Mainstream Marketing Push

[KayOneElRoy]

I felt this topic deserved a thread of its own, as it may be the biggest determination of PSN’s future success.

From what I have gathered browsing the forums, SOE is planning on releasing this game late Q1 2011 or early Q2. What I am primarily concerned about is that the marketing push is all but absent for such an early release, this would be a huge mistake in my opinion. I really hope Sony does not release this game without a mainstream marketing push of some kind. I have been talking about Planetside and Planetside next to all of my college buddies and none of them have heard of it, or are even interested for that matter. I am hoping that it is only the beta or an official announcement that is released In Q1/Q2 of 2011. If Smed could personally shed some light on this issue it would be much appreciated. Your thoughts?

[Furret]

I remember when Starcraft II was coming out, they had to compete with Halo Reach commercials, but whenever I'd turn on the TV I'd see a Reach or SCII commercial. PlanetSide wont have the base of players that Halo or Starcraft has, but I think with a good ad campaign, PS will really make it big.

[Sirisian]

I hope they don't think viral marketing will work. Those image teasers only make fans anxious. It isn't bringing in new people. I told my coworkers about Planetside Next and they said they'd try it. All my old high school friends have been contacting me to get the band back together, but I've never seen anyone else talk about it.

I think there's got to be a huge push on TV to market this MMOFPS. I fear though that things like Massive Action Game have soured people's opinions of this genre. I think they need to do a lot more showing than telling in that regard to set this game apart.

[KayOneElRoy]

Yeah, a viral campaign is not going to cut it. All anyone at my college is interested in playing in the FPS genre is Black Ops. They have never had the experience of playing Planetside with hundreds of players in massive battles, so the excitement is just not there for them. They just don’t understand how making an FPS an MMO has any advantages.

I don't know if TV commercials are the best idea for Sony, as less and less people watch a lot of T.V. in Sony's target audience. I think they should make an awesome CGI trailer, followed by an amazing game play trailer and a huge E3 announcement. They should make a dedicated official Planetside Next Facebook and Twitter page which is active in order to continue the hype machine virally when everyone has at least heard of the game.

[Hamma]

The thing with the release date is it is confusing based on what Smed has said. He hinted we would hear something Q1/Q2 2011 - whether that means it will release at that time or just an announcement of a release we still really don't know.
"And we haven't announced a release date for it but you can expect it... We're looking at late first-quarter, early second-quarter [2011]."
Does that mean we can expect the game, or a release date then.. we don't know. :(

[KayOneElRoy]

ahh, reading that again sounds more like we can expect an official announcement and a release date soon. That makes me feel a little better. As much as I am excited about this game, I would be willing to wait another year for release if it means the player base will be huge.

[Hamma]

As would I, maybe we can get Smed to confirm what he meant by that. :lol:

[Furret]

This feels like one of those dreams where you've been working hard the entire time to get to this one goal, and its finally about to happen.

If i wake up i will commit suicide.

[Kwintus5]

I want it fast, but my brain is in a constant struggle to what extend i'm willing to wait for it in comparison to the quality. Saying that how faster they release how lower the quality will be. So i'm not willing to wait 3 years for the perfect game, but half a year for a pretty good game is fine! Everything is good as long as they don't f*ck this up! :D I want it noaw! :<

[KayOneElRoy]

Im sure the quality will be there, we do not really know how long Sony has been working on the game. However, without a large player base Planetside Next will just fade into anonymity, played by only the loyal fans.

[MgFalcon]

Im sure the quality will be there, we do not really know how long Sony has been working on the game. However, without a large player base Planetside Next will just fade into anonymity, played by only the loyal fans.

Very true, the whole epic battle depended on these masses. Say what you want about the zerg but they're what made a lot of Planetside's battles so great. If SOE screws the pooch on marketing the same feel that we once got in the original won't be in Next...

if so; advertisement crusade of our own... mayhaps?? :D

[KayOneElRoy]

I'd be down! Spam the web, billboards in major cities, grass roots baby, we can make it happen! I'll even do a silly dance on television for Planetside Next :groovy:.

[Daimond]

I hope they do better at Marketing this time around. Last time they reliyed on basicaly word of mouth, that will not work this time. To draw people in they need to accualy push for a bit then let word spread. last time around even if you went to any of sony sites you realy have to dig to see even a word of Planetside. A new release should be up front and center on there pages for a while, along with TV spots. and as for Trailers they need to show off accual battles and large ones at that to so people can accualy see the scale of PS next. Not like last time no trailors even just expecting the fans to make and promote is not a way to go this time around.

Cuase even now just to get a word that somethings in the works you have to accualy know Planesides here to even get a hint on a search thats theres even a PS2 close to release.

[Sifer2]

They need to do a big open beta. But make getting into it feel kind of exclusive as in you need to win beta keys from contests or something. That new MMO Rift coming out this month did that an its got quite a few people playing.

Seems like people are more interested if its not totally open to anybody lol. Aside from that the game needs a really good trailer showing large scale combat. Both in a cinematic an gameplay point of view way so people understand what its like to play.

[morf]

There's a lot more gaming press around the web nowadays compared to 2003. I don't know that a tv spot would do a lot for psn. The target audience would be people who are already in touch that read online gaming magazines, and pay attention to what gets announced at e3. Or at minimum, these people know someone who pays attention to e3/gaming news. So imo, the best thing they can do is give psn a good presence at e3. If it was in the sony keynote that would be the ultimate exposure and would probably pull tens of thousands of players.

I also disagree with the people saying that word of mouth doesn't work. The web is a hundred times more social than it was 8 years ago. Hell there are even social networks like xfire devoted to gaming. So when people see their friends playing psn, they will follow. Word of mouth will be better than ever before. It's already started, just look at all the people talking about psn on twitter. All this needs is a kick start from something like e3 and word of mouth will really ramp up.

The best thing we can all do is be more social, join twitter, tweet about psn, join xfire when you start beta, etc. I've got a group of friends, about 12 of them that are pumped now, I even got 2 of them to sub to ps and they love it. I just put up a webpage with some links videos etc with info and linked it in vent and they're all drooling over it now.

[KayOneElRoy]

Word of mouth can be effective, but SOE should not rely on it as the only means of advertisement for obvious reasons. You also have had a different experience than me with your friends. My friends are completely indifferent about PS:N, and need something concrete to draw them in.

[morf]

Word of mouth can be effective, but SOE should not rely on it as the only means of advertisement for obvious reasons. You also have had a different experience than me with your friends. My friends are completely indifferent about PS:N, and need something concrete to draw them in.

Oh I agree, like I said, the word of mouth needs a push. They need to release an awesome trailer at e3 to build some buzz. You need something to link to to get them interested. But if that fails, a tv commercial isn't going to help.

[Hamma]

An awesome trailer would be a good start.

We have already started building some hype for release with the various Screenshots Smed has provided. Hopefully we can keep that rolling for some time.

[Bhopx]

They need to do a big open beta. But make getting into it feel kind of exclusive as in you need to win beta keys from contests or something.

This is the most important thing in getting word out on a game like this. I hadn't heard about planetside until i saw they were giving out beta keys on fileplanet.

[Raymac]

From what I've heard, the talk is already spreading rapidly around former Planetside players, and the ONLY thing we've had are a couple of vague comments and 3 model screenshots.

I think once Smed's company actually begins the real marketing, like an actual official announcement press release, we'll naturally see alot more media about it.

Frankly, if the CEO of a major gaming company like SOE is spending time to post little preview tidbits on a fan site's forums, then I think thats a very strong indication for his passion to make sure this specific project will be successful. Are they going to put Star Wars: The Old Republic money behind it? Now way, but a game like Planetside Next doesn't need that much of a sales pitch because this shit right here sells itself.