Namco Bandai delivers a comprehensive marketing plan to promote its new destruction-based racer
[INFO] Released:
Out today (Friday, March 30th)
Formats: 360, PS3
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Developer: Bugbear
Entertainment
Distributor: Advantage Contact:
0121 506 9590 PRINT/ONLINE
Namco Bandai has been running print advertisements in specialist magazines for six months, while a month-long online campaign is underway with ‘all three main publishing houses’. This is part of a bid to target fans of arcade racers and ‘crash-and-smash games’ as well as gamers in general.
EVENTS
Consumers were able to get hands-on game time with Ridge Racer Unboundedat several consumer shows last year including GAMEfest, Eurogamer Expo and MCM Expo, as well as Namco Bandai’s very own Summer Shindig.
RETAIL
At retail Namco Bandai says it’s ‘going big’ with in-store and online trade marketing activities. The main push is for the limited day-one edition of Ridge Racer Unbounded, which includes three exclusive cars and six paint jobs for the same price as the standard version. The cars and paint jobs are designed around well-known IPs including Pac-Man, Galagaand Tekken.
WITH A little bit of something for every musical taste, SingStarhas remained a popular party series from its 2004 PS2 debut to the latest SingStore download service update this year. We asked 6,744 gamers
about SingStar,of whom 1,261 have played the game in the last six months. Of these, we sought more detail from 492 gamers. The game’s emotional and social benefits are its most enjoyed aspects, with 65 per cent of those who play saying “it makes me laugh” and 42 per cent giving “playing at parties” as a key motivation. Both of these factors rank higher than the average game. “Beating my friends” and “being creative” scored higher than the average game, with 34 per cent and 27 per cent of users respectively listing these as top reasons for playing SingStar.
Spanish and German
gamers show the highest play rates at 24 per cent and 22 per cent respectively. Despite the game originally being an English-only title, the UK comes in at third with 14 per cent, tied with Italy. Females aged 10 to 14 years old are the strongest market for this game, with 18 per cent playing SingStar compared to males in the same age group (11 per cent). The surprise in the figures comes from the 30 to 34 age demographic where men are playing more than women (11 per cent of males versus five per cent of females). 65 per cent of the total gaming hours logged in SingStarare made up by females, compared to a share of 28 per cent of play time for the average game. Visit MCV Reports on mcvuk.comto buy the full brand map.
Members of the media have interviewed Ridge Racer Unbounded’s producer Joonas Laakso for game previews, backed up by video, screenshots and art assets produced by Namco Bandai. There was also a multiplayer event held in November where members of the press had their first chance to play against each other and try out the City Creator mode.