EA's thoughts on marketing strategy

It's a bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off for 'em.

their RTS games fail because they are poorly coded and don't know how to properly balance them from the get-go. they hand them over to GameReplays to balance - and by the time the patch is finished and goes through EA's rigorous approval process, everyone has moved on and nobody cares anymore because it is too little, too late. (i was on GR's balance team for BFME and BFME2, so i say that with certainty.) however, this is the case with just about any RTS game with the exception of SC and Warcraft - the fan base is so small, it does not make economical sense to release regular patches. the best they can really do is release a few big patches that address critical issues.

on one hand, it is cool that they allow players/fans of the game do 100% of the balancing and bug fixing, but on the other hand...the players/fans don't get paid to do this, and it makes EA look lazy.

as for GW2...i'm sure their marketing team has a plan that will kick into action when they are good and ready. i don't believe for a second that the itsy bitsy "buzz" they've put out is the only marketing they plan to do.

Marketing is really the only thing EA is good at, so I'd tend to listen to them. The fact that EA usually manages to actually sell the utter crap they produce is a bold testament.

*sigh*

Too late now I realize I've stumbled into yet another "omg anet is fail" vs. "nuh-uh anet is r0xx0r" and "giv us gw2 nowz!" vs. "im so patient an gunna weight for gw2 infos!"... thread.

If Beta is to be in 2010/2011 as we've seen, then there's still plenty of time to advertise and release more and more information as time progresses and launch nears. Time enough to grab the attention of new players without them getting bored with the commercials and forgetting about the game itself. Time enough to grab the attention of older/previous/GW1 players and get them reanimated on the idea. At that point we'll see screens, gameplay, get feedback from ANet... it'll be okay. And best of all, it'll be pretty independent of how much discussion/whining goes on at fansite forums.

"...Developing a new MMO requires a lot of money and a lot of time. If you are starting today and don’t have at least three years and $30 million dollars, consider developing in another genre. Also be prepared to attract and manage a large development team. We have 140 full-time developers working on Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 at ArenaNet, and that number will probably have to grow throughout the Guild Wars 2 development cycle. It is much easier and less risky to make exciting, innovative games in other genres. Unfortunately, some of us just can’t make that decision – we’re intoxicated by the thought of building the ultimate MMO, and we feel compelled to dedicate our lives to that pursuit. If that describes you, then by all means jump in and let’s keep pushing the boundaries of possibility together. But bring cash – lot’s of it – and make sure that you are working with people on the business side who are willing to let you make the best game you can make, because there are no successful B-titles in the MMO industry.

I’ll end by paraphrasing the famous Japanese game designer, Masaya Matsuura: Go forth, and do weird and difficult things! Thank you..."

From Jeff Strain: How to Create a Successful MMO

http://eu.guildwars.com/press/article/jeffgc2007/

Considering the finacial trouble EA is in, I wouldn't do anything the way they do it.

How come my PC Gamer #161 does not says i get 2 special item for GW2 beta?

EA does not listen to their customer, try saying something bad on the Sims2 BBC (the official forum) you be censored so fast you don't know what hit you.

Your thread title made me think EA mentioned GW2, which they did not. The quote is pretty general and typical.

They don't have to. EA could hire bloodthirsty third world mercs to raid their customers houses on an hourly basis to make sure they aren't copying the game and I swear you'd still have hundreds of thousand of goombas out there making excuses for them on their forums and buying the latest "update" to last years sports titles...

I don't think that marketing strategy applies to MMOs. Anyone know about age of conan? ahahahah fail...

Anet already has a dialogue and enough information what the fans want through forums like Guru.

Fans will buy GW2 anyway and a lot of new people will arrive too.

Anet should stick to the 'no information till we're ready for it' strategy.

I am sure they will market when they are ready but the bottom line is that you can't love something if you have no iea what it is.

Actually no. If they are in trouble, and talk about new marketing strategy, that strategy is direct result of them realizing how not to do things. Learning from mistakes of others is FTW.

That just means what they were doing before was bad. It doesn't mean their new experimental strategy is good.

Personally, I think they should focus on making games that don't suck, instead of just continuing to churn those out and just changing some marketing strategies around. But that's just me.

Funny how this is the statagy anet is going for. Remember AoC beta was short, and only let you explore the main city, which was very polished, then when you get the game and leave that area, the polish goes away. Same with TR. Personally I wonder what Anet has to hide is the is going to be a awsome game. Remember we we're told a beta in 08, and we have nothing to see as of yet.

You know.. GW is about 2 years from release. They probably don't really have anything to show yet. Or nothing good enough.
Btw, we're talking about NCsoft, their marketing sucks. (Aion is coming in Q3/4 of 2009 and I don't think many people have heard about it yet, because they didn't start marketing yet)

What we want, as fans, is more info about GW2.

What NCSofts marketing team wants is for GW2 to make money.

Which of those two groups do you honestly think A.net is going to listen to more?
What we want (info and a super cool game RIGHT NOW) has nothing to do with what A.net needs (money and success). I'll let people who have years of experience and college degrees in the field of marketing make their own corporate decisions. The people on this forum with their armchair advising would probably run a company into the ground.

You got something mixed up. Arenanet handles marketing.
http://www.massively.com/2008/12/29/...s-2-marketing/

NCSoft is the publisher and developer of Aion. I would imagine theres a bit of conflict of interest happening between the two. See if Anet does well then Aion might lose possible subscriptions. GW2 profits will be shared between Anet & NCSoft. While Aion profits would be all for NCSoft.

On topic, EA may have sub par games in the end but there is no denying their marketing skills are of the best. When you can churn out mediocre and post good sales, your doing something right.

You know.... that's normally my opinion too. I don't know much about <field>, so I should just leave it to the "experts", right?

Well... I might be more inclined to believe that if I'd ever met anybody who holds a marketing degree and appeared to be capable of gaining an expertise in ANYTHING.

In fact, I'll set my standards a little lower and accept a marketing major who can put his own shirt on without hanging himself.

I just have a really hard time believing that coming out with an announcement and then clamming up for 2 years can possibly be an effective marketing strategy.

True... business majors... ewwwwww

But I don't know, we are talking about it right? Must be doing something right