Yesterday we posted about Bethesda’s brilliant idea about dropping a vague tweet about the follow up to Fallout 3 , Fallout New Vegas, on Twitter leaving everyone in the dark for a full day. Keep in mind the last we heard about this game was almost a year ago. So come tweet time today we get this
So not only did they deliver a sleek trailer using another ancient song gem for the soundtrack, but they also added an incentive to create a social media street team. Thumbs up or “like” the trailer on Facebook or retweet the post on Twitter and you get entered to win autographed posters. The game isn’t due until fall where it will contend with Halo: Reach but they’ve essentially already upped the marketing ante by starting this campaign to their rabid fan base months before E-3.
Their blog posts the official rules of the contest, their Facebook and Twitter pages have links out to it and the official site also has the trailer. With the last game’s success as well as it’s subsequent DLC we can only expect Fallout: New Vegas to deliver on all counts. In the meantime we can look forward a big videogame marketing push that will be drawn out right up to the day the game drops.
Lately, the geekiverse has been all aflutter about Sega’s upcoming game, Aliens vs. Predator. In fact, few movie franchise video games have really generated more excitement. In my personal opinion, the first AvP game was probably the best AvP game to date.
With the release of the new trailer (be fore-warned it’s violent, with graphic mutilations, impalations, decapitations, evicerations and puppy-kicking) most of the major video game blogs have reported on it. The comments on these articles range from excited “OMFG!” to “This is just over the top torture porn”.
As usual, this got me thinking about the marketing of this video game. Is this blatantly over the top imagery designed to whip up the excited masses into a frothing heap of first day sales? Does blatantly promoting the violence somehow make gamers look bad? Is Sega’s marketing brilliant, reprehensible or just somewhere in between?
But first… watch the new trailer.
Got it? Good.
First, the basics. All marketing needs to start with an understanding of the target demographic. Marketers do the research to figure out their audience, their purchasing habits and the desires they want fulfilled. In this case, these are people (mostly male) who’ve consumed a considerable amount of sci-fi horror material. They’ve seen the Alien and Predator series along with the AvP movies that followed them. A portion of that audience reads the graphic novels, played the games and continue to debate in fan forums.
The second part of marketing that I want to focus on is the fact that marketers are tasked in describing what the consumer will actually get when they purchase the product. Some games, like Brutal Legend were promoted as a kick-ass slash game through the “Metalverse”, some of them were visibly pissed off when they found out that there were significant portions of the game that were RTS elements… a genre that has yet to penetrate the console market successfully. I can understand why Brutal Legend was marketed in the way it was marketed. The reaction to a RTS console game is rarely well received. From that angle, the marketing failed. They pushed a product that didn’t give the consumer enough information to fulfill their expectations.
This looks a bit too well lit to be an Aliens vs. Predator game... but damn it's cool
In this case, the marketing of Aliens vs. Predator gives a tight group of the gaming demographic EXACTLY what they expect and what they desire. This new trailer is probably one of the better trailers I’ve seen for a video game of that sort. It communicates clearly, mixing what appears to be ingame scenes, pre-rendered scenes and actual gameplay footage into a bloody montage.
In fact, one of the quick scenes that’s stuck in my head is the part where you have the “mouth view” of the alien as it rushes in to separate a marine’s face from the rest of his head.
Yet is this a cheap attempt to gain media attention, to excite gamers by giving them what could be the bloodiest moments in the game? Probably, but for the right audience, this is exactly right. This is exactly what they want. Fans of the Aliens and Predator stories (like me) have come to expect this over the top brutality in our comics, games and movies about this particular universe.
I’ve watched it dozens of times… and I don’t think I could get enough of this game.
However, Sega needs to watch it… if this game sucks, then this same trailer which is damn good video game marketing could become a touchpoint of fan anger if the actual game doesn’t live up to the standard that it’s presenting. So even good pre-launch marketing could immediately turn into bad marketing if the product doesn’t live up to the hype.
It’s the future. You, as Nathan Spencer have been released from jail and given back your super powered bionic arm to go into Ascension City and fight the good fight. And as you swing and shoot about the tattered remains of this ruined city there right in front of you are a row of …. the cleanest looking Pepsi Machines known to man. Lookout! Careful not to swing into the giant Pepsi billboard mounted atop that building. Then you set your sites on shooting that cool grappling hook to get to the burned out wreckage of the office building and you set your scopes on a billboard only to see realize it’s a pristine ad for Nvidia?
Nothing says a bleak future like shiny overturned Pepsi machines
It’s one thing if there were a ton of other “old” product references in the game but there aren’t. Add to that all the Pepsi and Nvidia stuff looks like it survived whatever bomb wrecked the city without a scratch. Stupid you say? What’s the point you ask? Well the point is this, unlike product placement in movies which, these days is part of the natural landscape of tons of films (and we now tolerate it), videogames are still tussling with the notion of in-game advertising because often times, like it this year’s Bionic Commando redux, it just doesn’t work. Not is there only no reason for it, most of the times it doesn’t make sense. This year we had some shining examples of that like in Need For Speed Shift, Tony Hawk Ride!, and Dragon Age: Origins. It’s not entirely surprising to see ads in a sports game since most of professional sports these days is sponsored by something (Meineke Car Car Bowl anyone?). But in a game about a mythical world or the future where stuff like this isn’t supposed to exist? Not so much. And unfortunately for Bionic Commando the game was also bad even though it was a highly anticipated release and got a lot of press.
Nvidia -- how did their billboard survive the apocalypse?
It’s understandable why advertisers would want to get in on this trend. You have a global gaming market, big release titles that often outshine box office blockbusters and millions and millions of gamers who are willing to spend money on games. And just to be clear, we’re not completely dismissing the notion of in-game advertising. In some games, if it’s part of the landscape and setting that works with the overall game then sure, why not (sports games would seem odd without it). If you’re walking around an actual city why wouldn’t you see a brand-name billboard? Does that translate into ROI for the advertiser? Not exactly but it gets them massive visibility if the game does well.
Unfortunately, gamers, the people advertisers are trying to reach, have not been so welcoming of this idea. Most of them see it as a nuisance while others downright hate the idea. And with games like Bionic Commando out there to prove their point, it’s easy to see why. A large portion of the games currently available or in development simply have no need for in-game ads because either the story or universe created for the game doesn’t really fit with products that advertisers assume gamers would connect with. Just because you drink Pepsi doesn’t mean you want to see a Pepsi ad in a game especially when it’s completely out of context. Even in games where one might assume there would be in-game ads — there aren’t.
Take a game like GTAIV for example — here you would have a perfect opportunity for in-game advertising, one would think, because it’s a game in present times, in Liberty City. But instead they took great measures to fake everything up. The reality is that if you’re playing a videogame in a fake world with made up people why would you have “real” ads? It’s bad enough we already have to get through 5 load screens giving props to everyone before the game even starts. These games are supposed to be escapism in its finest form which means escape from things like commercials and sponsors popping up.
So it is with great pleasure that we give it up for Bionic Commando and their indestructible product placement as the worst in-game advertising of 2009. Congratulations on a terrible game filled with terrible ads. Maybe next year you can add some DLC where the bionic arm has alternate attachments for computer video cards and a soda can opener.
You might wonder at what point Sony had a sense of humor? Well back in the heyday of the PS2 they had some hilarious commercials to sell their product as well as some cutting edge clips (even some helmed by the lord of weird David Lynch). Of course back then people were much more captive audiences and couldn’t just fast forward through the commercials. Odd thing is, they were still airing PS2 commercials 2 years ago. Check out this one for Ratchet and Clank
Funny right? There were tons of commercials like this. Then something happened and we went from that to … this
Weird with a capital W. But recently, since the price drop to be exact, somebody must delivered a pack of hilarious cookies to the office. The new marketing campaign is bitingly funny, with a more more targeted style of comedy that is more in tune with the current gamer audience and a frontman who delivers his lines exceptionally well. Basically someone in the marketing department realized that in making the this blue ray player/game console/online gaming/music machine more affordable they could just use the features to sell the product and do it without a big production budget. Here’s a sample of bringing the funny back.
Call of Duty Modern:Warfare 2 biggest game launch ever, blah blah. Did COD parlay their game into a YouTube film series that isn’t actually half bad well in advance of the game’s release? Has anyone?
Let’s be clear — Assassin’s Creed Lineage took some major marketing moolah and cajones to develop for a game that, while was one of the top games of the year when it was first released, has yet to deliver that promise in it’s sequel which isn’t even due until next week.
The Scoop
These films, created for and based on Assasin’s Creed 2’s back-story are luscious to look at, only demand about 15 minutes of your time each and actually play really well as short films. Taking a page from the ODST playbook but going way beyond the trailer films for that Halo game, these AC2 films follow the tale of an assassin, Giovanni Auditore, on his quest to unravel the mystery and conspiracy in late 1400’s Italy.
Typically these are the type of things you see after a game is released and succeeds but what Ubisoft is doing here is employing one of the most well used social media tools, YouTube, to feature these mini-films while promoting the game.
Developers and publishers take note, this is a level of videogame marketing that goes way above and beyond expectations. Forget the fact that this is a game-based promotional tool. We all know too well how many of our hallowed video games have been decimated by horrendous film versions (Hitman anyone?). So in making this series, the filmmakers opted for following the game’s setting and mood, gave it a little bit of the Hollywood action flare and epic score and tossed in some high quality visuals.
Sure you can have swag, pre-order goodies and traliers up the ying-yang but to go out and make a series of short films, then release it on YouTube and gamer friendly networks like Spike TV? Well let’s just say that Ubisoft has made their big game release for this year, that much bigger. Maybe it will help heal the wounds of our yearning for the absent and delayed Sam Fisher sequel, but one thing is for certain, it certainly is a great and innovative way to promote a new game release. AC2, hopefully, will not disappoint.
Have a look for yourself and see if it was worth the effort to go that extra mile.
