why is there so much secrecy in the games industry ?

[eastyy]

i can sort of understand perhaps companys not wanting there ideas stolen......but to be honest there is so much of that now anyway

[Brats]

It's because traditionally big surprise announcements relate to big hype and anticipation. However in the age of the net, the way in which news leaks and then proliferates causes a major issue with that.

I believe PR companies haven't really caught up with the net and 24 hour news coverage.

[eastyy]

well the way i see it is like with that film snakes on a plane

if companys let more access then the people on the net can give them all the hype and publicity they would need

[Dogg Thang]

Snakes on a Plane didn't do as well as expected.

It's the same in any industry. As Brats says, the PR people are looking for their big launch. Good press love their exclusives too. If they get to break a piece of news, things will make a bigger splash than if information just trickles out.

[J0e Musashi]

Tactical Espionage Action!

[Wools]

Ideas are one of the main reasons.

With so few independent developers left, their originality and concepts are their lifelines. With major develoeprs and publishers the same is true but the budget is even higher.

Look how many games have tried to cash in or copy an idea. Jet Set Radio was announced and a few copycat games were released before it even made it to the shelves. Also look at games that are released in anothers wake such as Gran Turismo, Grand Thef Auto, Halo, Mario, Sonic, Metal Gear Solid and countless others.

Every industry needs some secrecy and not always just for the cash.

[MattyD]

The way I see it, the air of secrecy is part of the show. If you can incite curiosity, and leave room for speculation, every little nugget of info you do release gets a lot of coverage and gets people talking in the forums.

It's just like when you were a kid and spent hours in your bedroom pouring over magazines and their 'leaked' screenshots of forthcoming games. Your anticipation grew and grew so that when the game finally did arrive, your perception was already swayed in favour of buying the game no matter what the reviewers or anyone else said.

Hollywood has the cult of celebrity to rely on for its marketing, but in the absence of that, the games business - a very unglamourous and nerdy industry - has to tease us to keep its output foremost in our minds.

[NekoFever]

It's nothing more than controlling hype. It's happened several times where E3 announcements are leaked early and people just end up complaining that nothing new was announced at the show and so the showing was poor. In actual fact there were plenty of announcements; it's just that the bubble burst early and we got them the week before.

This industry is fairly unique in that there are now basically three companies in fierce, direct competition, which doesn't happen in other entertainment industries since there your choice of format is fairly transparent - you don't know which label released your latest CD because it's not an issue and just plays in your CD player. There's nothing to really be "stolen", whereas in this industry they're trying to differentiate themselves and get features that the rest of the companies don't have.

Nintendo are fairly paranoid about this stuff and it's not difficult to see why sometimes, since they do a lot of the interface innovation which is frequently - ahem - borrowed. Remember when the N64 came out with the analogue stick? PS1 analogue controller followed shortly afterwards. Then they brought out the rumble pak and the Dual Shock turned up. And you can bet they were livid when they announced the Wii controller at TGS and Sony showed the Sixaxis by E3.

[eastyy]

i wonder if sony has spys in nintendos and microsofts company and vice a versa