Leveraging! Leveraging! Leveraging!
There is a two-part interview with Russell Arons, VP of marketing for EA Play (so that’s what it’s called now) up on Gamesindustry.biz. I like to read these ‘industry sources’ because you often get a totally different perspective from what press releases and official previews tell you, such as…
TS3′s REAL core audience
“The Sims 3 is looking at 16-24 year-old PC players .. [it] has been developed from the ground up specifically against those consumer audiences.”
“it’s not just about appealing to the current Sims fans – they’re critically important, but we know we have to bring new consumers in too.”
So the people complaining about unnecessary changes, and who aren’t in this nicely-segmented age bracket or are ‘old consumers’, have a point. It’s not “developed against” them.
More below about the delay, social networking and kids, and the surprising use of the Internet to market games.
Intentional delays
When it comes to the reason for the June date, Arons replies, “Half strategy, half shifting.“. She gives the standard “more marketing” reason, adding that they intend to bring in new consumers (as quoted above).
She also talks about why EA went out with all these “trial experiences”: to bring in the “lapsed” flock who played TS2 when they were 12, but have probably moved on to KillBlow 3 and such games.
“A lot of what we’ve put significant effort into since we moved from February into June was creating trial experiences for new and lapsed players … “
Making kids buy stuff – I mean, network socially
“…what we’re leveraging on The Sims 3 in terms of social networking being a primary marketing vehicle – actually that’s not as appropriate for, say, young kids, but as we go into building up Littlest Pet Shop online, or any kind of kids online sites, we now know a lot more about social networking and how you dial it down for younger consumers.”
I think “dial it down” means “make it less obvious/offensive so we don’t end up on the news”. Parents should be concerned when they hear marketers talk about things being “primary marketing vehicles” for their children.
‘The online’
On marketing strategies:
“…with The Sims 3 (16-24 year old primary target) – those folks aren’t watching TV. Good luck there, they’re all Tivo-ing or watching online, so we had to go online. It’s probably one of the first marketing plans in EA where the online is more heavily weighted than television – and that’s an evolution. We have to spend a lot more time getting to this consumer group, that’s a lot harder to find than ever before.”
This is why they delayed it four months; because the core demographic is so hard to find! I’m a bit surprised that marketing mainly on the Internet is considered ‘novel’ for EA. In 2009.
Brilliant quote
“EA Play is less about “Let’s make a great game, because we know there’s a market out there.”"
OK, in the interest of fairness…
“It’s more about seeing that girls are really getting into gaming, younger and younger…So I’d say it was (sic) a consumer-centric approach that asks where the market opportunities are, and then goes about building the right titles and game experiences towards them.”
June 24th, 2009 at 1:23 am
Wow, that’s fascinating. And totally makes sense. I’m such a naive idiot, though; I really wanted to believe that they delayed the game so they could fix some of the things that the Creator’s Camp folks complained about. But go figure, it was all about the marketing. As part of their “older” audience, but also one of their loyal consumers, I feel a bit slighted and disgusted by their marketing strategy. They didn’t make The Sims 3 for us. Nor did they develop it in the interest of creating an amazing game. They really just did it to get their grubby mitts on more consumers and their money. Which explains A LOT, like the TS3 Store, the rampant bugs, the recycling of objects and animations, and all but forcing us to play one household at a time. But then they did give us CAST, which is hands-down my favorite part of the game, and the absolutely gorgeous scenery. I have a feeling some departments at EA take more pride in their work than others. But maybe that’s just my naivete speaking again. :) Sorry to ramble on your blog…I just found it today and am really enjoying your posts!
June 24th, 2009 at 11:59 am
Thanks Jen. I’m a sometime reader of your blog too (but it’s been a while since I’ve played TS2!) The sort of storytelling you do is something I aspire to, probably after the neighborhood editor comes out I’ll try writing a story. Instead of picking apart interviews during my downtime :)
Personally, despite all the flaws, I think you have to make do with what a game company gives you. You really can’t expect much from a corporation like EA except what will make it money in the long run. I’m bitter towards EA for what they’ve turned Sims into and how flippantly they treat their player base, but I still enjoy their game. Already the community has fixed many of the gameplay issues and is on its way to providing much custom content to fill the “void” left by the store and the basegame. At its core TS3 is a pretty good title, in spite of what it’s missing.