Their current marketing strategy is utter trash, it doesn't work
What strategy?
0 marketing. It's like, they're not even trying.
Thank you.
Their current marketing strategy is utter trash, it doesn't work
0 marketing. It's like, they're not even trying.
They're pulling advertising from most locations because they don't have faith in the products. They feel the expanded market that doesn't know what the game are or when the games are releasing wouldn't actually want the products.
It's not like Bethesda isn't aware how to market a game. Fallout 4 shipped out 12 million copies on day one, and they spent the entirety of last generation launching surprise outperform hits.
Are you sure that "people" are asking for them and not just a vocal minority. I'm assuming most people would rather Bethesda only make skyrim and Fallout games annuallyPeople ask for single player games that are not "open world bloat". Nobody buys them when they actually come out. People ask why developers don't make single player focus game anymore.
There's nothing else on Switch because there is no need for it. Do you buy a Nintendo Switch with the intention of playing Doom on it?
Feels like a bit of self-fufilling prophecy. You're not going to know if a game ends up being a surprise hit or not if you don't give it a chance.
TEW2 is getting positive reviews and is a horror game being released in October. Sending it to die seems like a weird move.
There's a pretty wide gulf between a "massive ad campaign" and the almost complete lack of marketing I've seen for the Evil Within 2.The other way to look at it, is that they targeted a specific audience in theaters who showed a proclivity towards horror products/entertainment. They released the game in October which should be an easy month for a horror game or movie to perform well in. I am not sure a SP game of this magnitude warrants a massive ad campaign.
But why don't they have faith when the quality of the products is quite good?
Other than the size of the ad buys they used the same tactic for FO4 they are still using- short announcement to release window with minimal footage or info released ahead of time.
That secrecy works with a giant IP like Fallout where the audience is already sold just based on the title's name. But smaller IPs need to be nurtured and they don't seem very interested in doing that.
The other way to look at it, is that they targeted a specific audience in theaters who showed a proclivity towards horror products/entertainment. They released the game in October which should be an easy month for a horror game or movie to perform well in. I am not sure a SP game of this magnitude warrants a massive ad campaign.
It's not like there's zero awareness of these games.
Like let's go look at their YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/BethesdaSoftworks/videos?view=0&sort=p&flow=grid
Dishonored 2 Live Action Trailer: 4.6 million views
Prey - Gameplay Trailer #2 - 4.5 million views
Looking at streamer partnerships, Markiplier has a 3.5 million view Let's Play video of Prey as well.
Way, way more people seem to be aware that these games exist than are actually buying them.
These threads are wrote with alot of confidence, yet they dont know the budget, internal goals, digital sells for most platforms, physical sells for most territories...and really just pass off opinion off as facts.
Right but you said they pull marketing if they don't have faith in them. Why wouldn't they have faith if they are quality follow-ups to prior successes?
Generally they do a lot of market research, pre-order checks, and interest level checks after the first couple marketing events for the game, set expectations, and then set the promotional budget as a percentage of sales expectations (usually in the 5-17% range depending on how hard they want to push something).
Presumably their sales expectations were just very low based on all the numbers they were seeing going into release, so they just went for high efficiency digital ads instead of throwing lots of money out they thought they would never make back.
Are you sure that "people" are asking for them and not just a vocal minority. I'm assuming most people would rather Bethesda only make skyrim and Fallout games annually
It's almost like their policy of only sending games to streamers and not reviewers and not doing any other marketing is not working out for them
Prey was fucking brilliant btw and this makes me sad
I will say that TEW 2 feels relatively moderately budgeted. Not to its detriment but it feels closer to AA than AAA in terms of production value. If the suppositions that Tango is making a second game simultaneously are true then its possible that Bethesda isn't expecting huge numbers to call it a success.
There's a pretty wide gulf between a "massive ad campaign" and the almost complete lack of marketing I've seen for the Evil Within 2.
At the end of the day, people aren't going to buy your shit if they don't know it exists.
Please be excited for them to shift to the GaaS model
Are those supposed to be examples of games that sold poorly?Why arent people buying Metroid Samis Returns? Is it because of lack of advertising exposure? Do you think Destiny 2, FIFA or Watchdogs 2 lacked marketing?
It is not always about marketing. Sometimes you are catering to a smaller audience.
To be honest, what makes you say that? Poor main character animations aside, I'd say everything in the game, from cutscene direction to art variety and monster design/animation screams high budget. It's a huuuuuge step up from the first game.
I do think the no reviews before release is really biting them on the arse.
Are those supposed to be examples of games that sold poorly?
As a person who loves SP only games an immersive sims it is hard to watch those games flop one by one. And i think that Bethesda is big cause of that. Their marketing is almost non-existent and their no review codes policy is hurting their games and developers really bad. And they are keep doing that over and over again. I don't want to see those game franchises die but is there anything that we could do? Is there a future for those kind of games in todays GaaS oriented market?
Battlefront 2, Call of Duty and Asscreed OriginsIf someone could explain to me why of all 365 days this year Wolfenstein 2 is releasing on the 27th October I'd appreciate it.
I mean I sorta got the 'logic' of EA releasing Titanfall 2 and Battlefield 1 last year when they did but the placement of this game amongst all their other confuses me greatly, as well as the 2 other massive games releasing on that day.
Are those supposed to be examples of games that sold poorly?
I feel someone or some group at Bethesda or Zenimax don't want these games to succeed so they can have an easy excuse to get into GaaS more prominently.
It's a shame, really.
It's not like there's zero awareness of these games.
Like let's go look at their YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/BethesdaSoftworks/videos?view=0&sort=p&flow=grid
Dishonored 2 Live Action Trailer: 4.6 million views
Prey - Gameplay Trailer #2 - 4.5 million views
Looking at streamer partnerships, Markiplier has a 3.5 million view Let's Play video of Prey as well.
Way, way more people seem to be aware that these games exist than are actually buying them.
Except knowing that you are going to kick some Nazi, I havent seen any preview or review of the game.Wolfenstein marketing is literally perfect right now. Maybe they are turning it around?
Battlefront 2, Call of Duty and Asscreed Origins
But they already successfully launched Dishonored once. The success of that title in concert with Human Revolution is one of the reasons it seemed like the genre wasn't dead for a time.
Basically, they successfully launch a brand new IP from a little known developer, with a unique art style well outside of mainstream aesthetics, with an emphasis on player choice over the cinematic handholding that was all the range of that time. That's incredible. *That* should have been the hard part, not following up that success. Especially when the sequel is as good as Dishonored 2 turned out to be.
It's not just marketing, though that is indeed a problem that is making things worse.
Thing is the market is just moving away from linear single player only 10-20 hour long games. Unless everything is executed perfectly it's hard to match sales those types of games used to get.
Bethesda will have to change strategy and start developing different types of games (online multiplayer, open world, co-op, etc.)
Here is Arkane's future in case yall forgot. From a Nirolak thread in July.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=242703496&postcount=1
High Chaos feels about right.The inevitable future and more proof we're stuck in the worst timeline.