10 Insane Ways Video Games Were Kept Under Wraps
2. Digitally Altering Character Models In The Trailers - The Last Of Us Part II
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has gone to truly absurd lengths to prevent audiences from being spoiled, even cooking up fake footage for their trailers and using CGI to digitally edit spoilerific imagery.
Naughty Dog took a page out of Marvel Studios' book, then, during the marketing campaign for The Last of Us Part II, in order to keep fans from guessing the game's big twist, that co-protagonist Joel is killed about two hours into the 25-hour epic.
The game's 2019 release date reveal trailer showed a clip where Ellie is grabbed from behind by an unseen figure, who is then revealed to be Joel. But in the final version of the game, Ellie is actually grabbed by Jesse.
Additionally, other trailers were edited to imply that Ellie's girlfriend Dina would be killed rather than Joel, and Joel and Ellie's ages were digitally altered to prevent fans from figuring out which scenes were flashbacks and which were present day.
It was certainly effective in throwing fans off the scent that Joel would be absent from 90% of the game, though many were understandably left feeling misled, that they were "falsely advertised" a Joel-centric sequel that wasn't to be.
Whether you felt bamboozled or not, the immense effort Naughty Dog put into the deception was frustratingly upended by major plot spoilers leaked a few months prior to release, confirming to anyone who dared look that Joel would meet a grisly end early in the game.