An impressive trailer certainly helps raising attention to the game, but if hiring Blur would mean that half the games budget would go to a trailer, and doing a much less impressive trailer in house would only cost 25% of the budget (or less), then I would consider it a waste to hire Blur and a very bad investment.

A good trailer can draw attention to the game. But if there's nothing there? Warhammer Online had a lot of attention at launch, and then it cratered because the game itself was pretty bad.

A good game with a bad trailer will do better in the long run then a bad game with a good trailer.

And a good game with a good trailer can do better than a good game with no or a bad trailer.

It comes down to money....any game with an expensive peice of marketing (like a cgi intro or trailer) has to make that much more just to break even (a trailer of DoW quality was probably around 500k - 750k).  The budget is finite (especially ours), and spending that kinda' cash for something that adds nothing to the gameplay (talking functionality, not immersion) would be extremely foolish on our part.

Another problem with cgi nowadays is that it's 'old hat'...the was once a time where 3d in any-form was mindblowing. Now you have places like Blur and Square doing such AMAZING work, it's become aa artform that requires perfection to build the proper buzz, and again, perfection is expensive

Don't worry though, we're putting A LOT of effort into what should be a fantastic intro movie...even if it's not exacly CGI.

Use Anime. Ok, haters of anime would freak out so... just cartoons in "Elemental style" or something. I can draw some doodles if needed:

god, ya know most gamers beg companies to spend less money on glitz and more on game... A trailer lasts a few minutes, the game is what matters.

Most gamers don't want to be looking at spreadsheets either? god, people act like it's all or nothing. Last I heard, there is a middle road.

When did I say I want spreadsheets? And when did the Devs say that they wanted to make a game in 8 bit with 16 colors and not make a trailor? Why are some of you guys assuming the game will look horrible unless you whine incessantly on the forums. The screens ive seen thus far seem great for a game still in alpha.

I liked the Age of Wonders intro, which maybe had a budget between $500 and $5000.  Much better than the sequel's intro, I thought.  Overall I find game trailers annoying, as they generally cater to speed junkies with severe ADD who are trying to artificially induce an epileptic seizure as well.

god, why do people say other people are whining when they simply disagree with them? I think a trailer would be good for elemental. I, as in me personally, never said anything about a blockbuster sized trailer. god, if only people would stop and listen for a moment. A good trailer could help Elemnetal sell better. (keyword is could. I didn't say it was for certain). And a good trailer doesn't have to be an expensive one. Showing off a few spell affects, the GUI, there are a lot of things you can show people that introduce a game in a visual way. but, god, if you its all or nothing for you, that's fine.

Maybe you should calm down a bit? No one said it shouldn't have a trailer, we would just prefer if SD's resources went into something useful... thats all. This isn't abortion, religion, or the middle east we are talking about, just a game. take a chill pill.

lol. Nicely put. AoW's trail was good, basic but not pointless. Thats all you need, just give the idea of the game and call it a day.

Of course, a good and cheap trailer would be good for Elemental and for any game out there. The problem is that good trailers are expensive. So, the Elemental team will try to have the best trailer their budget allows them to afford, but you can't expect more than that...

Sorry. I was just replying in kind. After all, I thought that is why you started the way you did, you know generalizing everyone in the discussion that didn't agree with your opinion?

So does this mean that Elemental won't have cinematics like World of WarCraft: Wrath of the Lich King where there comes a new trailer every 6 months or so??

How much did those trailers cost btw?       I always thought trailers costed like max $10.000:- and then you come and say $500.000:- !!!     Just incredible!!

Really though, I really like the Age of Wonders intro. It's really good. AoW 2 also had a great intro but it wasn't as good or high fantasylike. The one in AoW:SM is the one I saw last and remembers the least....go figure

Lol... and to think I never even saw them.

Well Blizzard has an in-house cinematic team, so it's not like one department is trying to make a profit off another. They're expensive as hell, though. I just want to say that I agree that the opening video is not a big deal, nobody watches them anyway unless they're from blizzard or square. However, I think some decent ending videos could add a lot to the game. Gal Civ 2 had pretty decent ones, if they are slightly longer and better looking for Elemental I'll be very happy. 

Wow, I had no idea those guys charged so much - that seems ludicrous. I humbly withdraw my suggestion to seek out Blur.

That's good to hear. Something to raise a little excitement about the game and draw some people in that have never heard of the game. It's funny how fast a good trailer can go viral.

Something of comparable quality to the intro movies for GC2 would suit me just fine.

And better or worse won't bother me, but anyone that is hoping for a WoW trailer and wants that type of investment in a trailer I think is bonkers.

Trailer should be close to 100% gameplay with possibly a little cinematics - I thought Empire:TW did a GREAT trailer and granted it had quite a lot of cinematics but they also had a lot of well scripted gameplay that spliced nicely into the cinematics.

but I think even Empire:TW is over the top and too much for EWOM. Whatever they do should be in house, they certainly don;t need to pay another studio for some godly trailer or intro movie.

Depends on which ones. The patch 3.1/3.2/etc trailers are done using in game graphics and machinma. Those take a fair bit of work, but it's not crazy expensive.

The ones made for Wrath itself? Yeah, THOSE take an entire team at Blizzard weeks (or more) to make. Blizzard already has a group of staff dedicated to doing those. For SD to contract it out for something of Wrath's quality would be a huge expense.

Something you should note is that while ETW sold well initially, its shoddy gameplay and bugs scared away a good chunk of its community.Will anyone remember ETW two year down the line? Probably not...

We outsourced the GC1 intro for around $40k and that was a measly 3 shots! The DoW intro is 2 minutes of (crude estimation) 80-ish cuts, and we all still remember it so that was probably money in the bank. We just don't have that kind of cash to gamble when the team feels strongly that we can do something memorable inhouse.

You certainly can!

What's the pricing of traditional animation look like compared with modern CG studios?  I'm guessing it's exorbitant as well, but I could see a properly done anime opening as looking pretty stupdendous for Elemental.

Regardless, I'm sure something in-engine with the cel-shading tuned right could look great too.

Agree 100%.  Something like this would be good!  Except with balrogs.