Video Game Marketing: Mass Effect 3 DLC
by vietthreat
For a long time now i have been contemplating what i could do for a blog on Giantbomb and decided that i would try to do something that i am learning at the moment in college. I am majoring in marketing and would like to get into entertainment marketing as a career choice. So i plan on posting about different marketing situations that happen in the industry and giving my opinion about what happ...
For a long time now i have been contemplating what i could do for a blog on Giantbomb and decided that i would try to do something that i am learning at the moment in college. I am majoring in marketing and would like to get into entertainment marketing as a career choice. So i plan on posting about different marketing situations that happen in the industry and giving my opinion about what happened.
Mass Effect 3 Day One DLC
With the release of Mass Effect 3 came the backlash from the community about the day one DLC, from ashes. Gamers were outraged by the fact that the DLC was not only not included in the retail copies of the game but some people reportedly found pieces of that DLC on the disc. EA had responded to these accusations:
From Ashes is a 600 MB+ download with all new content, including the mission on Eden Prime, new dialogue options and conversations with Javik, new cinematics, the Prothean weapon, and new appearances for all squad members. All of the above content was completed while the main game was in certification and are not available on the disc.
As stated previously, in order to seamlessly integrate Javik into the core campaign, certain framework elements and character models needed to be put on disc. We did something similar with Zaeed and Kasumi in Mass Effect 2.
Mass Effect has become such a huge brand name in the industry and has such a strong cult following that it Bioware is being put under a microscope and every decision they make has found one criticism or another. As marketers, it is our job to listen to feedback from customers and decide the best course of action for the future. In this case we have a community of gamers outraged that they are being forced to pay for something that they believe should be on the disc as part of the retail game. It was smart of EA to not let this blow out of proportion and just come out and explain what the findings on the disc were and that this was the best course of action for them.
When you have a brand like EA and Bioware, the perception that gamers have about those two brands are fairly negative. When you talk about EA, you talk about a company who is now using the name of companies they purchase to fuel their sales (Using the Bioware name on different studios). Bioware was looked at as the saviour of RPGs but now has become a "poison" to the RPG genre (dumbing down RPG games like they did with Dragon Age 2). It is almost impossible for them to not be attacked by gamers about any decision they make whether it is about DLC or about the endings of their games and EA and Bioware to their credit kept their composure and did not buckle under the enormous amount of backlash.
Did EA and Bioware do the right thing?
Yes they did and they handled the situation like true professionals. A lot of companies have changed course because of the feedback they received about their games and they things associated with their game. XCOM being developed by 2K is a game that received a lot of feedback and changed the brand perception by adding XCOM Enemy Unknown to calm those who feared XCOM was being changed for the worst. It is tough to handle all that negative feedback and stay the course but EA and Bioware are handling it very well. If you think otherwise let me know and we can create a conversation about what they could have done instead.