I love the way they have promoted it and brought about the release. You see so often that a developer begins advertising their product and hyping up details in the game that don't eventually make it in, or dont hit on what was "promised" and people can become really bitter about it. I think it's a much "safer" way to promote in that sense and also really cool for everyone that wants to buy it because they announce it and then just a few months later you are playing it with little to no pre judgement. A forced surprise! Love it!

I can understand Todd not wanting to take time from polishing the game to do a bunch of demos.

I'd like more info, but with a six month announcement to release, if Fallout 4 is half as good as it looks, I'm all for it.

Wish they'd show more gameplay. Just a little.

I do wish they'd shown a little more continuous gameplay, but I understand that they needed to show off features and they didn't need to do as much showing off of the world or the engine. I really liked the fairly-continuous demo of Skyrim with Todd narrating. I find him a really interesting guy to listen to.

I posted this is another thread and then realized it was more appropriate in this one, so I wanted to add it here and I've tried to rephrase a bit:

I definitely like the "wait till launch" approach. Even though in the back of my mind I knew that it had to be coming, I wasn't really thinking about it because it wasn't actually announced. I liked not having a long period of actively waiting for it. As soon as something is announced, I think you go into "active waiting" mode.

Some games have a ridiculous amount of time between announcement and release. During that time, gameplay, graphics and even entire parts of the game that are shown can change drastically. Another thing that happens is that after announcing the release date, some games change their date because they're not done. Or parts of the game are rushed or removed. That can lead to a lot of agony for gamers.

Bethesda, on the other hand, might take really long between games, but as I mentioned above, it's not "active waiting." This time, announcing Fallout 4 when it's practically ready and then having a short wait for release - I like it better that way.

It seems like a great situation both for them as a company and for us gamers as fans. I don't know that there's any other company in the type of position that Bethesda Game Studios is in. Having the fanbase that they've earned means that they don't have to hype the game for over a year in order to get interest in it.

They've certainly earned my devotion. I wish I could go to the midnight release, but November 10th is a school day but thankfully November 11th is Veterans Day, so while I'm showing my patriotism for the troops, I show it even more by riding Boston and all its precious monuments to the power that is America of the raider scum that are sure to be infesting it and smudging its good name!

i don't get this could you explain?

Edit nevermind i googled it down i think your right turns

I really like it. The surprises in the game are what are fun.. so the less you know about something the better. Of course Bethesda is an established game studio and we basically know what we are getting into. If this were a brand new game by a brand new company I doubt I'd have the same positive outlook. I'd most likely be suspicious..

I like this approach. I think it helps them avoid the Todd Howard Effect (AKA devs mentioning numerous features that end up not making it in the final game or end up blunted/unfinished). I think it's also just generally good for hype control and avoiding spoilers or revealing too much about the plot. I'm also someone who just really likes to be taken by surprise. The less assumptions I have about a game, the more I seem to enjoy it.

I hope they continue this trend for TES: VI.

Regarding pre-ordering, I don't pre-order games because I think it encourages companies to release unfinished games. I've not really seen any sufficient counter arguments against the notion, so that's what I stick with.

That's a Triple Yes!

I don't really care too much about game information, it's enough for me to have seen a few minutes of gameplay and knowing of a few new features. I prefer delving into the belly of the beast in blissful ignorance, and the extremely short wait time makes it so much sweeter. There's enough time to be hyped up, excited, impatient and everything in between, and the BAM! Before you know it, it's Nov. 10.

I wasn't even sure there'd be another Fallout, so I've been amped up ever since the count/down trailer was put on the website, and I've loved every minute since. When I get busy with real life and a number of days pass by without me thinking about Fallout, I suddenly remember and check up on the news, and then it's cool to find a cute short SPECIAL video or some other little tidbit.

Couldn't be more chuffed about this, Beth!

I'm the type of person who wants to see a sample of footage (like we did at E3) and then go completely dark until release day. So the way Bethesda is handling "Wait until launch" sits perfectly fine with me. Most devs decide to say what the story is about, showoff locations about the game and that to me, (which is why I go dark on the game), spoils it. Would I like to know the smaller things like if there's a hardcoe mode or not? Sure, but that's as much information and footage from E3 that I would like to see.

Perfect strategy on all counts by Beth.

The most agonizing part of the wait for Skyrim was the big spreads in GI and PC Gamer and yet the game being months away. That hurt my Gamer soul . I wasn't at peace with the Skyrim wait till I got to play the demo twice at PAX.

This wait, however, has been a breeze. Easy peasy, lemon squeezey.

I expect one more trailer before release and then it's go time.

I certainly don't like the way Bethesda handled it. It would have worked if they just released a minute or two of footage every week. That's not too much to ask. Instead, they hit us hard and went big at E3, and then...crickets...then the SPECIAL vids and a live-action trailer. If they had announced the game this week, the dearth of content we've been shown would fit. Instead, they spread their radio silence out over months.

I'm fine with the 'wait till launch' approach as far announcing the game release date goes. I'd rather have that then the long drawn out announcement of Phantom Pain which turned out to be a bitter disappointment in the long run.

The behind closed doors, Gamescom footage move is wack. Why continue holding back on the secret gameplay footage when the game has supposedly gone gold in pre-order sales?

I much prefer the way Todd handled Skyrim's reveal much better, which is what actually convinced me to purchase Skyrim. Todd actually walked you through different gameplay segments of Skyrim, instead of these last minute, weekly SPECIAL videos and a cinematic 30 second trailer. Granted the SPECIAL videos are a creative marketing approach more devs should implement, the secret Gamescom footage is kind of lame at this point.

As much I am looking forward to playing Fallout 4, I will watch a few streams and wait for player feedback before buying. Being a Day One, Skyrim beta tester, still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth when I am trying to figure out unpatched bugs like why Enthir in Winterhold will not offer to sell me anything. I can't see myself taking another leap of faith, knowing Bethesda's track record for bugs and glitches during game launch.

I for one think it's great.

Much prefer hearing about a game and then it coming out <6 months or so after that announcement.

Not only is it more exciting, but it also (at least from marketing) seems like a good time frame to keep people interested in a game rather then announcing it and then falling off the face of the earth for a year or two and having to re-drum up all the hype for it again.

I dislike the near total silence after e3 but not enough for it to really matter I just wanted some more screenshots because its fun to pick through them for info but all that doesn't matter now since its just under 2 weeks until I go out and get the game for myself.

I think it is the best idea all around. We have the forums to keep us speculating while they work on the game, and without showing anything off, they have unlimited freedom to mess around and tweak ideas without setting the fanbase into a frenzy. This way, the game will only be judged on the basis of its own merit, which is the only metric that matters in the end. I think Destiny would have been much better received if they hadn't promised so much and delivered such bland title. Of course, that may not have been the case either, but that would be an interesting what if wouldn't it? It would certainly test the objectivity of "professional" reviewers.

Another reason for this specific campaign is petes "one E3" rule. As in your game should only be in one E3, any more and there's not enough content to fill the gaps, and not enough momentum to keep it going that long.

Plus he also said "According to Hines, announcing so late in development just seemed to be the right approach for Fallout 4. In general, he prefers to take the least amount of time necessary to talk about the game, because the longer the promotion campaign, the more strain it puts on the development team to put together demos for shows like Gamescom and more."

I dislike their wait until launch approach. It almost feels unreal that FO4 releases in less than 3 weeks and we know so little. I've never seen this type of marketing before (regarding lack of new footage) and it makes me doubt everything. I also can't believe I've spent 4 months looking at the same E3 screen shots everyone has anolyzed to death. Wow, the time goes by fast.

However, I do love their short release window from the announcement so it makes up for the lack of information. There will be tons of great surprises.

I think it's a good move.

I don't really have any foolproof way to check it, but whenever something Fallout 4 related is released, I just see a crazy amount of hype in reddit, YouTube, or another local forum of mine. It's sometimes so crazy I suspect Bethesda doesn't even need to do any serious marketing for Elder Scrolls or Fallout with how vast the amount of fans they have is, and how enthusiastic at that. I think it's too much hype, mind you, but it works.

On a personal level, I enjoy the announcement relatively close to release. The lack of footage is a bit more tricky. I have bad experience with TW3. I love the game and I love CDPR, but that kind of ended up working against me. I was anticipating it so much that I watched every video and read every interview several time. I ended up over-anolyzing the game in a way that both created inflated expectations, as well as took away much of the mystery from launching it for the first time. So maybe it's good that a popular game keeps you wondering.

The main problem I can see with lack of footage is that consumer's can't make a proper decision. Thing is, this brings me back to the thing I opened with - Bethesda has so many fans that I don't see that being an issue. I doubt many people won't be buying the game just because there isn't any footage - because that will change in the first week after release anyway.

As for pre-ordering - only time I consider it is when there's a nice discount. There isn't, and I don't care about all the out-of-game extras (or even in-game extras, considering the risk), so I'll wait.

Depends on how the game is. If it svcks it's gonna look like they 'tricked' people into buying it (which is not true ofc, due diligence and all that but still) if it's a good game it'll seem like they wanted to surprise their fans with lots of cool features and were so confident in their game that they knew they didn't have to hype anything up.

I think it's a bit whack.