The Worst Game Trailers

Piscian

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I hate to be mean, but I gotta be honest the May the 4th trailer for Bio-mutant was pretty atrocious. It looks like they cobbled it together last minute.

 
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Drathnoxis

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I gotta say both trailers look literally the same to me.

Like if you put them next to each other and ask me to identify the "bad" trailer I wouldn't be able to do it even having just watched both of them.
@Bedinsis
Same. Though the music was better in World of Hurt. I was more interested finally seeing what your avatar is from.
 

FakeSympathy

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So..... does anyone remember when sony announced FF7 for ps4?

No, I'm not talking about the remake that generated so much hype; I'm talking about the original game being ported to ps4


Now, the original game is a great game, but I remember so many disappointments with this announcement. I think it was almost as bad as diablo immortal annoucement when it came to disappointment
 

Xprimentyl

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Speaking of trailers with no gameplay that poorly represent what the game is, the Dead Island trailer

Tho you could also say it was a very good trailer, since it did create a lot of hype
I entered this thread specifically to see how many posts it'd take before this one was mentioned; #9 didn't disappoint. I, for one, enjoyed Dead Island for what it was, but the trailer really did fail to suggest the finished product in any substantive way. That said, I don't think that trailer meant to do that; it was establishing the premise: a vacation destination overrun by zombies, and that's exactly what Dead Island is, but I think what people took away from it was expectations of drama and intrigue. Those same people probably get pissed when they see car commercials showing the car driving through beautiful and exotic locations only to find themselves commuting to work and their kid's soccer practice. Hey, we advertised four wheels and an engine, not God's gift to the entitled.
 

BrawlMan

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I entered this thread specifically to see how many posts it'd take before this one was mentioned; #9 didn't disappoint. I, for one, enjoyed Dead Island for what it was, but the trailer really did fail to suggest the finished product in any substantive way. That said, I don't think that trailer meant to do that; it was establishing the premise: a vacation destination overrun by zombies, and that's exactly what Dead Island is, but I think what people took away from it was expectations of drama and intrigue. Those same people probably get pissed when they see car commercials showing the car driving through beautiful and exotic locations only to find themselves commuting to work and their kid's soccer practice. Hey, we advertised four wheels and an engine, not God's gift to the entitled.
Here's a hot take, I never once hated the Dead Island trailer. People set their expectations way too high for what they thought they were going to get. The trailer did nothing wrong.
 
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Xprimentyl

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Here's a hot take, I never once hated the Dead Island trailer. People set there expectations way too high for what they thought they were going to get. The trailer did nothing wrong.
I agree, 100%, so let's make that a boiling hot take. They didn't show gameplay, so what people "expected" from it shouldn't be the measure of what they got for this trailer to have been getting shit all these years.
 

CaitSeith

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Sony always make extremely weird shit for their trailers. Need I post the PS3 baby trailer?
We all already know Sony is a recurring candidate for worst trailers; but (and excuse me if I sound rude) that doesn't make their trailers any better, does it?
 
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laggyteabag

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I hate to be mean, but I gotta be honest the May the 4th trailer for Bio-mutant was pretty atrocious. It looks like they cobbled it together last minute.

I mean, I understand what they were trying to do...

Basically a shot-for-shot adaption of the Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker trailer


But im not too sure... why? May the 4th, sure, but Its not like this game has anything to do with Star Wars, nor does it look like it was even remotely inspired by Star Wars.

Not to mention that it didn't exactly but the game's best foot forward. Sure, some of the scenery was pretty, but there were a lot of janky animations and weird effects, and as you say, it looks like it was thrown together in an afternoon, judging by some of the camera work.

And at the end of the day, it just seems like a bit of an odd trailer to mimic. I mean, TROS was the most recent movie, sure, but for a lot of people, I can only really imagine that the film brings up disappointing memories, so not exactly a feeling to invoke, when advertising your new game.

Strange trailer.
 
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Elvis Starburst

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We all already know Sony is a recurring candidate for worst trailers; but (and excuse me if I sound rude) that doesn't make their trailers any better, does it?
I mean... I'm not exactly implying they're of any level of quality or anything (At least intentionally)
 

laggyteabag

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It's an ad, not really a trailer per se. But this:
Yeah, this has aged like milk.

Im also not really sure who this trailer is marketing to. Obviously the trailer is riffing on Call of Duty etc, but the Ouya can't even play Call of Duty, or anything remotely of the same quality or standard, so im not really too sure that "Don't play Call of Duty, buy our £99 console, and play android/indie games instead!" was a viable marketing tactic.

The highest profile game that came out on the console, appears to be TellTale's The Walking Dead - and only the first season, as far as I can tell.

On a related note, the Ouya lasted a lot longer than I expected. To my knowledge, the thing was immediately mocked when it released, and was basically dead on arrival. Yet, the console lasted 2 years before it was discontinued, games were still being officially ported to the Ouya until 2017, and the store was supported until June 2019 - six years after the console released.

For a dead console, it was alive for quite a while. Even if it was a shambling corpse at that point.
 

happyninja42

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Here's a hot take, I never once hated the Dead Island trailer. People set their expectations way too high for what they thought they were going to get. The trailer did nothing wrong.
I think it's an interesting point when you say "bad trailer", by what metric? Because that trailer was A) Very good at generating hype for the game, which is the actual point of such trailers. And B) As a tonal trailer, to try and convey the tragic horror of a zombie breakout, by showing us this horrible scene in slow motion reverse. As far as impact, getting your attention, and getting people talking about the game, that trailer was a homerun. Whether it was a good game, that's entirely different.

I mean I remember when that trailer hit, EVERYONE was talking about it. Either angry at how graphic it was, some people just did not like seeing a child being killed like that, and people who were like "holy shit this will be awesome!" But it definitely got the buzz out.
 

BrawlMan

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I think it's an interesting point when you say "bad trailer", by what metric? Because that trailer was A) Very good at generating hype for the game, which is the actual point of such trailers. And B) As a tonal trailer, to try and convey the tragic horror of a zombie breakout, by showing us this horrible scene in slow motion reverse. As far as impact, getting your attention, and getting people talking about the game, that trailer was a homerun. Whether it was a good game, that's entirely different.

I mean I remember when that trailer hit, EVERYONE was talking about it. Either angry at how graphic it was, some people just did not like seeing a child being killed like that, and people who were like "holy shit this will be awesome!" But it definitely got the buzz out.
I remember exactly the same thing. Jim Sterling even talked about it for a bit. Though he was excited for the game and if I remember correctly he liked it enough. But it's why I don't hold much sympathy for those that buy into a trailer with no gameplay and expect the Earth, Moon, and Sun. Then they become bravely disappointed, irate, or upset. The funny thing is afterward, they showed actual gameplay footage in later trailers. So I don't know why people were so surprised by that point when the game actually launched.
 
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happyninja42

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I remember exactly the same thing. Jim Sterling even talked about it for a bit. Though he was excited for the game and if I remember correctly he liked it enough. But it's why I don't hold much sympathy for those that buy into a trailer with no gameplay and expect the Earth, Moon, and Sun. Then they become bravely disappointed, irate, or upset. The funny thing is afterward, they showed actual gameplay footage in later trailers. So I don't know why people were so surprised by that point when the game actually launched.
Yeah, I find it funny that the team responsible for that game, went on to make Dying Light, which I fucking love. I admit for me, the thematic trailers do more than gameplay stuff. I usually don't really get hyped for the mechanics of the games, to me, those are just tools to experience the story of the game. So if that doesn't catch my interest, I will quickly have that game fall off my mental radar as something to keep an eye on. I don't however, ever think any game is going to be Earth, Moon and Sun. At best I'll be like "ok that trailer got some awesome tears out of me, and the theme seems to be something I will enjoy the hell out of. we'll see if the game actually lives up to that premise." Like Kena, Bridge of Spirits. The game might be a completely boring meander around a huge sandbox for all I know, with little investment in what's going on. But, given the cinematic trailers, I don't get that feeling. We'll see when it comes out though.
 
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BrawlMan

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It's not the worst, but my God, this trailer is "so, bad it's good". You can tell they just picked some lady in the D3 Publisher office just to do the voice and sex it up with the innuendos. This trailer didn't sell many copies of Bikini Zombie Slayers.

 
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hanselthecaretaker

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I agree, 100%, so let's make that a boiling hot take. They didn't show gameplay, so what people "expected" from it shouldn't be the measure of what they got for this trailer to have been getting shit all these years.

Yeah but, imagine if movie trailers did this. Maybe game trailers should only show actual, like, in-game footage from now on instead of trying to be so dramatic for marketing bs.
 
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