Are people recognizing ARR?

[Shougun]

There is small news, so I'd say a little yes.

But SE really needs to bump up their trailers - at least once they start a real hype campaign.

Their trailers are not very flashy boom boom sparkles shwing aah big text.. lol its more of a developer commentary. Which would be fine if they had actual commentary.. lol

[Abriael]

Everyone on this forum should work as a marketing consultant.


... or not.


While I understand that many people here are driven by the irrational need to be recognized by the media and by your peers, Square Enix is promoting the game exactly how they should. For the moment they're focusing their budget on development and using cheap media to advertise (social networks, youtube, niconico and such), without going on a spending spree when it's way too early.

Despite what some seem to think, large advertisement campaigns for MMORPGs BEFORE launch are not that effective. MMORPGs are games designed to be played for a long time, and don't suffer from getting technologically obsolete fast, so they don't need the bulk of purchases to be made on day one.

As a matter of fact, a smaller launch with a growing trend is much better for a MMORPG than a booming launch followed by a deflation (even just to make sure launch is smooth and not overcrowded server-wise, and having to open new servers because population is growing gives the game a much more positive buzz than having to open a ton at launch and then merging).

The big marketing money is best spent AFTER launch, when people that see the commercial can just go out and buy the game instead of forgetting before it comes out, and when it's corroborated by positive reviews and positive word of mouth. Even more so when the game is the successor of one that failed.

Simply enough "available now!" is much more effective than "coming soon!"

[Shougun]

Everyone on this forum should work as a marketing consultant.


... or not.


While I understand that many people here are driven by the irrational need to be recognized by the media and by your peers, Square Enix is promoting the game exactly how they should. For the moment they're focusing their budget on development and using cheap media to advertise (social networks, youtube, niconico and such), without going on a spending spree when it's way too early.

Despite what some seem to think, large advertisement campaigns for MMORPGs BEFORE launch are not that effective. MMORPGs are games designed to be played for a long time, and don't suffer from getting technologically obsolete fast, so they don't need the bulk of purchases to be made on day one.

As a matter of fact, a smaller launch with a growing trend is much better for a MMORPG than a booming launch followed by a deflation (even just to make sure launch is smooth and not overcrowded server-wise, and having to open new servers because population is growing gives the game a much more positive buzz than having to open a ton at launch and then merging).

The big marketing money is best spent AFTER launch, when people that see the commercial can just go out and buy the game instead of forgetting before it comes out, and when it's corroborated by positive reviews and positive word of mouth. Even more so when the game is the successor of one that failed.

Simply enough "available now!" is much more effective than "coming soon!"

Indeed they shouldn't be spending huge for trailers in theaters for something not even available - but quite a few of SE trailers of alpha need to have a little more time spent on them at least imho. I've had very little interest spark from them and I was -trying- to find something to be interested in. (Having a personal investment, and maybe some other things I might not be able to say, I'm still interested, but it had nothing to do with trailers)

I've said it before but I like SE giving players who cant play alpha a tease, but I don't think the trailers in the state they are do much for them in hype if not make a negative hype.

Hence why I said looks like a dev commentary without the dev commentary, which is a pretty boring set up unless you are like us in the forums (even then it still not as cool if it actually had commentary).

[Abriael]

Indeed they shouldn't be spending huge for trailers in theaters for something not even available - but quite a few of SE trailers of alpha need to have a little more time spent on them at least imho. I've had very little interest spark from them and I was -trying- to find something to be interested in. (Having a personal investment, and maybe some other things I might not be able to say, I'm still interested, but it had nothing to do with trailers)

I've said it before but I like SE giving players who cant play alpha a tease, but I don't think the trailers in the state they are do much for them in hype if not make a negative hype.

Hence why I said looks like a dev commentary without the dev commentary, which is a pretty boring set up unless you are like us in the forums (even then it still not as cool if it actually had commentary).

Dev commentary requires taking a dev and making him waste his development time to do the commentary, which isn't an elementary or quick thing in order to get professional quality results. Those kind of teases are a simple trickle down to those that wanted to get into the alpha and didn't. They aren't designed to advertise the game to the larger population.

They work well for the purpose they're designed. Those grumbling about them would be malcontent whatever they were fed.

And they would still think they know a thing about marketing. Which they don't, as this thread clearly proves.

[Xatsh]

I agree that a slow and steady growth might be better, see XI.

You have the overwhelming majority of gamers who know about XIV with this mentality:

XIV is the worst mmo ever made, it is a 4/10. And there is no such things as a miracle path, and an expansion will not fix the broken game I played at launch.

That is what SE must change. A huge hype train will lead to disaster, but people who do not care about the game because they were burned at launch need to be forced to see that it is new. The amount of people who do not even know this game exist is shocking for a AAA title. SE should do more advertising after launch that is true. But they need to do enough advertising where any mmo player in the world when asked have you heard of FFXIV:ARR they say "Yea that is the game they rebuilt from scratch to make it modern" or "I heard they fixed alot of stuff how is it now" not "That game is the worst thing ever made" or "Square Enix has a mmo?"

Want to know why WoW is big. Go to any group of ppl and ask name a mmo. Almost all of them even non-gamers say WoW, I bet you will be lucky to hear 1/100 say XI or XIV. That is a huge problem.

All in all you cannot sell a new product if no one knows it exist, or if no one knows anything about it.

[Abriael]

Exactly. If the unschooled masses see a TV commercial of FFXIV:ARR now, even as spectacular like the latest CG trailers they will simply say: "Oh, a commercial of that failed MMO. Is that thing still on?"

Wasted money.

If they see the same commercial after launch, when positive reviews and word of mouth are already circulating (as we can only hope they will, and if they won't, because the game isn't good, there isn't much that can be done anyway), then the commercial does have a chance to latch on.

[Nuinn]

I know everything about everything

This thread is so full of irony and bloated ego, which makes for an amusing distraction.

[SidRheingold]

Anyone mentioned this before?

Gamescom Awards Announced
5 September 2012

The votes have been tallied and the community has spoken! FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn has been honored with the Community Choice Award for best of gamescom 2012, receiving over three times as many votes as the runner-up!

[Check it out]

[Yrusama]

Are we forgetting that this is a Japanese game? I don't remember XI having any TV ads in North America, but X-2 had plenty. Weren't they released within a year or so of each other?

I do hope they treat NA and EU viewers to the same ad campaign as they have in Japan, though. From what I can tell, the JP don't embrace Western games as much as they do Western culture, so I won't be surprised if XIV runs virtually unopposed for top-selling MMO in Japan.

Edit: Not sure what I'm trying to get at here. It just seems like they'll have a harder time getting an ad on TV in North America because all the ad time is filled up with garbage ads about herpes.

[Allesasi]

Hey there,

I've been reading some gaming news lately and with the new year all the gaming news sites reveal their "top games of 2013" or to be more specific.. "Top 10 upcoming MMOs of 2013" and many sites (read: almost all) don't even mention FFXIV:ARR. Is SE doing enough marketing? The Elder Scrolls Online is the most anticipated game in almost every "Top 10" list I've read and if it works out well for TES:O I'm afraid that it'll be the same story as with XI and WoW.

I would like to hear your opinions
1. Is SE doing enough?
2. What do you think is the best platform to make this game famous (YouTube advertisements, TV, etc..)

I would not worry too much about ESO. Sure they will probably win game of the year but thats because there are a lot of people that like that game for reasons that I can't figure out. I played Oblivion and Skyrim and was both times terribly disappointed at how easy they were to beat. I'm pretty sure the mmo version of those games will be better but I doubt the people who like those game the most surely do not know what they are missing if they have never played XI or XIV. I can bet my life the ESO will not be half the game ARR will be. I think Bethesda has a lot of work to catch up to SE as far as MMOS are concerned. Hopefuly in their online version of those games they have inproved the horrendous combat style or lack thereof and character creation because those things are just ridiculously horrible imo. Im also willing to bet that there will be lost of cheat codes that will render playing ESO pointless like there were on the console and pc versions. Also ESO from what I hear will be a huge cut and paste job as far as the world is concernned since they are stitching all the maps together from previous versions.