Titanfall "Really Tough" to Market, Says Respawn

[StewShearerOld]

Titanfall "Really Tough" to Market, Says Respawn


Titanfall's lack of a scripted single player has made producing "movie like" trailers difficult.

While there have been some <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/131105-Updated-Titanfall-Will-Have-a-6v6-Player-Cap>debatable bumps in the road, Titanfall has, by-and-large, been making good impressions among gamers and fans of first-person shooters. That good will set aside, its creators at Respawn Entertainment have recently expressed that the game's nature as a multiplayer only title has led to some conundrums when it comes to its marketing.

"It's actually been really tough trying to accurately market Titanfall," said producer Drew McCoy in a recent <a href=http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=96308009&postcount=880>NeoGAF post. "If you look at what we've done, its a lot different than what most FPS games do. Without a bunch of highly scripted [single player] moments to recam from different angles, the usual 'movie like' trailer is just about right out." In turn the studio has taken to showing off "unedited gameplay segments that last 3-5 minutes" hoping to give players a feel for the "flow" of the game. Even so, McCoy claims that the sheer depth of Titanfall's gameplay can make it hard to accurately represent. "There's a huge amount of gameplay mechanics available at any one time, and encompassing them in a few minutes is actually quite hard to do."

Granted, showing off the breadth of a complex game in a small window can be difficult. That said, we're not quite convinced that Titanfall is such a unique game that it couldn't be portrayed in "the usual 'movie like' trailer." In fact, <a href=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goe6IB1DLZU>previous trailers have arguably done a fair job of utilizing in-game footage and seemingly more cinematic moments to construct movie-ish trailers. That being the case, we'll give some kudos to Respawn. Even if the game isn't giving them much material to edit together, they've done decently so far.

Source: <a href=http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=96308009&postcount=880>NeoGAF


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[Fappy]

Here's a thought: don't try to sell us what isn't in the game! If your game is all about multi-player action, then your trailer should reflect that. There is no need to make a cinematic narrative for a trailer if that isn't the focus of the game.

 

[Geoffrey Francis]

Exactly what Fappy said. Instead of making a "movie like" trailer, make a game like trailer. Oh wait, that would be a demo. And we can't use old models of selling games. Listening to the Roosterteeth guys talking about getting burnt out on demos and games being early accessed to death, shows that not everyone likes that experience.

Oh, how about a demo that is just the single player experience. You have no one to shoot at, but you could get used to the wall hopping bits, and learn levels... I really like my own idea, lol.

 

[nodlimax]

Here's a thought: don't try to sell us what isn't in the game! If your game is all about multi-player action, then your trailer should reflect that. There is no need to make a cinematic narrative for a trailer if that isn't the focus of the game.

Please don't try to make sense. You're going to confuse the marketing people. They might suddenly start showing the truth about the games.

I hate trailer that aren't showing anything about the real game. Cinematic trailer may be pretty, but in many cases they can give the wrong impression about a game (compare Blizzard cinematics with the final games for example - or can anyone remember the epic SWTOR trailers?).

 

[Pickles]

Yeah I really don't see the fuss here. Most gamers know by now that trailers are pretty misleading so making a trailer that is entirely gameplay is probably a better move anyway.

 

[Karadalis]

Never saw Battlefield having these problems... they have tons of other problems but this wasnt one of them

 

[JPArbiter]

IT'S GIANT FUCKING ROBOTS! HOW IS THIS SO HARD TO MARKET?

seriously try "Blow all of the shit up in giant Robots!"

 

[Mahorfeus]

Frankly, I think Call of Duty (gasp!) had the right idea regarding marketing for its multiplayer, which is undoubtedly its selling point.

Not that Titanfall should necessarily take the same direction, but it would be paramount to selling the game as a narrative.

 

[omega 616]

Good, I'm sick of "movie like trailers" there is never anything in them, plus you miss most of it 'cos they are like 1 or 2 second flashes ... which means videos appear on youtube "dissecting" the trailer, which means you have videos about videos about games.

Just show me a typical length trailer but instead of the usual stuff, show me an awesome moment, like what you have been doing! Wall run, jump through a window, spray a guy and then snap a guys neck is a lot more interesting than the black ops 2 trailer.


The causal gamer might watch that and be blown away but (I am assuming) the more dedicated gamer will watch that and think "there is only about 12 seconds of gameplay, there wasn't much to that!". We've all seen these kinds of trailers, that initially make you think "wow" but after watching it you think "it was all scripted (probably pre-rendered) shit, that didn't actually let me see what the game would be like".

 

[Deathfish15]

Multiplayer only title? Well that -and the fact that it's co-opted by EA- means that it's a none purchase here. Games like Natural Selection II are multiplayer only, but they got marketed just fine to their perspective audience with nice trailers, content, and PRICING. See that caps locked item? Ya, it's that important. A multiplayer only game should only cost a fraction of full package games, and not cost the full $60 that companies like Respawn want to charge.

 

[The Bread is Delicious]

I realize that it isn't exactly the same situation, but my mind can't help but wonder to thinking about Team Fortress 2 when they complain about having no in game single player narrative to build marketing around. TF2 had the same position, but built a story outside of the game to advertise the game and the various augmentations to gameplay they've had over the years. Actual gameplay in the trailers and shorts for TF2 is practically non existent as well.

Now that I think about it, TF2's marketing has rather little to do with the gameplay in most instances and yet it practically prints money... I wonder if they use subliminal messaging...

 

[tdylan]

A multiplayer only game should only cost a fraction of full package games, and not cost the full $60 that companies like Respawn want to charge.

But it's NOT just a multiplayer game...it's "a multi-player game with a STRONG single player narrative..." HA! Sorry! I can't finish that. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see if this game winds up like Brink. I'm most interested to see how they are going to balance the Titans:

- you want to make them behemoths worth investing in. If they're paper thin and easily destroyed, they're a novelty.
- you don't want to make them such unstoppable juggernauts that the best player on the map gets one, and then it's game over (like the J10 in battlefield 2 - in the hands of a skilled pilot, there was no bringing it down)

So you want them strong enough that they're worth using, and can swing the tide, but not so strong that they grind everyone else's experience to a halt.

I like the game section 8. I enjoy the sequel as well, but I feel it began chasing the COD audience to make it just enough of a departure from the original to be a little disappointing. However, you could earn money through in-game actions and request equipment. A tank cost a lot of money, and was a chore for the enemy to bring down, but the developers said "that's the point. A tank should not be something that a single solider can run up to with explosive and take out. We wanted the tank to be this force that required the other team to work together to take out. It had to have an "oh shit! The enemy's got a tank!" presence." They wanted teamwork to be paramount and in both Section 8, and the Sequel, the team working together kicked ass. No, you couldn't "one man army" all over the map, but that was the point of the design. You had to pick your battles/play to your strengths. Even a single guy in a tank was no match for a coordinated team effort to take him down, and that was the point. I'm wondering if they're gonna to the "enemy titan deployed! We have to work together," route, or the "enemy titan deploy, but it's no biggie. I'll wall-run, plant C4, and take him out" route.

I think that going the "we have to work together" route will alienate the "One Man Army" crowd. Which I suspect is the reason that they have low player cap, and several bots - to give everyone enough fodder to be able to purchase their own titans, so you're not at the mercy of the skilled players. Time will tell.

 

[Mortuorum]

IT'S GIANT FUCKING ROBOTS! HOW IS THIS SO HARD TO MARKET?

seriously try "Blow all of the shit up in giant Robots!"

Seems like that would do the trick.

Anyone who read this article and then posts on the message boards probably already has a pretty good idea whether they're going to buy Titanfall on launch day, wait for the reviews or give it a pass. But, there are a whole lot of gamers who are, er, less passionate that need to be convinced, and that's the marketing guys' challenge.

A few short videos showing the various types of mechs blowing stuff up should be "cinematic" enough to get the point across. And if the resulting explosions aren't spectacular enough to sell Titanfall on their own merit, then the problem isn't the marketing... it's the game!

 

[Kuro Serpentina]

Its call of duty with Mechs...
How the hell is that hard to market?

 

[SecondPrize]

"It's actually been really tough trying to accurately market Titanfall."
I think this is just a clever ruse to make us think that accuracy was ever a goal these marketers were aiming for.

 

[Izanagi009_v1legacy]

Here's a thought: don't try to sell us what isn't in the game! If your game is all about multi-player action, then your trailer should reflect that. There is no need to make a cinematic narrative for a trailer if that isn't the focus of the game.

I second this opinion, A game like this can be sold very easily by focusing on the main mechanic: mechs. Just show fast-paced, wall-running, pilot combat before having the titans drops and we get a giant robot fight.

You don't need to make a game look like a movie, you need to make it fun to play and the combat is what would make it fun

 

[Megacherv]

Here's a thought: don't try to sell us what isn't in the game! If your game is all about multi-player action, then your trailer should reflect that. There is no need to make a cinematic narrative for a trailer if that isn't the focus of the game.

That, OR add a fucking single-player campaign to a full-priced retail game

Just sayin'...