The Reason Why Game Companies Announce Games Years in Advance and Its Implications

TapTechNews June 30th news. In recent years, many games have been announced several years before their actual gameplay demos and release dates are revealed, leaving players wondering: Why do game companies announce a game years in advance?

The industry's open secret is that many projects are announced before they are ready, which often causes dissatisfaction among fans. The Elder Scrolls 6 is an example. The game was just in the early stages of development but was announced five years ago.

A senior game developer said that announcing in advance is to prevent the project from being cancelled in the worst-case scenario.

Mark Darrah, who has extensive experience in the game industry, recently talked about various aspects of game development. When it comes to announcing games in advance, he said that game developers often announce game projects that haven't really had any substantial development work yet. These projects may have less than 10 people involved in the early planning stage and are far from ready to be announced.

Mark Darrah explains that both publishers and developers can benefit from this approach. For example, if a publisher has had poor performance in recent years, then announcing an exciting project can restore players' confidence.

Mark Darrah said, Maybe it's because the publisher doesn't have a decent game to show recently, or maybe it's because the developer is worried that the publisher will veto this (unannounced) project.

Perhaps this is why The Elder Scrolls 6 was announced so early. At that time, Bethesda was criticized for Fallout 76, and they hoped to reignite the enthusiasm of players by announcing a new game.

In addition, Mark Darrah also mentioned that some developers are worried about the game project being cancelled halfway. Although a well-known game like The Elder Scrolls 6 won't be easily cancelled, but announcing in advance does help to avoid such problems from happening. Maybe if BendStudio had announced Days Gone 2, then this game wouldn't have been cancelled.

Game development is a complex process, and projects often go through various changes in the middle of development. This makes announcing games in advance more like a gamble, but for some teams, doing so may have unexpected benefits.