Remember when Apex Legends was shadow dropped? It's a risky move for such a high-profile game to skip all the pre-release marketing hype entirely, but it paid off, and it's clear why Respawn went that route—"photoreal PvP hero shooter" was an eyeroll-inducing prospect even back in 2019, so letting the game speak for itself short-circuited any pre-release angst.
We don't know if the strategy could have been replicated, but would it have been worse than the late Concord's legendary failure or the reaction to the recently announced Highguard, which was the final big reveal at last year's Game Awards? Viewers expecting something like 2023's Monster Hunter Wilds reveal or the one-two Matrix Unreal Engine 5 tech demo and Matrix 4 trailer in 2021 have been taking out their frustrations on Highguard.
The reveal was drowned out by hot takes calling out its "Concord vibes" and it received a ghastly 2,400 dislikes on YouTube compared to around 500 likes when it first dropped. There's been an assumption to some of the criticism that Highguard wanted this smoke, so to speak—an idea that if the Highguard studio hadn't splurged on such an exclusive spot, it wouldn't have earned all this ire.
The free spot, which theoretically should have been a huge marketing boost, has now handed it an uphill battle to win people over. Rather than being just another hero shooter—a potent enough negative to kill Concord in mere weeks—it's now that hero shooter.
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