Final Fantasy XV Gamescom Active Time Report - CNN reporting live from disaster scene

Eh, I've got my own opinion on how the ATR ended up, but it's easy to go too far in the other direction. How much can you show over the course of a year (implied - or more, or less, who knows) without either running out of steam or ending up showing too much.

Dawn represents the start of the story, and was used for the start of the marketing campaign. Regardless of whether the backlash was anticipated or not, regardless of whether it's deserved or not, it kinda 'makes sense' in a rather straightforward way.

After how explosive the 2013 E3 trailer was I think overall expectations were very very different from what they showed at Gamescom.

Yeah, I understand what Square is wanting to do here, and I get there's still PAX/PGW/TGS/Jump Festa coming up, but I can't help but feel Gamescom was a huge missed opportunity to actually give a good overview of the gameplay, to a worldwide audience.
 
Eh, I've got my own opinion on how the ATR ended up, but it's easy to go too far in the other direction. How much can you show over the course of a year (implied - or more, or less, who knows) without either running out of steam or ending up showing too much.

Dawn represents the start of the story, and was used for the start of the marketing campaign. Regardless of whether the backlash was anticipated or not, regardless of whether it's deserved or not, it kinda 'makes sense' in a rather straightforward way.

After how explosive the 2013 E3 trailer was I think overall expectations were very very different from what they showed at Gamescom.

Yeah, exactly. As much as I would have wanted to see more new footage in the Dawn trailer, it's ridiculous to expect a meaty trailer at every single gaming convention from now until gamescom next year. Still, let's not kid ourselves, just 30s less of the hug and a few short clips from those new screenshots' location and nobody would have complained).
Anyway, no other game shows so much new stuff for a whole year or more. What have we seen of Mass Effect 4 so far, f.e.?
If you take all the small tidbits we heard over the last few days in interviews, Q&As, press texts, etc., we actually learned quite a few things. Many points are still a mystery, but honestly, that's probably a good thing. If they had shown too much, people would have whined, too.

I always said I would go on a blackout after the next big trailer, but I guess I'll have to wait until TGS next month or for E3 next year.
 
Yeah, I understand what Square is wanting to do here, and I get there's still PAX/PGW/TGS/Jump Festa coming up, but I can't help but feel Gamescom was a huge missed opportunity to actually give a good overview of the gameplay, to a worldwide audience.

Two days ago I felt so too, but if you think about it: everybody will forget this happened next year anyway, when the final trailers come out and everybody gets hyped again after seeing the game in its full glory. Long-term it might be better to not show too much too early so they can use what they have closer to the release when it's still fresh in peoples' minds. Next E3, and eventually gamescom depending on the release date, is the really important showcase for them.

Besides, if you look at social media and listen to attendees' impressions, it seems their shows with Germany's biggest Youtubers worked pretty good regardless. They had big crowds most of the days.
 
Eh, I've got my own opinion on how the ATR ended up, but it's easy to go too far in the other direction. How much can you show over the course of a year (implied - or more, or less, who knows) without either running out of steam or ending up showing too much.

Dawn represents the start of the story, and was used for the start of the marketing campaign. Regardless of whether the backlash was anticipated or not, regardless of whether it's deserved or not, it kinda 'makes sense' in a rather straightforward way.

After how explosive the 2013 E3 trailer was I think overall expectations were very very different from what they showed at Gamescom.

The first part of what you said is a good point against what they've been doing with the ATR format. It's clear fans are well past trickles of sparse information.
 
Yeah, exactly. As much as I would have wanted to see more new footage in the Dawn trailer, it's ridiculous to expect a meaty trailer at every single gaming convention from now until gamescom next year. Still, let's not kid ourselves, just 30s less of the hug and a few short clips from those new screenshots' location and nobody would have complained).
Anyway, no other game shows so much new stuff for a whole year or more. What have we seen of Mass Effect 4 so far, f.e.?
If you take all the small tidbits we heard over the last few days in interviews, Q&As, press texts, etc., we actually learned quite a few things. Many points are still a mystery, but honestly, that's probably a good thing. If they had shown too much, people would have whined, too.

I always said I would go on a blackout after the next big trailer, but I guess I'll have to wait until TGS next month or for E3 next year.

The problem is how they communicate things.

They said they were gonna have short trailer at E3 but backtracked and said they are completely skipping E3, and their full promotion will kickstart at gamescom so look forward to it. It's not unrealistic to expect something better than that shit Dawn trailer.

Also if you are doing a livestream ATR then they should have some good stuff at least. The fact that they had such a shit ATR, and had a lot better information at the non-recorded event is weird. If you don't have info, don't do the ATR. If you have some good stuff, show it at ATR. The ATR should be the most important thing, not the stage events with fans that are not streamed.
 
The problem is how they communicate things.

They said they were gonna have short trailer at E3 but backtracked and said they are completely skipping E3, and their full promotion will kickstart at gamescom so look forward to it. It's not unrealistic to expect something better than that shit Dawn trailer.

Also if you are doing a livestream ATR then they should have some good stuff at least. The fact that they had such a shit ATR, and had a lot better information at the non-recorded event is weird. If you don't have info, don't do the ATR. If you have some good stuff, show it at ATR. The ATR should be the most important thing, not the stage events with fans that are not streamed.

Yeah, I don't think ATRs are necessary anymore at all. They started doing them to regain trust from fans after another year of silence after E3 '13 and, well, for promoting Episode Duscae, but after TGS/Jump Festa ideally or the next big trailer at E3 next year at the absolute latest they should stop completely.
 
Yeah, I don't think ATRs are necessary anymore at all. They started doing them to regain trust from fans after another year of silence after E3 '13 and, well, for promoting Episode Duscae, but after TGS/Jump Festa ideally or the next big trailer at E3 next year at the absolute latest they should stop completely.
Agreed. The Live Letter format is not appropriate here.
 
Funny, I actually thought previous ATR weren't really that bad, until the latest one happened. Now I want them to do stop doing ATR altogether, and either show up in an event with a bang or don't show up at all.
 
Idk i'd be fine with some short ATR once in a while (like every two months) focused on a single gameplay (keep the story and new areas for trailer) element.
Like one they talk about weapon customization, another is for party AI and so on.
With maybe some light Q&A.
It wouldn't spoil anything and would give fans something to discuss about.
 
Idk i'd be fine with some short ATR once in a while (like every two months) focused on a single gameplay (keep the story and new areas for trailer) element.
Like one they talk about weapon customization, another is for party AI and so on.
With maybe some light Q&A.
It wouldn't spoil anything and would give fans something to discuss about.

That would mean they have those things ready to show off. They clearly hit a wall after promising frequent ATRs and now they have nothing to show during these things. They need to just go radio silent again. Doing this same thing at TGS and PAX is not going to do them any favours.
 
I don't understand why they are making the forums now... if game development is actually at 65%-75%, including debugging and localisation, then player feedback means NOTHING (not that it meant something before, but they'd done a kind of decent job hiding it untill now =P)
 
I think a solution to this mess is to just show new gameplay that doesn't need story context to make sense. I'm worried they'll spoil way too much of the story, but they can show some new gameplay elements that aren't as spoilery.

I for one, don't want to know who the villain is. That's part of the fun of playing an FF, seeing who is pulling the strings. I may have to go on media blackout soon.

But I think if Noctis and co got into a legitimate fight with that Marlboro during the last ATR, the reaction would've been different. Have the crew show off some new moves, maybe even magic! Instead we got a pathetic game over. Not sure who thought that was a good idea.

Just show off some combat, couple of new areas, nothing too deep in the story and I think people will be happy. Just reassure us that this is indeed a real game that is coming out, and not vaporware the developers are still trying to crack.
 
I don't understand why they are making the forums now... if game development is actually at 65%-75%, including debugging and localisation, then player feedback means NOTHING (not that it meant something before, but they'd done a kind of decent job hiding it untill now =P)
To control messaging. Shamdeo said it best really but it seems they want to dilute a lot of non-official community interaction.
 
Eh, I've got my own opinion on how the ATR ended up, but it's easy to go too far in the other direction. How much can you show over the course of a year (implied - or more, or less, who knows) without either running out of steam or ending up showing too much.

Dawn represents the start of the story, and was used for the start of the marketing campaign. Regardless of whether the backlash was anticipated or not, regardless of whether it's deserved or not, it kinda 'makes sense' in a rather straightforward way.

After how explosive the 2013 E3 trailer was I think overall expectations were very very different from what they showed at Gamescom.

I understand that, but when you show up to a special event just to essentially say "We can't talk anymore about that now, please wait a little longer" and show nothing but minute long snippets it gets old real fast with the fanbase, hence the current backlash. And if this was the first time they'd done this, we wouldn't be having this conversation. To compound that issue, they missed E3 only to say "Don't worry, we are launching are media campaign at Gamescom!" which people obviously misinterpreted their intentions. It was literally "We are starting, here's a trailer saying as much" not the information blowout everyone thought it was going to be. It was a miscommunication on every front for the marketing department. 11 months of Duscae, missing E3, giving minute long snippets at Gamescom with vague promises for the future. Obviously there is a schedule and they can only give so much information at a time, but this clearly isn't working. And if TGS is a similar showing, they'll have even more backlash.

And I totally get that this is from the perspective of a fan who has been following this game since before 2010. Most people just tuning in probably don't get what all the frustration is about. A lot of people, judging by comments I've seen, know little about XV's history as Versus XIII.
 
A forum for a game like FF15 is such a bad idea. One, it gives plenty of chances for fan base to shitpost and discuss nothing worth discussing. Two, the developers who visit the forum would only be demoralized.
 
A forum for a game like FF15 is such a bad idea. One, it gives plenty of chances for fan base to shitpost and discuss nothing worth discussing. Two, the developers who visit the forum would only be demoralized.

Its such a joke lol. Like completely unbelievable.

As a undergraduate Business/Marketing student its painfully obvious what works and what would not work with this game.

Yet S-E's Japana and overseas Marketing teams greenlight these awful approaches and ideas and get paid to do it.

I say open this forum and let the shitposting commence. I will be there day 1 taking part. They've brought this upon themselves.
 
All they need to do is give us a fucking stunning 7-8 minute long trailer early next year on a countdown website. And tell us beforehand that the trailer will reveal the release date at the end to build mass hype.

THATS IT. NO ATR. NO LIVE STREAM. NO CONFERENCE FFS. THAT WOULD GIVE ALL THE BUZZ U NEED U INCOMPETENT CLOWNS.
 
Its such a joke lol. Like completely unbelievable.

As a undergraduate Business/Marketing student its painfully obvious what works and what would not work with this game.

Yet S-E's Japana and overseas Marketing teams greenlight these awful approaches and ideas and get paid to do it.

I say open this forum and let the shitposting commence. I will be there day 1 taking part. They've brought this upon themselves.

lol yes...I'm an undergraduate design student (who had some marketing classes) and this whole campaign looks so bad already!

this game is an awesome case study for us isn't it? D:
 
S-E Facebook page just posted this lol

11873549_1034718276562931_1450781012628887614_n.jpg
 
You're still missing the point. You're inferring from the fact that they're not showing a shit ton of things off, that they don't have a shit ton of things to show off,





























rofl.
 
lol yes...I'm an undergraduate design student (who had some marketing classes) and this whole campaign looks so bad already!

this game is an awesome case study for us isn't it? D:

Shame stuff like this doesn't have academic citations, otherwise I would cover this haha.
 
You're still missing the point. You're inferring from the fact that they're not showing a shit ton of things off, that they don't have a shit ton of things to show off,





























rofl.

Falk doing the mixing on some 20 minute Kojima-busting trailer that would satisfy supermanisdead? :P
 
I like their way of having Nomura draw modern/futuristic style FF, while having Yoshida draw more old school medieval style FF. I don't want Nomura doing medieval FF and I don't want Yoshida doing modern/futuristic FF.

The problem was that last gen we had 3 lightning games shoved to us and Yoshida's game was used on MMO, so it has been a while since we got Yoshida's single player FF game.

Hopefully FFXVI is has Yoshida's art. Although he doesn't work for SE anymore he can still do it on contract bases I guess.
The problem is that I can see Square going "you want Yoshida art? Play FFXIV" since they're likely to keep supporting that game for a long long time.

And as you said, he's no longer an official SE employee so I doubt they'd be keen on giving him reigns of a mainline FF.

Which sucks because I'm soooo tired of Nomura's art, yet he seems to be the go-to guy for mainline FF from now on.
 
Does this mean that the whole Shakespeare theme between StellaLuna and Noctis is gone and now what we have is The Lion King?

Maybe it was always this clear, but didn't strike me as much as with this image...

But the Shakespeare theme was going to be more akin to Hamlet than Romeo & Juliet. I specifically remember Nomura saying there isn't a big love story focus in Versus XIII in one of the earlier interviews. Correct me if I'm wrong someone but I'm sure he said that.
 
but they don't have a shit ton of things to show off
If you say so Sparky! Whatever floats your boat.


Falk doing the mixing on some 20 minute Kojima-busting trailer that would satisfy supermanisdead? :P

Please don't quote posts that intentionally waste vertical space. It's annoying.

edit: nm it was my own post, wasn't wearing my glasses.


In all seriousness though, you know what? I think it's about time I peace out on FFXV threads till at least PAX and TGS too.

Been asked a couple of times in private what I thought of the Gamescom showing. I've been pretty open about my opinion on games I've worked on in the past (Lightning Returns o boy - fun game, but some things could have been left in the oven a little longer) but for FFXV the situation's a little different - Due to how volatile it is I'm either going to look like I'm whiteknighting a product I worked on, or badmouthing a product I worked on, either of which does the game nor me any good. Me posting snarky comments don't help much either - that much I can readily admit.

I'll say this though - Throughout the course of vsXIII's history I've been on both extremes of the hype and snark trains, but at this point, having seen what I have of the FFXV's dev, it's extremely frustrating whenever people jump to conclusions of any sort with respect to where the game stands, based on marketing decisions and/or spontaneous comments from the public faces of the team.

I think it's really best if I just forced myself to take a step back and let the game speak for itself in the long run. Peek into the discussions once in a while, join in the banter, but dip sparingly into the frustration and know when it's time to pull up again.
 
from the fact that they sat at gamescom for an hour reading text off their website and giggling about airships being complicated

To be fair I think it's just their PR being super shitty. Those new shots lead me to believe it's pretty far along than we think.


And the part about airships is probably a second thought in their minds in the grand scheme of things.
 
Final Fantasy XV |OT| A Tale of Faith in Unbreakabe Bombs.

I'll say this though - Throughout the course of vsXIII's history I've been on both extremes of the hype and snark trains, but at this point, having seen what I have of the FFXV's dev, it's extremely frustrating whenever people jump to conclusions of any sort with respect to where the game stands, based on marketing decisions and/or spontaneous comments from the public faces of the team.

I think it's really best if I just forced myself to take a step back and let the game speak for itself in the long run. Peek into the discussions once in a while, join in the banter, but dip sparingly into the frustration and know when it's time to pull up again.

Preach.gif
 
If you say so Sparky! Whatever floats your boat.




Please don't quote posts that intentionally waste vertical space. It's annoying.

edit: nm it was my own post, wasn't wearing my glasses.


In all seriousness though, you know what? I think it's about time I peace out on FFXV threads till at least PAX and TGS too.

Been asked a couple of times in private what I thought of the Gamescom showing. I've been pretty open about my opinion on games I've worked on in the past (Lightning Returns o boy - fun game, but some things could have been left in the oven a little longer) but for FFXV the situation's a little different - Due to how volatile it is I'm either going to look like I'm whiteknighting a product I worked on, or badmouthing a product I worked on, either of which does the game nor me any good. Me posting snarky comments don't help much either - that much I can readily admit.

I'll say this though - Throughout the course of vsXIII's history I've been on both extremes of the hype and snark trains, but at this point, having seen what I have of the FFXV's dev, it's extremely frustrating whenever people jump to conclusions of any sort with respect to where the game stands, based on marketing decisions and/or spontaneous comments from the public faces of the team.

I think it's really best if I just forced myself to take a step back and let the game speak for itself in the long run. Peek into the discussions once in a while, join in the banter, but dip sparingly into the frustration and know when it's time to pull up again.

Sounds like we won't be disappointed after PAX/TGS :)
And yeah, I can totally imagine how annoying it must be to read so much knee-jerk negativity when you obviously know better.
 
The problem is that I can see Square going "you want Yoshida art? Play FFXIV" since they're likely to keep supporting that game for a long long time.

And as you said, he's no longer an official SE employee so I doubt they'd be keen on giving him reigns of a mainline FF.

Which sucks because I'm soooo tired of Nomura's art, yet he seems to be the go-to guy for mainline FF from now on.

I don't see why that would be a problem. They have freelancers composing music for them all the times. Also Yoshida is doing the character designs for Nier 2. They could also get Tsubasa Masao, whose art style is very close to Yoshida (Masao did the artwork for Tactics Ogre PSP and also does some FFXIV art).
 
Sounds like we won't be disappointed after PAX/TGS :)

Nope*, I just meant that that'd be sufficient time for me to pop by again.

Yet another reason for me to start cutting back on my posting. More jumping-to-conclusions. ;p

*
Of course, I'm not saying that you will be disappointed. No jumping to conclusions here either pls! Just wait and see.
 
PSY・S;174917505 said:
Still doesn't look as good as the October walkthrough. Hopefully the final game can reach the fidelity shown then at a stable 30fps. Edit: I mean lighting + lod. Not just trees.

Yeah, if they can at least get that grass density back with shadows, it'd be great. Hope that L_spiro dude does his magic.

L_spiro said:
Thank you but we downgraded the graphics significantly before the demo release.
With the optimizations some others and I have been implementing we should have more room to add a lot back, and I personally have increased the overall lighting and texture quality already.


L. Spiro

L_spiro said:
For the demo we disabled some already-implemented features such as light-propagation volumes in order to meet the 30-FPS cut-off, so already we have bigger and better graphics to show you all. But in order to strike the appropriate balance between performance and graphics quality these features are just sitting on the sidelines.

60 FPS won’t be one of our goals until we run out of ideas on how to improve graphical fidelity—as long as we have the budget we’d rather focus on better graphics than on more frames in a second.

This isn’t a hard rule to which we adhere with our lives. We’re always considering the balance, which we know is shifting over time. So the main take-way here is that currently we are not considering aiming for 60 FPS, but it’s possible that we might later, since there is quite some time before the final game is released.


L. Spiro

October build made the landscape look way more visually appealing compared to ED.

ffXV1-665x385.png
 
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