I have a problem. A sickness, if you will. I like to think that I have something of an ingrained resistance when it comes to marketing ploys. I see them coming from a mile away and find it easy to disseminate and debunk them. If I find that marketing gimmick to be cheap and insulting enough it doesn't just hurt my opinion on the product but on the industry as a whole. (That is part of the reason that I will never actively support the music industry. Although I can't say the same for the perfume industry; they weren't really gonna get my money anyway, now were they.) And yet, with all that said, I still find myself whooping and hollering whenever someone announces that their game will have a 'Raid'.
'Ghost Recon: Breakpoint' will feature series-first raids? A stealth-game raid! I've never played that before, have no idea how it will work, or even have an inkling if it will be fun. Sign me up! Fallout 76 will also feature series-fresh raids in the coming months? Well, the base game is already cursed with a final boss so overpowered that she can only be felled with 'specialised' (See: broken) builds. I entirely trust the Fallout team to put together a decent raid. At no point does deductive logic ever enter into my reasoning, I hear 'raid' and I start bouncing of the walls like a madman. Maybe it is merely the idea of some illusive endgame that perpetuates the mythos of the game, or maybe I'm just a total rube.
Oftentimes we see this type of marketing in gaming, buzzwords revolving around vague promises that attempt to spark the imagination. It is a lot safer and cheaper than the big look-at-me media stunts, but they require a lot more guesswork as to the type of audience you foster. Mess that up and you could end up falling flat. Luckily for the above two games, I'm the kind of idiot who loves the idea of in-game raids even if he lacks the allies and friends to actively partake in one. (Don't ask me why, I clearly don't know!) Although, in the past video game marketing has not always been so low key.
Who remembers the overblown stunt that Treyarch pulled during the marketing push for Black Ops 3? For those who don't remember, Black Ops 3 was the game set twelve years before the next year's Cyberpunk game, and was Activion's second step down the road of more sci-fi elements in their flagship series. Despite being set in the future and surrounding itself in wild technologies, Black Ops 3 tried to tell a relatable story about betrayal, terrorism and drones. (Or was that Advanced warfare? These games all blend into one.) Someone in marketing (Let's call him: Man-who-was-likely-fired) decided that the best way to get the word out, whilst staying true to the themes of the game, would be to play a little prank on Twitter.
Call of Duty stealthy changed their Twitter icon and name to something that, at a glance, resembled a semi-official news outlet (They literally called it 'Current Events Aggregate: where we bring you real news'); then they began to live tweet about an ongoing terrorist attack that was happening in Singapore. Great way to freak people out across the globe, especially people who currently had family and friends in Singapore. Or people who lived in Singapore. Or anyone, anywhere. Needless to say, this went over about as well as you would expect: outlets accused Call of Duty of trivializing tragedy and I remember at least one call for a boycott. In the end, however, it was effective, everybody was talking about Call of Duty and the game went on to sell well. Seems Man-who-was-likely-fired is owed an apology.
I find it strange that we, as a society, respond so well when companies make an ass of themselves like this. Sure, Treyarch received a few public lashes for this dumb prank but all was said and forgotten in a matter of weeks. Perhaps if this had happened to today's climate, engrossed as we are with 'cancel culture', things might have played out differently, but I suspect not. Deep down we all like to look and point at a train wreck but the memory of it inevitably evaporates within the no time flat. Although, I will admit there have certainly been a lot less big stunts of late, but that may have as much to do with the cost of putting such an event together. I don't even want to think about how much the Saints Row 4 stunt cost.
Saints Row is a franchise that delved further into insanity the longer it went on. What started as a fairly soulless GTA clone evolved into an audacious party-of-a-game that specialized in trying to shock and surprise it's fanbase. By the fourth entry, that meant changing things up by having aliens blow up the planet and forcing the protagonist to enter a matrix-esque version of the game-world in order to fight back. It didn't really make any sense but this franchise no longer needed to. What it did need, was a marketing stunt equally as audacious as the game. Somehow, Volition reached the conclusion that the biggest 'stand-out' feature of this new game was the fact that most of it was set in space, so in order to market the game they needed to offer a trip to space. (I'm not joking.)
The 'Super dangerous Wad Wad pack' offered purchasers; a special copy of the game, a full-size replica of the in-game Dubstep gun, a hostage rescue experience, plastic surgery, a spy training day, a personal shopper, a capsule wardrobe (Whatever that is.), 7 nights at the Top Royal Suite in the Burj Al-Arab in Dubai, a week for two at the Jefferson Hotel in Washington DC, first class flights to Washington and Dubai, a Lamborghini Gallardo, a Toyota Prius with 1 year insurance, a years Super Car membership (Again, no clue.) and finally, a Virgin Galactic space flight. All of that will only set you back a cool 1 million dollars; not too much to ask considering what the package offered. Although a report from Arstechnica did value all the items as being roughly $630 000, so that's almost $400 000 going towards set-up convenience. (Which is fair, I suppose.) As far as I am aware no one actually bought this edition of the game but the fact that it exists makes for a fun story. Like most of Saints Row, in hindsight. Fun to talk about, less so to experience.
Gaming companies don't need to go so extravagant in order to sell their products. Some can pull of marketing stunts without attempting to cause a diplomatic incident or trying to launch their fans into the stratosphere. Capcom found a wholly original way to stick their foot in their mouths when it came to advertising for Resident evil 5. As ostensibly a zombie game, (See last Sunday's blog.) Resident Evil 5 features heavily in the gore department, so Capcom decided to lean on the aspect of their game in their marketing. This resulted in the bright idea of planting fake body parts all over London and sending 50 fans out on a scavenger hunt to find them. (Ingenious?) "What could go wrong?" I here you ask. Well, a few body parts were spotted by unaffiliated members of the public and the police were called, but no charges were made. Then there was the fact that a handful of body parts disappeared and were never recovered. (Spooky!)
When you see all of these incidents, suddenly my predilection towards 'Raid marketing' doesn't sound so dire. Things are a lot more tame these days, now that games companies no longer want to be the next 'Jackass' and just settle with trying to be WOW. It does make me a little nostalgic for the days of old, I miss the times when Video Games showed up in the news for some reason other than scape-goating and fear-mongering. And to cap it all off, the stunts actually worked. All of the games that I mentioned sold very well and where not hampered by any of their silliness. It all reminds me of that time when U2 had that deal with Apple to upload their album onto everyone's playlist for free. There was a big controversy as people ranted and raved how they didn't ask for this and wanted it gone. Bono shared his thoughts about it in an interview. "A lot of people who didn't know who U2 were before, now hates our guts. The way I see it, that's an improvement in the relationship." If that doesn't sum up marketing stunt culture, I don't know what does.
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