Social Games See Increased Ad Spending

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eMarketer indicates that $220 million will be spent on ads in social games in 2010. This is a significant increase from the company’s estimate for the 2009 year, when ad spending was $183 million.

They expect that spending in the U.S. will increase 35 percent year-over-year to $192 million in 2011. International spending is expected to increase 33 percent over 2010 to $101 million, for a combined total of $293 million.

While many of the more popular titles on Facebook make much of their money from microtransactions, popular titles like FarmVille continue to attract advertiser attention.

Wayne Newton Welcomes You To New Vegas

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Despite the devastation of nuclear war and ravages of time, Wayne Newton is still alive during the events of the game Fallout: New Vegas… in a form. He’ll be a programmed DJ with a dark sense of humor named Mr. New Vegas , which is a riff off of his current nickname, Mr. Las Vegas.

“Even in the post-apocalypse, there’s still Wayne Newton,” says the Bethesda Softworks producer Jason Bergman. “I think he got a kick out of that.”

He joins an all star cast of TV, movie and internet personalities, like Matthew Perry (Friends), Zach Levi (Chuck), Kris Kristofferson, Michael Dorn (Star Trek: The Next Generation) and Felicia Day (The Guild). Ron Perlman (Hellboy) will be back as narrator for the game.

The role was created for Newton, “because he is Las Vegas,” Bergman explains. “He really brings that extra touch of Vegas class to the game. … And whether he’s reading news stories about super mutants or introducing a Dean Martin song, his personality comes through.”

“I have never been in a video game before and, frankly, have never played, simply because I have been working my whole life,” Newton says. He noted that when he did his mostly zippy, short dialog lines, he was asked to “do them just a little bit different, each one, until we hit on what it was the guys wanted … where it is Wayne Newton, but it’s not Wayne Newton, you know ”

Source: USA Today

Feature: Fans Eat Up Madden Doritos Promotions

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There’s a very natural connection between snacking and gaming and also snacking and watching sports. It goes, then, that snacking while playing a sports game is almost taken for granted. And, statistically speaking, there’s probably a great likelihood that the game and the snack are Madden and Doritos, making a partnership of the two brands very intuitive. Michael Fox, Director of Marketing for Doritos, agrees with the above assement and was eager to talk about how Doritos and Madden came together.

[a]list: Give me a general overview of the promotional relationship you have with EA Sports for Madden 11.

Michael Fox: It’s more of a partnership, really. Doritos is beloved by young adults, we like to look at what passions they have. Our studies show that between 94 and 97 percent of young adults identify themselves as gamers, and oftentimes they’re eating Doritos while doing so. We like to encourage participation from our fans, like with our Super Bowl promotion where they helped us make some ads. We did something similar on Xbox Live, where we had a contest for users to create their own games. So we were looking into how we could connect with gaming experiences. And EA had some amazing ideas and looked to see how Doritos could be an exciting part of the Madden game.

[a]list: Let’s start with the promotion where you enabled users to choose the cover athlete.

Michael Fox: You look at how people play Madden deal with the franchise; they pre-order the new version after the Super Bowl. So we wanted to help them leveraging our bags. We sell millions of bags per year, and we created the program to allow users to choose the cover informing them with our chip bags. It was a close contest, but ultimately Drew Brees won. It was the beginning of a fantastic partnership with EA; the cover promotion was really groundbreaking for them.

Image from the Madden cover promotion.

[a]list: Where did the nascence for the idea come from?

Michael Fox: We were looking for breakthrough ideas. When we were talking with EA, we wanted to look into something that we could turn into a real event. When you think about it, considering how people wait for it, the revealing of the Madden cover athlete is like the Time ‘Man of the Year’ or the Sports Illustrated cover model, and we thought “Why don’t we open this up for consumers?” We’ve done a promotion like this before, when we put NFL legends like Marshall Falk our our bags, and this time we sure got a tremendous amount of buzz and engagement and lots of votes.

[a]list: Tell me the story behind the two special Madden flavors of Doritos: Stadium Nacho and Tailgater BBQ.

Michael Fox: We have these two flavors that we made with the people in Orlando [Tiburon]. We went to NFL games and looked for what people do at the games. You have a lot of different experiences depending on where you go in the country, and these are two of the more universal experiences. We had a Hot Dog flavor, we already have a Cheeseburger flavor, and as we tried a lot of things, these are the two flavors that really jumped out. You’ll get quite a complex flavor from the nacho and the BBQ is an amazing simulation of real smoky BBQ. So we created those two flavors, Stadium Nacho and Tailgater BBQ, reflective of the fan experience. The bags feature an image of a football helmet and every bag has a code for the Madden ultimate team.

[a]list: How long are the flavors going to be available?

Michael Fox: Stadium Nacho and Tailgater BBQ are both limited edition flavors, so pick them up while you can!

[a]list: How long have Doritos and Electronic Arts been working together?

Michael Fox: We actually only got started working with them about a year ago. I believe they’ve worked with other Pepsi Co. brands in the past, but we operate independently in their snacks division. We’d certainly like to do more in the future.

[a]list: Talk to me a little bit about the Ultimate Team.

Michael Fox: It’s kind of like a combination of fantasy football and collectable cards. The codes will give you access to numerous players like Adrian Peterson, and you’ll be able to access a certain playing deck.

[a]list: Any final thoughts?

Michael Fox: At the end of the day, it’s a great way for us to engage with fans of Doritos and form something around what fans love. We’re excited to see what’s next and the early response to the flavor launch has been great. We’re excited to see what they’ll think after the game is going to come out. I’ve gotten a chance to try Madden NFL 11 out, and game is going to be amazing, it’s going to be really good and exceed expectations.

Oh, one final thing: expect to see Madden branding on our regular Nacho Cheese and Cool Ranch flavors as well!

[a]list: Thanks Michael.

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Nintendo Plans Extensive Metroid: Other M U.K. Campaign

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Samus is returning to home consoles for the first time since Metroid Prime 3: Corruption in 2007, and Nintendo is going to make sure every gamer hears about her return. In the U.K., they’re planning a TV campaign on all major carriers two weeks before the game’s release with an online campaign also occurring across several notable gaming destinations and sci-fi sites.

Trailers will also be shown before certain movies in September, and there will be plenty of POS materials available upon release.

“Metroid: Other M caters to fans of the Metroid series as well as being an ideal entry point for newcomers,” said Nintendo’s marketing assistant Roger Langford. “The unique gameplay mechanic offers a new and exciting experience for everyone, and the game gives players the first truly in-depth look into the lead character Samus Aran.”

Source: MCV

EA Celebrates Release Of Madden NFL 11

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Electronic Arts has launched a series of events to commemorate the release of Madden NFL 11 this week. Among these were a Mardi Gras-themed event in New Orleans, entitled Madden Gras, and a $100,000 donation to the National Wildlife Federation to assist in the Gulf Coast oil spill relief and wetlands restoration efforts.  There was also the Madden NFL 11 Pigskin Pro-Am airing on NBC, and a behind-the-scenes show chronicling the Making of Madden NFL airing on NFL Network.

New Orleans is the perfect setting for Madden NFL fans to celebrate one of the most anticipated gaming events of the year in the launch of Madden NFL 11 and we’re honored to give back to the region through this donation to the National Wildlife Federation, said Tom Goedde, Vice President of Marketing for EA Sports. The integrated marketing campaign brings Madden to the People via dozens of touch points, leveraging the strength of a break-through feature set and the cultural significance of this franchise.

Goldeneye’s Golden Controller

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While the new GoldenEye 007 game will be getting a hardware bundle that is, appropriately, golden, the limited edition hardware bundle will include the game and a special edition gold-colored Classic Controller Pro.

GoldenEye 007 Classic Edition will retail for $69.99 and the Wii game itself will only cost $49.99. While Classic Controller support is available for those interested, the game will also work with the Wii Zapper set up and standard Wii Remote/Nunchuk.

 

Source: IGN

XSEED Mentions Problems With ‘Cutesy Graphics’

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Even back in the day when Japanese games were dominant on consoles, American packaging and marketing tended to pare down the cutesy aesthetics of some titles. The market has come a long way since the ’80s and ’90s, but there are still some problems with pastel colors and big eyes in some quarters.

Responding to a fan request for a localization of Zwei if other Falcom titles do well, XSEED responded: “‘Well’ is a relative term, but let’s see what happens. Zwei is a well-made charming game, but the retailers aren’t too crazy about the cutesy graphics, which makes our job a little more difficult.”

Source: Facebook

MMORPG Market Hitting $8 Billion In 2014, Says Study

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Strategy Analytics has released a report called The World of MMORPG: a Tale of Two Regions saying that the MMORPG market reached $5 billion in 2009 and is expected to increase to $8 billion in 2014. The study also noted that while Blizzard dominates in the growing U.S. and European markets, Shanda, Netease, Nexon and NCsoft are really pushing growth in Asia.

“Faced with fierce competition from social games and console video games, MMORPG in the Western market has already shown signs of a slowdown,” remarked Martin Olausson, Director, Strategy Analytics Digital Media. “The traditional subscription model that most Western MMORPGs adopt has lost traction and growth momentum.”

“Contrary to the flattening Western market, the Asian MMORPG market has grown immensely since 2007, due to the successful virtual items-based revenue model,” added Jia Wu, Analyst in the Strategy Analytics Digital Media Strategies (DMS) service. “As more Asian online game companies target U.S. and European markets, they will become a formidable force in the global gaming industry.”

[a]list summit: The Art Of Selling Digitally

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Last week at the [a]list summit in Napa, one of the panels investigated how marketing gets directly tied to selling digital titles. The panel featured Min Kim (VP at Nexon), Jerome Lalin (VP of Marketing at Turbine) and Leo Olebe (Director of Marketing at BioWare).

Lalin began by emphasizing just how critical user feedback can be. Even throughout the development process, getting feedback can be hugely important – it’s ultimately all about building up a direct relationship with customers. Olebe added that BioWare talks to customers all the time, and the developer launched a Star Wars Old Republic website to connect with fans as far back as 2008, and now they consistently update it. Olebe said he believes in back to basics marketing and being completely honest with customers (or potential customers).

Another important point that Olebe stressed is that marketing needs to be connected with the development team from day one on a project, so that the marketing group can adjust messaging and stay on point. Everyone should have a consistent voice and message about the product.

Min Kim chimed in and noted that in today’s marketplace, the trick is to build up brands. Obviously Star Wars is a long existing brand for BioWare, so that’s not a problem, but for Nexon, not many people had even heard of Maplestory for a while. Now Maplestory is up to 7 million players. Kim also said that part of the strategy is to meet the gamers where they are, so Nexon created a Facebook page to feed customers content, which they can then disseminate to friends. Keeping Facebook in mind, Lalin added that some customers definitely need social pressure, to be pushed by peers into buying games, and marketers should keep this in mind.

Kim also made the point that digital is the first touchpoint to creating dialogue with a consumer. And while it’s better to reduce the friction online where possible, consumers will put up with more clicks and ads to play something for free, especially if it’s become a well known brand.

And when selling games online, companies can now track everything. Kim talked about living in an age of accountability; the company knows exactly where the money comes from. Olebe noted that with the data, marketing and selling digital games should absolutely be a science. That said, he believes there’s still an art behind the messaging too; essentially, digital allows marketers to try out more things.

For certain online games, it’s also important to be able to stage your audience, Olebe commented. That’s because the core audience will likely play very differently from the mass market that (hopefully) follows. Regardless of the type of online game, Lalin said it’s all about reinforcing and amplifying the right message. The days of simply throwing a press junket and expecting that to get results are over, he said.