The Charm Behind the Gaming Industry

While an unconventional industry, with long hours of development cycles and even longer hours of promotion, the gaming industry has always pulled on our heart strings.

From cute and simple Farm Frenzy and Angry Birds, to more than sophisticated PUBG and the FIFA series, games for all ages and for all purposes have been developed and sold during its lifetime. After all, gaming has been our guilty pleasure, right?

However, with a success ratio which staggers under 25% and more and more games being released each year, how does one establish and maintain its glory in this fickle world, where "something new" is the norm and taking a backseat, the death of the game?
In an industry this big, how does one even begin to stand out?!

What helps them to be in the game, and keep the players and potential players, hooked into their ideas and plans? What's the mantra to their success? How do they market themselves?

After tons of surfing, and analysing the gaming industry, their different games and developing studios, I realised how important marketing and audience interaction was in the industry. How they thrived and maintained their status through these strategies.

So, with a burning curiosity and passion for this industry, I've complied some interesting and unique marketing strategies of some of the most renowned games that we've known in recent times.

The games are a mix of mobile and console games, and currently carry a huge customer base. They have survived the trials of time (so far!) and have continuously found ways to keep the players engaged, and themselves at the top. Let us check 'em out!

Candy Crush Saga:

Less is More & More is Less

For a candy popping game, Candy Crush Saga surely succeeded with over a 100 million downloads, while also retaining their players.
But, how did they retain their title in the top 25, even after so many years? 

I believe it definitely was- Facebook.

For a game that is free, any in-app purchase seems a pinch in our pocket. Especially ones to clear the tough levels!  And for a game such as this, one might splurge a hefty amount, if not cautious.

Thus, either you pay, or you market!
Compete with friends to top the scoreboard and get some rewards. Invite more of friends for extra lives, and try that level you failed to clear. And all of this was done through Facebook.
All their marketing efforts done by the players itself, can ya imagine?!

 

An advert of Candy Crush Saga

Now, while I'm not saying they didn't have a separate budget for their marketing and expanding, they definitely had a unique way of using the conventional marketing strategies to their favor. And that's something worth mentioning, right?

Now that we’re out with the classic, let’s tread further into deeper waters, shall we?

Call of Duty: Black Ops: 

A for the Fans

Now this one's a gem in itself, right? This video game franchise is a money-maker and has brought in at least $15 billion in revenue for its parent company Activision Blizzard since 2003.

It is a marketing machine that has featured celebrities like Kevin Spacey and Michael B. Jordan, and is the envy of every other video game company! What really makes them unique is- Never laying it out in the open.

Leading up to the release of the Black Ops 3, Activision embedded Snapcodes into various locations in the Black Ops 2 game. By scanning the codes, players would arrive directly at the CoD Snapchat account, where the first cryptic clues about Black Ops 3 were waiting to be decoded.

It also went as far as to do a marketing campaign taking place on its Twitter account, which seemed to suggest that a terrorist attack was taking place in Singapore!

 

The @callofduty account change its name and branding to "Current Events Aggregate”

Now, while this sounds insanely unique and cool, it was also faced with its fair share of criticisms. People not aware of the Call of Duty games were left frightened and confused. Activision had to ultimately apologise for its Twitter stunt.

Which reminds me, with great power comes great responsibility!

Angry Birds 2

Cuteness can Never Stop:

Ah, the cute little angry birds that were always our favourite, finally came out with its second part.

With over 250 million downloads worldwide, Rovio Mobile, the creators of Angry Birds, decided to take it a step further by joining feathers with Duolingo, a language learning app in a fun marketing crossover!

To highlight the crossover Duolingo, launched the video that saw Duo and Red wreak havoc and smash up a NYC bar when one of the patrons neglected to complete his Duolingo lesson.

Duolingo, which is actively involved with its users and embraces memes created by its community, became an effective tool to spread the word for Rovio’s Angry Birds 2.

 

And in all honesty, I can’t think of a better marketing stunt pulled by a video game company alongside an education app!

Fortnite Chapter 2

Always in for More:

Believe it or not, but gaming inspires more than a billion Tweets each year! And for Epic, the developers of Fortnite, Twitter was not only the best platform to keep the players updated every so often, but to also ambush them.

Every 10 weeks, Epic Games delivers a new season of weapons, maps, and storylines, each one ending with a “live event” that dramatically alters the nature of the game.

So, when the time came for next statement, it was in fact, silence. The game was pulled down, showcasing nothing but a black hole in space.

And in Twitter, all tweets, videos, world creation of Epic’s Fortnite, gone. Poof. All that remained was a live stream of a black hole.

 

 

And guess what happened after two days of this bizarre stunt? Epic launched Fortnite Chapter 2 with full brand video and custom emoji, restoring its Twitter account.

Talk about suspense, huh?

*smirk*

 

Cyberpunk 2077:

The Hype Works for You!

Cyberpunk:2077 is a highly anticipated game from CD Projekt, the developers of The Witcher Series, which was recently adapted into a Netflix series as well. The release date was recently pushed to September (2020).

But why discuss a video game that hasn’t even been released yet? If you’re reading between these lines correctly, then congrats!

It’s precisely because of its marketing.

In addition to featuring Keanu Reevs as a starring role, the company has also invested in a solid social media team that engages with fans rather than taking away the limited time for development.

It has not only invested in trailers and posters, but also adopted cryptic marketing as one of its strategies.

By asking its fans to go overboard with solving the cryptic messages, its not only plunging people into the folklore of the game itself, but also rewarding its invested ‘to-be-players’ in what can only be understood as a limited and premium giveaway.

 

While time consuming, it also shows an incredibly unique way of getting the players and viewers hyped and ready for the upcoming game

While it might not come off as appealing at first, the mere fact that the game has been highly anticipated, with ever so little information on the actual content about the cyberpunk world, low-key and underrated marketing strategies alongside the conventional ones, does in fact, impress me.

Thus, before I conclude, here’s a poster of the much-anticipated game.

 

Whelp, that concludes my detailed insight into the innovative and fun marketing strategies adopted by the various gaming companies, in order to thrive and prosper in an industry that’s solely driven by a constant change and hunt for something new.

It’s a growing industry, with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of about 5% globally. And with games releasing ever so often, staying ahead and climbing to the top seems possible only by interacting, marketing and befriending the trend. 

Thanks for staying through the end! May the games forever ignite the passion of living within you.

- Runjhun Bahuguna