-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
Game devs of Resetera, how do leaks impact your work?
- Thread starter sn00zer
- Start date
I've been working on Half Life 3 for years now and every time one of you fuckers almost pieces together one of my many clues in cereal boxes, movie trailers and bible quotes to guess the release date my heart skips.
David 4:13 "And so Gabe said it was so, so it was" HL3 confirmed.
It can be demoralizing depending on what the leak is. I worked on a title's big surprise plot reveal moment. It leaked way ahead of release and was carried on many of the fansites and gaming blogs. Sucks to work on crafting a moment meant to shock and know a lot of your fans aren't going to experience it, but read it instead.
Um did Schreier lock down his twitter or did I recently get banned from viewing his tweets? I disagree with the dudes opinions often but I've never been abusive towards him.....weird.
It depends.
Sometimes when marketing doesn't want stuff leaked, it can start an in studio witch hunt to find the leaker. Most of the time they get canned pretty quickly because they tend to be not very good at covering their tracks.
Sometimes "leaks" are just part of the marketing plan. If a company is big enough to afford a server they need securing, they can afford to have someone inspect the build for things that can be data mined. However, people think information is more valuable if they are not supposed to have it so they put things to be mined in the build so people on forums like these will start speculation threads which is some of the best advertising that you can't straight up buy.
Sometimes when marketing doesn't want stuff leaked, it can start an in studio witch hunt to find the leaker. Most of the time they get canned pretty quickly because they tend to be not very good at covering their tracks.
Sometimes "leaks" are just part of the marketing plan. If a company is big enough to afford a server they need securing, they can afford to have someone inspect the build for things that can be data mined. However, people think information is more valuable if they are not supposed to have it so they put things to be mined in the build so people on forums like these will start speculation threads which is some of the best advertising that you can't straight up buy.
does cory thing marketing departments are made of robots?
of course they're people, that doesn't mean it's not still a bajillion dollar marketing wankfest
I'm not subbed to him (or even logged into Twitter) but I can see his posts, his most recent one being 2 hours ago. Maybe it's something to do with you then?
That is super weird. I know I could see his tweets a couple days ago and I don't think I've tweeted at him in months honestly.....
His Twitter is still active to view from the public. You may have been banned for some reason
There's too much secrecy in the industry. Avengers 3 & 4 were both announced in 2014. The hype and anticipation were still high when they released and made billions of dollars.
I think what he's trying to say is that people who work in marketing express their creativity through marketing. Leaks ruin that for them. Yeah they didn't make the game, but that doesn't mean the thing they've been working on for months is any less important. They deserve to have their work seen the way it was meant to be seen instead of some faceless Anon trying to earn fake internet points.
They can lead to bad blood and a lack of trust between dev and publisher. Can lead to cancellation if leak is early enough in cycle. If leak frames game in poor light can be though to recover
Not a game developer but I've had similar experiences in the entertainment industry (plus a few dev friends who have gone through this).
It's demoralizing and it feels like you've been robbed of an experience you've spent weeks, if not months, preparing for.
It's demoralizing and it feels like you've been robbed of an experience you've spent weeks, if not months, preparing for.
Game Developers: We'd rather people wait for the moment we reveal things so you can enjoy what we've been working on and we can enjoy sharing the experience with everyone on our terms, as creators.
Journalists: It's unhealthy to not want what developers have been working toward presented on our terms.
Both sides have their points.
Journalists: It's unhealthy to not want what developers have been working toward presented on our terms.
Both sides have their points.
It is completely disrespectful and unprofessional. Especially when leaked by colleagues, former colleagues, partners or former partners, or journalists that have signed multiple NDAs in their career and know how things work and how much sensitive things are where potential partnerships could literally be ruined due to a leak, and so on.
Usually though, AAA companies have material prepared if things leak, with multiple degrees of severity along with relevant assets and communication strategies.
Usually though, AAA companies have material prepared if things leak, with multiple degrees of severity along with relevant assets and communication strategies.
- Its a bummer for morale. You're working hard, hoping that you're gonna blow someones mind (we delight watching reaction posts or videos) and then because someone was an asshole or was careless your fans learn about it in a very unoptimal way and make assumptions
- Strictly business? A lot of money can be lost by leaks. Not going to give you exact numbers but enough money to make you go HOLY FUCK WHAT
If they visit a studio they definitely do
Journalists typically aren't the ones leaking FYI it's usualy QA or devs themselves
Im not complaining about journalists, just offering a clarification :)
Jason has a very interesting point.
If you put everything into revealing something solely, creating a culture of letting your team flying high on excitement with just a logo or name, at this point that's completely unreasonable and unhealthy.
I don't think there's any denying behind saying that when this does pays off, it really pays off. But at the same time, this comes at an unnecessary and absurd risk of getting months of work and planning directly into the trash, without even considering the human aspect of setting your staff into a massive disappointment alongside your target audience as well.
No big company with thousands of workers, massive amounts of outsourcing, outside handling of the brand with hardware platforms and this day/age of easy access of information online, should ever expect a reveal to go well and perfectly, or especially to consider that its reveal should be the biggest point of the marketing cycle.
Not that i feel this is the ideal scenario of course, but you're really in denial if you can think that somehow you'll able to dodge all these variables.
Might as well prepare preventive measures to release information in multiple ways, since you can gather interest in the long term without revealing everything at once or with just a name and logo.
If you put everything into revealing something solely, creating a culture of letting your team flying high on excitement with just a logo or name, at this point that's completely unreasonable and unhealthy.
I don't think there's any denying behind saying that when this does pays off, it really pays off. But at the same time, this comes at an unnecessary and absurd risk of getting months of work and planning directly into the trash, without even considering the human aspect of setting your staff into a massive disappointment alongside your target audience as well.
No big company with thousands of workers, massive amounts of outsourcing, outside handling of the brand with hardware platforms and this day/age of easy access of information online, should ever expect a reveal to go well and perfectly, or especially to consider that its reveal should be the biggest point of the marketing cycle.
Not that i feel this is the ideal scenario of course, but you're really in denial if you can think that somehow you'll able to dodge all these variables.
Might as well prepare preventive measures to release information in multiple ways, since you can gather interest in the long term without revealing everything at once or with just a name and logo.
jschreier's tweet just feels kinda disrespectful to the people working in said projects, like he knows better than them
Journalists will pretty much never violate an NDA. The information they're getting comes from a source at the company, not from being invited to a studio and then publishing things they'll get sued for publicly violating a contract..
If you're NDA'd and you're not whistleblowing, you're an asshole for leaking.
On the other hand, it's the journalist's right (and sometimes responsibility) to report it, so I don't think any blame should be on their side.
That said, I've seen people cry over their work being leaked. So yeah, fuck the leakers.
On the other hand, it's the journalist's right (and sometimes responsibility) to report it, so I don't think any blame should be on their side.
That said, I've seen people cry over their work being leaked. So yeah, fuck the leakers.
I'm not a game dev, but I work at a high profile, extremely leaky tech company.
Leaks have really damaged the internal company culture, causing information to be not as openly shared within the company. Leaks made is so that upper management can't really give the employees honest "real talk", because anything they say that's too raw could be leaked and taken out of context, and sound really bad to the public. As a result, internal company communication has become very PR-like itself, which really hurts giving the employees and honest understanding of what's going on in the company.
Leaks have really damaged the internal company culture, causing information to be not as openly shared within the company. Leaks made is so that upper management can't really give the employees honest "real talk", because anything they say that's too raw could be leaked and taken out of context, and sound really bad to the public. As a result, internal company communication has become very PR-like itself, which really hurts giving the employees and honest understanding of what's going on in the company.
Ah ok then my mistake. If you signed a proper NDA, just be a professional and not leak it. Leaked by mistake should be an open season though, like what happened on AC multiple times lol
This. He's only saying that you shouldn't be buying into the PR hype machine. I'm sure he feels bad for the devs, it's not mutually exclusive.
In the case of ninja theory, the trailer was poor quality and deprived the team of giving their pitch as first impression for what some fans may see as a controversial new direction. That's a fairly clear cut case. If it's just a name, meh I don't have as strong opinions.
Ain't a dev but I did get a job in marketing a few months ago. Man I'd have no moral at the office for a while if the stuff I was working on got put out before I wanted it to. So I imagine that for devs they'd feel the same thing that the marketing and advertising people feel. Which would be not fun feelings lol.
Just curious - and I completely understand if you can't answer - but how do you know the money? Is it because of lost advertising revenue due to contracts? Or because it can lead to a loss of sales because it's not on your terms - but if so, how do you quantify this?
Apologies if this sounds like the stupidest question ever - I'm a teacher and so far, none of my lessons have been leaked early.
Leaks go way beyond just the title and encompasses videos, screenshots and Gane details.
Also, you used the word 'anounced'. Not leaked. Basically confirming that Marvel was in control of the Information.
Too many people in the other thread thinks only the Marketing team are affected by this.
It has to feel like shit when the surprised you've spent 3 years working on gets ruined in the last week.
It has to feel like shit when the surprised you've spent 3 years working on gets ruined in the last week.