Bioshock: Buried in Subtext

My favorite example of advertising lately has got to be the new trailer for Bioshock Infinite's downloadable content Burial At Sea, created by Irrational Games.  It's an expansion pack that adds to the game's narrative for $20. Irrational Games used the strengths of their storytelling medium to market their product in a unique way that I'm sure will be very successful for them.

But first, some background information: In the first Bioshock game that was released 5 years ago, your character explores the ruins of an art-deco city built under the ocean.  A man named Andrew Ryan  (read "Ayn Rand") built this place as a utopia for the exceptional, promising them freedom from the interference of government and "petty morality".  As you can imagine things do not go as planned, and war tears the city apart.  Back in 2007 Irrational games didn't have the technology to to show players the city in its prime, so they opted to tell their story through the dilapidated environment.  Gamers can piece together the story of how the city fell by studying corpses, analyzing the eerie propaganda posted around the city, and by listening to the voice recordings of former citizens.

Now in 2013 Irrational games is finally showing players what Rapture looked like pre-apocalypse, something players have been asking for for years (they really know their target market).  The first Bioshock's goal was to make the player want to know how the city fell apart.  It created a drive, not by telling consumers they desired more Rapture, but by showing them the city and letting their curiosity get the better of them. With the impending release of the DLC, the first game (which is considered by many to be one of the greatest games of all time, holding the title of "highest rated FPS " on Metacritic for 5 years) has become a 10 hour advertisement for this new installment.

A lot of game trailers show a lot of pre-rendered animation that isn't part of the game they're selling.  Consumers have become wary of this manipulatory tactic.  This trailer only shows actual gameplay footage, which wins the audience's trust.  What makes it even more convincing is the fact that every shot is shown from the player's perspective.  2K games is allowing players to preorder the two unreleased DLC's so it's important that gamers know what they're buying.  Very little information has been released about the new content, so this trailer essentially has to sell the product all by itself.  Judging by the buzz this trailer has caused (it has been given a lot of publicity through gaming news websites) I'm sure it'll be a huge success.  It doesn't hurt that Bioshock Infinite itself has already sold over 4 million copies.


Bioshock 1: Post New Year's Eve massacre