Thomas Gallagher

Major game developers are getting complacent with misleading the public and using fan favorite actors is the newest marketing scheme

Nowadays, after seeing the trailer for a video game I’m interested in, my first instinct is to wait until release and watch multiple youtube reviews before deciding to buy. I’ve just been burned too many times and my trust in the industry, like many gamers, has been destroyed. The release of Far Cry 6 was building up plenty of hype due to its aggressive marketing on youtube and cable television using actor Giancarlo Esposito, a fan favorite from the 2008 series Breaking Bad as well as Disney’s 2019 TV show The Mandalorian. I was eager to play the game considering my love for Esposito’s work and his avocation for his character in the game Anton Castillo being, in his words, “my most monstrous villain yet” stated in Ubisoft’s Far Cry 6 trailer. I was eager to play a game showcasing great actors and the ability to interact with them as a character in the game, but, and this is a huge but, I and many others had been duped by this exact marketing scheme before. 

Cyberpunk 2077, a game which heavily featured Keanu Reeves as a side character in the game, relied on heavy marketing which showcased Reeves’ involvement and gained lots of attention for it. This drew me and many others to patiently wait on their consoles or PCs to purchase the game on launch. It was supposed to be a beautiful, polished, futuristic shooter with a thrilling storyline. What we got was, at best a buggy game for newer consoles and high end PCs, and at its worst, an unplayable game for older consoles and budget PCs. I was so excited to start playing Cyberpunk 2077 and honestly thoroughly enjoyed the game at its lowest graphics settings, because it was all my computer could handle, until I was unable to play the game due to a developer issue which caused my save to never load. A couple days after launch, it became apparent that anyone without a high-tier PC or console would have real difficulty playing the game and many would refund it, or like me simply give up playing and hope to come back when it was patched. Although CD Projekt Red have put out massive updates, as of September 2021 the game is still littered with bugs highlighted in an article from GameRant which explores a redditor’s video featuring some of the bugs still in the game. Cyberpunk 2077’s failure to meet expectations showcased how misleading video game marketing can be. This marketing style, which uses fan favorite actors to amass hype and cover up an unfinished or poorly made game has led game developers to become complacent with making reskins of the same game or games which fail to deliver and Cyberpunk 2077 is one of many. 

Video Games have seen a recent spike in notable actors’ inclusion due to the attention it draws from fans and leads to more eyes on the project. It has been a staple in video games since the success in 2019 of Kojima Porduction’s Death Stranding which garnered massive attention by featuring Norman Reedus from The Walking Dead (2010) as the main playable character as well as performances from Mads Mikkelsen and Lea Seydoux. The game was ultimately a success and proved just how effective marketing with famous vocal talent can be, selling five million units worldwide and becoming the highest-grossing game in 2020 for Digital Bros, the parent organization of publisher 505 Games. Death Stranding also won awards for best performance, score and was nominated for game of the year in the 2019 Game Awards. Given Death Stranding’s success and hype before release it is no wonder many big game developers sought to follow suit and decide to add notable actors into new and existing projects. 

When Fortnite had reached its peak around the summer of 2019 Epic Games decided to include a DLC skin of Keanu Reeves’ character John Wick from the John Wick Series prior to the newest installment’s release in order to market the movie to a younger generation. The skin was only available to those who bought the Battle Pass, a leveling system which unlocked content as the player progressed and the John Wick skin was at the very end (level 40) of the battle pass. The Battle pass for season 3 originally cost $10 and sold 5 million battle passes on the first day of the third season which grossed Fortnite (a free game keep in mind) over $50 million. Fortnite has added many famous characters and notable faces with events such as the Travis Scott concert held in 2020 which was a free event but garnered massive media attention. Fortnite has also held events or new game modes with Marvel, DC and many other film franchises in order to market the movies and create new DLC content for Fornite players to spend their V-bucks on. 

Incorporating beloved actors into a video game has worked well for games that are actually, well, good. The issue with Far Cry 6 isn’t that they have Esposito’s character in it because it has been reported so far that his acting and character in the game are quite good and a glimmer of hope in the game. Where Far Cry 6 misleads the public is within the game itself. A youtuber who I consistently watch due to their grounded and comedic reviews on games is VideoGameDunkey. Known for his oddball humour and distrust in video game companies, I rely on his opinion among others to determine whether a game is truly worth an investment of my time and money. Dunkey’s review of Far Cry 6 was harsh to say the least. Calling it a “reskin of Far Cry 3” in which he displayed how none of the games major issues had been fixed and how boring the game was to actually play. The game is a repeat of the same story from the last three games in the series and offers almost no new game mechanics despite complaints from fans. The game itself, which is not good and not bad, has still grossed $4.4 billion dollars despite not being a great game. The fact that a game this mediocre can make record numbers while failing to meet expectations and have overall decent reviews from IGN and other major rating sites is misleading. While some may argue it is a “solid” or “decent” game, that may be true for some, but the knowledge game devs have gained from Far Cry 6’s success is that as long as a game is heavily and aggressively marketed or includes a fan favorite character or both, it will inevitably make money as long is the game is at least playable.

Far Cry 6 displays a slippery slope with video game quality and trust among players who want more from game developers rather than repeats of games with the same story, mechanics and design. The gaming industry as a whole has decided that games like Far Cry 6 which lack creativity, depth and innovation should be produced en masse and marketed so aggressively that you are hypnotized to buy it by launch. Most experienced gamers have learned never to buy on release because there is, in my estimation, less than a 50% chance the game is worth the investment. The issue here is that game developers and studios understand how to make money with the least amount of effort and there is little we can do to stop them from taking advantage of us. However, as the quality of games regresses yet profits continue to increase, this could be the first signal that creativity in the gaming industry is dying. My greatest fear, in which every game developer and studio follows EA’s formula in which they release the same game every year with new rosters corresponding to the football and soccer seasons of that year. I fear that gaming will become so complacent that they release few games with a continuing storyline that lasts for years and the consumers will buy it because there is nothing else on the market. What a nightmare.

I think having notable actors in a game is fine and should even be encouraged to add to the story. The game must still be playable though. It is only disingenuous to include famous actors in the game and marketing material with the sole purpose of covering up a bad game. In future games, I’d love to see a standard set for developers in the future. I believe these big game creators should not be able to get away with marketing games that are unfinished or extremely buggy. While it may not be easy to test before launch, the industry’s credibility may be at stake in the upcoming years. One silver lining is that while big games have continued to disappoint, as a result, indie games and studios will get more attention. I think the indie revolution could not come soon enough.