2008 was a record-breaking year for video game sales. Thanks to a 20% growth in worldwide sales, for the first time video game sales exceeded worldwide DVD and Blu-Ray sales revenue. However, as the industry moves into 2009, the economy threatens a business model that relies on a large initial investment followed by crossed fingers. This year may be different. Continue reading “Gaming beat DVDs, now what?”
Tag: gaming
Gaming’s next YouTube?
This is part of our best-of 2008 series, previously featured on our newsletter, Advance. Imagine, for a moment, a universe that does not yet exist. A flying saucer navigates a galaxy of oddly colored planets and moons teeming with life. The saucer slows upon reaching one particular world, and moves in closer. It is a lush green landscape, and scattered around the planet are cities – sculpted from Coke bottles. Moving closer, vehicles created from Coke bottle caps race back and forth between the buildings. And zooming in reveals the townspeople of this foreign land to be none other than the creatures from Coca-Cola’s "Happiness Factory" commercial.
This imaginary planet sits in a galaxy created by Spore, EA’s new hit game. Or rather, it could. There’s a trend beginning to hit mainstream in-video game design: User-generated content. September saw the release of EA’s aforementioned Spore. a "universe simulation" that allows players to create and share entire worlds with other players. In late October, Sony released LittleBigPlanet for the PS3, a highly anticipated title for all ages and both genders where the user generated content provides levels for sack-puppets to play through. Continue reading “Gaming’s next YouTube?”
Gaming’s next YouTube?
Imagine, for a moment, a universe that does not yet exist. A flying saucer navigates a galaxy of oddly colored planets and moons teeming with life. The saucer slows upon reaching one particular world, and moves in closer. It is a lush green landscape, and scattered around the planet are cities – sculpted from Coke bottles. Moving closer, vehicles created from Coke bottle caps race back and forth between the buildings. And zooming in reveals the townspeople of this foreign land to be none other than the creatures from Coca-Cola’s “Happiness Factory” commercial. This imaginary planet sits in a galaxy created by Spore, EA’s new hit game. Or rather, it could. There’s a trend beginning to hit mainstream in-video game design: User-generated content.
September saw the release of EA’s aforementioned Spore, a “universe simulation” that allows players to create and share entire worlds with other players. In late October, Sony released LittleBigPlanet for the PS3, a highly anticipated title for all ages and both genders where the user generated content provides levels for sack-puppets to play through. Continue reading “Gaming’s next YouTube?”
World of Adcraft
More than 10 million people play World of Warcraft (WoW) for nearly fifteen hours a week, but the game was previously an untapped focus for brands. While some brands have targeted the game’s audience, for the first time ever, a brand is entering into the World of Warcraft.
World of Warcraft, Activision Blizzard’s massive multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) borders on a worldwide phenomenon. With an expansion pack adding more content in November, WoW shows no signs of slowing down. While most games may occupy a gamer’s attention for 60 hours, WoW players measure their game time in days.
Considering the media consumption habits of these primarily 16-24 year old males, it would make sense for marketers to be involving themselves with the World of Warcraft. But there’s a major obstacle. The world is one of fantasy – of magic and dragons – not of real world brands. So while there has been a considerate amount of successful branding surrounding the game in “out of game advertising” such as Toyota’s viral video or South Park’s Emmy award winning “Make Love not Warcraft,” brands haven’t entered the game.
Until Bejeweled. Popcap just sponsored an integration of their highly successful casual game Bejeweled into the World of Warcraft environment. Particularly interesting is that this was done without participation by Activision Blizzard, the creators and maintainers of World of Warcraft. Perhaps an explanation is in order. Continue reading “World of Adcraft”
In-game scavenger hunt proves itself
In-game advertising has taken a big leap with a new campaign for Paramount Picture’s new film Tropic Thunder. This month the action film is being advertised through an in-game scavenger hunt within Rainbow Six: Vegas 2. The hunt is comprised of nine dynamically inserted display ads, starting with a lead-in, and then follow-up clues until the final placement has a call to action to text in the user’s email address to a short code. This final step enrolls the user into Ubisoft’s VIP service, and automatically enters them into a sweepstakes.
I’ve long been a proponent of embedding calls to action within in-game ads, believing that dynamic in-game advertising is far more effective a platform when incorporated into a larger strategy. As the campaign is ongoing, there are no metrics to be discussed, but there are a few key points to examine in this campaign to better understand how in-game advertising can be leveraged successfully. Continue reading “In-game scavenger hunt proves itself”
