Graphics downgrades, pre-release ‘hype trains’ and how it has changed the video game industry
One of the most anticipated games of this year, at least for me, is Marvel’s Spider-Man for PlayStation 4. With the release is scheduled on 7th September 2018, the news over the weekend has been that game’s E3 footage from 2016 is apparently not going to be completely true when it comes to the graphics of finished product to be released.
Puddlegates are missing
The news hit the media after a couple of screenshots leaked to the internet. There are some tweets going on back and forth pointing out the differences in the game’s trailers/gameplay demos and leaked images of the final game.
Apparently, the leaked screenshots are missing some puddlegates which were there in the game trailers/demos and the reflection of water seems to be downgraded too. Further, there are tweets about downgraded graphical details in the suit of Spider Man.
To the credit of the developer, Community Director of INSOMNIAC GAMES (James Stevenson) responded by saying there is no such downgrade involved and it is due to some environmental changes such as shadows resulted by Sun’s movement.
Graphics are not the only thing
In the past also, we have experienced the downgrades in graphics in video games. One such example is UBISOFT’s 2012 E3 trailer of Watch Dogs, where the end product of the game in 2014 had some noticeable graphical downgrades. At the time, it was rumored that developers were overestimating the power of next gen consoles and developing the game for much powerful hardware, resulting them to cutdown the graphics in the end product for the game to be playable in the consoles.
The irony of this whole situation is what game developers have had to deal with when it comes to developing games. In this specific instance of Spider Man, it is kind of ridiculous that the game has not yet been released and internet is discussing about the downgraded graphics of the end product, as it really is the one and only reason for playing a video game. If you are the kind of guy who are so much into the graphics of a game and not really interested about the other aspects of a game, by all means, you have all the rights to get mad about the developers of a game which gives you wrong impressions about how it looks. Apart from the tini tiny details of graphics, there are lot more aspects to a game that makes it a ‘good’ or even ‘great’ game. The gameplay, the progression system, the storyline, the combat, Protagonist, NPCs.. I can list lot more here which in my opinion, lot more important than the graphics of a video game. It is not that I disrespect who want the graphics of a video game to be ‘life-like’, it is just that unfortunate to see how it affects the developers of a game, and in this situation, how it creates some negative vibes around a game, even before it is released.
The question comes to my mind in a situation like this is that “Is it only the graphics we are missing right now for a game to be a great game? Is everything else perfect?”
With all due respect, why do not developers be more careful?
The other end of this argument, why do not the developers be more careful when it comes to the trailers (pre marketing materials) of a video game? We do not know whether Spider Man will be graphically downgraded when it is released next week. I do not want to come to a conclusion about this without seeing the game in action. Even if we forget about Spider Man, as I mentioned earlier, graphical downgrades of video games have happened earlier. Even if it is accidental or not, for the players who are interested about the graphical details of a video game, it can be a deal-breaker. It could affect the purchase decision of such person and if so, it is not an ethical thing to do. I believe that as game developers and as PR professional of game publishers, the responsibility lies on them to be careful about the pre-marketing material they release. A good example for this is CD PROJECT RED’s PR approach of Cyberpunk 2077, after the graphical contravailse of The Witcher 3, back in 2015.
The contravaise of The Witcher 3
Even if The Witcher 3 is highly regarded as one of the best looking (and overall a masterpiece in my opinion) games of this console generation, when it was released in 2015, it was accused for downgrades of graphics. There were discussions in the internet that the game looked better in the trailers which were released in 2013/2014.
This might be the reason that the next game from CD PROJECT RED, Cyberpunk 2077, is getting a careful PR strategy before it is shown to the general public. Even if the game was presented and a full demo was available to be played at E3 2018 in June, it was not shown to the general public until last week. The people who played the game at the show floor of E3 2018 had to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) agreeing not to share details about the game and they were not allowed to take any photos or videos of the demo. This could be a good strategy for game developers to adopt, if they are to be careful about not to create an uncertain hype around their games. Or make sure not to release game trailers/demos until they are certain that ‘what they show is what is delivered’.
We complain a lot when no trailers are shown, aren’t we?
On the other hand, if all the game developers are to adopt kind of strategies CD PROJECT RED follows or not to show their game’s gameplay until everything is ready, are not we the ones who are complaining that nothing interesting is shown in E3 or Gamescom or in all the other game conferences?
In conclusion, we are the ones who are complaining about not seeing anything interesting during game conferences. We are the people who want to get on the hype train as soon as a game is announced. We are the ones who are nitpicking every last detail of a game and coming up with all the theories in the world to say why it should have been different. And it is not just us. UBISOFT gave us a bad experience with Watch Dogs. Despite becoming a fairly good game after two years of its launch, HELLO GAMES gave us a bad experience with No Man’s Sky. And now if the rumors turns out to be true (I hope not), INSOMNIAC GAMES might give us a game, just to nitpick and point out some small graphical details. The only reason I wanted to express my point of view was not to point fingers at anyone, just to shed some light on this matter by saying, game developers/publishers need to be careful when they CREATE THE HYPE TRAIN and we, as gamers, when we GET ON THE HYPE TRAIN.