I finally managed to go with my wife to see Superman Returns tonight.  Kind of mixed opinion on the flick, though some awesome special effects.

One thing I found quite interesting was in the trailers before the movie, there was a trailer for Spiderman 3, announcing the release date as Summer 2007.  I know there are a great deal of reasons that game release dates aren't known as far in advance or are as solid -- though we are seeing a change in that trend like the announced release date of GTA4 in 2007.

What really struck me, though, was the smart way movies use tools like trailers to generate interest and awareness for movies even that far out in the pipeline.  I'm not quite sure what the right game analog was -- I remember the horrible experiments Interplay made with unskippable game trailers during install.  But there's got to be something less intrusive than that, and more visible than the "coming soon" adverts on the back of the game manuals, to help build better awareness among consumers who aren't the hardcore well-informed fan base that visits Gamespot daily.

It certainly drove me crazy every time I'd mention AOM to someone a year or two after it released, only to have them say, "Wow, a new follow up to Age of Kings?  When is it coming out?".