GameblurgKids Talking About the Future

Sure it feels like a recruitment call and a brainwashing tactic rolled into one gorgeous advertisement, but you’d have to admit that if Microsoft manufactured an army, you’d enroll faster than you could say Sony Entertainment.

Via IGN

The launch of a videogame doesn’t have to be just its date and a few late night TV ads. The event can spawn into colossal beginning for a successful franchise. With a few well executed risks, a successful launch can set it up for unprecedented success.

Imagine this:

The brisk morning light peeks through a gloomy Britain sky, awakening you from your dreary slumber.

The day is no longer exciting to look forward to as free reign as become a choice of the past, abducted by a totalitarian government who has become obsessed with the restriction of pedestrian movement.

On this morning, a knock rattles against your front door and in a moment of desperation to stray from the monotony of the normal morning routine in an autocratic Britain, you rush to answer the door.

As you pull the door ajar, a man in uniform stands in your doorway from the British Freight Company who requires your signature to receive your mysterious package.

You follow instructions and unveil the box’s contents: a Guy Fawkes mask. This mask is the very mask that appeared months before on national television, preaching revolution to an oppressed nation. The very oppressed nation that you live in.

As mysterious as the mask’s presence is, its message ignites a feeling of hope and faith, and suddenly, it begins to articulate into a goal: freedom.

Soon after, you peer down your street and witness similar countless instances occur in front of your very eyes. It takes one mask to engulf the lives and thoughts of hundreds of thousands across your world in Britain in order to create an atmosphere of drastic change.

Now, let’s keep the event that transpired, but leave the futuristic landscape that V For Vendetta (2005) has created for us, and return to reality.

What if those masks were something else? A plastic Master Chief helmet? Leisure Suit Larry hair gel?

Imagine being a fan of a franchise and being one of these recipients. To carry badge of allegiance and support, and generate excitement of your favorite game’s release at the sight of its symbol would entice enthusiasm through the many fans for the arrival of their game.

Publishers, instead of the normal Tuesday release date, the week before its release, when the UPS representative shows up to your customer’s door, and unveils the perfect reminder that he/she is about to be apart of one of the biggest events in their life is something to put thought into.

Think of more creative ways to involve the most important people, the customer, in your product’s lifeline.

Good games with a mediocre launch might flourish on its own worth, make decent return and survive the wave of competition, but a good game with a memorable launch will devour that wave of competition.