Bioshock 2 Marketing Dissection

Bioshock 2 has released. From many reports, including our own, it was a success.

Yet, how did 2K Games go about marketing it? Gamasutra has a feature highlighting answers from marketing director Tom Bass and marketing vice-president Matt Gorman, illustrating core challenges and ways of overcoming them.

Among the first hurdles they discovered was marketing to people who enjoyed the first experience. Skepticism abounded, and through focus-testing they found that people were not wholly excited for the sequel. Curious? Perhaps. Excited? No.

This created a problem when the marketing team found themselves breaking their core audience into three groups: those who played the first, hardcore gamers who may have missed it, and more casual console players waiting on another title.

Therefore, the initial focus, the Big Sister, was a great eye-catcher, but left audiences wondering what the point was. How did she fit? What was her role? How much did she factor into the plot? How did she innovate on the already iconic Big Daddy and Little Sister combination?

Failed plans abounded. The difficulty became striking between something that was indicative of the game, and something that could be marketed. The eternal conundrum.

Then came the website and ARG, the latter focused on Mark Meltzer, a botanist whose daughter disappeared. A story that not only allowed the audience to unravel more information about the game if they so chose, but tied in directly into the return to Rapture. This was not about discovery, so much as rediscovery. Making sense of what the audience already knew to inform what they did not.

The lesson that the marketing team seems to have learned, and is a fine line many tread, I am sure, is that one cannot rely on just print and media ads as normal. If there exists a skepticism about the sequel (they found many players felt they had a unique and engaging experience with the first, and could not fathom how the sequel could deliver on such again), one must engage those fans in some manner--not just passively deliver content that they watch with skeptics' lenses.

In many regards, Bioshock does seem a somewhat unique brand. Since it relied so heavily on the exploration of Rapture and the newness of its type of game (except maybe for those who played the System Shocks--but not everyone did), that it can be difficult to know how to communicate the experience effectively. As opposed to a series like God of War, which has a strong base and fans know what to expect (and would likely be upset if things changed too drastically).

What marketing campaigns for sequels have caught your eye of late? How did they manage to engage you, or alleviate any skepticism you may have had? How have they failed in that regard?