What's Next...

Now I have began and finished at least 80% of my filming for the final video-based advert, I need to consider further means of advertising my game to a wide audience. As I have now the indefinite cuts and scenes to utilize in my 3-minute length trailer, I can begin to plan a shortened version of the trailer, as well as concepts for the box art and magazine advertisements.

Below is a case study into the overall advertisement into the 2010 release of 'Assassins Creed: Brotherhood':



This 2.42 minute long trailer was first released at the E3 Video Game Convention in 2010. The game came out just a few months later, but for press, fans and critics this was the very first they saw of the new release. It shows no hints towards major game play elements, instead it is rather ambiguous in what it does display knowledge wise. This therefore generates a large buzz around the game. It is far more theatrical and the quality of animation is barely distinguishable from actual real life recordings, which is highly impressive.



This much shorter trailer however is what was advertised on TV in the 2 months running up to the world wide release. The animation is now replica of game play footage and displays dense examples of skills and tactics that will be deployed throughout the plot. It is final excitement for fans as they now have a better grasp on the game soon to be released and hooks them in to buy the game.



This is a feature for the game on a majorly popular gaming magazine, where it featured a massive spread on the narrative, production and even a review/preview. It gained a large amount of publicity and in fact this kind of coverage can really make or break a game with impressive circulation figures of 70,000 in the UK and up to 425,000 in the US.



This was a very bizarre form of advertising as it features the Limited Edition copy of the video game software, and was more commonly seen than a more basic structure simply advertising the release. However this can also be explained when considering that the fan following behind the huge game series allows them to push the sales upon a more expensive edition of the game, as they know it will appeal to the greater interests of the masses - a very strategic move.



This is not advertisement of the game, but instead the final box art that was used on the cover of the software. It displays the commonly used logo and themes based from all of the trailers and magazine features. It displays the developer, publisher, certification, system requirements and even further information such as a blurb to the narrative and information about the online multiplayer. This is typically the type of box art you would see from a video game, and it does not break conventions of ambiguity and unknowing.