Games Thirst – Amazing Life
Gears of War franchise director Rod Fergusson has said he wouldn’t mind following in Ubisoft and Bioware’s footsteps by releasing a Gears of War game tailor-made for popular social site Facebook, and mobile devices.
In recent times, we’ve seen games like Dragon Age: Legends and Assassin’s Creed spin-off Project Legacy emerge with the promise of unlockable items, however the success of those ventures aren’t apparent just yet. Still the exec wouldn’t mind giving it a shot.
“We don’t have anything I can announce or say we’re planning, but from a theory perspective, yeah, absolutely,” Fergusson said.
“Much like why we do a comic book and the novels, these are brand extensions that introduce people to the intellectual property in the hope that something hooks them and will bring them to the game.”
With the advent of Facebook and the explosion of mobile gaming, developers have gotten a new avenue to broaden their user base and expand their brands. In fact, nowadays blockbuster games often launch alongside their mobile counterparts, and as far as Fergusson is concerned, that kind of marketing is essential to any new IP’s success, and it’s something Epic Games should tap into.
“You have to look at why you’re doing it,” he said. “There are things like the Armory iPhone app for World of Warcraft, which is an extension of the game. So you’re like, OK, I want to play that same game but remotely in a different way.
Then there are other games, like the Dragon Age Facebook game, which is meant to be like, I want to introduce you to the intellectual property, and that’s a completely separate game that eventually we hope you’ll come to see the main game. So there are two different ways to think about it.
Just by the pure popularity of social and mobile gaming now, those are audiences we can be tapping. I like to see that as the farm team or the place to go where you’re growing casual gamers into more mainstream gamers, that they can eventually come to your product.
It’s about getting people exposed to your IP. For Epic, we’re new and on the cusp of that, and we’re just starting to dabble in those sorts of things.”
Thanks, Eurogamer.
