a) Print Advertisements
b) Box art, for all hardware consoles
Considering first, will be the print advertisements. I have gathered a collection of popular advertisement schemes from some of the top selling and most promoted games of 2010, as these demonstrate the better quality and range of what a publishing company can achieve. The first of these will be the record breaking and potentially the most 'sought-after' video game of all time - Call of Duty: Black Ops.
The game was released worldwide on November 9th over all 4 major console systems; this therefore needed a large scale advertisement strategy - that easily paid itself off. Within the first 24 hours of its release, the game sold in excess of 7 million copies, smashing the previous record of 2.5 million beyond argument from preceding record holder, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. This in no short way is all thanks to the CEO of Activision, Bobby Kotick, who openly stated that 'Black Ops’ will see a larger financial investment by the company than any other game that they have ever released', with a rumoured $100 million budget placed solely on marketing.
The print advertisement was more often than not seen over a 2-page spread, allowing the entire audience focus to be primarily on the game. Up to 6 months before the release of the game, the symbolic image of the man wielding 2 pistols was surfaced on secretive sites, and mailed to high priority status publications and video game players. This in instead gathered its own momentum as fan of the game began to speculate the release of another Call of Duty title, somehow allowing the game to begin its journey into its own marketing for free.
The vital elements of the advertisement are as follows:
* The FULL title of the game, though the game and its previous titles are all simply known amongst the gaming community as 'Call of Duty' or 'COD', the need to reinforce its name was necessary, as the game was facing a Christmas release and many buyers may of been a parent or guardian, as in fact the largest played demographic for the game is normally under the certification
* A short, quoted review about the game from a well respected gaming publication, in this example being 'GAMESMASTER'. Often this will have no relevance or description of the game itself; instead it normally holds a hyperbolic property of being exclamative and over exaggerated. Often holding very bold claims or statements, this is no different as it is being described as having the ability to 'rule 2010', regardless of other pre-releases or the overall opinion of the gaming market.
* Appearing mostly on larger spreads, as the release date draws closer, screen grabs of game play is featured on the advertisement with key elements enhanced within the game - perhaps it’s innovative and cutting edge new graphics, engine or plot. This advert however focuses solely on the multiplayer aspect of the game, as it is widely known as perhaps what the players really pay for when they purchase the game. It has itself broke records and is considered the best multiplayer experience for gamers for this generation- once again, a bold statement.
* Lastly, the most important and legal features of the certification, the consoles it will appear on (this was advertised in the Official Xbox Magazine, so only this logo appears), the developer (Treyarch) and the publisher (Activision).
* The FULL title of the game, though the game and its previous titles are all simply known amongst the gaming community as 'Call of Duty' or 'COD', the need to reinforce its name was necessary, as the game was facing a Christmas release and many buyers may of been a parent or guardian, as in fact the largest played demographic for the game is normally under the certification
* A short, quoted review about the game from a well respected gaming publication, in this example being 'GAMESMASTER'. Often this will have no relevance or description of the game itself; instead it normally holds a hyperbolic property of being exclamative and over exaggerated. Often holding very bold claims or statements, this is no different as it is being described as having the ability to 'rule 2010', regardless of other pre-releases or the overall opinion of the gaming market.
* Appearing mostly on larger spreads, as the release date draws closer, screen grabs of game play is featured on the advertisement with key elements enhanced within the game - perhaps it’s innovative and cutting edge new graphics, engine or plot. This advert however focuses solely on the multiplayer aspect of the game, as it is widely known as perhaps what the players really pay for when they purchase the game. It has itself broke records and is considered the best multiplayer experience for gamers for this generation- once again, a bold statement.
* Lastly, the most important and legal features of the certification, the consoles it will appear on (this was advertised in the Official Xbox Magazine, so only this logo appears), the developer (Treyarch) and the publisher (Activision).
One thing I can notice from the advert is the lack of information and knowledge on itself, a ploy to aid further consumers onto the website noted as well as doing further research of their own. This inevitably created a huge buzz in search engines, allowing the key word 'Call of Duty' and 'Black Ops' to dominate the Google Trend chart for up to 2 months before and after the release.
This timeline from Google represents the sheer scale of publicity and attention the game created around itself. The first notable rising in the scale were surrounding the release of the intention of creating another Call of Duty game as the popularity of Modern Warfare shattered records. The next few steady months were as the title was released and gradually more information was streamed into the waiting public, up until the momentous rise at the end of the year when the game came out.
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