- Primary Subject: Video Game Trailer Design & Marketing Standards
- Key Update: Breaking down the essential criteria for effective game trailers, emphasizing that gameplay transparency, honesty, narrative restraint, and spectacle are vital to building sustainable hype.
- Status: Confirmed (Editorial Analysis)
- Last Verified: July 30, 2026
- Quick Answer: A great video game trailer requires authentic gameplay, honest representation, controlled mystery, and engaging spectacle to build genuine player hype without overpromising.
Hype is the most powerful driving factor when it comes to marketing your video games, and the biggest generators of hype are trailers. It’s the exact reason why streamers and gamers alike huddle around the warm light of their LED monitors whenever a game or awards show is on the screen! To share the hype of the trailer as it plays. But then, not every trailer is built the same way. You could have the hypest video game trailer on planet earth, such as my personal favorite: Devil May Cry 5 E3 2018 Reveal trailer, but you could also have abysmal reveal trailers like Elder Scrolls 6.
So in an effort to tell experts how to do their jobs, here are the things that I believe make for a good gameplay trailer.
First, come on, it has to be gameplay. You cannot be selling me a video game without showing me actual gameplay, because then I’d just be better off watching a YouTube rip of all the game’s cutscenes. I believe this is especially true for new IPs that have to prove that they’re worth paying attention to. A beautiful trailer that comes to mind is the 2018 Control announcement trailer that showed off core pieces of gameplay mixed with cinematics to show off the overall vibe of the world. Sure, it wasn’t the clean-cut orchestrated gameplay that you saw from the God of War Laufey trailer, but it was still indicative of what the final game would look like.
The approach to presenting gameplay through a reveal trailer is also tackled differently when you’re introducing a new entry in an already established franchise. Long-running video games such as Devil May Cry and Mortal Kombat both already have established fanbases,, and that means that a logo or title drop is enough to get fans roaring in their seats. So instead, established franchises now have to answer the biggest question: “What makes your game so different from the last?” Devil May Cry 5’s E3 reveal trailer did a great job at this by introducing Nero’s interchangeable arms, and Mortal Kombat X went with a quieter approach by integrating fighting mechanics into their cinematic trailer.
Gameplay is important because it’s the truth of the game. You can show me as many epic cinematic trailers as you want, and they can be some of the best Oscar-worthy cinematics on the screen, but I would never buy a video game off that alone. I remember being really hyped for Dead Island 1’s release after watching the heartbreaking cinematic trailer of a daughter and her parents falling to zombies, but what I got was something entirely different. What I expected to be a gritty world similar to The Last of Us was actually a zombie RPG with crafting and character skills. Not bad by any margin, but still turned me off the first time I booted it up.
The Dead Island case was more misleading in terms of theme rather than gameplay, but Watch Dogs 1 was a different case. Although the franchise seems to be doing relatively well for itself these days, the tumultuous release of the first Watch Dogs left such a bad taste in my mouth. The initial reveal of the game with matching gameplay showing amazing graphics was enough to guarantee a day 1 buy from me, but when the game actually came out, I was met with a grey and bland open world, and a story that just felt meh. This trend of overpromising and underdelivering on games catches on quickly within the community and could lead to fewer sales or, even worse, a compromised brand identity.
So now that we’ve covered gameplay and honesty as the core principles of gameplay, we now have to temper these ideas by emphasizing that video game trailers should withhold just the right amount of information to get the players hooked. Looking back at the God of War Laufey trailer, the game just showed off so much of the game and the overarching story without actually giving me any answers, and I believe that’s what made the 20-minute trailer so exciting. Great trailers will always leave you wanting more in terms of story and gameplay.
As technical as these three trailer factors are in my head, let’s just all admit it: there’s no better tool for a game trailer than spectacle. First things first is that your game has to look awesome when you promise the audience that it is awesome. There has to be tension that gets your audience to keep watching, and with that comes the music, the sound design, the direction, etc. Heck, if you’re as important as God of War 2018, then you should bring out the live orchestra to play your character theme too!
So if you ever find yourself in the business of directing video game trailers, keep in mind how appearances can be everything.
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