A recent Xbox live event touted the first official gameplay trailer for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla as one of the centerpieces of the entire presentation.
However, when the trailer was actually shown, it was little more than a random assortment of cutscene clips with no actual gameplay.
Gamers were, understandably, peeved at this development.
They had expected to see some substantial gameplay from a highly anticipated title. Instead, they got a whole lot of nothing. It was a major letdown, so much so that the higher ups at both Xbox and Ubisoft have had to step up and take notice.
https://twitter.com/AshrafAIsmail/status/1258539675947429889
Ashraf Ismail, the creative director of Valhalla, addressed fans in a tweet, acknowledging their disappointment and asking for patience.
“Hello all,” he said in the tweet. “You rightfully expected to see more today. We have a long marketing campaign ahead of us, you will see in-depth gameplay and get a lot more info about the game. Thank you for your excitement and passion. Be patient with us and be kind. It will be worth it!”
Ismail, who also served as the director of Assassin’s Creed Origins and Assassin’s Creed Black Flag, was certainly right about gamers expecting to see more. When something is touted as a gameplay trailer, people expect to see actual gameplay in it. Had this simply been marketed as a special look at Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, people might have greeted this minute and a half of footage much differently.
The YouTube videos for both the Xbox stream and the Valhalla trailer were assaulted with a monumental number of dislikes. As of this writing, the Valhalla gameplay trailer has more than 45,000 dislikes and only 25,000 likes.
Aaron Greenberg, the general manager of Xbox games marketing also addressed the controversy.
“Had we not said anything and just shown May Inside Xbox show like we did last month, I suspect reactions might have been different,” Greenberg said in a tweet. “Clearly we set some wrong expectation, and that’s on us. We appreciate all the feedback and can assure you we will take it all in and learn as a team.”
Greenberg is right. They certainly set some wrong expectations when calling this cutscene mashup a gameplay trailer. On YouTube, Ubisoft is still listing the trailer as a gameplay trailer, much to the chagrin of the comment section.
One user by the name of Benjamin Bertrand had a mic drop moment when they commented, “The only thing being played here, is us.”
