Marketing Computer Games
Marketing Computer GamesComputer games are big business these days exploited by many companies. A winning idea is one thing, selling that idea is another matter. At this stage the task of selling the game leaves the hands of the creators and is handed over to a marketing department. The first task of the marketer is to determine which age group the game will appeal to. Companies use a wide range of different techniques to sell their product. They use the aid of magazines, articles written by enthusiasts for readers with similar game interests. Rolling television based demos show off the visual and sound side of the game.
These days’ companies try to use other ways to market a game, for instance Lara Croft’. Lara is the main character in the series of Tomb Raider games and is the marketers dream. Globally, her appearance is indistinguishable. Her facial features sit on a face not a dissimilar colour to that of a Mediterranean person. Her dark eyes and hair make her look westernised, yet her small features make Lara look slightly Asian. Lara could be from any country making the game globally accepted from the start. Her clothes are tight and sparse so that would keep a young adolescent playing the game for a long time. Lara is often pictured in different positions, sometimes brandishing a handgun, showing assertiveness, sometimes looking innocent wearing little clothing showing a nice vulnerable side. The next minute she’ll be in a car chase being perused by a helicopter showing an action packed side. This creates a persona people can relate to: ‘gun toting multilingual female that has sexual appeal’. That technique was very successful and has been incorporated recently by Lucozade and M&S in their advertisements.
Magazine articles are another good selling point for a game that is new and in need of a cult following. A feature on Tomb Raider IV in Play Magazine features appealing selling material for everyone. The title, the first focal point of the article reads: ‘EPISODE ONE’. Meanwhile in cinemas when this magazine was on the shelf, Star Wars Episode 1 was being shown in cinemas. As the whole youth population of the country was Star Wars mad, they needed no description of what a prequel was. For good measure, for non-Star Wars fans, ‘lets do the time warp back to Tomb Raider IV’ was an equally imposing sub-headline, derived from a well-known pre-Star Wars song. The picture accompanying the article features a surprised Lara in her vulnerable ‘startled deer’ expression – looking surprised and appealing to males…. The article’s information features assumptions, as Eidos did not release much information. These assumption are made about ‘Lara’s dark twin sister’ they relate this to the title ‘dark revelation’. The magazine uses language like ‘we’ extensively....
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