Promotion and Marketing of Video Games

What will we need to cover?

• Popular Websites• Popular Magazines• Popular Publishers• Popular Games for ALL audiences/genres

How are they marketed?

Print• Posters- billboards, point-of-

sale advertising• Cover art• Gaming magazine adverts• Websites for game or

promoter• Blogs/forums

Motion• Trailers (TV/cinema, trailers

on Play, Amazon• Radio adverts• Demos/downloads• Viral video adverts via

youtube/blogset/etc• In-game advertising

Other ways…

• Celebrity endorsement- they play the game, they are in the game

• Word of mouth• Gaming conventions• Selling products inspired from the game

Video Game Magazines

• In the exam you may be asked to:

– Create a new magazine promoting video games– Explain or evaluate how effective that magazine

will be– Be able to identify codes and conventions of

magazines and video games

What do we already know about this magazine?What can we say about the magazine’s links to video games?

Different types of Magazines

General Gaming Magazine Specific Console Magazine

Activity

• Find two examples of the video game magazines discussed in lesson

• Annotate and compare the two magazines

• Consider their audience and how they are used in the promotion of Video Games

PMVG Websites

What do I need to know about Websites?

• How they are used to promote and market video games

• How they are used by gamers- reviews, to play on, etc

• Website terminology to show understanding of codes and conventions

Website LingoHeadings- titles of pages and storiesCopy- body of text you see Hyperlinks- links to send you to stories or photosScrolling Text- areas of text a user can scroll through, lots of text in small frameImages- pictures to go with headlines or stories, sometimes as a linkVideo- video to correlate with storiesSound- same as aboveNavigation-

More Website Lingo

Drop-down menu- arrow at end of box, user makes choice of what to see or where to goSearch Box- type words to search for topicBanners- found on top of website, ‘skyscrapers’ contain adverts Thumbnails- smaller images of larger imagesFrames- content of website broken up by frames, easier to readBlog- written account, informalPodcast- video or audio story/interview directly to Ipod or MP3 playerHomepage- main page of website

Video Games News and Info

Gaming Website (to play games on)

Official Games Websites

Activity

• Using the website terminology, please annotate each of the websites discussed in lesson

• Remember the denotation and the connotation

Popular Gaming Websites

• http://www.edge-online.com/• http://www.gamestm.co.uk/ • http://www.gamesradar.com/uk/ • http://www.pcgamer.com/uk/ • http://www.oxm.co.uk/ • http://www.officialplaystationmagazine.co.uk/

Posters and Print Adverts

Video Game Trailers

PMVG by Trailers

• On TV• Viral- youtube, vimeo• Scroll over advert online• Before films

Trailers

• Follow similar conventions of Film Trailers• Explore some sort of story line• Clear what type of game it will be• Clear who the audience is

Name of Trailer Codes and Conventions Audience

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpiTucFQuwA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxKXsJyVIAk

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvoD7ehZPcM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mN2Ud9-yQA