Banzaii - The blog of online games and games of Jorge Mediavilla

During my career in video games that I have had to deal with a few marketing managers, product managers and other people defending bad life totally different positions as to promote their games.

Some think that good games sell themselves and prefer to promote the "less good" (because for them there bad game) and others, to be really good to push it all to market forces and the "mediocrity" according quality.

Those who think that video games sell themselves good not lift a finger to promote consecrated sagas. They know they have already assured his audience that the new product features will work on the creation of expectations. They will not fight for the product magazine cover or have a special, not necessary, users are already familiar with the game and will flock to buy and journalists interested in it and doing nothing. To these they propose any action, look at you as if you were not worthy of the game and you try to "sneak" the mediocrity of the day. They believe that marketing is worth, the one that really has merit, is selling trash, garbage which a super-duper top of the sales. As they see that a game has reviews of 9 or more believe that they are virtually all the "fish" sold, is a breeze and invest their time in making it more difficult to sell.

Then there are those who think that good games should be given a marketing worthy of them. Not enough that the game is amazing, you have to communicate, market and scream out as loud its benefits. They turn in his great game, do not rest on our laurels. Do not try to exalt reason over other video game not worth the grief. The fact that a series sold well so far does not ensure that the next installment will do the same again.

What is the good way to focus the portfolio of video games? From the user point of view is clear, you have to push it really worth it and the rest is fraud, but from the point of view that needs to get to sales target, the thing is not so clear ...

I my opinion I have of course, but this time I will tell you in the comments if the article generates some

The creators of Lara Croft want to reinvent the myth (which I have already made or attempted on several occasions) and it could follow the path of the new film, which explores the origins of a very young Lara would no longer be played by Angelina Jolie but by Mega Fox or another renowned actress younger. Thus, we can "enjoy" a young and inexperienced Lara taking its first steps.

Some art on this game has been leaked and judging by the legal actions undertaken Nielsen , who was probing whether the new face of Lara was liked or not the people, seems to be true. You can see the images on other sites as akihabarablues.com .

I think a Lara Wilder, disheveled, most primary and young. I like it.

I say go to a better life because not disappear, but because they are integrated into a larger structure, the Square Enix Eidos in the case, and that of Namco Bandai Atari in Europe.

RIP

Atari disappears again as brand new. Namco Bandai now called Partners after Namco Bandai has completed the acquisition of Atari's distribution operations in PAL territories around the world, leaving out the United States and Japan. In Spain now have to talk about Namco Bandaii Partners, a company that will market in our country RidgeRacer, Tekken, Soulcalibur, Dragon Ball and Naruto, among others.

As for Eidos, Square Enix is ​​now called Europe and published the famous role-playing, among others, in Europe under the leadership of former CEO of Eidos. Let's see if we have a Final Fantasy Croft soon! They did not want to give it another go to Lara?

All these changes will mean further redundancies and restructuring in an industry that is gradually being affected by the economic situation inevitably.

After the last game of Lara Croft have not had the desired effect, as I had a few days ago , Eidos arises a radical change for the series, making it more casual, more designed for women ( especially for girls Egirl ). Well, in Banzaii we already have the first screenshot of what the new Lara game and its code name yet definitive: My Lara Kingdom.

The missions are now more varied ...

More details of the terrifying plans Eidos ...

Update: I'm glad to see an opinion in favor of the current style of the series. The former creative director of Tomb Raider defends the style of the series and blamed poor sales to other factors.

Well, Lara is as always, is "depression" is Eidos, the creator of the game, it just has sold 1.5 million copies of his latest Tomb Raider Underworld worldwide advertising despite a somewhat libertine, who translated a while back with some bad milk

It seems that the claim of a well mojadita Lara and super sexy is already enough to raise sales ... The game is not bad at all, but perhaps the PS3 Uncharted left him somewhat dated even before seeing the light. For my part, I have it on the waiting list, is a game that I play, but not before other much better bill as Fallout 3 or Dead Space.

It appears that the culprit is mainly the United States, which has not bought enough sets of Lara, which has caused Eidos have to lower their expectations of business. More and better marketing luck next time! Why be a next time, right?

It is on sale, if you had not you heard ...

* Seen Gamesindustry

Update: Nothing more to end this "post" I see you posted on my beloved Gamesindustry that Eidos shares have dropped 25%, which makes it even more appetizing candy for Time Warner and other large multinationals that have set their sights on Now the video game world that is maturing.

Why have a meeting of creative brainstorming, etc. when you have a game starring Lara Croft? It's a waste of time. Lesson 1: Because nobody will look at the face of Lara, better cut it off. Lesson 2: The game? Neither good nor bad nor regular, but very wet Lara says: "Explórame all."

We comment only. Thanks to Manu for comentármelo.

I read on Gamespot , a site that may not know but that is the source of almost everything you read in Spanish web pages that SCI (Eidos), which owns franchises such as Tomb Raider or Hitman, through bad times, including layoffs and restructuring. One of the most striking changes is the creation of a new casual games division, to be called Eidos Play. SCI keeps up the way other companies like Electronic Arts and Take Two.

My opinion is that casual games are not the goose that lays the golden egg, the great decision that will remove the hook, but a step in the right direction, a step that is consistent with the philosophy imposed Nintendo today and remoteness of the industry of those games that generate violent rejection and bad press. Casual games are games of direct and immediate gameplay aimed at players unusual that occur with low costs and revenues which, if the game becomes a huge success, can be spectacular.

How will this line of strategy games? What is clear is that either these games out for Wii or download on the PlayStation Store or Xbox Live Marketplace. I do not think outside of Wii make much sense to flood the Game shopping with these products. Some may make sense, as those who have already succeeded in Intenet and are well known as Diner Dash or Cake Mania, but not all.

Internet should be a key player when it comes to market and sell these games. What I do is a flash version of the game, as Sony has released Patapon , and would promote, without eliminating conventional advertising in social networks using new marketing techniques of Web 2.0. So put on sale over the Internet with systems of digital rights protection. The strategy and distribution of casual games by these large corporations, therefore, should differ from the games "hardcore" and, of course, do not forget the mobile version.

The new Tomb Raider Anniversary, the remake of the first adventure of Lara Croft done with the engine of his latest Tomb Raider Legend, is proving to be a balloon-catheter Eidos to explore new digital distribution channels that are open both online and consoles over Xbox Live and the like.

Tomb Raider Anniversary was released simultaneously in stores and digital distribution, which is a good experiment to see what they can sell online and whether such sales impact their sales expectations in the normal distribution channels. This was a first step and now the second is to try to put the game on the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live episodes. I am a firm supporter of episodic games, as I explained a while back, partly because it can be much cheaper and I do not like the idea of ​​paying for phases to which I will not ever reach.

The complete set consists of four episodes. In September it launched the first two episodes, and will be available shortly after the other two episodes. The final game for the Xbox 360 also will be available in stores soon.

Nothing is known about whether the same or similar initiative will be released for PlayStation 3 or Wii, which could accommodate this type of distribution is finally confirmed the launch of its new hard drive.

I applaud these innovative initiatives and wish you every success.

- My article on Video by chapter .
- More about Tomb Raider

Ten years pass very quickly. From that SIMO 1997 in Tomb Raider I discovered it has rained a lot. Within days, on June 1 will launch the new adventure of Lara Croft, Tomb Raider Anniversary, a remake of his first adventure with the graphic engine made its last Tomb Raider Legend. The game will be available June 1. For now, you can do like me and go downloading the demo:

- Download the demo of Tomb Raider Anniversary.

There are many images and videos that have been released, but now comes the real test of the demo. In short I would give my initial opinion about the game

- More news from Tomb Raider on the blog.

There was news that I had crossed his mind, but it makes perfect sense to debut on Wii Lara Croft. This is one of the biggest icons in the world of video game console that reaches the best arguments playable is to increase public playing video games and therefore more sales prospects. Lara reach new Nintendo console with its new game conmmemorativo the tenth anniversary of its launch.

Obviously, the graphics will be of lower quality than the game for Xbox 360 or PS3 and their arguments will be more focused on selling to the new gameplay. At the moment there are not many details, but I imagine that the control will be similar to Prince of Persia. In it, various movements of the main controller and the nunchaku produce other spectacular character. The "gameplay" was fun at first, but in my case not long before I tired of the game.

The guys Proein warn us that there is available a new video of Tomb Raider Anniversary, the remake preapan Eidos and Crystal Dynamics of the first adventure of Lara Croft with the graphics engine of the latest Tomb Raider Legend. This trailer, though in English, shows ingame and real images of the game.

For me Tomb Raider is a game that I keep with love. I discovered it in the SIMO almost 10 years ago and I was amazed with the game. After I got it and I ended up. It will be a joy to relive the adventure.

The website is also fresh from the oven and in perfect Castilian:

- Official website Tomb Raider Anniversary