The Tides of the Video Game Industry (part 4)

One trick that indie-game companies use is a stealth fake-out approach. They don't let anyone review their game before-hand. They are very secretive about their game--you may have never even heard of it until you see it available on release day--and they use flashy advertising with amazing-looking art or even feature an attractive woman somewhere in the game art or in a screen-shot of the game. This approach relies on impulse buys, where gamers see that the game isn't too expensive, the art catches their attention, the description sounds cool, and maybe it looked good from a few screenshots or limited videos of gameplay that were strategically released online. Thankfully, most online stores have rating systems that buyers can use to rate the game they bought, and most gamers will come back and rate a bad game with low marks to warn others away. But often, it's too late—the developers have made the sales they needed on that first day before the reviews came out, and if you're not wary, you might end up buying another bad game someday by the same developer if you forget your first experience with them!