Lara Croft: Tomb Raider

With a trailer that states that 'There is a survivor in all of us.' and includes some of the most gripping and exciting action scenes ever seen in a video game, the new Tomb Raider game definitely appeals to the 500 million global gamers around the world, especially to the ever increasing number of female gamers which is now over 40%. With brutal combat scenes and Lara Croft being swept away in a tide, the game is bound to have players on the edge of their seats.

The publisher of the game is confident that the game can repeat the success of last year’s Hitman and become one of 2013’s Top Five sellers. He stated that “It’s a massive brand, a fantastic product and has an amazing campaign in place. We’ve no doubt that it’ll be in the Top Five games of 2013”. To ensure this, the firm have set their sights on a multi-million pound marketing campaign that takes in cinema, TV and outdoor marketing. The Tomb Raider game has already used effective marketing strategies such as advertising on YouTube and social networking sites including Facebook and Twitter, however they wanted to take it up a notch. Running up to the launch period of the game, they have sponsored a successful Sky 1 show called Arrow that relates to the game with things such as its uneven encounters, brutal combat and adventurous quests. The company also have a great cinema campaign based around high profile movies. As well as all of these advertising methods that are sure to catch the eye of some viewers, Tomb Raider ads will also air during champions league matches such as Manchester Utd vs Real Madrid which will get the attention of both British and Spanish viewers and posters can also be seen around London Underground stations and on buses.

The game can be bought fairly cheap compared to the £40+ blockbuster games such as FIFA, Call of Duty and PES. The price of the game varies depending on different retailers with the lowest PC Version of the game being available to buy for just £19.99 at 2game.com and the highest being £29.99 at Green Man Gaming. The console version of the game being more expensive ranges from around £29.99-£39.99.

The game sparked controversy when Crystal Dynamics executive producer Ron Rosenberg used the word 'rape' to describe an attack of the heroine Lara Croft. It was an accurate statement given to what the trailer for the game includes, however not a lot of games or reviews tend to use the word "which is certainly a word that is not in our vocabulary and not in our communication." which is what Crystal Dynamics global brand director Karl Steward said to Kotaku following Rosenberg's statement.

Nonetheless, the game certainly has the potential to be a huge success and follow in the footsteps of the classic Play Station 1 versions of the game.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/square-enix-tomb-raider-is-unquestionably-the-highlight-of-q1/0111456

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/where-s-cheapest-tomb-raider-marks-the-return-of-price-wars-as-retail-goes-cheap/0111613

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/tomb-raider-rape-controversy-continues-to-dog-crystal-dynamics/098850

Targeting of national and local audiences. (Unfinished)

The issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences.

I think it is important to target a national audience as this can give the game the potential to be a huge success and to see the sales figures rocket. If a game is targeted at countries all over the world, then it can become more popular as more and more people will be hearing about it globally. If it is targeted at a national audience and the game is released on the same date worldwide, then this will create somewhat of a hype all over the world so more and more people are going to hear about it, and when release day comes, the sales could be setting records.

Games Distribution (Unfinished)

Task One:

1. The distributors for GTA V Will be Take-Two Interactive. Take-Two Interactive own the publishers of the GTA Faranchise - Rockstar Games.

2. The distributor for Skylanders: Giants is XPEC Entertainment.

3. The distributor for the iPhone version of Angry Birds is EA Chillingo.


Task Two:

Advantage Distribution is a company that was established in February 2003 who deliver solutions addressing the distribution needs of a games retailers and publishers. They offer an experienced and dedicated management team with a dynamic sales force. Advantage Distribution offer a fast, flexible and cost effective service to any of their retail and publishing partners. They ensure that the products are delivered to the store on time, everyday.


The people that use Advantage Distributon include games company partners such as Nintendo, Bandai Namco, Bethesda, Just Flight, Ikaron, Rising Star Games and many more. They use Advantage Distribution so that they can ensure their products and games are delivered to the retailers on time.

Vivendi

MMORPG - The Sims Online

The sims online is global MMORPG Game based on the most popular computer game of all time - The Sims. The game was published by EA and released on December 17, 2002 for Microsoft Windows. Shortly after this, the game was re-branded as EA-Land and major enhancements were made. A year after this, EA Announced that all activity of the game was to be shut down. The game is different to a console game as it is a game for casual gamers who dont like 15 button controllers. The player creates a virtual character called a Sim and can customise them howver they want - By dressing them or customising their house etc. There is no clear objective to the game and the Sims franchise can be sometimes refered to as a sandbox game. The player controls the sim and completes tasks to direct their moods and satisfy their desires.

The Cover Art for The Sims Online.

The Sims franchise have many fan sites, the main one being: www.sims-social.com

On this site, players can socialise with eachother and share their views, opinions and reviews. It is the first and best social fansite for the latest Sims news, free stuff, tips, guides, cheats and unrelesed items.

Another popular fansite for The Sims online is : http://planetthesims.gamespy.com

Along with sims-social, this is one of the main community sites for The Sims franchise including The Sims 3, The Sims 2, The Sims Online, MySims, and SimAnimals. It includes all of the latest Sims related news, videos, screenshots, previews, reviews, guides and a wiki! MMORPG Wikis are very popular among the gaming community. The World of Warcraft wiki is one of the biggest and most popular in the world and has been described as the second largest english-language wiki in the world, behind Wikipedia. The Wow wiki sees an average of 5 million users use it each month.

The Sims online wiki includes all of the latest information. It includes content, simology, games and a community and interact forum. There are 7,151 pages on The Sims Online Wiki. It includes advertisements all over the page - Mainly of other games such as Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, Halo 4 and God of War. The wiki includes livechats that members can discuss their Sims adventures, and help fellow sims players. Some of the latest posts include: Tutorial: Creating a clean neighbourhood' which was posted by a member called Nikel23.

The Sims Online wikia is: http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/The_Sims_Online

Assassins Creed III Advert

Name: Assassins Creed III 'Out Now!' Advert (PS3)
Channel: E4 Between Two Episodes of 'How I Met Your Mother'
Date: 8th November at about 1:30pm

The advert starts off with the Sony and Ubisoft logo's. It then shows a review from Zoo which rates the game 5 stars and quotes: "Bold, Beautiful, Brilliant". It also has in the bottom left of the screen the Rated 18 logo. Shows a close up shot of some of the characters and another review, this time from eurogamer.net that quotes: "Hugely Seductive" and rates the game 9/10. Whilst showing the reviews, it is also showing scenes from the game. It continues to show very small interesting clips from the game such as cannon's being fired, and a close up of a bear - This is done to get the viewers attention by showing them how good the game looks (both gameplay and graphics wise), and to not give too much of the game away. Along the bottom of the screen, it lets the viewer know that the footage being shown is from the Playstation 3 Version of the game. At the end, it shows the PS3 And PSP Versions of the game with the consoles, the Sony and rated 18 logo and a logo saying 'Available now at Asda'.

The song used is Radioactive by Imagine Dragons that goes really well with the trailer.

 

The UK Games Market

This chart shows The Top 20 All Platform games that have been sold over the past week worldwide. As you can see, EA And Ubisoft dominate the chart with 3 Games each, followed by Activision and Bethesda Softworks with 2. And companies such as Capcom, THQ, and Warner Bros only have 1 game each on the Top 20 this week. This chart shows how popular a publisher such as EA And Ubisoft are as not only have they both managed to get a game in the Top 5 (Ubisoft's Assassins Creed III - #1 and EA's FIFA 13 - #2 & Need For Speed: Most Wanted - #5), they have both managed to release 3 games each that have made it into the Top 20. The Number 1 Game of this week is Assassins Creed III which is an established franchise from its two previous released games - Assassins Creed I And Assassins Creed II. There is only one new IP Game on the chart which is Dishonored and it is ranked the tenth most bought game this week. Most of the games are available on platforms such as Xbox 360, PS3 and the 3DS. These are the three main platforms that the publishers bring the games out on. Cross-Media Convergence is when a game is published and advertised in many ways such as online, instore or even available to buy over the consoles marketplace. A lot of the games are released on more than one console. However, there are five games on the top 20 chart that have been released on only one platorm.