Making games for 3 year olds? Care to explain?

[QUOTE=thorgill;4139893]Jebus it looks brilliant! I can’t wait now, why do they have to do this? Just tell me it’s out and I’ll get it. Instead I’ve now got to wait for the release. Looks to be worth the wait though.

BTW - Anyone know of a release date?

So it’s 11 months post announce for Wrath and SC2… They’ve announced D3 and no one expects it sooner than holidays 2009… And this got me thinking.

Why announce things so early? I get that you want some buzz to build, fansites to come up and grow, etc. But surely that could happen with 6 to 9 months of lead time. What’s the advantage of announcing things more than a year out? I kind of get long lead time announces for things like Windows where corporations might need to do resource planning, etc. But that’s not really an issue with a game.

My thought on D3 after watching the gameplay trailer was “Looks very cool, i’ll probably try it” followed by “but who cares it’s at least 18 months out…” and dismissing it from my mind. I mean, if they were announcing it now and planning to ship it for THIS holiday season… that’s demand creation. Announcing it now and not even saying “we expect to ship this toward the end of 2009” (or whatever) seems… a waste of an event. Ohh cool game! Out in 2010? Wake me then…

[QUOTE=thorgill;4139893]Jebus it looks brilliant! I can’t wait now, why do they have to do this? Just tell me it’s out and I’ll get it. Instead I’ve now got to wait for the release. Looks to be worth the wait though.

BTW - Anyone know of a release date?

So it’s 11 months post announce for Wrath and SC2… They’ve announced D3 and no one expects it sooner than holidays 2009… And this got me thinking.

Why announce things so early? I get that you want some buzz to build, fansites to come up and grow, etc. But surely that could happen with 6 to 9 months of lead time. What’s the advantage of announcing things more than a year out? I kind of get long lead time announces for things like Windows where corporations might need to do resource planning, etc. But that’s not really an issue with a game.

My thought on D3 after watching the gameplay trailer was “Looks very cool, i’ll probably try it” followed by “but who cares it’s at least 18 months out…” and dismissing it from my mind. I mean, if they were announcing it now and planning to ship it for THIS holiday season… that’s demand creation. Announcing it now and not even saying “we expect to ship this toward the end of 2009” (or whatever) seems… a waste of an event. Ohh cool game! Out in 2010? Wake me then…

[QUOTE=thorgill;4139893]Jebus it looks brilliant! I can’t wait now, why do they have to do this? Just tell me it’s out and I’ll get it. Instead I’ve now got to wait for the release. Looks to be worth the wait though.

BTW - Anyone know of a release date?

So it’s 11 months post announce for Wrath and SC2… They’ve announced D3 and no one expects it sooner than holidays 2009… And this got me thinking.

Why announce things so early? I get that you want some buzz to build, fansites to come up and grow, etc. But surely that could happen with 6 to 9 months of lead time. What’s the advantage of announcing things more than a year out? I kind of get long lead time announces for things like Windows where corporations might need to do resource planning, etc. But that’s not really an issue with a game.

My thought on D3 after watching the gameplay trailer was “Looks very cool, i’ll probably try it” followed by “but who cares it’s at least 18 months out…” and dismissing it from my mind. I mean, if they were announcing it now and planning to ship it for THIS holiday season… that’s demand creation. Announcing it now and not even saying “we expect to ship this toward the end of 2009” (or whatever) seems… a waste of an event. Ohh cool game! Out in 2010? Wake me then…