Who cares about countdown sites? They're frustrating. They're for slow news days, and more often than not they count down to something underwhelming anyway.
The most recent countdown site (unless another one went up this morning; they pop up like weeds) to titillate no one involved Square Enix' announcement of their latest Final Fantasy remake for the DS, Final Fantasy Gaiden: The Four Warriors. It's no surprise that a company known for nothing but remakes these days is making another a remake, but they had a lot of gall to precede it with a countdown as if YET ANOTHER REMAKE was something to get excited over.
Hideo Kojima, the prankster video game developer behind the Metal Gear Solid series, did a countdown to his trio of E3 2009 announcements: Metal Gear Rising, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. Admittedly, some interesting stuff. Except his countdown just led to more countdowns, increasing the already out-of-control hype to maddening levels. The stunt refurbished his reputation as the
Master Troll of the industry.
Countdown sites are one of the worst marketing trends. They're a cheap way to drum up interest. If people see a countdown, they will notice it. It raises suspense and suspicion.
Which I'm sure is the whole point.
Were there any countdown sites that actually paid off? Do you care about them? Or do they annoy the hell out of you too?
Comments (5)
Had to post to correct a mistake Final Fantasy Gaiden is not a remake it is actually a new game in the style of old school Final Fantasy games. I can see how you might think it is a remake. Still its nothing to make a countdown for.
That is partly why I am interested in new items, like this one about a recent study that shows that playing certain kinds of video games correlates with improved visual ability. Researcher Daphne Bavelier compared the visual ability of groups of subjects who were made to play various
types of video games. In the active group the video games were action oriented - Unreal Tournament 2004 and Call of Duty 2. In the control group subjects played the same amount of The Sims 2 - 50 hours over 9 weeks. One reason is that video games provide people with a way to have adventures and experiences they may never have in real life. They can control a character's actions on screen, guiding them through levels until they have finished the game. Is quiet fun playing than seeing Naperville Ribfest 2009.
@infestedd - I dunno, it just looks like another version of Final Fantasy III DS, i.e. nothing new.
You said it yourself:
"They're a cheap
way to drum up interest. If people see a countdown, they will notice
it."
That is the whole point. It is a very cheap way to market a product and gets awareness out there easily. This makes it a successful marketing tactic. They'll do it until it stops being a profitable way to market.
They seem pointless to me. )< There was one for a game (can't remember which...) that had hints about the game and when it was going to come out and other aspects about it. That's actually pretty cool. But straight up countdowns are so... useless. o_o