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Who Does It Best – Hype

Buying Halo 3 on line

The second feature of the "Who Does It Best" specials is back by popular demand, thanks to the positive feedback on the first one.

Hype is a major element in every developer's strategy, because even though you know your game is bad, you can still manage to sell millions of copies if you take care of your marketing department. At least on launch day anyway. Of course, hype is not a bad thing itself. Without it, there would be many unknown good games out there. So let's see who does it best now, shall we?

Crytek

Boy, do these guys know how to make you droll or what? The Crysis 2 hype is nothing compared to the first Crysis. Back then, the internet was stuffed with "Crysis vs Real World" comparison shots and DX10 demonstrations. Direct X 10 was a newcomer and Crytek was one of the first developers to use it's full power. Strangely though, the game only sold about 100.000 units in the first two weeks, largely because of the humongous system requirements.

Crytek is currently working on a Crysis sequel to be released on PS3, PC and Xbox 360. This time though, they're expecting to sell Crysis 2 far better, because of the multi-platform launch.

Valve

Valve doesn't even have to spend money to hype the gamers. All they have to do is announce a title and the rest is done by the gamers themselves. They kept the whole world in suspense for years with Half Life 2, and they're doing it again with Half Life 2 Episode 3. Do you know why they can do that? Because they never disappoint. Half Life 2 was a success and an amazing game, as well as Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, Portal and most recently, Alien Swarm. They managed to gather a loyal community by offering them quality products and let them use their games freely by adding mods. And when someone creates a mod with potential, they immediately offer their help and support the modders, just like they did with Counter Strike and Alien Swarm.

Infinity Ward

We've just passed the barrier to the shitty yet effective hype wonderland. Although much of the guilt belongs to Activision, Infinity Ward deserves this spot. They are the guys who stripped a multiplayer FPS of the dedicated servers on the PC version of MW2, implemented a shitty and laggy matchmaking system, basically reused most of the first Modern Warfare to create the sequel and managed to break the sells records at the same time. Now that is a sad thing, but you have to admire their skills. It takes a lot of balls to use your fans like that, but these guys have them and they're not afraid to use them. This is the Dark Side equivalent of the marketing world.

Blizzard

And they've done it again. Just like in the previous article, Blizzard comes on top. Let's get something straight first: Blizzard uses a special kind of hype, the best kind even. They do it with class. They could make a piece of shit look like the thing you needed the most in your life and you didn't realize it until it was presented by Blizzard. Also, they're probably the most skilled secret keepers in the industry. They managed to keep Starcraft 2 a secret for 5-6 years and surprise everyone by announcing Diablo 3. You never know what to expect from them. They always tease you something, and by the way, their teasers kick ass too.

Their games sold like shit and play like shit for years. Basically all of their games are still being played online, including Diablo 2, Warcraft 3, Starcraft and World of Warcraft. They take their time, polish their stuff three times and then let you enjoy it for as long as you want.