How to sway video game press on Washington Post

[Autoduel76]

And you are still not seeing the difference of money is in how much you spend to convince people per-person, which is why your "ton of money" remark is irrelevant.

Blizzard works with the excitement about their game that's already there. They don't have to worry about who gets to see it, they talk to fans as much as media. Bethesda uses money and a press party to get gaming press to talk about a game they wouldn't normally talk about, and to talk about it more excitedly than they would otherwise.

Riding the wave of excitement vs. manipulating the media to create excitement. Your attempts to equate the two are kinda funny.

What wave of excitement are you talking about?

And how is anything in a "per person" spending, in any way relevent?

What I find funny is that you find Blizzard's method to be acceptable and Bethesda's outragous.

Personally, I find Blizzard's method a bit of a turn off for my tastes. Its much like when I saw the Xbox 360 have their big event before release, in a concert atmosphere that was broadcast on MTV. It made me feel old and think "they truly aren't marketing video games to me anymore, but to these MTV kids"

But, in the end, its simpyl another method of throwing money out there to hype your product. The idea that the per-person cost is relevent doesn't make any sense? How about per media person cost? Blizzard's event still cost way more per media-person in attendance.

But does it really matter? no.

Bethesda's method might not be the best, in terms of marketing to you, but I fail to see how its more "outragous" than Blizzards. In fact, you were arguing with me just a week or so ago that reviews don't sell games anyway, so I really fail to see why this would outrage you, at all, in the first place.

Blizzard made the excitement. They aren't riding a wave of pre-existing excitement. Once again, it's not like they just stumbled across a group of 20 thousand starcraft fans milling around in a park and then just decided to unveil their game there.

No. They put out a bunch of money to hold a huge event, in which fans were invited. I don't know why you think that Bethesda couldn't get a huge crowd of fans to show up also, if they went that route. Its been done before by various companies. Was Blizzard's on a huge scale? Yeah, but again, how is that good?

Wasn't your whole point that Bethesda went overboard? (even though the article clearly stated that Bethesda's media-event wasn't the most lavish out there)

Yet, when Blizzard goes overboard with that type of media event, somehow that's ok?

Both are nothing more than financial decisions to generate hype via holding expensive media events. As that article points out, its common practice. If you don't like it, that's fine. Your perogotive, but to defend Blizzard's as perfectly ok while being outraged at Bethesda's is simply hypocritical.

 

[Grotesque]

20 million!? I hope it will go down under like a rock on the bottom of the ocean.


I saw in that movie a waitress with a mini....hmmm...a professional hooker to please the "customers"? maybe! It has already been done!

I cant wait to see the leaked footage. Did all that persons signed an NDA? How stupid cand you be to turn the laptop towards the screen right when you are filmed!?

I bet that person was held afterwards, had a gun at his while being threaten just because he was going to distroy the hype!

 

[Silencer]

20 million!?

$5,750,000.00 of which went into the trademark alone.

The development budget for Final Fantasy VII was reported to be a US$45 million, and that was ages ago.

 

[Brother None]

The development budget for Final Fantasy VII was reported to be a US$45 million, and that was ages ago.

Oblivion has an estimated development budget of $25 million.

Highest is still Shenmue, $70 million. Ridic.

 

[Vault 69er]

$70 million for Shenmue?
No wonder Sega went under.

 

[Brother None]

$70 million for Shenmue?
No wonder Sega went under.

Hell, with the number of Dreamcasts sold then, it would have had to sell 2 copies to every Dreamcast owner just to break even. It was ridiculous. 1.2 million copies were sold, where it needed 2 million to break even.

Shame, I loved Sega.

 

[Jesterka]

Also I heard that some people from the magazine staff are fallout fans too, they even also included FO1 and FO2 in their magazine as full games.

FO1/2 as a bundle enclosed to a magazine? Nothing special, I guess...

 

[Madbringer]

FO1/2 as a bundle enclosed to a magazine? Nothing special, I guess...

CD-Action is Poland did that ages ago, and it WAS something special. That's how i got my Fallout 2. :>

 

[Sorrow]

Im waiting for CD-Action(polish magazine) to preview this... They were honest about the games that they preview and stuff so I think that we may see something different than other magazines that previewed fallout 3 already. Also I heard that some people from the magazine staff are fallout fans too, they even also included FO1 and FO2 in their magazine as full games.

Err...
They have given 9/10 to Tictacs, which means that they are clueless. Their review of Fallout: Tictacs was a pure hype with almost no content.

 

[Jesterka]

Im waiting for CD-Action(polish magazine) to preview this... They were honest about the games that they preview and stuff so I think that we may see something different than other magazines that previewed fallout 3 already. Also I heard that some people from the magazine staff are fallout fans too, they even also included FO1 and FO2 in their magazine as full games.

Err...
They have given 9/10 to Tictacs, which means that they are clueless. Their review of Fallout: Tictacs was a pure hype with almost no content.

Hmm. That´s still OK. One Czech server has given 7.5/10 to FOBOS. The reviewer was an Illusion Softworks (Mafia, H&D, Vietcong) developer, which is fine, but he hasn´t known nothing about the older games. I remember that fans almost inflame their forums...
After this incident, I preferably haven´t checked their Tactics review (which can be basically implemented on any Fallout info published on Czech sites, except my work and work of my Madbrahmin friends ).

 

[draeke]

They only fell short of paying for prostitutes, I guess.

We don't know that. lol

 

[Wooz]

CD-Action is Poland did that ages ago, and it WAS something special.

Heathen! I still have my empik-at-nowy świat-purchased Fallout 2 box, back in the day when games costed 165zł.

 

[Brother None]

It cost 165 sluts?

 

[Wooz]

Yes. As you know, we use sluts as currency.

 

[Silencer]

Actually, that's about the price of 5-6 sluts.

 

[A.S.S.R.]

CD-Action is Poland did that ages ago, and it WAS something special. That's how i got my Fallout 2. :>

Same here (in the summer of '00).

Still, this just further confirms the role of big "gaming media" as the promotional vanguard of the hype machine for some of the better established studios.

From the copious amounts of money being thrown around to the dubious promotion techniques, Ion-Storm-era John Romero is emerging as more of a visionary than we gave him credit for.


- A.S.S.R.

 

[generalissimofurioso]

From the copious amounts of money being thrown around to the dubious promotion techniques, Ion-Storm-era John Romero is emerging as more of a visionary than we gave him credit for.


- A.S.S.R.

(shudders) Daikatana being the harbinger of things to come is a very disturbing idea...

 

[SuAside]

Mike Musgrove of the Washington Post has put up a fascinating tidbit on how the gaming companies try to court game reviewers to friendship and positive reviews of their games.

i actually read 'Fiendship' on the first pass. i guess that fits just as well, don't you think?

Bethesda Softworks' parent company, ZeniMax, is privately held and won't disclose the game's budget, but it's not uncommon for the budgets of cutting-edge titles like Fallout 3 to exceed $20 million, including marketing costs.

i'm actually guessing up to $30 mil.

Sucking fweet.

sucking feet? sorry, that's alec's territory.

 

[deadairis]

Personally, I find the idea of putting people in a concert-type setting in Korea as "buttering them up", but that's just me obviously.

Yeah, they really had to manipulate people to react positively to the title they had been literally begging for, for years.

You mean Fallout 3?

 

[deadairis]

so, to be as brief as possible:
Traveling for work sucks.
From the person writing's perspective, whether the publisher pays or not means nothing. If the publisher doesn't, your company does. The difference? A hotel and some meal receipts.

And, here, let's pretend someone asked me if I would skip the Bethesda trip:
Yup. Since I did. Scooter and I were the Fallout fans who were available, but I traveling sucks and I made myself necessary at the home office better than Scooter does.