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 Marketing is something that the Microsoft Corporation excels in. The company knows how and when to create just the right amount of hype around a game to ensure that it sells. Halo 3 is a perfect example of this, and had me and a million other gamers coughing up their reserve money almost a year in advance. But what about titles that don’t adhere to the release dates? Don’t broken release dates affect the sales of those particular titles?

 
 Though the answer to the previous question is most-likely “NO”, it still bothers me, and this year was a disaster when it came to games arriving on time. This issue left countless gamers (including Sean) high and dry when they arrived at their local Gamestop to receive their game.

 
 In an interview yesterday with Wired.com, Shane Kim, corporate vice president of Microsoft Studios, shed some light on Microsoft’s strategy when it comes to releasing previews of games.

 

Wired.com Question:

Do you agree with Denis Dyack's sentiments about the preview structure, about how he'd like to work on a game in secret and then show it five months before it comes out? Do you find yourself thinking this might be a good idea going forward?

 

Shane Kim:Answer

Not necessarily. I think we're in the entertainment business. So giving people exposure and a chance to get excited about titles before they release, I think, is very important. Now, for some things you don't have to do it until five months before, six months before. But for others, like we did with Mass Effect, or Alan Wake, or what we did with Gears of War, if you unveil these things right, if you do it the right way, if you do it when they're ready to be unveiled, you can do it in a big way. There's huge benefits that accrue to you. You can build that excitement and anticipation for a couple of years. And that's very difficult to replace with marketing. But conversely, if you don't do it right, if you do show games too early, and I believe that's a real danger, then you dig yourself a hole to get out of. And that's the thing that you obviously want to avoid.

 I really don't think there's a formula. I think if, however we had done it with Too Human, could there have been a better way back then to have done it than the way it was done? Sure -- and you'd have had a different kind of trajectory than over the last year. But Denis isn't wrong in saying that for some games, we'll wait until it's really ready to show before we do it. I just think that's a lot of pressure on your marketing organization. You don't have a ton of time to start building that audience. Unless you're Halo 3, I mean.

 

 

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