Game hype video that doesn’t mention it’s not an actual gameplay is a sin.
Why is it a sin? Because you’re distancing a fair portion of your market (the people who can tell the difference between a cut scene and game play). See this Superman Returns video. The game itself (from previews) sounds interesting, but that video did nothing for me. Why? Because it’s not the game. It’s a nifty video made up by the developers/artists. That doesn’t help me decide to be interested or not interested in the game at all. It just helps me decide said company thinks I’m stupid.
What’s a better way to do that? Say it’s a cut scene (or scripted in the engine)! Be honest. Try it, it’ll be something nice and different for you. Maybe this just requires you to ask the preview site to do that, or to explain it to them.
Oh, and you gaming sites that post the video with publisher comments only or as is from the publisher…you need a smack. You’re supposed to be on our side, at least make an attempt at doing so.
The award for worst offender of this goes to the CoD2 commercial. I heard comments on that when it was played locally from non gamers about how cool the game looked…that’s accidentally misleading at the best and I don’t think the best about it.