== What do you think of the gifts you get for pre-ordering a game? ==
I refer to the pre-order marketing gifts as those small trinkets you get at your local game store for pre-ordering a game in advance of its release.
I, for one, like to pre-order the games I am anticipating. I even enjoy getting a trinket to take home after pre-ordering. Its a very small way to "wet my appetite" before the game is released.
For example, I just pre-ordered Fallout 3 and was handed a familiar plastic DVD case wrapped in a replica of the actual game case art for Fallout 3. In it was a "poster" folded down to the size of an overgrown business card and a CD of 5 soundtracks from the game in a well-designed sleeve.
== Am I a nat? ==
Why do I want a folded piece of paper called a "poster" that I am not going to put on my wall?
Gamers are "on-line" creatures. I'm not sure what the market research consultants told the major publishers marketing departments about me as a gamer, but I can tell you that it was wrong. I don't respond to a folded poster in a DVD case that looks similar to the real game. What I will respond to is noticing that my antipicated game developer is doing something unique with that same marketing budget that allows me to interact with the game before it is released.
Printing 500,000 of those "posters" probably cost the marketing department $10,000; not counting the cost of distribution. Why not use that same $10,000 to fund a small student project that has a game development/design program to make a small Xbox Arcade / Playstation Network game. For example, I love what Lionhead studios did with the Fable II Xbox Arcade game it released.
Besides, with the country going "green", is printing 500,000 copies of poster that no on will do anything with really the best thing to do?
== The effect of poor implementation of a good idea ==
Instead of me writing a SoapBox article here on GameSpot hating on the pre-oder marketing trinket I get, wouldn't the marketing departments rather I write a "positive" Soapbox?
Yes, of course, but here I am responding to a pre-order marketing gift that I consider an insult. I found myself telling my wife, "I just spent $70 on a game that contributes to a gigantic development and marketing budget for a game and I'm given a folded piece of paper and a CD."
Look, I'm not hating on the idea of pre-order marketing gifts. I am hating on the implementation of that idea.
== Commendation to the marketing departments ==
To the marketing departments at the major game publishers, you are to be commended for pointing out the size of our industry to those who are unaware of how unique our industry is. You are to be commended for making an argument for an ever-growing marketing budget and making events like PAX, E3, comic Con, etc. the spectacles that they are. The "buzz" you create on- and off-line has become quite something to watch that, I believe, make most gamers proud.
== Challenge to the marketing detpartments ==
I commend the marketing departments for utilizing that sizable marketing budget that most games are getting now and are using the budget to create an interesting dynamic in the industry. Gamers will now expect something in return for pre-ordering a game.
So be careful what you wish for...
The interesting dynamic the marketing departments are creating is the expectation gamers will have from now on that they get something in return for pre-ordering a game. Well done.
The challenge, therefore, is to meet that expectation. Meet it head on. You have a good idea, gamers now expect to get something in return, now ask yourselves, "do we really want to hand out posters?"
== Problems without Solutions ==
I have never been one for pointing out a problem and not providing solutions. Therefore, I'll restate the problem, then provide some solution.
Problem: the idea of pre-order marketing gifts is a good one, but it is not well implemented.
Possible Solutions:
1. See the note above about funding a schools game development program to make an on-line, pre-release Xbox Arcade or Playstation Network game similar to what Fable II did.
2. Re-invent the game website. It has become incredibly mundane. A few screenshots, all the logos of the participating companies and one, maybe two, trailers and wallpapers. Come on! Gamers are on-line creatures (as stated above). Use your marketing budget to hire the local creative agency down the street that can take an idea like Killzone 2 and do some amazing stuff on a website.
3. Partner with the action figure manufacturers like NECA that create the Gears of War line of action figures and make them available as the pre-order marketing gift. Let me ask you, "have you seen the inside of a development studio? Have you seen the mountain of action figures that adorn the computer monitors of the world's best designers and developers?" Capitalize on that and make the action figures more readily available.
