What is the line between good marketing and too much? Did Bioshock: Infinite cross it?
The marketing machine...in a nutshell.
One of the things that stood out for me a lot during the marketing campaign was the focus on dubbing this game as the next release “from the developer of the Award Winning Shooter Bioshock.” I would be a dummy to not understand why they would do this. Irrational has made a huge name for themselves on this franchise. You have to use something that the consumers will be able to relate to. But, I have to wonder if some of the negative comments are not directly related to that comparison. I feel like anyone playing Infinite is not going to be as blown away by what this game has to offer. First off, the original Bioshock had a very unique feel for its time. From the visuals, all the way to the controls, this was a very different beast than your run-of-the-mill shooter. There are many positive feelings and reactions that the original provided that this new one just won’t be able to meet. If Infinite existed without Bioshock however, the whole reaction would be significantly different.
The other major point that stood out is the amount of advertising that this game received across so many different media. Big release ads showing up all over the different gaming sites is really not that much of a surprise. I was, however, surprised to see a TV ad while watching the Walking Dead. What was even more surprising to me was that the ad was CG (though seemed to be based on potential in-game footage) and was suggesting a plot topic that had gone against everything we had heard about the game so far (The people of Columbia trying to execute their “Lamb”?). Heck, if you really want to nitpick, the Columbia we got to play clearly has no real horses like the one shown in the trailer. Not to mention the fact that I am a big opponent of CG video game ads period. More often than not, they overstate the gameplay and do not live up to the feel of the finished product. I kinda wished that kept this one more focused.
