Poll: How Much Do 'True' Gameplay Trailers Matter to You?

I don't really have a problem with cinematic trailers, but if you're going to call it a gameplay trailer, put some gameplay in it. It's not that complicated.

how much do 'True' money matters to these publishers ? 🤣

It depends. Some cinematic trailers can be amazing at setting a tone and theme — there's definitely a place for them. But when it's time to show gameplay, it's time to show gameplay. Calling a heavily edited cut of "in-game" footage a "gameplay trailer" is an easy way to piss people off.

I’ve hated these CGi cutscenes that don’t represent the final games at all, that we’ve been getting this generation.

Dead Island was the worst offender of this back in the day, and ever since I’ve hated them.

Diablo’s are pretty cool, but other then that, just give me gameplay trailers. Not things that make me want something that doesn’t exist.

Most trailers spoil the game too much

With so much back log trailers are not important...however what is important are reviews on finished games its what influences my spending.

This is, at best, clickbait by Ubi, getting the viewers in by promising gameplay or at worse this is indicative of the quality of the gameplay in it's current state. I mean it shouldn't be hard, if you don't have a playable demo ready, don't promise a trailer based on gameplay.

Actual footage of what it’s like when you play it and I like a game to be at least 30 hours long. Everyone different and like different things but that’s my opinion

More than anything, i dont want to see reveal trailers until around 6 months out. I dont really mind whether a trailer is cinematic or not - but this gen has been full of titles like FF7 Remake, Days Gone, Last of Us 2, Ghost of Tsushima etc announced too early and then painful waits for their final release. It kills the hype somewhat.

Im assuming Sony know this, hence the lack of info on PS5 yet, then they will drop loads of info on the run up to release 😉

@WiserPaladin or it was pressure by Microsoft to put games out in trailers before Sony.... and this was the result.

How about both, a CGI intro then gameplay finishing with CGI, or if there's an especially impresive bit of game play...that.

@Rob_230 If the next gen systems release in Nov, we are six months out already.

I remember the Persona 5 trailer with no gameplay and just 5 chairs with chains. A big clink sound going off each time a new chair appeared. Never played a Persona game before but heard great things. It just pulled me in and I have no idea why.

I NEEDED THAT GAME!!! Whatever magic they used for that trailer hit all the right notes. No gameplay whatsoever.

@OmegaStriver yep, and im half expecting Sony to drop something this month

Some cinematic trailers are great, it’s a question of advertising. If you say it’s going to be a gameplay trailer, you expect gameplay.

if we are being honest here i love cgi trailers even in 2020 always waited for one especially Assassin's creed series, Digic pictures did some quality work over years..and still does.

but when they say gameplay i want actual gameplay as the name says not some ingame cinematics... this is not first time either lot of publishers are doing this over years almost every e3 or game awards or vga before its same...

For me be it reveals or otherwise I just care for gameplay! Most of the trailers we see are cgi bullcrap that doesn't even represent the actual game!
The only trailers I don't mind are story trailers, right before release like FF7 and Last of Us 2...
The rest needs gameplay!

Do not care. Announce the NEW games however you can as soon as you can. CG or hand puppets.

Start the Marketing with what you have. And release date/hardware info.

Everyone will get a gameplay trailer sooner or later. Does not matter if now or 3 weeks later. They always come.

Thing is Ubisoft did that 8 hours stream to reveal the game, promoted a cinematic trailer. Cinematic trailer comes out then they say we got a gameplay trailer coming out. Up to this point Ubisoft was actually doing ok. Then came the no gameplay gameplay trailer after which they said 'we have a marketing strategy to show the gameplay' and their creative director took to twitter and all hope was lost.

However the flip side is when Ubisoft gave up gameplay of the first Watch Dogs. Which was mostly lies.

Bottom line if you say you are releasing a gameplay trailer, release a gameplay trailer.

Just stop using slowed down 'dramatic' versions of songs from the 80s/90s and I'll be happy. I hate that so much. It kills me that a game like FFVII's trailer felt it needed a crappy/horrible version of a Smashing Pumpkins songs while FFVII already has AMAZING music. Really grinds my gears.

Gameplay trailers should show what it's like to play the game. Cutscenes are not gameplay.

@Stragen8 What was wrong with the Dead Island trailer? It showed zombies, an hotel and an exotic island. Unless it was presented as a gameplay trailer, it was perfect.

I like cinematic trailers. I especially like them for announcements or reveals. I think the following timeline would be perfect for maximizing hype for me (Astral Chain was pretty close to this):

6 months out, cinematic reveal trailer with release date.
3 months out, gameplay trailer.
1 month out, demo released.
In the week leading up to launch, cinematic trailer.

But regardless... if you call it a gameplay trailer, it should have more gameplay than not shouldn't it?

The entire Xbox Series X "gameplay" event was extremely light on actual gameplay. I appreciate that they did something, but it was very misleading.

Cinematic trailers are fine but if they promise gameplay then they should show gameplay

I think the thing with AC games is that they usually have a breath-takingly amazing cinematic reveal trailer like AC 2 or revelations etc and then later on we get a gameplay trailer with developer commentary.

So yes it depends on the game, no one wants to see some cinematic trailer for fifa, even though thats what they show us most of the time anyway.

Some of the best reveals were Horizon Zero Dawn and God of War. Start with a cinematic trailer, and when you think it ends, it transitions into decent gameplay demo.

It doesnt matter. What matters is to be honest. Live demo is always the best. Trailers on any form are great. Just call it what it is. A gameplay trailer is a gameplay focused trailer. It's not an in game cinematic trailer.

Showing off the idea/concept with a cinematic trailer is all well and good to build up a bit of hype and interest but what everyone wants is to see the actual game, how does it play and how it really looks.
Especially since we're currently looking forward to seeing just what the leap forward PS5/next gen will bring

Depends on the game really. Dirt 5, Madden, AC Valhalla etc I dont really need to see gameplay as I pretty much already know what to expect. With other lesser known things its a must.

I think a cinematic trailer can drill up hype much more than a gameplay one. Everybody swoons when Naughty Dog do it.

CG trailers are fine and have their place, but a gameplay trailer should show clear and obvious gameplay moments. It’s not much to ask.

Full gameplay means like e3 trailer/preview of god of war or horizon zd which explain fully what the game is, not just pretty cinematics trailer that's will be different from the actual gameplay 😕

@andreoni79 to be fair I really liked the game as well

Luckily in this case we know what the gameplay is. Assassin's Creed. You're a viking with a...hidden blade...I would be super into this if they cut out the silly assassin parts.

The only good original game from the show was Scarlet Nexus imo.

Oh, and yeah, I prefer actual gameplay trailers over cinematics.

@andreoni79 It was an awesome trailer! But when I played the game I felt like it wasn’t at all what the trailer conveyed.
I found a Wikipedia article on it actually:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Island_Reveal_Trailer

“ The lack of gameplay information was also criticized. Laura Parker found the trailer disconnected from the actual game, with the trailer being misleading by not showing any in-game information, and with the game failing to deliver the same emotional effect as the trailer.[22] Daemon Hatfield from IGN similarly thought that the trailer was not useful in assessing the game's quality and expressed concerns that the game would not be as entertaining and interesting as the trailer.[27] Upon release, many reviewers thought that the trailer had set expectation too high for the actual game, and that the game ended up not meeting expectations.[23”

Ideally, I'd like a mix of both. Open with a cinematic, then show some actual gameplay.

The problem with cinematic trailers is that they can often not truly represent (or even deliberately misrepresent) the actual gameplay at all. Look at many of the TV ads for games... you see some cool CGI trailer with tanks and aircraft roaring over a detailed battlefield, thinking you're in for some awesome new shooter along the lines of Battlefield, and it turns out to be some pixelated turn-based strategy crap for mobiles, riddled with ads and "in-game purchases".

Hell, despite the admittedly beautiful, fancy trailers, I'm still concerned about the gameplay for Tsushima, because it's getting ever closer to release and the limited gameplay we've seen so far left me decidedly unimpressed.

Ultimately don’t we all want proper gameplay trailers so we can see how the feckin game actually plays. You know the whole reason we buy the damn things in the first place. Cinematic trailers don’t show you that.

A gameplay trailer paints a thousand more words to explain the game than a cinematic trailer which just builds tension, hype and/or story info...

Bloodborne was perfect - the first 15 minutes.

@themcnoisy Just like your avatar that game had such great CGI for the time. I believe there is a place for gameplay and CGI trailers.

The World is changing and we don’t know nothing anymore. We didn’t know what a remake was until FFVIIR, we didn’t know what a gameplay trailer was until AC Valhalla gameplay trailer appears...

Both are fine and I welcome them. Cinematic is fine for a early preview. But actual game play is the best way to judge a game. If its not real game play it's Cinematic I do not care for terms like in-engine its still not game play. The bad thing is even game play can be cut and edited in a way to not represent the real game.

As I've said other times, I f*cking hate "cinematic" trailers.
They don't show anything, and if they do it may be a spoiler.
They don't show gameplay but expect us to get excited about that nothingness.
And, worst of all, they're so formulaic and trite that they all look and sound the same.
I swear that I get mad when I hear a trailer starting with some vaguely "philosophical" quote and some kind of "epic" song. It really gets on my nerves.

@NathanUC yes! This is also a trend that needs to die out fast.

Bit surprised by this poll. I don’t really want to know anything before I buy. Especially if it’s a game in a AAA series like Far Cry or Resident Evil. Any experienced gamer knows what they are in for.
As for indie games or left-of-centre experiments I’ll maybe watch 30 seconds of gameplay.
Cinematic trailers are absolutely useless for everyone, they provide no information and exist only for hype purposes .

@redd214 similar to how I think. But even with smaller titles I’d prefer to know as little as possible.

@clvr agree. They are useless and all conform to the same structure. Sweeping ‘epic’ song we’ve all heard a million times, some murky or dark swashes of colour, a quote by some philosophers... Blerg. Boring and useless.

Gameplay trailers are almost never indicative of the final product. Most of the time they are running on workstation hardware which is hugely overpowered compared to the home versions.
And they contain spoilers! If you want to ruin your experience then yeah go ahead and watch gameplay trailers. By the same token why not just watch an hour long let’s play video and ruin it further.
Gamers should have some patience and self control.

@Arnna exactly, that's why I can't stand them!
On the topic of gameplay trailers, though, I slightly disagree: I think a bit of gameplay is fine because you have to give an indication of how the game will play. Ideally it would be a clip from the early game so you don't spoil too much for the player.

I don't get why anyone would want cinematic trailers, we're here to see gameplay. It honestly makes it even more annoying as all hell when developers announce a game but then decide, "Oh ok let's just not talk about for 4 years or so."

If you’re simply announcing a project, a cinematic trailer is perfectly fine. But if you’re advertising gameplay for said games and there’s no actual gameplay, like the Xbox Series X event, then it’s a major f-ing problem. That’s false advertising and Microsoft deserves to be chastised about it.

@themcnoisy I think with a story-based game like Persona that's especially perfect. A trailer that gives off it's style and lets you feel what it going to be like thematically a bit is much better than showing off some turn-based battles with a simple mechanics explanation. That's really not why you're getting the game. So that's something else to add in, what's the point of the game?

The beautiful cinematic trailers for Final Fantasy games actually put me off playing em for years. I thought what are they trying to hide? 🧐

The older I get the less important trailers are becoming. If it's something that looks interesting I'll give it shot regardless if it has a huge marketing push with trailers and the such. But I do admit that a good CGI cinematic with a good hook always gets me.

Gameplay means In engine gameplay to me. I dont even think those exist though. Its always from a high end PC. The only time i see gameplay trailers is with Elder scrolls online. They dont cheat people with fake graphics unless its a story DLC movie.

not only that but they keep telling us that next gen will be incredible like nothing we have ever seen before. Yet they still give us CGI trailers.lol

@Enuo - Pretty much this. I didn't necessarily need a gameplay trailer for AC Valhalla at this point (as it's likely similar to Origins and Odyssey), but a video called 'gameplay trailer' should provide at least some footage of what the game is going to play like.

Edit: In general though, I don't really mind either (though both would be ideal) as long as they provide an accurate idea on what the game is going to be like.

Announce a game your a few years out and want some hype. Throw me a cg trailer, we are talking release window a year show me game play with me knowing full well yes it can change and yes it may and will need more polish. Now there is one big problem the whole internet rage thing if your not polished enough it's a ps3 game. So damned if you do damned if you don't.

I don’t mind game reveals with cinematic trailers so much ONCE we’re into a console generation. It’s difficult to get excited about next gen visuals when you don’t see any gameplay, which is one area I think the PS4 reveal smashed it. Cinematic trailers give sod all indication of what new consoles are capable of

I honestly don't give a damn either way, although if I had to choose I'd say raw, on-stage gameplay demonstrations at E3 or something is what I'd prefer.

In my opinion, the best trailer every single dev should look up to when making an AAA game reveal, is Horizon Zero Dawn.

It starts with a long cutscene explaining the campaign setting, and continues with a decent chunk of gameplay.

It gives you sufficient info in lore, tone, and gameplay.

It's perfect.

Loved the Horizon Zero Dawn and God of War gameplay trailers, a good mix with an idea of how it plays.

If anything this generation has taught me not to preorder.

@NathanUC
I just hate when they slow down rock a bye baby or mommas gonna buy you a mockingbird....for almost all the horror games. Sheesh .
But if I dont see gameplay I wont buy it.

I really think it's going to be really difficult to WOW people next-gen really. Hopefully I am wrong and hopefully the PS5 Exclusives games can.

If it's called a gameplay trailer, it must include gameplay. Don't ***** in my ice cream and call it chocolate, for example.

I like cinematic trailers when a game is first introduced, but after that I want to see what it is going to look like once it's in my hands.

My interest is in AAA titles with little interest in indies and no interest in modern side scollers or top down style. Trailers and game play demos help me to sort for possible purchases.

For me the most decisive information comes post release, like reviews, gamers videos and comments, and performance analysis

I don't watch trailers or teasers before game release. And only place where I watch trailers is ps store right in game details. I expect gameplay trailer, to decide if I like style of gameplay and actual visage of game. Unfortunately almost every game trailer on PS Store has same scenario. 1 minute of developer logos, 2 minutes of meaningless cinematic, 5 seconds of gameplay (0.5 second cuts) and thats all.

Actually longer cinematic in trailers makes me less interested of buying the game. More they invest into trailer, more fishy is game itself... As we can say "Crap needs advertising, good things sell themselves"

In engine, is pretty useless. Skyrim looks fantastic in engine, but you want to see how shaky it is when you move around and how much lag there maybe. I am sorry, but I disapprove of any "gameplay" trailer with no actual gameplay.

I hardly ever watch trailers (the last one I saw was one of the AC: Odyssey trailer as I wanted to see some set pieces because I am Greek). I just read what games are coming out and maybe some reviews.
But if you call something 'gameplay trailer' then you SHOULD show gameplay.

@Enuo This. This exactly.

Cinematic trailers have their place but if that's what it is, don't call a potato and apple and expect people to just believe you.