What is the Shadow Drop - and Why is Everyone Doing it?

Despite what Reddit or the YouTube comment section may say, gamers can be a patient bunch. They have to be, after all. The traditional release for a game is built on long-term hype: announcing a game, suffering through months or years of trailers, demos, and interviews, then finally launching to great fanfare. But in recent months, major publishers like Daedalic and Square Enix have gone through the press cycle only to release duds like Forspoken or Lord of the Rings: Gollum. Whether it’s because of lofty expectations, PR nightmares, or simply bad product, the usual methods of releasing a game have proven to be risky. But a new way has appeared. Led by indie developers and surprise success stories, publishers have started avoiding the year-long press cycle altogether in favor of a different option: the shadow drop.

What is the Shadow Drop?

Simply put, the shadow drop is when a product is released immediately after its announcement. As opposed to lengthy campaigns and advertising budgets, a game is revealed and then it is available later that day. While this has been prevalent for years in the indie scene, we’re seeing more and more big name publishers adopt this strategy. Back in January, Bethesda and Tango Gameworks shadow dropped the rhythm beat-em-up game Hi-Fi Rush during an Xbox Direct. Though it launched only a day after Square Enix’s Forspoken, a AAA epic with millions of dollars in marketing and interviews, Hi-Fi Rush was the sixth-best selling game on Steam the week of its release. Forspoken was fifty-eighth.

Now, in terms of quality, Hi-Fi Rush is a better game than Forspoken. It’s rated better by users and has higher review scores all around. But the translation in sales between Rush’s quick-and-simple launch strategy versus Forspoken’s drawn-out campaign is no mere coincidence.

If Bethesda isn’t a big enough publisher for you, Nintendo has been shadow-dropping for years. Most recently, February’s Metroid Prime: Remastered was a complete surprise to everyone in the industry, and quickly sold out of physical copies within days of launch. It received rave reviews for revitalizing such a loved shooter, and did so without needing gameplay trailers, developer interviews, or influencer help. And most recently, last week’s Nintendo Direct shadow dropped the DLC for Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, the next entry in Ubisoft’s ambitious “Mario meets XCOM” series for the Switch.

Other famous games have been shadow dropped as well, including the ill-fated P.T., Hollow Knight, Tetris 99, and Apex Legends.

So why does it work so well? We can point to a few key factors:

IT’S CHEAP

As anyone in business can tell you, one of the biggest cost-sinks to any creative project is marketing. Big budget movies often double their costs when it comes to marketing and advertising, and video games are no different. Take the aforementioned Forspoken, for instance. While we don’t know the exact price range for the game’s marketing budget, we know it was hefty. Square Enix spent years building it up, starting with an announcement trailer during The Game Awards – which is not cheap. And if the game performs below expectations (as Forspoken did), then that marketing money goes to waste.

The shadow drop costs virtually nothing. As stated before, the game has to have a prime spot to announce its release, which could be expensive. But if your publisher is willing to bankroll it, or already has the airtime like Bethesda or Nintendo, then that’s the only expense. Just make a good trailer and you’re good to go. No interviews, no convention appearances, no nothing.

NO EXPECTATIONS, NO DISAPPOINTMENTS

Everyone remembers the buildup to No Man’s Sky. It promised to revolutionize the way we see gaming, and along with that promised dozens of exciting features and gameplay options available at launch.

Then we got almost none of that.

No Man’s Sky has clawed its way back into our good graces, but its press cycle is a great reminder of the burden of expectations: when we get an idea of what we want, and we don’t get it, it can be heartbreaking.

With the shadow drop, there’s no lofty expectations to be met and no angry fans when they’re inevitably disappointed. If the game isn’t public, no one’s expecting it, so no one is disappointed. It eases the stress on the development team to meet the desires of the public, allowing for a calmer development cycle.

Furthermore, if there’s no release date planned, then there’s no missing that release date. Delays and crunch are a plague on the gaming world, but with the shadow drop a game can be pushed back internally without upsetting fans. No one misses what they don’t know they don’t have, after all. 

AVOID THE PRESS, THEN BENEFIT FROM THEM

Bad reviews can kill a game before it even touches market. Unless a publisher puts a hefty embargo on reviews (which is already suspicious as is), the voice of the critics can be heard as early as a week before launch. And if your game sucks, well…everyone knows.

The shadow drop guarantees there’s no reviews until the game is released. It’s a surprise to both fans and critics alike, meaning the game has to speak for itself.

Plus, since most shadow drops are announced on major stages, the press tends to go wild for them. They’re already reporting on the events anyway, but a shadow drop is a promotional event in and of itself. Hi-Fi Rush not only got the most coverage out of any game from January’s Xbox Direct, it jumpstarted the conversation on shadow dropping as a practice. It earned a whole press cycle worth of media attention without ever touching an interview or demo.

IF YOUR GAME IS BAD, DITCH IT QUIETLY

This is a more humorous point than the other factors, but its still worth mentioning: if your game sucks, why not kill it quietly with a shadow drop? You don’t have to spend any money on marketing, no one is disappointed when it’s bad, and the press doesn’t eat you alive. Thankfully, shadow dropping is often used in a positive manner, but the idea of a boardroom full of executives just quietly shoving a terrible product in between major trailers at E3 like a shameful sandwich is quite the mental image.

IS THE SHADOW DROP THE FUTURE OF GAMING?

The shadow drop is cheap, efficient with a big enough audience, circumvents the press cycle while still garnering media attention, and avoids bad reviews and big expectations.

So if the shadow drop is so great, why doesn’t everyone do it?

Well, it’s not universal because it doesn’t work for everyone. Every game is unique and a marketing campaign has to adapt to match a game’s specific strengths. A game from an unknown publisher with little followers can’t really drop a game without any hype because there will be no one there to care. The reason Hi-Fi Rush and Metroid Prime: Remastered had such good shadow drops is because there was a built-in audience watching the release through Nintendo and Xbox Directs.

Plus, there’s no guarantee that people will immediately look at your game on curiosity alone. You have to have a killer game (or at least a great trailer) to spark enough attention to check it out.

Regardless of how good the shadow drop is for some studios, it will never overtake the traditional press cycle. Interviews, demos, and trailers are too established, too malleable, and effective enough to warrant the cost. But as the shadow drop increases in popularity, publishers should consider using it more. It’s a nice change of pace from the usual press, and its launched some of the biggest titles in gaming.

And besides, who doesn’t love surprises?