Marketing on PS3 and PS4?

It has occurred to me that there is a large overlap between sci-fi fans and gamers. As such, perhaps utilising the marketing aspect of game consoles would raise awareness of the upcoming movie.

On the PS3 and the PS4, there is an online community using virtual avatars. Although X-Box has something very similar, it is far more styalised.

By using the concept artwork (most recent), it would be possible to create a public space on PS Home, possibly Weyland/Dempsey's with a gallery showing a view of Manticore through transparisteel viewports with the occasional starship passing by and maybe a small area showing interviews with David Weber that are currently languishing on Youtube. Another public space could be a plaza outside Mount Royal.

More money could be raised by selling virtual clothing for the players avatars (Skinsuits, dress uniforms etc), as well as a companion treecat (with optional celery?) that either follows the avatar around or rides on a shoulder. Private flats (Landing) or suites (Weyland) could also be designed and sold, along with virtual furniture, possibly including PS Home wallhangings of the comic covers.

I for one would probably go for it.

Any advertisement money spent on making this happen would be better spent on normal advertisements or feature articles in appropriate websites. The amount of money to be made by advertising in XBLive and PS Home is minuscule, especially considering that these platforms are gaming platforms first and foremost, and there isn't any game associated with the Honorverse coming out on them.

The E wrote:Any advertisement money spent on making this happen would be better spent on normal advertisements or feature articles in appropriate websites. The amount of money to be made by advertising in XBLive and PS Home is minuscule, especially considering that these platforms are gaming platforms first and foremost, and there isn't any game associated with the Honorverse coming out on them.

From a purely financial viewpoint, I agree, although I will quibble a bit about the actual amount of money to be made.

On the other hand, it would bring the Honorverse into the spotlight of a significant percentage of the gaming population and that would raise their awareness level of it. Given the technophile nature of gamers, they'd probably do wikipedia and tvtropes searches on the Honorverse, then maybe buy the comics or download the books, either of which would pave the way for them to go and see the film.

The primary point is not to rake in even more money (but that would be a nice bonus). Instead, the idea is to use gaming platforms to advertise the upcoming film in a way that would intrigue gamers and thus get them into the cinema (and later, buying the DVD/Blu-ray).

One of the reasons that Star Wars was a big hit was that George Lucas and his team went to comics conventions beforehand to raise awareness of the-then upcoming film (plus spin-off comics and books), thus building the audience levels before the film hit the cinema. Using PSHome and XboxLive correctly would bring in a significant number of teenagers who will be curious about the film that gave rise to their newest on-line spaces. It is not intended as a stand-alone project, but as another strand of the overarching plan.

Plus I really want a virtual treecat...

Michael Everett wrote:On the other hand, it would bring the Honorverse into the spotlight of a significant percentage of the gaming population and that would raise their awareness level of it. Given the technophile nature of gamers, they'd probably do wikipedia and tvtropes searches on the Honorverse, then maybe buy the comics or download the books, either of which would pave the way for them to go and see the film.

I think you are severely overestimating the impact things like avatar customization in XBox Live or PS Home have. That's beside the point though, the point is that you get gamer's attention by (Surprise!) releasing games, and I am sorry to say but the mobile game that is planned? Yeah, that's not going to get much traction.

If you want gamer attention, the best thing to do would be to jump on the Star Citizen hype train, get a good looking game out there that tickles the nostalgia glands for people who want a Homeworld- or Master of Orion-like experience, or even a hardcore Harpoon-like sim.

One of the reasons that Star Wars was a big hit was that George Lucas and his team went to comics conventions beforehand to raise awareness of the-then upcoming film (plus spin-off comics and books), thus building the audience levels before the film hit the cinema. Using PSHome and XboxLive correctly would bring in a significant number of teenagers who will be curious about the film that gave rise to their newest on-line spaces. It is not intended as a stand-alone project, but as another strand of the overarching plan.

I would imagine that articles on io9, Polygon, Kotaku, IGN, Escapist or other media outlets are even more effective, while requiring less of an outlay in terms of development time.

Speaking of star citzen, its supposed to be extremly moddable.


I wonder what a HH universe mod of it would be like.....

That could bring in some people....

The E wrote:

Michael Everett wrote:On the other hand, it would bring the Honorverse into the spotlight of a significant percentage of the gaming population and that would raise their awareness level of it. Given the technophile nature of gamers, they'd probably do wikipedia and tvtropes searches on the Honorverse, then maybe buy the comics or download the books, either of which would pave the way for them to go and see the film.

I think you are severely overestimating the impact things like avatar customization in XBox Live or PS Home have. That's beside the point though, the point is that you get gamer's attention by (Surprise!) releasing games, and I am sorry to say but the mobile game that is planned? Yeah, that's not going to get much traction.

If you want gamer attention, the best thing to do would be to jump on the Star Citizen hype train, get a good looking game out there that tickles the nostalgia glands for people who want a Homeworld- or Master of Orion-like experience, or even a hardcore Harpoon-like sim.

One of the reasons that Star Wars was a big hit was that George Lucas and his team went to comics conventions beforehand to raise awareness of the-then upcoming film (plus spin-off comics and books), thus building the audience levels before the film hit the cinema. Using PSHome and XboxLive correctly would bring in a significant number of teenagers who will be curious about the film that gave rise to their newest on-line spaces. It is not intended as a stand-alone project, but as another strand of the overarching plan.

I would imagine that articles on io9, Polygon, Kotaku, IGN, Escapist or other media outlets are even more effective, while requiring less of an outlay in terms of development time.

The E wrote:I am sorry to say but the mobile game that is planned? Yeah, that's not going to get much traction.

If you want gamer attention, the best thing to do would be to jump on the Star Citizen hype train, get a good looking game out there that tickles the nostalgia glands for people who want a Homeworld- or Master of Orion-like experience, or even a hardcore Harpoon-like sim.

As far as I know the, there are still license available for people who want to produce a full scale game. The SITS license is not for any sort of electronic game. So go for it!

when you consider the price development of games for the Xbox and PS, it becomes clear why there are more games based on movies, but not vice versa.

pilotus wrote:when you consider the price development of games for the Xbox and PS, it becomes clear why there are more games based on movies, but not vice versa.

Those prices are about to come way down though. First of all, both Sony and MS are dropping their licensing fees and certification requirements to allow independent devs to put their games on these platforms, secondly, as of this year's GDC, we have three very good engines available for very little money that are all set up for cross-platform development (Unity, Unreal 4, CryEngine). Basically, a lot of the setup cost that is normally associated with working on these big platforms has evaporated over night; and that's before we take into consideration the simple fact that PC development has always been dirt cheap, and that the largest distribution platform for PC games also just got a lot easier to get onto.

The reason why we're not seeing as many films based on game licenses as we see games based on film licenses is simple: Translating from games to film is pretty hard. Believe me, movie studio execs would love to make films that cash in on the success of GTA, Medal of Honor, Call of Duty and the like. Problem is, once you do that, you end up with Generic Gangster Film #5, Boring Michael Bay Knockoff #3, or Simplistic SciFi Flick #11. In other words, films that may have a respectable opening day, but little to no staying power that translates into good secondary release numbers.

kzt wrote:As far as I know the, there are still license available for people who want to produce a full scale game. The SITS license is not for any sort of electronic game. So go for it!

I would imagine that DW and Evergreen would very much insist on any game developer willing to work in the Honorverse to enter into a licensing agreement first.

you are not a single word refute what I said. I'm not talking just about the price development of the game. It is about the ratio of costs and payback.

movie for the game is only interesting to those who played and loved. Transfer HH universe is not so simple. We already have early comics and what was interesting in the book, in the comic frankly boring.And what kind of game we can do in the world HH? FPS? TPA (Lara Croft)? Classic adventure (the similarity Perry Rodan)?

pilotus wrote:you are not a single word refute what I said. I'm not talking just about the price development of the game. It is about the ratio of costs and payback.

Movie tie-in games are rarely good though. More often than not, they are severely compromised in terms of available development time and budget, since their release has to coincide with either the movie's theatrical release or the DVD/BluRay releases; this means that they are never able to become runaway hits in the gaming market. They're almost always forgettable junk, and the last thing I want an honorverse game to be is forgettable junk.

movie for the game is only interesting to those who played and loved.

The same is arguably true for every adaptation of a book or play. Hasn't stopped anyone from doing those, though.
Game adaptations are much harder because they have to translate the essence of the game without having access to the core element of interactivity that separates games from books or mocies or TV shows. Take away the gameplay, and more often than not, you end up with a story that is completely forgettable.

Transfer HH universe is not so simple. We already have early comics and what was interesting in the book, in the comic frankly boring.And what kind of game we can do in the world HH? FPS? TPA (Lara Croft)? Classic adventure (the similarity Perry Rodan)?

An FPS or third-person game would be a bad fit. The more natural options for an Honorverse game would be:
1. Tactical Space Combat Sim (like Homeworld, Harpoon)
2. 4X Strategy game (like Master of Orion, Civilization)

Sure, you could do an Honorverse-themed FPS or TPS, but that would not serve the purpose of introducing people to the Honorverse very well.