Announcement Fatigue?

 Yeah, it's been awhile. My last fun blog was like, June 3rd and my last actual KOF mechanic/announcement based blog was May the 20th. 

I can't help it, this is starting to dampen my hype a little. In a way. 

Not for the game, mind you. KOF XV remains one of my absolute most anticipated games coming the next several months(up there with FFXIV: Endwalker and a couple others), and that has not changed. But my hype for the week-by-week announcements has definitely shifted. I was amazingly hype for awhile...but then, suddenly, I just sorta...stopped being as hype, and after this week's silhouette I'm just like 'alrighty, let's see tomorrow's fellow.' (Since people are pretty sure it's Ramon, a character who I think is pretty cool, but is once again someone that's in 14.) 

And I don't think I'm the only person this has happened with. I noticed a distinct sort of downswing in terms of trailer views around the Mary time; Mary was quite telling since she's a fan favorite up there with the likes of Terry and Mai, and her views went up considerably slower. (And this is even taking into consideration that while she was 

I mean-they even surprised people with Charlie's Ang-ehm, the Secret Agents team.(Not that people didn't think Mary/Vanessa would likely be Agents, but no one knew Luong was an agent too. That being said, Agents are pretty nebulous-they've hired actual agents, detectives(Mary), luchadors(Ramon), even worked with a weird poison assassin(Lin), and given they have no real leadership that I know of-Heidern only works with them from Ling, but doesn't own them-they're a very nebulous force that they could basically just say 'Anyone can be an Agent,' but I digress.)

But even a surprise team didn't garner as many views as a couple of the long-time teams trailers...and I can't help but feel like this was due to its position. It has barely cracked 380 views after two weeks, which for a trailer that had a surprise team with a fan favorite who wasn't even guaranteed(Vanessa). Compare Team Fatal Fury, who was a NON-swapped team, using characters everyone would know would be in, which hit close to 600k in about the same amount of time, checking back over some notes. 

Tomorrow will mark 10 weeks since Chris, our last return that wasn't in 14. The top 6 trailers basically consist of CYS and the Sacred Treasures(AKA: the comebacks, and two big fan favorites.) 

And I realized when I saw the silhouette and realized it wasn't a cool return, or even...some newcomer or something, and how we haven't really even gotten more system info for awhile, I just realized that weekly I'm getting more muted feelings. 

Hell, we even just got platforms announced! This hyped us up for a moment(PS4, PS5, Steam, PC, EGS and Xbox Series, all simultaneous by the look), but we were, I think, still deep down hoping for a little more on the character or mechanical front. (Hey, we may get some new mechanics in tomorrow's trailer.) 

So...now what?

Full disclaimer. I am not a marketing expert. The biggest thing I ever tried to sell were a couple of local gigs. I don't have any degree in marketing, and I don't market videogames. Maybe there is a method to the madness I'm not seeing. 

But I kinda can't help but feel that they could maybe adjust the trailer releases a bit? 

For what it's worth, I get the delay(I have absolutely no issue there, Covid slowdown happens, would rather the devs be safe), and I get if the trailers have to come out slower because of said covid stuff, too. I don't want anyone working unhealthily. 

I'm more speaking of like, trailer order I guess?

I think it worked great at the start. We got the first two, then Benimaru on the Hero Team, to swap it up.

We got Iori, and then Joe to throw us all off. But then with Kyo, Chizuru and the Sacred Treasures? That was mad hype. Hype enough no one really minded that Fatal Fury was the same. 

And then so on and so forth. CYS were sprinkled about well. 

But after Chris...? It's been ten weeks. We've either gotten regulars, or not necessarily regulars who were in 14. Now I get frontloading the regulars a bit(and as my last blog stated, I was super happy to see the Ikaris in my favorite setup. Well, Ikari Team 1 anyway. Gimme my VERY SPECIFIC Ikari Team 2 now, SNK. ;p)

And since tomorrow is very much likely another 'Was in 14' character(if I'm proven wrong, hey I'll take it), that'll likely be another couple of weeks, and to be honest, I'm starting to not even care very much what I see week by week. I'm still hype for the game, and I'd rather see characters released faster than say how other games do it painfully slowly, but...I dunno, maybe I just need something to zap me awake again.

Hell, I even understand that the folks who were in 14 are likely easier to get in(animations used, etc.) I totally get that. I'm not saying they need to just fire off returns every week; all I'm asking for is maybe a return to the initial form we got when we had a good clip going of regulars and returns?

(Or a mechanics breakdown. I'd love a mechanics breakdown. Hell if tomorrow IS just Ramon and they give me an HUD? I'd probably be hype again, depending on what I see. I still can't believe we got *platforms* announced before a mechanics breakdown. I wonder why they're waiting so long on that?) 

I guess it's just waiting and seeing. But I gotta admit, while my hype for the *game* hasn't gone anywhere, the bi-weekly silhouettes have started to wear out just a little for me where I'm a little less excited each week for *those.* 

Am I the only person? Do you think they should just drop the mechanics? Mix in more returns who weren't in 14? Maybe give just give an HUD even? Also, why do you think they're waiting?

Let's hope tomorrow's trailer gives us just a little more besides a 14 return.