Author: Lauren Brady

This is it! YouTube loads… You wait for the ad to finish… Your hard work has finally come to fruition, and you can now share your latest creation with the world. For the public, trailers are the highlight of any massive event like E3 or Gamescom. They can even be events in and of themselves. See the excitement around The Game Awards recently; for most, it wasn’t even about the awards. It was all about the trailers. A certain SMITE trailer might have made a cameo…

But sometimes you want the world to know about your game without having anything to show. Not through lack of work, but maybe the project is still in its infancy, and actual gameplay is still some way down the line. That’s why pre-rendered trailers have always been a part of the industry.

 

One to watch

There will always be an excited audience waiting to watch a trailer, pre-rendered or not. This Jurassic World Evolution trailer hit over 31 million views following its announcement at Gamescom in 2017.

There is an appetite for pre-rendered trailers. But why would you ever pick pre-rendered over in-game? Like we mentioned earlier, depending on the stage of production, the game might not be in a state where it can be shown. The intended gameplay may be solid, but the polish may be lacking. This needn’t prevent your marketing for the game from getting underway – You can still convey the intended quality of the game way before completion while getting your game first and foremost onto the consumer’s radar. A pre-rendered trailer can lead the audience into a much deeper story in a short space of time. You only get one chance to impress and win over the hearts and minds of the players, but also the upper echelons of the publisher too.

 

Capturing the action

Sometimes, it’s the only worthwhile way to show the game. Either because the gameplay doesn’t translate well into a trailer or because capturing in-game footage is less than ideal. A pre-rendered trailer allows you to be more cinematic in your approach. It’s what made pre-rendered cutscenes in original PlayStation games so prolific – see any PS1 era Final Fantasy game.

While games can inevitably change course during their development, a pre-rendered trailer can successfully set the tone ahead of its release and capture the player’s imagination. Take the Smite trailer above – a colossal clash between ancient deities. A delicate to-and-fro power struggle. This is what playing the game feels like, and only through this cinematic medium can that be expressed. A pre-rendered trailer captures that spirit and excitement.

Pre-rendered trailers also allow for a much higher level of visual fidelity beyond the power of consoles and PCs. It’s a highly effective way to impress your audience and gauge their reactions in the process.

 

Watch and see

Using a specialist CG studio like REALTIME allows the developer to remain focused on the game itself. Pre-rendered trailers are best left to those proficient in CGI production to help benefit from the time and cost-saving measure.

In today’s social media age, where exposure to your game can be just a few screen taps away, you need a trailer that will capture an audience. Multiple devices in every room allow you to reach a viewer base of millions. To do that, you need a beautifully crafted cinematic trailer to truly seize the interest of your potential players.

At REALTIME we have delivered trailers that have attracted millions of viewers. Our Smite and Subnautica trailers above are only a taste of what we have achieved. If you want a trailer that exudes quality, get in touch with me at [email protected] to discuss any upcoming projects.

The growth in video games over the last 2 decades has been nothing short of phenomenal. It has grown from a small cottage industry into one that is expected to be worth $137.9bn by the end of 2018. During this time, The industry has had to overcome incredible challenges – not only in keeping pace with (and driving) fast-moving technologies, but also the many socio-political challenges that have presented themselves as the world wrestles with this relatively new upstart on the media landscape. Its reach and influence are as impactful in the 21st Century as radio, television or newspapers were in the 20th.

Nowhere is this more apparent right now than in the People’s Republic of China, where two-thirds of those online engage in active gaming. There, games are not only enjoyed but are highly influential amongst the key 18-30 demographic. In recognising this, the PRC’s ruling party have stepped in to ensure that all content adheres to its strict policies of censorship. But are these draconian actions a shot in the foot for the Chinese games industry or a shot in the arm for the global games industry overall?

Taking action

During its continued growth around the world, the games industry has been subject to intense scrutiny and debate. Whether it be violence, gambling, age restriction, or dubious content, the narrative usually ends with ‘video games’ unnecessarily being cast as the boogeyman.

Not so in China where the government is not as open to discussion or dialogue when it comes to maintaining absolute autonomy over online content. Anyone who has visited China recently will have seen how closely intertwined games and mobile apps are in the fabric of day-to-day life. So, it should not come as a complete surprise for their government to take an active stance in ensuring that this content also abides by their strict policies of censorship.

Where things differ from other territories though is that there has certainly been less ‘debate’ and more ‘action’, with the ruling party taking arguably quite draconian steps to ensure that everyone conforms. The end result is a drastic clamp down in the number of games released in the territory thanks to the government freezing the approval of games licenses – something every game must have before it launches.

This new policy follows a re-shuffle within the government which has seen a consolidation of film, news, and publishing regulations under the powerful Communist Party publicity department. As they do with all forms of media, they have the power to ensure that all games content abides by their socialist values.

Stiff competition

The official line is that the government wants to curb ‘myopia’ in young players, with concerns about long-term health effects on particularly young players, with Goliath game ‘Honor of Kings’ singled out for particular criticism. In China alone, nearly 8,000 new games are introduced to the market each year. It’s a lottery as to whether each title is a success or not. With only a handful of these able to succeed, the publisher cuts its losses on the majority of titles, turning its focus and attention towards only the best performing.

The competition to succeed in China is fierce – twenty titles alone were responsible for generating 56% of gross revenue in 2017. In the absence of being able to provide a continuous new pipeline of product, it’s not surprising that the biggest publishers are being more cautious about the quality of games in development and ensuring continued performance of the most successful ones. Tencent, who is particularly exposed to the new rules, has seen $271bn wiped from its stock value since January 2018. Even in the face of such adversity, it has taken huge steps to protect its golden goose ‘Honor of Kings’ by introducing an age check system that verifies minors against a government database, also ensuring players don’t compete for excessive amounts of time.

Caught in the CrossFire

Few can argue that taking such measures can only be a good thing from a moral standpoint. However, it does obviously limit the amount of revenue that such lucrative games can generate. With no new licenses having been announced since March 28th, and fears continuing that none will be released for many more months to come, the biggest publishers will need to look further afield than the Chinese market to satisfy their shareholders.

However, anyone having visited ChinaJoy this year will have noticed that such games might not necessarily translate so easily to a western audience. Indeed, some of the highest grossing games there are titles that we in the west would not be that familiar with. Take for instance ‘CrossFire’ – a game that routinely shows up as being in the top ten highest grossing games in the world despite now being ten years old.

Yet, its popularity continues in Asian territories, as demonstrated by the new trailer that RealtimeUK recently produced to help celebrate its anniversary. Both the game and the trailer are a good indicator of the subtle cultural differences that exist between east and west, with the trailer having been tailor-made for a very specific Eastern audience.

Standing out

Regardless, in an age of limited new releases, publishers have to ensure that their existing titles continue to maintain maximum exposure to their key demographic audience. Tencent is fast realising that the key to this is ensuring that their games feature prominently on streaming video content sites. One particular company that is helping Tencent with this right now is Bili Bili – a platform that blurs the lines between gaming, anime and social media.

Despite Bili Bili itself also having succumbed to the Chinese government’s crackdown (the app was withdrawn by the government for several weeks earlier this year), it is clear that this strategy is helping them to continue to perform in a time of heightened restriction – as evidenced by Tencent’s own $316m investment in the company just two months ago.

Shot in the foot or shot in the arm?

At a time of incredible growth for the Chinese games industry – one that has seen it become the biggest in the world – it might appear that its government might have shot itself in the foot. However, it could be argued that the quality of its games and services can only continue to rise in the long term.

With fewer games being released, all efforts in China will need to be focused on ensuring that upcoming games will be of high enough quality and adequately resourced in terms of marketing collateral to stand the most likely chance to succeed – both at home and abroad.

Those with the biggest global IPs, that are able to overcome the subtle cultural differences between east and west, and are of high quality will stand to reap the rewards of success – especially if they are able to engage with their audience through online streaming video content. Whether east or west, YouTube or Bili Bili, those with the most successful marketing assets are likely to be the global dominating winners of the future.

RealtimeUK enjoys a fantastic reputation with our Chinese clients as displayed in our recent work with CrossFire. We understand the nuances of the market and how to aid growth in the west. Get in touch with me at [email protected] to discuss your latest project.

With the rise of social media and the ability to connect with anyone at any time, it’s no surprise that the video games industry has felt the tectonic plates shift beneath its feet. There was a time when a game would be pushed out the door upon release, and it would be onto the next project. No more.

Now, developers are expected to work on a game post-launch, be it in the form of updates, patches, or additional content. All of this centres around one thing – the community. As the industry moves towards games as a service as a default model, the involvement of the community has never been more critical. A fickle beast if ever there was one, developers and publishers are increasingly focused on bringing people into their gaming ecosystem and keeping them there.

A thriving community can make a game; a dead community can kill a game. See Epic Games’ Fortnite as an example of this success in action, and see ex-Epic employee Cliff Bleszinski’s LawBreakers for the opposite. So how do you build and nurture that community?

 

Drawing the crowd

There’s no magic formula to fostering a community. Some exist on their own without any help from the developers. The Elder Scrolls series by Bethesda is a prime example; it has a strong modding community creating new content for games going as far back as The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, which released in 2002.

They are the exception to the rule though; today, keeping a community together is a constant campaign that involves active participation from the developer. No doubt the role of community manager has never been more popular in the industry.

The key is constant engagement. More often seen in multiplayer games, a steady stream of new content gives players a reason to stay with the game. A prime example is Rare’s award-winning Sea of Thieves, which promised to keep the swash-buckling going well past launch and has plans to deliver well into the future. Fans are regularly rewarded with trailers to build up the hype. And it works; one of their most recent trailers are drawing in over 350,000 views, and their website is still pulling in 2 million visitors a month.

But trailers aren’t enough. Consistent communication is necessary. Rare host regular live streams and developer updates to keep the community in the loop with ongoing developments. Fortnite too. And on multiple platforms – YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, their own blog, you name it.

Developers have to listen to their community. When Final Fantasy XIV first launched in 2010, it was met with derision from fans. It was deemed so inadequate that Square Enix had to publicly apologise. But they didn’t let it die; they listened to feedback and reworked the whole game, relaunching it in 2013. Interestingly, they stayed respectful of their loyal community, giving the old game an appropriate send-off. Today the game still receives regular updates and is one of the most popular MMORPGs.

 

Ups and downs

A novel, potentially underutilised method of engagement is through alternate reality games (ARGs). More common in the movie industry, they have been used with games before, most famously as part of Halo 2’s marketing campaign. ‘I Love Bees’, as it came to be known, was a pre-release mystery that tied into the wider Halo story. It created community engagement before the game even came out.

Others choose to leave vague mysteries in their games for players to solve. Rockstar Games left breadcrumbs in Grand Theft Auto V for players to follow. Dubbed the ‘Mt. Chiliad Mystery’, players were drip-fed new pieces of evidence through Grand Theft Auto Online, keeping them hooked for three years.

But for all the good of communities, there is a dark side you have to be wary of. Toxicity is rife and, if given the opportunity, any community can prove to be a pack of wolves. You wouldn’t want to be Activision Blizzard right now after the announcement of mobile game Diablo Immortal went down like a lead balloon – share prices have fallen drastically. Maybe when your audience boos you don’t say “do you guys not have phones?” in response.

As the industry shifts towards GaaS as a default model, the community is only going to become more important. It needs to be embraced by big-name developers and indies alike, and as we’ve seen, there’s a right way to do it and a wrong way.

Nothing engages the community more than a trailer. A perfect way to grab the attention of current and lapsed fans alike, RealtimeUK knows how to create a trailer that gives fans what they want. Get in touch with me at [email protected] or on +44 (0)161 711 0260.