Are people recognizing ARR?

[hrdndv]

The only thing I could find on sony's japanese playstation website was http://commu.jp.playstation.com/blog...ml?c=0&t=0&s=0
and the game descrpition of ffxiv
http://www.jp.playstation.com/softwa...antasyxiv.html
while the only thing I could find on the us playstation website was the game description
http://us.playstation.com/games-and-...y-xiv-ps3.html

That is weird.... at the end of the second intro it says "Coming 2010" then after a pause it says "Beta Test starting soon"

[Pwnagraphic]

When the game launches.. I am taking 2 days off and doing a 24 hour marathon on my stream. That'll get some attention!

[hrdndv]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=OpSWxpP9DKI

Hot chicks do sell... witness Serena in Elder Scrolls Dawnguard/Dragonborn. But she is not nude and not blonde.

[Firon]

They need to spend cash on tv advertising and they need to start now.It doesn't guarantee success but it really helps.Something like the end of an era trailer would be perfect for ARR along with the platforms it supports.

Or they can hire Vaan to yell all over the world to tell people to buy FF XIV >.>.

[Laume]

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..)

1) Yes, they're putting a really great amount of effort into making it a great mmorpg
2) Viral/word of mouth.

Though, imo, it's kind of a moot point. I'm not playing this game because it's highly received and well known. I'm playing this game because I like it. Granted, I know that they need to keep membership up to afford the cost of development, maintenance, etc, but as far as making it a really well known, highly seen, frequently public, was really never SE/FF's style.
Imo, the bottom line is this. There are enough people in these forums (and lurkers and others that are keeping an eye out for the game's developement but not looking at the forums) that if this game is good, they'll recommend it or talk about it. That's better thank some big PR campaign, I think.

[Kyri]

Its working a bit.. but SE really does need to advertise more. by this time in alphas gw2, tera and diablo already had a hell of a lot of pre orders and a higher positive review. The you tube videos they release are pretty great but I see fan based videos that make me go "OMG MUST PLAY THAT GAME!" moreso then SE's actual videos. More advertising isn't a bad thing.

Second off live letters are cool and all but I stopped watching after the first one. How come Yoshi gives interviews we cant even see translated till a day or two later and yet I saw a video of someone translating on stage to German or something like that. I know a lot of people seem to love live letters but maybe people like myself would show more interest if they were dubbed or translated so we could stay up till 2 am to see it and actually know whats going on besides a lot of "Hai Hai Hai *bow*" Heck we have to translate half the stuff ourselves(and thank you to those who do so) Perhaps translated/dubbed live letters might get a bit more interest or do like blade and soul and hire a English speaker to make a few videos bout the game.

[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

[Molly_Millions]

I hope SE does not get cheap on advertising... they never really done well in the west with TV adds.

They did well enough with XI that I learned of it that way.

[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!"

[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.