Tuesday, January 10, 2012

The Importance of videos/game footage in pre-launch marketing

For a game meant to be released this year, Dust 514 has only had two trailers to win over audiences, and no dev diaries to show off gameplay while explaining the complexities of the game. The closest thing to dev diaries released are the dev blogs. Though the dev blogs are greatly appreciated by those who faithfully follow the game, but just texts and concept art isn't enough to get major media attention on the top video game sites. To show the importance of this kind of media attention, lets compare Dust 514 with another upcoming shooter (which also happens to be scifi and dealing with corporate warfare): Syndicate.

Dust 514 is a spinoff, or expansion (or whatever you want to call it) of EVE Online, a well established MMO. By comparison, Syndicate is a spinoff, or re-imagining of an old 90s RTS that barely any modern gamers know about. Dust 514 was announced in 2008, while Syndicate was just announced in 2011. Based on this, one would think that Dust 514 would be more popular since it got a head start; it's based on something that more people have heard of, or know about... yet, that isn't what the numbers suggest. On Facebook, Dust 514 has a bit over 19,000 likes, while Syndicate has a whopping number of likes exceeding 50,000. The Dust 514 trailer with the most YouTube views has around 300,000 views, while the Syndicate trailer with the most views has around 700,000 views. What accounts for this? Some would suggest that this is because to the average dumb gamer, Dust 514 looks like a Halo-clone, but this logic applies to syndicate as well since the game copies a lot of its qualities straight from Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

The real difference lies in marketing, how information about the game is being dispersed. Dust 514 is mostly releasing information in blog form, mostly texts with some images. Syndicate however releases information mainly in trailer form. According to this website, the current top game news sites are: Yahoo! Games, IGN, GameSpot, GameFAQs, GameTrailers, and Kotaku. With the exception of Kotaku, the dev blogs go largely ignored, and even on Kotaku, Syndicate gets more news coverage than Dust 514. On Yahoo! Games for example, there isn't even one article at all about Dust 514.

The point is this: Videos/gameplay footage leads to more gaming media coverage, and more media coverage means the more people will care. This game seriously needs to get attention, I remember listening to a "games of 2012" podcast from GameInformer, they talked for over 40 minutes about every games they could think of, Even games that were extremely obscure, or just really terrible looking. In those 40 minutes, not one mention of Dust 514 was made, and these aren't just random gamers, those were gaming "journalists". CCP/Sony need to release more trailers, dev dairies, or gameplay to build up hype for this game.



  1. good points about more info. CCP start promoting your game! it wont get interested parties by osmosis!

  2. +1. dont lose the advertising battle

  3. i'm afraid we will have nothing very interesting before the eve fanfest in march

  4. EA has hundreds millions of US dollars to spend on marketing (all split between around 6 games at a time). I don't even know about CCP's marketing budget.

    In addition, Syndicate is releasing February 1st. That game better be getting an epic amount of marketing due to it's very close release. If Dust releases at the end of this year, or the beginning of next year, CCP will start to have more videos with gameplay from the beta this coming summer.

    However, you still have a good point that marketing is going to be key here. Telling people that the game is going to cost $40 USD, but you're going to get your spent money back in the form of in-game money (ISK) is a great way to lure people in.

    Lastly, Syndicate looks like it will be a thrown together and hustled out EA product. It might have some great gameplay in it and perhaps even a couple new or creative ideas, but it still looks like a rushed EA product. I hope it isn't though. I hope Syndicate attracts people interested in the scifi genre (or corporate warfare/guns/YEA, GUNS!) so Dust can come in and take people to their awesomeness. Wait to be seen.

    PS: The future will not be about just corporations. It will be about the State/Corporation. Politics, media, business, and money all rolled into one. The real questions is where does the military stand? Business, politics, or money?

  5. I understand CCP doesn't have an EA-level budget, but Sony does. A the publisher, Sony has to let the word out.

  6. Well I'm beginning to think that Dust wont start getting advertised till the end of the fanfest,
    and yes i do agree Sony should at least help with the adverts (no Butler)

    but I don't think that the major gaming sites like IGN are going to pay more attention to this game UNTIL the get to see and know more about it (besides IGN is too mainstream :P )

  7. Is Syndicate multi-platform and PC? Why yes it is so I'm not sure the numbers really mean much. Multi-platforms of course going to reveal way higher numbers than strictly PS3. Like I said earlier in the marketing post. This game is going to be a dilema for advertising. Just make a single epic 2 minute vid (similar to the long trailers shown in movie theaters) showing mostly game play, rock the sound track and call it good. There is so much anticipation with this game and guessing and conjecture that let's just say....don't F this up CCP. People be crying for MAG2 if you do.

  8. Agreed, don't develop the ad around some gay ass cut scenes that most games do, show us what we are going to be experiencing when we are behind the controller.
    On another note, this game gaining traction.

  9. There are some valid point,but it's not too good of a comparison.

    Dust is doing something that's never been done in the multiplayer game format,while Syndicate,from what I've hear,doesn't even have multiplayer.

    Ultimately,while I do think that CCP should be doing a bit more advertising,I don't think that it's going to make or break this game.People are already going to decide if they like or dislike this game before they even play one single second of it for what ever reasons.What CCP need to do is make more videos showing how the systems of the game actually work.

    New things usually scare the crap out of people.That's why people keep buying the same familiar games like Modern Warfare.what they need to be showing people is that,yes,it's another FPS,but what EXACTLY makes this one different and better?

    We need to know more about specifically how this game is going to work with EVE,how exactly micro transactions are going to work in the game,and other things that I just can't think of right now.Telling people in blogs is good,but we need more,like mentioned above with developer diaries.

    I think that CCP is walking on a fine line right now.Keeping info low key is good for the people that are really interested,and have decided that they are "all in" with whatever this game brings,but 99.99% of games financial success hinges on how much of the casual fans that a game can pull in.If it doesn't capture the people that are stuck on COD and BF,then what could happen is the same thing that happened to MAG where the lack of a strong player base couldn't justify spending time,effort,and money in the game's upkeep.

    My only wish is that EVE is a great game that turns this stagnant genre on it's head,and helps move it into a new direction.

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