14 DAY TRIAL // Batman: Arkham City might not have been the surprise hit that predecessor Arkham Asylum was, but the game was a commercial success nonetheless, with publisher Warner Bros. successfully overcoming the challenge of attracting Call of Duty and Assassin’s Creed fans to its superhero protagonist.
Matthew Geyer, who is the vice president of core games marketing at Warner Bros., stated at the Game Marketing Summit in San Francisco that “It's easier to market and sell a game that has critical acclaim, but we had another unique challenge - a lot of players just don’t want to play as a superhero character.
“You want to be a superhero as a kid, but as an adult, not so much. You'd rather play as a badass assassin or things like that… and we wanted those Assassin's Creed fans!"
The marketing campaign for Arkham City, which was handled by a company called Trailer Park, was specifically designed to focus on the hero aspect of Batman rather than on his gadgets and superior intellect.
The initial black and white images that advertised the game were set to show his vulnerability and his desire to overcome challenges by showing the Bat bruised, battered but ready to fight on.
Brian Setzer, who is a director at Trailer Park, added, “It was about making Batman look more like a man. When people first saw these ads, they really got into it. They made people connect with it, and talk about it.”
The marketing campaign was helped by the ability that Warner Bros. has to introduce promotional material in a number of products, from DVDs to magazines, and by the interest that the player base has shown to the sequel for Arkham Asylum.
The marketing team says that the advertising campaign for Batman: Arkham City has been the biggest in the history of Warner Bros. and has managed to make the superhero more popular than ever and better able to compete with other core gaming franchises.