Marketing Controversy

March 4th, 2008 · No Comments

I’m pretty sure everyone’s on board with this, but maybe not: Why is it every time Rockstar or Take 2 publishes a game, the media or “concerned citizens” get their panties in a bunch and leagues of people come forward to condemn the game?

I’ve come to the conclusion that Take 2 has come to depend on this kind of coverage as a free viral marketing campaign to keep awareness much higher than it would be from just blogs, game sites, and advertising. I’d wager that they don’t just appreciate it, they lean on it. They manufacture it.

Looking back on their library of games, you have the franchises:

GTA
Bully
Manhunt

Of course, there are others, such as Midnight Club and Red Dead Revolver (and they publish the Max Paynes), but looking at those three titles above, I cannot for the life of me think of any other title more controversial than any of those.

Now, my personal take on those titles is that they’re not entirely all that controversial. Bully was a hilarious misappropriation of distain, possibly realized once folks who opposed it actually played it, and while I’m no longer a big fan of GTA I wholeheartedly love and recognize what it’s done for the gaming industry as a whole.

But they are controversial, and I think if we ask why we might find some insight as to how they got that way.

GTA obviously earned its rep when GTAIII hit the mainstream. Beating hookers and taking your money back was impossible before, and filling your virtual sin bucket with gluttonous muderous rage has never felt better.

Bully’s controversy seemed manufactured to me, in the sense that Take Two didn’t deny the controversy. When teachers and principles and church groups all came out to take a stand against it, Rockstar didn’t even bother coming forward (at least not to my memory anyway) saying “whoah hey guys, despite the title, you’re actually a bit of an anti-bully here!” They simply allowed the public to exercise their freedom of speech and market the title for them through viral controversy.

And Manhunt? Well, bear with me here. I’m going to go all the way out on a limb.

I think Manhunt2 was made solely to promote the Rockstar controversy brand, and kick off the media/controversy awareness so that it would crescendo through the the GTA4 release. Unfortunately, Rockstar missed their ship date on GTA4 and it slipped all the way into Q1 (if it will still actually ship in the next 3 weeks) of ‘08. Otherwise it would have come out the quarter immediately following Manhunt 2’s release. Just imagine how much Rockstar/Take 2 would have owned the airwaves. Righteously indignant lawyers everywhere would have been calling for the head of Strauss Zelnick (Take 2’s Chairman).

Controversy is easy advertising, and free marketing. It’s a free country, and you’re free to buy and say what you want (within reason), so it makes perfect sense to court it and shepherd it into your corner. I have no doubt Rockstar green-lights the games they do because they know they’ll turn heads and get that extra boost in revenue due to expanded awareness from all of the complainers out there.

If I wanted to climb all the way out on the smallest branch, I’d even go so far as to say they send press releases straight to a certain lawyer’s door.

I know I would, if I were them.

The whole reason I started down this path was because I actually started writing this whole thing when I saw the link above on Kotaku earlier today. I assumed that Bully 2 was announced. That’s how knee-jerk the “controversy” is these days.

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