At the MI6 game marketing conference in San Francisco, execs from 2K Games' marketing team presented a candid look at how the plan to sell BioShock 2 adapted to fan skepticism, game delays, and a tough marketing environment.
The presentation from marketing director Tom Bass and marketing VP Matt Gorman began with a frank admission: Fans were not looking forward to BioShock 2. Said Gorman, "they held it as a very special experience, and a lot of the focus test research we did afterward, people said they didn't want any more BioShock."
In the face of this, the team identified three groups who they wanted to market BioShock 2 to: fans of the original, hardcore gamers who skipped it, and casual console gamers who might wait for Mass Effect 2 or God of War III instead of buying BioShock 2.
BioShock is one of the most surprising games of this generation. First of all, it isn’t inspired by a real-life conflict, a film or another game series, but a moderately successful novel called Atlus Shrugged by Ayn Rand, which put forward a philosophy called Objectivism, or ‘rational selfishness’.
BioShock’s writer and Creative Director, Ken Levine, and his team are now working on BioShock Infinite, a departure from the dark, dystopian corridors of Rapture into the bright skies of Columbia, a floating city named after the female personification of the United States of America. The PS Blog recently had the chance to sit down with Ken to talk about the philosophies that underpinned the original BioShock and how, if at all, these are being applied to BioShock Infinite.
These days, truly great game idea are quite hard to come by. With all of the sequels, HD remakes, and general gaming bullshit that has come out lately, we really have to wade through these titles, and find the games that are actually good. After we cut through all the sludge and grime, we come upon games that have these really good ideas that we have been searching for all this time. The only problem is that when we find these games, they dont always live up to what they could have. There are three games in specific that fit the description of games that had great idea, but relatively bad execution.
A rather unique take on five games you may have missed when they were new. Well, they’re cheap now, and they’re still awesome
