Ken Levine: "There Are Maybe A Million Hardcore Gamers"
Levine in massive outbreak of refreshing honesty in video games selling
"Shit! I killed him by over-exposure!"
BioShock: Infinite, we're all looking forward to it, right? But maybe we all know too much about it already? This is a problem that the creative mind behind the franchise, Ken Levine, and Leonie Manshanden, the director of marketing for Irrational Games have.
But one thing is for darned sure: Ken Levine uses words in a way that make sense:
"We’re asking them to spend a lot of money: $60. That’s a lot of money. It’s our responsibility to give them the information they need to make the purchasing decision,” Levine explained to Ars Technica's Ben Kuchera. “But at the end of the day, the last person you should listening to about making a buying decision about Bioshock Infinite is Ken Levine. I’m biased."
This statement of the superbly obvious (and very rarely ever said in an industry more prone to Bowling along with waffle, obfuscation and hype) came during a discussion of the problems of timing the marketing of an AAA title.
Ken sees this as problematic, “People overestimate how exposed games are, in comparison to other forms of media. There are maybe a million hardcore gamers, and Call of Duty is going to sell 25 million copies. You either find ways to reach the other (24 million) in ways you can’t normally, or repeat the imagery enough that when they go to IGN they might come across it.”
In fact, Ken is generally as honest and confused as the rest of the industry, “Generally, when you announce… fucked if I know. Is there a science?” he asks. At this point, Leonie Manshanden, the director of marketing for Irrational Games, pipes up in a humorously job protective way with, “Yes, there actually is, and it’s a very complicated formula that I cannot disclose."
“In other words, no," restated Ken.
Read the entire piece here. It's very, very good.
But one thing is for darned sure: Ken Levine uses words in a way that make sense:
"We’re asking them to spend a lot of money: $60. That’s a lot of money. It’s our responsibility to give them the information they need to make the purchasing decision,” Levine explained to Ars Technica's Ben Kuchera. “But at the end of the day, the last person you should listening to about making a buying decision about Bioshock Infinite is Ken Levine. I’m biased."
This statement of the superbly obvious (and very rarely ever said in an industry more prone to Bowling along with waffle, obfuscation and hype) came during a discussion of the problems of timing the marketing of an AAA title.
Ken sees this as problematic, “People overestimate how exposed games are, in comparison to other forms of media. There are maybe a million hardcore gamers, and Call of Duty is going to sell 25 million copies. You either find ways to reach the other (24 million) in ways you can’t normally, or repeat the imagery enough that when they go to IGN they might come across it.”
In fact, Ken is generally as honest and confused as the rest of the industry, “Generally, when you announce… fucked if I know. Is there a science?” he asks. At this point, Leonie Manshanden, the director of marketing for Irrational Games, pipes up in a humorously job protective way with, “Yes, there actually is, and it’s a very complicated formula that I cannot disclose."
“In other words, no," restated Ken.
Read the entire piece here. It's very, very good.
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