Patrick Klepek weighs in on the backlash: (Gaming)

by EffortlessFury , Thursday, August 18, 2016, 23:44 (2811 days ago) @ Cody Miller

As far as press goes, is there ANY benefit to announcing your game so early? Are you really missing out in sales of you announce your game say, 3 or 4 months before release? I don't see any.

Wouldn't the best thing to do be to announce your game say, 4 months from release, detail your game fully knowing what will ship and what won't, and then releasing? A reasonable amount of time for hype, but close enough out that you've already got your game locked down, thus eliminating the possibility of broken promises.

That's what makes sense to me.

I don't see the benefit either. Showing your game at E3 generates hype, by why do it three years out from release? Just put out a press release and some concept art or something, then actually show the game say no more than six months before it ships. I don't think announcing it so early is helping it reach a bigger audience or anything--no one really cares when a game is so early in development (especially not the wider audience that isn't paying attention anyway).

I understand a game like Destiny requiring an announcement so far ahead. You have partnerships and deals and stuff that need to fall into place. For instance, the red bull codes, deals for PS4 exclusivity, toys, T-Shirts, etc. So those other companies need to know well ahead of time to plan their promotions.

But No Man's Sky?

…

Though generally you have a reasonable point, its their reveal that even led the game to get developed. They'd just suffered a flood in their office that set them back quite a bit. They had already lined up their reveal, however, and they were encouraged to go through with the reveal anyway. The positive response from that reveal was a major factor in the team deciding to soldier on.