Task 1:

Rockstar Games
Background:  1998, New York City, New york, United States
Owner/founder:  Sam Houser, Dan Houser, Terry Donovan, Jamie King and Gary Foreman
Most successful games: GTA V.
Interesting fact about the institution: Rockstar Games titles have shipped more than 250 million copies. The largest franchise being the Grand Theft Auto series which alone have shipments of at least 157.5 million.

EA (Electronic Arts)

Background: 1982, Redwood City, Redwood Shores, California, and U.S
Owner/founder: Trip Hawkins
Most successful games: FIFA, Madden NFL, NBA live
Interesting fact about the institution: In 2011 Electronic Arts was the world's third-largest gaming company by revenue.

Zynga
Background: 2007, San Francisco, California, US
Owner/founder: Mark Pincus
Most successful games: Farmville
Interesting fact about the institution: As of early January 2013, Zynga games had over 265 million monthly active users.

Nintendo
Background: 1989, Kyoto, Japan
Owner/founder: Fusajiro Yamauchi
Most successful games: N/A
Interesting fact about the institution: As of December 31, 2013, Nintendo has sold over 669.36 million hardware units and 4.20 billion software units

Sony Computer Entertainment
Background: 1993, Tokyo, Japan
Owner/founder: Ken Kutaragi
Most successful games: Little Big Planet
Interesting fact about the institution: he company has sold more than 400 million PlayStation consoles worldwide.

 W+k Amsterdam

1. What do the letters stand for? (Clue: look at the very bottom of the website)Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam.
2. What brands have W+K Amsterdam advertised?
3. In your opinion, what is the most creative campaign on their website?
4. What videogame campaigns have they created?
5. What additional information can you find out about the FIFA14 advertising campaign?

 

Independent Case Study Research

Name of game: Grand theft auto 5

Release date:  17 September 2013

Institution behind the game:  Adam Flower

Gaming platform is  PS3,Xbox 360



















The key conventions we see here  is the game name "grand theft auto five". Another key convention is the central image. A review grand theft auto receives is :

"Grand theft auto v the extraordinary"
" Excellent game. Awesome graphics. Recommend anyone to play."
 "Its brilliant, of course"

 

We can see from the image that  there was billboard used to advertise the game.

Wii party case study

General research:

It was released in 2013 and was developed and published by Nintendo. It has sold over 7.94 million copies worldwide.

Broadcast:
What you expect to see in a videogame advert is celebrities, clips of the game, people having fun, seeing people playing the game, healthy and attractive people etc.
The Wii party advert have a celebrity family playing the game, they also show themselves playing the game and they also have slips of the game so people can see how it looks like. The house if very open and lit up which links to Wii's colour scheme of white.
The typical setting is a open house/apartment and very lit up with windows etc. This creates synergy between the game and the room and the game is always white. 
The adverts feature celebrities with a family that includes young children. The celebrities are dressed casual and they hardly have any make up on as they have to make it look like they are playing it at their house so they wouldn't be dressed up to play at home. This make it not look like an advert. These celebrities are chosen because they are well known and they have a family with young children. The celebrities suggest they target young children with young parents.
I think the game is targeted at boys and girls equally (50/50) between the ages of 3-12. I think it's targeted at middle/working class.
I think the tv adverts are effective as they show the family playing the game and enjoying the game, it also shows clips of the game so the audience can see it.

Print:
The reviews suggest that this game isn't good if you're playing by yourself.
"With two or ideally more players, Wii Part comes alive" 
I think magazine reviews are effective in promoting Wii's target audience because they target young families so if the reviews say that the games aren't good for little children because it's too hard to understand how to play it for example then they wouldn't want to buy the game. They help people to see if they would be interested in the game by reading what other people with similar interest of theirs think of it. 

E-Media: 
Wii attracts and maintains their fans because they target people with young children so they have bright vibrant colours with cartoon people, which makes it look childish which attracts their target audience.
They people in the scrolling central image are all people with children and they are all smiling while playing the game which makes it look more fun and interesting, and they don't look bored. 
They emphasis on the words 'friends' and 'family' because it's for loads of people to play and compete with each other and also because their target audience is people with young children so they include 'family' a lot of times in the website to show the audience that their game are for families to play and enjoy.
The colour scheme are bright bold colours which suggest that i's for young children and also because there isn't a lot of writing on the website either.
Wii Party have 11,220 likes on Facebook. Wii Party comment on new things that the game has and this tells the audience if there is anything new.
They don't have a strong presence on social networking sites because their target audience are families with young children, so they won't have any social networking sites with a lot of followers/likes.

Fifa 14 case study

Print

The poster shows that it is promoting fifa 14 for xbox shows Lionel messi as the central image holding up a pair of car keys. As he  is wearing casual clothing, this shows the audience that anyone could play and it is not only for people who are players.The key suggest welcoming,making the audience be in the same feet.One key convection we see is the slogan "we are fifa 14. Another key convention is the central image of Lionel Messi. Another key conventions is the colour scheme the colour red and blue. Here is the reviews for Fifa 14:

'Graphics are phenomenal' - Sky Sports - Positive

'A whole new world of football' - Daily Mail - Positive
'Makes you feel as if you have become a footballer' - Hello - Positive

Broadcast

1. Did your chosen game use a TV advert to promote the game? Embed it from YouTube if it did.
   Yes - www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVsgs0273EE
2. Is there a game trailer on YouTube? Embed it on your blog and explain why it is effective in promoting the game to its target audience.
   Yes - www,youtube.com/watch?v=AMPrtUd4WW8. It is effective in promoting the game as it has the worlds best football players on screen and portrays the fascinating graphics on FIFA 14 compared to FIFA 13. This intrigues the audience as they would like to have the chance to play the game.
3. Can you find any other broadcast features on the game - interviews, launch party events, video reviews, clips of the gameplay on YouTube etc. Write about how they effectively promote the game to its target audience.
   Gameplay videos are effective as they convey real life graphics. Also - www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rysk2aB67Ss is a video review. These factors all promote the game as it augments how the game has been tweaked and updated with graphics to make the youths want to play.

E-media

1. Visit your chosen game's official website. How does it attract and maintain the interest of its target audience?
   Yes. The most rated footballers are on the website with the repeated quote ''start your journey' which encourages teenagers to play and go on the FIFA adventure.
2. Are there any creative or interesting aspects to the game's official website?
   Yes, they included video gameplay, of somebody playing the game to accentuate the difference between the new edition and the FIFA 13 edition.
3. Does the game have a YouTube channel?
   Yes. FIFA 14.
4. Can you find any examples of user-generated content on YouTube that players have created and uploaded from the game? Embed any examples on your blog.
   Yes. Channel: KSI - www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kqzFK8MOUY.
5. How does user-generated content such as gameplay videos help to promote the game?
   User generated videos help promote the game by WORD OF MOUTH. Once somebody views the video and tries out the game, they may recommend it to their friends or families. Eventually, a cycle will occur where everyone begins to gossip about the game which will promote it to other individuals.

1. How many 'likes' has your chosen game's Facebook wall had?
   187,049 likes.
2. Choose two of the posts on the Facebook page's wall, screengrab them and explain how they appeal to the game's target audience.
   FIFA is becoming a major hit - influences the individuals to buy it.
   FIFA 14 is in stores now. BUY OR PRE-ORDER! - directing the readers to buy it.
3. What is your chosen game's Twitter hashtag?
   #FIFA14 or #FF14 or #FIFA
4. How did the campaign use Twitter to promote the game?
   Famous footballers eg: Rooney, Ferdinand, Neymar tweeted about the game. As they have many followers, word of mouth came about and many got the tweet on their TL's.
5. Can you find any other creative uses of e-media to promote the game? This might include hashtags, competitions, Instagram, user-generated campaigns or anything else that is designed to draw attention to the game.
   Instagram posts by Bale, Messi and Neymar. Interests people more that the players play the game and they will buy it if they recommend that it is good.

Game: The Mii Games

The target audience for the game would be suited to families and above ages 3 and above.The  platform of the game is Nintendo Wii and DS.

The marketing material that we will create to attract the audience attention is by using TV adverts,billboards,direct media and channel circulars.We can generate in game play to the audience by including HD footage of the game and affordable packs for the  audience.We can do a special promotion to the audience if they pre order  the game by getting a game pack for free such as Olympic pack.We can stimulate audience desire to buy the game by having trailers that  make the audience want to buy the game.At the end of the trailer we  would include details of the the website and links to the twitter and Facebook homepage.

promotion and marketing of video games

  Official  Inception trailer.                                                       

                                                                                                                              

                                                                                                                                                                             

                                                                                                                                                                                                                    The genre of the film is action adventure. This is because it has a man running,jumping and getting killed, which shows some sort of adventure and action. The colour also suggest that it is in a a action mode.