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Third times a charm
Former Acclaim franchise gets a turbo-boost from EA marketing muscle. We take a look at the critical and commercial success of one of the hottest racing titles in years.
by Justin Davis
Although Burnout 3 is the third title in the popular racing series, it's the first to be published by Electronic Arts. The first two titles sold around 600,000 copies each and were met with critical praise, but this alone could not have been what caught EA's eye. EA not only acquired the publishing rights from Acclaim in early 2004, they also bought Criterion outright, the development house behind the franchise.
Standing out from the crowd
Why did Electronic Arts feel that Burnout 3 would succeed in a market that's already over saturated with street-style racers? "EA's biggest challenge is to get Burnout 3 to stand out from the crowd," said David Cole, President of DFC Intelligence.
Undoubtedly, buying Criterion for $48 million was also attractive because EA wanted to acquire the developer's ubiquitous middleware Renderware. Renderware has been licensed to Konami, Rockstar, Activision, and nearly every other major developer. Still, the eventual critical and commercial success of Burnout 3 and EA's pre-release hopes for the title show that they recognized the series' worth as well.
Although the quality of Burnout 1 & 2 led to Burnout 3 turning up on some media outlets' 'Most Wanted' lists in early 2004, the title didn't truly start to turn heads until E3. This was the first time that the press began to realize that the game was shaping up to be more than just a typical sequel. Besides featuring the "more, better, faster" sequel treatment, an extra year in development allowed Criterion to craft a nearly flawless experience.
Exceptional quality, while easier said than done, is one of the primary ways that Burnout 3 has separated itself from other street racing titles. "Burnout 3 is literally one of the highest reviewing games released in the past couple years," Cole said.
Splitting the market
EA recognized that the title was extraordinarily good, but rather than rest on their laurels and let the media build its hype, they took a more proactive approach. "On the marketing side we really focused on getting the game into people's hands (we had more than 100,000 demos at retail) because once you picked it up, you couldn't put it down," EA rep Trudy Muller told GameDAILYBiz.
With Burnout 3, EA was able to split the market in a way that only a very large company can do. The title proves that not only can NASCAR-type racing games coexist with the more arcade-style street racers, but the genres can be broken down even further to be successfulas long as you have the marketing dollars, of course. "We focused on creating a clear separation that this was 'not your father's racing game' and made sure crashing and fighting traffic had a prominent place in our marketing campaign. 'Aggressive Racing Required' is the game's tagline," said Muller.
"EA's ability to split the market is a key reason behind the company's continued success. They do it yearly with their NFL and college football titles, and now with Burnout 3 they have shown there's lots of room for different types of racing," said Cole.
Marketing know-how
An extensive TV, print, and online ad campaign coupled with glowing reviews still wasn't enough to convince all gamers. Besides the relatively newfound crowding of the racing market, this fall's unbelievable release schedule has forced many gamers to watch their budgets. The sentiments heard from many is that Burnout 3 was a game they'd like to purchase, but they were saving their money for something else that fell higher on their wish list.
Upon release, Burnout 3 was a resounding commercial success, despite the saturation of quality software in the pipeline for this quarter. "Burnout 3 is performing very well and is meeting or exceeding our expectations," EB Games' Divisional VP of Marketing Debbie Mola told GameDAILYBiz. Interestingly, despite the PS2's far larger installed base, Mola also reported that out of the chute, the Xbox version of the title was the better seller by a ratio of nearly 2:1. This increase in Xbox sales mimics that of Madden 2005, showing that hardcore gamers are responding to EA's titles being Xbox Live enabled.
Although the extremely high praise being paid to the title certainly helps, there's no doubt that EA's intelligent marketing will make Burnout 3 a far greater commercial success than it would have been otherwise. EA recognized that the title was something truly exceptional, and got it into as many gamers' hands as possible prerelease. Their ad campaign was not just about raising awareness, but also telling gamers why they should be interested in this title even though they may already have 1 (or 5) kind of like it. EA has once again found success through creating a great product and selling it the right way... to the right people.
Third times a charm
Former Acclaim franchise gets a turbo-boost from EA marketing muscle. We take a look at the critical and commercial success of one of the hottest racing titles in years.
by Justin Davis
Although Burnout 3 is the third title in the popular racing series, it's the first to be published by Electronic Arts. The first two titles sold around 600,000 copies each and were met with critical praise, but this alone could not have been what caught EA's eye. EA not only acquired the publishing rights from Acclaim in early 2004, they also bought Criterion outright, the development house behind the franchise.
Standing out from the crowd
Why did Electronic Arts feel that Burnout 3 would succeed in a market that's already over saturated with street-style racers? "EA's biggest challenge is to get Burnout 3 to stand out from the crowd," said David Cole, President of DFC Intelligence.
Undoubtedly, buying Criterion for $48 million was also attractive because EA wanted to acquire the developer's ubiquitous middleware Renderware. Renderware has been licensed to Konami, Rockstar, Activision, and nearly every other major developer. Still, the eventual critical and commercial success of Burnout 3 and EA's pre-release hopes for the title show that they recognized the series' worth as well.
Although the quality of Burnout 1 & 2 led to Burnout 3 turning up on some media outlets' 'Most Wanted' lists in early 2004, the title didn't truly start to turn heads until E3. This was the first time that the press began to realize that the game was shaping up to be more than just a typical sequel. Besides featuring the "more, better, faster" sequel treatment, an extra year in development allowed Criterion to craft a nearly flawless experience.
Exceptional quality, while easier said than done, is one of the primary ways that Burnout 3 has separated itself from other street racing titles. "Burnout 3 is literally one of the highest reviewing games released in the past couple years," Cole said.
Splitting the market
EA recognized that the title was extraordinarily good, but rather than rest on their laurels and let the media build its hype, they took a more proactive approach. "On the marketing side we really focused on getting the game into people's hands (we had more than 100,000 demos at retail) because once you picked it up, you couldn't put it down," EA rep Trudy Muller told GameDAILYBiz.
With Burnout 3, EA was able to split the market in a way that only a very large company can do. The title proves that not only can NASCAR-type racing games coexist with the more arcade-style street racers, but the genres can be broken down even further to be successfulas long as you have the marketing dollars, of course. "We focused on creating a clear separation that this was 'not your father's racing game' and made sure crashing and fighting traffic had a prominent place in our marketing campaign. 'Aggressive Racing Required' is the game's tagline," said Muller.
"EA's ability to split the market is a key reason behind the company's continued success. They do it yearly with their NFL and college football titles, and now with Burnout 3 they have shown there's lots of room for different types of racing," said Cole.
Marketing know-how
An extensive TV, print, and online ad campaign coupled with glowing reviews still wasn't enough to convince all gamers. Besides the relatively newfound crowding of the racing market, this fall's unbelievable release schedule has forced many gamers to watch their budgets. The sentiments heard from many is that Burnout 3 was a game they'd like to purchase, but they were saving their money for something else that fell higher on their wish list.
Upon release, Burnout 3 was a resounding commercial success, despite the saturation of quality software in the pipeline for this quarter. "Burnout 3 is performing very well and is meeting or exceeding our expectations," EB Games' Divisional VP of Marketing Debbie Mola told GameDAILYBiz. Interestingly, despite the PS2's far larger installed base, Mola also reported that out of the chute, the Xbox version of the title was the better seller by a ratio of nearly 2:1. This increase in Xbox sales mimics that of Madden 2005, showing that hardcore gamers are responding to EA's titles being Xbox Live enabled.
Although the extremely high praise being paid to the title certainly helps, there's no doubt that EA's intelligent marketing will make Burnout 3 a far greater commercial success than it would have been otherwise. EA recognized that the title was something truly exceptional, and got it into as many gamers' hands as possible prerelease. Their ad campaign was not just about raising awareness, but also telling gamers why they should be interested in this title even though they may already have 1 (or 5) kind of like it. EA has once again found success through creating a great product and selling it the right way... to the right people.
