Case Study - Just Dance 4

Release Date: October 2nd 2012 (Europe)

Institution behind game: Ubisoft

Platform availability: Wii, ps3, WiiU, Xbox 360

Print

There is a number of key conventions featured in this movie poster; It follows a bright multi-coloured colour scheme that connotes fun and gives you a party vibe. This is good because it attracts some of the audience to the game. There is only one type of sans serif typeface; It includes an number of slogans around the title that is dominating most of the poster and is acting as a central image aswell. 

"Just Dance 4 doesn't bring much in the way of new features to the party, but if all you want is to have one hell of a fun, energetic, and hilarious time, there really is no party quite like a Just Dance 4 party." This is a good review as it starts off being bad but the good over throws it.

"If there's anything bad to be said about Just Dance 4, it's that there's not much new here. It's largely a song pack, albeit a very entertaining one. " 

"This is as fun a game as any in the series, with routines that are even wilder than before, and a keen self-awareness that eagerly embraces its over-the-top kitsch qualities. " This is again, a good review. 

Broadcast

The advert for this game  is extremely effective and uses a number of key conventions that typical Wii television adverts would use. For example, during most of the advert, the setting is domestic and takes you on a journey through a house during a house party. The bright lighting of the modern looking home has synergy with the modern authentic colour scheme of wii (which is the main platform its available on) but also the party theme of the advert has synergy with the bright colours on the poster and front cover of the game. The track used for the advert is a feel good song hence the name, "good feeling" and the creators have used celebrity endorsement by having the singer of the song feature in the advert. The advert aslo features e-celebrities like D-trix, Lindsey Stomp and the Cimorelli sisters to promote the game.

Ubisoft also hosted a launch party where a wide range of different well known celebrites attended and spoke publicly about the game to promote it. This is good because it means fanbases of the celebrities would be aware of the game and know that the celebrity they aspire to be like plays the game, this would lead to them wanting to buy the game.

E-Media

The website of the game attracts its target audience, which would be families and friends who are want to have fun and interact by coming together and playing the game, as the colour scheme is bright and multi-coloured, which would connote fun and enjoyment. The most interesting aspect of the website structure is how the background has been divided equally between both genders; there is a pink side with a cartoon of a young woman and a blue side with a cartoon of a young man. This could be ubisofts way of letting the audience know that the game is for a wide range of people no mattter what gender/age.

Star Trek

June 2011

E3 announcement and teaser trailer - Gamers were interested in the game and weren't given any information so they would have to wait and find out more. (Suspense)

April 2012

New teaser trailer released- more info released about the game that got the audience tension build up.

June 2012 – E3

Gameplay footage posted online - Audience got to see whether or not the game was good and what the animation etc. was like.

December 2012

Release date announced - gamers were able to finally know when the game would be released to look forward to the release.

March 2013

Pre-order promotional boxes arrive in stores - Audience were able to actually buy the game (Star Trek developers and publishers get to see if they're actually doing to make money.)

The teaser trailer may be appealing to Star Trek fans as they get to see what the game's like (if its anything like the movie, what it's about). Also, it would leave them wondering and wanting to see more/buy the game to see what is going on and what is going to happen. In total, all 4 trailers got 185,782 views.

The Star Trek videogame publisher developed the marketing campaign over such a long period of time to build up all the tension and have the game be presented as being so good that they get a massive profit. 

Here is one of their print advertisements. There is some cross promotion with ps3 and Xbox. Also, it gives a way a few advantages in the game. And, the release date is at the bottom along with the the publisher. 

I think the advertising campaign was successful in having a profit pre-release. However, when the game was released, there was not any success at all. Overall, the advertising did them well until the game was actually released.

Phone and Tablet gaming - Candy Crush

Candy Crush is a multi-millionaire game that was developed by King. It started of as being just a Facebook game that was released on April 12th 2012 but then released on the apple app store on November 14th 2012 and the android play store on December 14th 2012.

Eventhough Candy Crush is a free-to-play game, it is estimated to make £610,000 per day ($1,000,000). They make this money with their: Buy add-ons, extra lives and access to higher levels. 25% of Candy Crush gamers have spent money on Candy Crush and 30% claim they are addicted. However King has pointed out that more than half of players who reach the last level in Candy Crush Saga have done so without spending money on the game. 

It has been stated that Candy Crush hit 500 million downloads/installers on November 2013 and 150 Billion games of Candy Crush have been played. Whether on tablets (ipads, android tablets), phones (android, apple) and computers.

From my experience I can say that Candy Crush is a really addictive, good game. However, I did give up on it.

Planetside 2

Planetside 2 is an MMOFPS (Massively Multi-player On-line First Person Shooter) war game that is free to play online and was launched on November 20th 2012. Published and Developed by Sony Online Entertainment. The genre of the game is Sci-fi. In the game, when a player signs up they have to choose between three factions (The Terran Republic, The Vanu Sovereignty and The New Conglomerates) which are different armies fighting for territory. In this game there are six different player classes:
The infiltrator - (the sniper class that have special abilities of cloaking and hacking, and can use sniper rifles, scout rifles and submachine guns to deliver a devastating effect.)
The light assault class - (They are scouts who use carbines, submachine guns and shotguns. Their special ability is Jump jets which allow them to fly through the air for a short period of time)
The combat medic - ( they are a healing class. Their weapons include assault rifles, shotguns and submachine guns. The Combat Medic's special abilities allows them to heal and resurrect other players.)
The engineer class - (Has the special ability of repairing vehicles, turrets, and MAX Units. The engineer also has the ability to build anti-infantry and anti-vehicle turrets. The Engineer's weapons include carbines, shotguns submachine guns and battle rifles.)
The heavy assault class - (Have light machine guns, submachine guns, shotguns, batte rifles, and also Rocket Launchers, which are effective at destroying enemy vehicles. They also have the special ability of shields to help them endure heavy fire.)
The MAX class - (Have a mobile armored suit that allows them to take significant damage before dying. However, due to the suit they are also the slowest class. They have access to anti-infantry, anti-vehicle, and anti-air weapons. Max units cost resources to use.)

When signing up for Planetside 2, you don't have to pay to play the game. However, you can pay real money to the game to get ingame money. Also, if you want a subscription to access more things, you have to pay. The ingame money can be used to buy weapons, armour, bundles etc. However, some game players don't agree with ingame currency and shops, this is because people who are rich could get more weapons even if they're bad at the game and win, and those who cant afford to buy things and are good at the game, may lose against them.

Target audience
Male: 65% Female: 35%
Class: ABC1 
Ages: 15-30
Wealth: Financially comfortable
Location of living: Towns, Cities (Suburbs)
Employment/Education: In school (high school, uni, college), Part time job

AIDA Excercise

1) The name that we have chosen for the game is "Enzo" as this is the name of the bug. We think that this game will be played on tablets, phones and Computers as it would bring more profit with a wide range of platform availability. Enzo will be played by the ages 7-14 as the visual effects of the game are mostly animated, which would appeal to a younger audience more than an older audience. 

2a)To attract audience attention, we will be advertising this game on children based areas of media such as Kids TV Channels, on YouTube there will be ads between nursery rhymes, kid's shows etc.
2b) The advert for the game will include game footage to show the audience what they will have to do/go through in the game and it will be played by a young child on his bed to create a personal identity as the audience can relate to the child playing in the advert.
2c) The way we're going to stimulate audience desire is by giving the bug a name and a personality. This will stimulate audience desire as it will make the audience feel connected to Enzo and know him more. This will lead to them wanting to help Enzo in the game.