Random: Here's How Much It Costs To Showcase A Trailer At Summer Game Fest

How much was it to show a trailer in the olden days of E3? Of course that would need to be adjusted for inflation.

I will not even watch that presentation.
That HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLAR money to advertise one game just really nothing for me.
AAA games they said, please.... 🙄
I'm not looking for AAA games.
I'm looking for upcoming kids games that for me I consider them as SSS+
I don't need AAA games, I want SSS+ kids games.
Btw, SSS+ is the highest rank in Rhythm games.

Anybody else just flat out sick of seeing his mug all over the place the past 2 weeks?

I mean I suppose I'll give the guy credit for not plastering his name all over the shows he does but he's so out there in front of everything maybe he just assumes he doesn't need his name on anything b/c he's ALWAYS THERE.

At least E3 was just E3. There are probably some people who don't even remember what the 3 Es even stood for, but anything Geoff's involved with, he makes sure you know. 😝

I can see big companies being able to afford this, but what about very small starting company? I think they should get like a discount or something lol.

That’s a crazy amount of money. Hope the studios that do so find it gets them their money’s worth if they’re a smaller studio who just need a little more exposure for their title.

@N8tiveT3ch Was more about how much it cost to put on a press conference/have space on the show floor since publishers did their own thing for announcements back then.

As far as conferences go I don’t know what the case was but I’d have to imagine publishers usually weren’t paying to have their games shown during MS/Sony/Nintendo conferences since it was in the platform holders interests to showcase the best looking games but I’m not sure. Does make me wonder how things like Nintendo Directs work though, whether publishers pay to have a spot in the show or do Nintendo look around at what’s being developed and choose to include them based on what they feel is worthwhile

@CutchuSlow SGF is there to attract advertisers so they want to showcase the biggest games around hence the high prices…though I bet if someone like Team Cherry said they wanted to drop a SilkSong trailer they’d just let them or charge much less. But generally it’s not really about showcasing the best games, it’s about getting as much eyes on the show as possible so they can sell ads and smaller games (for the most part) won’t do that unfortunately

No wonder then that, the bigger an event becomes, the more companies drop out of it. The event collapses on itself, and a new one replaces it. Insert coin to continue.

Yikes! I am not a games dev, but my heart goes out to the Indie devs who probably never can get their game in the opening!

@rjejr I’m pretty burned out of him in general. Summer Games Fest is an awful replacement for E3. Gaming news used to be consolidated to one week, now it’s spread across 4 months. I’d rather see all the news come out during a week that way I can prioritize what I care about instead of getting an hour presentation every couple weeks.

No wonder the game awards didn't give any time for winners to give a speech. They wanted to cram in more trailers and ads to earn those big bucks.

Damn, I didn't know the studios that made Lies of P, Party Animals and Palworld had that much money, those games had a 1-minute-long trailer in last year Summer Game Fest.

But I'm way more suprised at lesser-known tittles such Lysfanga The Time Shift Warrior, Fae Farm World and Yes, Your Grace, that price doesn't sound that unattainable when you see smaller studios like those getting a spot.(Thou considering I had never heard of them until looking for titles featured in last year showcase, maybe those weren't good investments)

Oh Geoff loves his Mojimas for sure...

@N8tiveT3ch Nintendo (and many other companies) are a member of the group that ran E3 and it was kinda like paying a sub, attending. Michael Pachter had a video explaining how it worked, but you can see how companies thought there was some value in attending. Summer Game Fest is simply a vehicle for Geoff Keighley under the fake samaritan pretense of everyone coming together.

The return on investment can really help promote certain games, but I can understand why certain companies are hesitant. Much cheaper to run their own showcase on YT or other social media platforms at a separate time.

No wonder Geoff so happy all the time 😅.

I wouldn’t be surprised if he is the one behind the shutdown of e3

Nintendo can have their free Directs instead and be significantly better!

Nintendo does not need this event, clearly, and it's a good indication of why events like E3 were so important. Indie companies could get their smaller space at much lower prices, and still take advantage of the foot traffic brought in by the big companies.

That said, I wonder what Nintendo charges for games to be featured in their Indie Directs.

Why do games have to be this thing where the more you know, the more depressed you get?

@LikelySatan Everything is like that.

That's just dumb honestly. If I was a developer I wouldn't even WANT to advertise my game at such a thing. Absolutely absurd tbh. I can understand Nintendo not attending lol.

Bring back E3

You guys have a very low opinion of Geoff, Gross.

Makes me wonder how much money people have to pay for getting their game showcased in a Nintendo direct or Nintendo indie direct. Obviously less of course.

@rjejr Well, to be fair, it's not Geoff himself doing that; it's the press and media plastering his face when they cover this topic.

And this is why Nintendo does their own Direct. And Sony and Microsoft.

the more i hear about geoff, the more i dislike him. shame really, hes an excellent host. but the moneygrabbing is insane

@N8tiveT3ch companies showcased their material on their own presentations, no need to pay extra then.

@rjejr The most punchable face in gaming.

I'm glad Nintendo has mostly ignored bozo's events to date.

Why on earth would any company pay that when anyone remotely interested in games will already be following the progress of new games of interest and can see trailers in no end of different media outlets

@Diogmites not chicken wings or sex stuff with girls, liar.

@Ralizah and the master knows how to punish

Considerably cheaper than E3…

@BigE : I can almost guarantee that even if you’re following the games industry with a microscope, the majority of games which might appeal to you would be lost in amongst the crowd of heavily marketed junk.

Glad Nintendo ignores this

@LikelySatan

Being a musician is pretty similar, finding out how low the actual music is on the priority list.

Jeez, that Keighley guy is truly insuferable, no wonder why Nintendo skips his glorified ***** show.

@LikelySatan Have you ever seen a chicken coop? But i see your point, as i have had buffalo wings, and the ends certainly justify the means.
And as for your latter statement lol, i know a few chicks who place ads on Craig’s List, who might be able to tarnish that silver lining you got going. 😀

No wonder everything costs so much in gaming world nowadays.

So expensive and yet still so garbage... I'll just stick to watching the Nintendo Directs, thank you very much.

I don't know about y'all, but I'm over big game event announcement things. And I went to E3 in 2006 (which was awesome). But now they all feel like soulless cash monstrosities, especially the Summer Games Fest and The Game Awards. I just think it's all BS now.

I'm sure Kojima gets in for free

jeez i didnt think people were THIS mad about summer games fest like i get it but my lord people we get it Geoff is a goober. its like the people who do nothing but complain about elon, like yeah youre not wrong whatsoever but every other figure in his field also sucks theyre just less obvious about it. Same here, the games industry is full of a-holes. Geoff just happens to be an obvious target

Can anyone explain to me the special relationship Keighley has for Kojima? It's one thing to show great respect for an incredible game designer, but Geoff seems to always take it to a new level and this supposed no-cost trailer access is another indication of that.

@Wilforce I’d rather all these shows were gone and stuff just got dropped on YT and Twitter. Half of these shows just get hate and review bombed anyway b/c gamers are never happy, and I don’t care about games 3 years or more out like Scalebound and BG&E2.

@jedisquidward That’s fair, he didn’t put himself at the top of this page, but he’s very prominent at The Game Awards, and I’m assuming he will also be so at this. I’d rather he get a host.

@Ralizah I don’t see his face as puchable, that honor for me belongs to Phil Spencer, who looks like an extra meth dealer in Breaking Bad, to me Geoff just looks like Adam Sessler, a lot. I’m just done w/ him.

Those balking at the price: If it didn't work, studios/publishers wouldn't pay (at least more than once).

Those wondering why do this when you can just release something on the web/YouTube... most people won't see it.

Sometimes people that post here don't seem to understand that if you are a person that frequents a gaming web site and adds to the comments you are probably in a fraction of 1% of all gamers.

Most people just go through their day and wait for super popular things to interrupt what they were doing, and happen to learn about something (because of ads, or super popular YouTube streams/videos that have had advertising and gathered interest on their own).

Summer Game Fest costs money to get attention, produce, organize and get noticed by people. Yeah, they are making money too... but, again, those publishers are paying to get noticed and anticipated. Then, people go and seek out the trailers afterwards, upping their likes, etc. News sites have easy stories to add based on the big event, as well, so it spreads again.

I don't know. The Game Industry is going through a rough patch in 2024, tons of layoffs and studios going out of business and gamers playing less. Not to mention there are thousands of new games and even for larger games there are over 100 a year. It's tough to get noticed and I guess it's worth it to pay for a chance.

@rjejr By promoting it as a Summer Games Fest and spreading it out 4 months people are expecting huge announcements every week, but I don’t think most people hedge their expectations for each developer. I enjoyed how by knocking everything out in one week it just felt like a celebration of gaming. Like a non-gift giving highly commercialized Christmas for gamers.

Yeah that sounds crazy. I've never watched any of these. I just wait for the trailers online or news updates.

@Yosher Nintendo don’t attend because they simply don’t need to, they have their own avenues to push their games and can have all the attention they want whenever they want.

For someone like SEGA though this gives them an opportunity to have all eyes on them if only for a few minutes. Clearly it’s worth it to publishers to have that spotlight since they keep coming back to SGF and VGAs. Yes it’s prohibitive to smaller developers but they also only have so much time for the showcase so naturally they’re going to prioritize the biggest reveals/trailers

Please stop giving attention to Keighley. The guy is a flaming douche nozzle

Ya know, I really miss E3... 😮‍💨

@N8tiveT3ch back then, the platform holders/publishers often wanted to make their platform look most appealing and made deals to reflect that I guess. So it depends on the game. MS likely paid to get CoD featured in their conference with their marketing and exclusivity deal, before Sony took over and did the same.

@larryisaman Yeah I'm aware Nintendo has their own avenues to show off their stuff, but I feel if this show didn't ask such a ludicrous price, Nintendo would at least consider attending more often.

Agreed that them having their own ways is definitely the main reason though. But you know.

By not being there Nintendo just save that much amount of money and still had a free kickass Nintendo Direct.

Oh boy! Goro Majima is finally getting his own game!!!

have you guys seeb geoffs castle? well you cannot effort a housing like this without making a huge load of money

I don't understand why we entertain this nonsense. The fans, the publishers, the developers... is this really what we want? Is this really the way a multi billion dollar industry wants to be represented?

I just don't get it. The whole thing is utter rubbish. The fact publishers spend that sort of money including their trailers. What fools. That is not a good return on investment if you ask me... better to spend it on a prime time TV advert with a major station.

I like to think Nintendo skip this because they see it for what it really is... a complete nonsense.

Lol now i understand why Nintendo and Playstation just do their own little pre recorded shows. Screw paying that. Thats alot of money spent for a trailer, imagine a longer gameplay trailer. Companies are best off putting that money back into development

@Wilforce You just reminded me I missed it. Not that I was planning on watching it, but I went food shopping and forgot all about it. Guess I should go check the news.

@Savage_Joe yes it is very gross to have a low opinion of such a great guy

@Diogmites NEVER.
I fr almost wrote "Oh, wait, that's everything, huh?" but didn't want to depress everyone. Jeez, man.

For anyone still interested, Kotaku confirmed indie games actually don't have to pay for the slot.

"After the publication of this story a handful of indie publishers and developers contacted Kotaku and explained that some “free slots” are provided to smaller, non-AAA games and studios. It appears that Keighley is sometimes pitched games to include and he provides some free airtime for these projects as part of the “earned editorial placements” previously mentioned."

From what I could tell, that's an actual ad trailer (these were peppered throughout the showcase), not just having your game showcased as part of the show. So, if correct, I think that makes more sense. I might be totally wrong though.

The ol’ freaking law: if someone is charging for it, it means someone is paying for it.