Ubisoft jumped on the chance to remind everyone caught up in the Grand Theft Auto V frenzy that its next gen open world game Watch Dogs is just on the horizon. The publisher put out an image imploring people to remember to visit the Chicago setting in Watch Dogs when it releases in November, saying “two months are enough to visit Los Santos.” Los Santos is the setting in GTA V.
Ubisoft’s move is one of at least two high-profile nods to how GTA was dominating the gamer zeitgeist as it launched on Tuesday. Saints Row IV publisher Deep Silver drew attention from GTA V on Twitter with a seemingly twisted-around hashtag. It put out promoted posts tagged #GATV, using the Twitter version of a play on letters to mix it up with #GTAV.
Ubisoft distributed the Watch Dogs image across social media. Its timing on mega-popular online community Reddit was impeccable. Reddit’s gaming section was seeing a steady crawl of GTA content to the front page as the launch neared. The Watch Dogs image began trending on the front in the hours before GTA V’s midnight launch.
Ubisoft wasn’t going to burn rubber and kick off the marketing campaign for Watch Dogs anywhere near the release of GTA V, that much is clear. This small but smart effort on social media got traction and likely paid off for them, and it paves the way for the marketing blitz that’s surely coming.
Source: Examiner