Announcing Games Too Early Is a Disaster, Players Say Bethesda's Fallout 4 Should Be the Standard

A Reddit thread blew up this week. Players are collectively furious: studios announce games before they're even formed, then go silent for years—are we being played?

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake and Star Wars Eclipse are textbook cases. Trailers dropped with flashy CG, but where's the gameplay footage? Where's the actual demonstration? Nothing. Players finish watching and are left to imagine the rest—that's not building hype, that's stringing people along.

The Elder Scrolls VI has it worse. Since its announcement, players haven't received a single substantial update. One commenter joked: by the time it launches, Skyrim will be a museum piece. This kind of prolonged wait doesn't sustain anticipation—it drains patience.

The model players praise is Fallout 4. Bethesda announced it, immediately showed gameplay footage, locked in a release date, and shipped the game months later. Tight pacing, transparent communication, players bought in. That's how marketing should work.

Premature announcements boil down to studios claiming territory and staying relevant, but the cost is eroding player trust. If the game isn't ready, don't shout about it. Wait until it is. That logic isn't complicated.