emotional scenes helped some of the best games of the 2000s draw thousands to stores. The following are perfect examples of trailers that despite showing little to no gameplay, draw you into its setting and characters.
https://youtu.be/TXeST0NMtic
The Rise of Misleading Trailers
The video game industry is more competitive than ever. This puts a lot of pressure on game developers who must sell X million copies just to break even or be given another chance at a new project. Unfortunately, this has caused a lot of publishers to become shady when it comes to what they show in their trailers.
There are many ways a trailer can be misleading. For one, they might show footage of a game that’s a vast improvement to what will actually be in the game. Other times we’re given cinematics that are a completely false representation of what you’ll actually be doing or seeing in the game. Below are a few examples, including one of the many infamous “Metal Gear Solid 2” trailers that fooled us into thinking Solid Snake would be the main protagonist.
Interested in learning more about game design? Check out the New York Film Academy’s Game Design School.
