October 2008 Archives

Its been a while since I've done one of these, but I feel like there has been an influx of game + advertising/ promotion related news lately.  It may not warrant deep, ranting discussion, but I did find a lot of this stuff interesting enough to at least bring up. 

And awaaaaaaaay we go:


Obama Breaks Out The In-Game Advertising
The Obama presidential campaign has been nothing short of ground breaking in its use of technology to help marshal support for the Democratic nominee.  But with the start of early voting, the Dems decided to spread their message into uncharted waters.  And since I'm writing about it here, you can probably guess what those waters are =)

For the low low cost of $44 grand, the Obama campaign has placed in game advertising in 17 different video games (including Burnout: Paradise, shown) in 10 different battleground states, courtesy of Massive Inc.   Massive reportedly also attempted to contact the McCain campaign to make a similar offer, but did not receive a response.

All effectiveness arguments aside, the move is brilliant in my opinion.  The age range that encompasses the majority of gamers is also an age range with which Obama is experiencing extraordinary popularity.  But this same group is also historically notorious for poor voter turnout.  Speaking the language of your target audience.  Brilliant.  And as I'm sure you can guess, this is the first time a presidential candidate has ever advertised in a video game.

Though it does beg asking 1) will it work and 2) is there any risk of a negative response?


As a footnote, its also worth mentioning that Rock the Votes partnered with Xbox Live to try and inspire the youth vote.  In the first two weeks of the effort, more than 55,000 voter registration forms were downloaded (though how many of those forms were turned into completed voter registrations is impossible to tell).   


New Nissan Z Feels the "New For Speed"
Speaking of advertising firsts, for the first time ever, a car model will be premiered, not in the showroom, but in a video game. Nissan's 2009 370Z, a souped up version of the Z model sports coupe (now with more numbers!) will make its debut in Need for Speed: Undercover on November 18th, a day before its first appearance at an auto show, and 8 weeks before the car is released to dealers.

"Our relationship with EA has been instrumental in bringing the Nissan brand to a passionate and unique audience," added Christian Meunier, Nissan's Vice President of Marketing. "By launching the all-new 2009 Nissan Z first through Need For Speed Undercover, we also gain the spirit and energy that EA gamers experience so strongly. Together with EA, we have truly integrated the all-new 370Z in the overall game experience in a meaningful, multi-layered and profound way."

I'm very curious to see what exactly "meaningful, multi-layered and profound" integration of the Z into the Need for Speed experience means, but regardless its yet another example of a company using games as a means of making their message stand out in an increasingly saturated media market.  Making their message stand out... if only educators were interested in something like that... wink wink...


Marketing Madden
For the more marketing inclined members of our studio audience, an interesting little writeup/ case study on the EA Sports Madden game franchise was recently pushed out by the fine folks at Nielson.  Well worth the read for anyone interested in this stuff, but 3 quotes in particular I wanted to highlight.

• "And the NFL benefits from Madden’s realism. By educating its fan base on everything from each team’s 53-man roster to the often complex salary cap, the video game turns gamers into savvy NFL fans."
  
• "In addition, Madden offers official NFL sponsors a unique advertising opportunity to reach the often elusive young male demographic. Sprint, Snickers, and Under Armour—all league sponsors—have a significant presence in the video game."
• "According to EA Sports, the new campaign includes nearly two dozen television spots and more than 50 web vignettes. According to Nielsen, Electronic Arts spent over $10 million the past year and a half advertising across network, cable, and Spanish-language television, along with web banner ads, many of which were placed on ESPN.com"

A Little Creativity Can Go A Long (like 60 Stories) Way
Over the past few months, there is been a real glut in video game releases - most of which have been pretty high profile titles.  Resistance 2, a "go shoot them aliens" game for the PS3 is one such title.  Resistance 2 contains a highly publicized encounter with a 60 story tall Leviathan, which is running rampant through one of the game's cities obliterating everything in its path.  Well what better way to earn a little buzz than to have a 60 story tall leviathan smash through real buildings.  Sadly its just a screen (it would have been much cooler if someone could have figured out a way to get a 3D monster to hang off the side of a building) but even still, its a pretty slick way to get people talking.

Free Gas From Mercenaries

According to the Wall Street Journal, MTV-EA-Harmonix is set to announce later today that they've negotiated a deal which will allow them to offer Beatles music in their Rock Band games.

Yes.  The Beatles.

In the world of music games, this is a big deal.  Arguably the most popular and iconic band of all time, The Beatles are an enormous prize for the Rock Band franchise.  One which presents an unprecedented opportunity to connect their games to an entirely new demographic/ generation of people. 

But while its a big deal within the context of music games, its an even bigger deal when you look at the big picture.  To showcase that bigger picture, a brief exercise.

Open up your friendly neighborhood iTunes music store and search for "The Beatles".  There are 3 things you should notice rather quickly:

1. Beatles cover bands are terrible. 
   
2. "Shes Got a Butt Bigger Than The Beatles" by Cledus T. Judd is the single worst song ever made.  And...
3. There is no actual Beatles music.  Because The Beatles publisher has refused for *years* to release their music to Apple's service.
   

Lets recap.  The Beatles, ie the biggest music sensation in history, have signed on with Rock Band, but not with iTunes.  With a video game... but not most popular digital music distribution platform of our time.  And they are not even the first notable group to follow this trend.  ACDC, another wildly popular iTunes holdout, also has music in Rock Band.

If you read this blog, you know that I've been touting these games as a very possible future for music distribution for some time now.  But I have to admit, I never thought that we'd see The Beatles in Rock Band before iTunes.    

I can't wait to hear the rational (or the dollar amount) associated with this deal in the official press release later today.  But if you're still skeptical about where this stuff is heading, I have a bridge in Alaska to sell you =)

Move over iTunes indeed.


UPDATE:
The deal has now been officially announced, with the press release available for your reading pleasure.  As it turns out, the Beatles music will actually be part of an entirely new game, though its not clear at this point whether or not their tracks will also be available for download via Rock Band. 

A quote from the Jeff Jones (CEO of Apple Corp, who control the rights to The Beatles music):

“Introducing the genius of The Beatles to a whole new generation of music lovers through original and inspired ways is extremely exciting to us at Apple Corps,” stated Jeff Jones, CEO, Apple Corps. “We are truly pleased to be working with the innovative forces at MTV and Harmonix as they embody our mutual passions for music and creativity.”

“Many of us have been part of a generation that has long enjoyed an enduring love affair with The Beatles and now we’re looking to extend that love affair for future generations to enjoy,” said Van Toffler.” “Our inspiration for this project comes from a keen sense of history and a place of utmost reverence and respect for the band, their music and their heritage.”

Simple awesomesauce. 

Image from the theenglishteacheronline.com

A few days ago, I finished up the story mode of Saints Row 2.  If you're not a gamer, SR2 might not be a household name, but it is, in 50 words or less,  "a Grand Theft Auto-like open world game, which puts you at the head of a gang, caught in the middle of a brutal turf war in the fictional city of Stillwater".  You know, typical wholesome family entertainment.  If you think you can guess where it goes from there, you're probably close... or at least you would be, right after you take your prediction on violence, criminal activity, and immoral behavior and double it.

 
Though I could (and probably should) get to a post about what exactly it is that draws seemingly normal people to enjoy such deplorably virtual pursuits, that is a post that will need to be saved for another day.  Because today  I'd like to focus on another aspect of this particular game.

It is entirely possible that Saints Row 2 is the single most customizable game I've ever played.  Character personalization has become pretty common in any game with RPG elements, so the fact that you get to tweak "yourself" to your liking is no surprise.  But customizing yourself is only the beginning with SR2.  A brief overview of the possibilities:

•  Your Character.  Not only can you choose the basics of your character's physical appearance (age, gender, ethnicity, body type, hair style, etc) but you can also go nuts tweaking things down to the smallest detail.  You can choose the width of the bridge of your nose, the verbal taunt you can use to antagonize your enemies, even your standard facial expression, gait, hand to hand combat style and even their in game voice.
• Your Cloths and Accessories.  It verges on obscene that SR2 allows players to choose from almost 500 different pieces of clothing and accessories available at 12 different in game stores, ranging from shirts to facial piercings, right down to undergarments and socks.
• Your Weapons.  Its not enough to have a shotgun.  You need 5 different types of shotgun to choose from!  I won't stress the weapon stuff too much, but lets just say you have lots of choices about what you'd like to wield (mercifully the game does not actually let you customize the weapons themselves in the absurd Army of Two fashion).
  
• Yours Cars.  Tricking yourself out is one thing.  Tricking your cars out brings the game to a whole different level.  So you want to paint your car eh?  Forget about the color.  Do you want metallic, candy, pearl, or iridescent paint?. What about the accent areas?  Paint or metal?  Steel, gold, silver, platinum, aluminum, or chrome?  You want NOS?  Sure!  A racing hood? No problem!  How about the grip level or size of your tires or the style and color of your rims?  Type of exhaust?  Window tint?  Convertible or hardtop?  Upgrade your torque?  How about frame stability, front and rear bumper style, headlight configuration, right on down to the placement of your rear view mirrors... Oh, and did I forget to mention that you can have as many cars, trucks, motorcycles, helicopters, private jets, and world war 2 fighters as you want, ranging from a tractor trailer cab to a Lamborghini. 
  
• Your Crib.  As the game progresses and you earn more cash, you can purchase various residence locations around town which functionally serve as massive inventory banks for all your stuff.  But if you can't customize it, it doesnt belong in Saints Row.  You can add pool tables, pianos, 50 inch plasmas, upgrade your bed, or pick from one of several overall styles for your place among other things.
  
• Your Crew. Pick the type of cloths your crew wears, the cars the'll drive, your gang sign and even your spray painted gang tag.  

If it sounds overwhelming, it is.  More importantly though, its flat out awesomesauce.  But we'll press the pause button on this epic tale for a moment and switch gears.

A few weeks ago, the EGC had a design retreat with some friends from the College of Agriculture.  The purpose of the retreat was to flesh out some design ideas for an animal raising game they are looking to build, which they hope will help teach some of the basic lessons of farm animal care (I'll save the specifics for another time).  At one point in the retreat, however, the question was raised as to what would make this game compelling to play more than once - a critical question for any game designer, perhaps even more so for an EduGame designer.   


All of this now brings us to the "so what" portion of the evening.  Why should anyone care about the fact that a video game lets you customize the hell out of everything?  And perhaps more importantly, what does a game about virtual gang violence have to do with raising a virtual pig? 

The answer is ownership.

When you can make something your own, the sense of personal investment and attachment to that something grows.  The more you're invested, the more you want to invest.  Grand Theft Auto 4 is one of the greatest games of all time, and yet I've logged more time (post story) in SR2 in a week than I have in GTA4 in 6 months.  Why?  Because when GTA's story was over, so too was the game.  When Saints Row 2's story ended, I found myself with more cribs to buy, more rides to pimp, more content to unlock.  Almost nothing to do with the game and everything to do with me and my own intrinsic motivation to improve that which I feel as though is mine (this is exactly why The Sims franchise has crushed the top spots on the PC game sales charts). 

I continue to play not because the game's narrative drives me to, but because its "my row" now.  Investment breeds investment.  Customization and personalization lead to motivation and re-playability. 

Which is, my friends, exactly what virtual gang violence has to do with raising a virtual pig.  Stay tuned. 



Images from gamecenteronline.net, planetxbox360.com and animalattraction.com 

I'm not a big fan of chain messages.  But every once and a while one comes along that is important enough to warrant passing on.  Just about everyone I know is both registered and committed to vote this November, but just in case... a little reverse psychology for you.
 





Pass it on.