Advertising Rome2

[Ryou]

I don't know about you guys but I absolutely enjoy TW over any other brand in Gaming, and I'm often confused why TW is not one of the best selling games in the world like CoD or Sims. A key issue I believe is CA isn't advertising their products enough. RTW sold well because it was featured on two TV shows and was talked about all over the gaming world. This publicity has sort of disappeared gradually. I hope we see more promotion for R2 as we get closer to its release date, so that other people, new to the total war community would know of this great game. Obviously CA can spend money to put Ads on Websites and magazines, but I believe the community can also help them out a bit.
I was first introduced to Total War when I researched about ancient Wars and Battles on Google and every time one of the first links was TWC. I was obviously frustrated that my desire to find out more about the Saminite Wars turned into led me repeatedly to a gaming website. I later found out how great total war is after looking it up on Wikipedia.
Not many people are likely to find out about Total War my way. I don't know how you all found out about Total War, but I think we can help CA tremendously by advertising R2, telling our friends and sharing CA's interviews on Facebook, etc. Lets help make R2 even more successful than RTW!!!

[Adreno]

Pc gamers are a minority, of which strategy gamers are a minority.. of which tw gamers are a minority.. not tens of millions of potential customers

[Wowwars]

Pc gamers are a minority, of which strategy gamers are a minority.. of which tw gamers are a minority.. not tens of millions of potential customers

You say that as if a Gaming Legends never existed in PC gaming, Remember Warcraft series, C&C, oh and World of Warcraft.


Though the only reason i know of this game is because of the history channel, and the interenet of Gaming. thats also how i found great games like Men of War and Warcraft 3. not those eh 1 week games like Starcraft 2, and CoH, and such dont get me wrong i love all those games but TW and Wc3 have over 1000 hours on it. not combined (wc3 has like 1200 hours while Med 2 and Rome have like over a good 887 hours of play.

[Humble Warrior]

I used to word of mouth advertise TW games very favourably. Even got a few copies of STW, MTW and MTW2 bought. However, some people are just not into the thinking tactical and strategic side of this kind of stuff and can get lost. Also not everyone is into ancient warfare gaming, no matter how good it is, even if they don`t mind watching you play it. That said, i still convinced some to buy anyway.

These days I don`t advertise TW much, but if I do, like with STW2, I always point out the stuff CA and SEGA like to keep quiet, such as Steam. Many people out there, still think you can buy a game and just plug and play and many have decided not to bother when they`ve heard from me about how Steam forces you online and once done you can`t even return the game if you don`t like it.

I keep asking for Steam to be optional, if CA has listened, they`d have at least two extra new Players now - including the cash.

Word of mouth.

[Ryou]

exactly Adreno! TW gamers are a minority out of PC gamers. By spreading the word to people we know we can make R2 a much more successful release.

[Adreno]

Well more sales sure not sure what their sold amounts are for older games, im sure its decent for pc only games but could never compete with a cod or any other game that will attract masses of kids on multiple platforms.. also tw is pretty fast to discount.. cod is still expensive as .. especially if u see what you get compared to the last title..

[Shocked]

Most of the PC gamers I know play or have played Total war games.

[zg0301zg]

I don't know about you guys but I absolutely enjoy TW over any other brand in Gaming, and I'm often confused why TW is not one of the best selling games in the world like CoD or Sims. A key issue I believe is CA isn't advertising their products enough. RTW sold well because it was featured on two TV shows and was talked about all over the gaming world. This publicity has sort of disappeared gradually. I hope we see more promotion for R2 as we get closer to its release date, so that other people, new to the total war community would know of this great game. Obviously CA can spend money to put Ads on Websites and magazines, but I believe the community can also help them out a bit.
I was first introduced to Total War when I researched about ancient Wars and Battles on Google and every time one of the first links was TWC. I was obviously frustrated that my desire to find out more about the Saminite Wars turned into led me repeatedly to a gaming website. I later found out how great total war is after looking it up on Wikipedia.
Not many people are likely to find out about Total War my way. I don't know how you all found out about Total War, but I think we can help CA tremendously by advertising R2, telling our friends and sharing CA's interviews on Facebook, etc. Lets help make R2 even more successful than RTW!!!

main thing is that TW game series is not for casual gamers, rather then HC that were addicted to the first that came out, me personaly I got addicted when first time playing RTW.

Todays kids, in general play more games like COD and such because it does not require so much time and dont enjoy as much as we do, but they will once they grow up

[B. W.]

I found out about TW by accident. I was on my way to visit a friend paralyzed in a motorcycle accident when he called me and said he would be a little late getting out of therapy, so I stopped at Best Buy to burn some time and saw a copy of Rome TW on the shelf for $14.99. It was the last one so I bought it because I've always been interested in Rome's history (my degree is in history). That was in 2008.

Anyway, not being much of a gamer it sat on a desk for a couple of weeks until I was bored one day and loaded it up. I was totally blown away. After playing the game awhile I decided to look on-line to try and find out more about it and came accross the TWC forums. I tried some mods and have really never lost my enthusiaism for the franchise. My point is: there is probably a bigger market out there than TW thinks.

Another thing, Steam is not something people need to find out about after the purchase. I bought copy of Empire when it came out and it wasn't until after I tried to load-it and then return it to the store that I found out about steam. The store manager pointed out the very small fine print on the box which stated that steam was required. I didn't get my money back and talk about being ******-off.

So, in conclusion, I feel like it would be great to see what a Rome 2 TW Superbowl advertisement would look like. I think there's a bigger market out there than what is being cattered to, but whatever they do Steam should not come as a surprise to new customers. They should be informed about it well in advance. Most people are not very forgiving when it comes to being inconvenienced.

[KaHzModAn]

I've found out about Shogun (the first) ine PC gaming magazine that had a playable demo of it on a CD
And i've bought every TW since...
But as a gamer (even back then) it's natural to be aware of these new games.

A lot of people are disliking Steam (I don't even if it has downsides) but I also think a lot of people discovered TW through Steam. Shogun 2 stayed up on the front page for quite some time (and still is because of the new DLC), and i'm pretty sure some people who didn't know about TW saw Empire or S2 there, bought it on a 50-75% sales day, and will now buy Rome 2 full price.

Thats what I did with other games, so why not other people ?


Anyway, pretty much anybody I know and who knows a bit about gaming has heard me talk about TW, and some who weren't even gamers bought at least one title

[oppaiO_O]

agree with most of you dudes views.. one being for someone to like tw they need to be interested in historic warfare, have a decent brain,and have a decent pc to run them. i got into total war with med 2 and kingdoms i saw them at wal-mart and i always have enjoy war films were two huge armies clash in the battlefield and looking at the med2 box i saw that being done so i bought it but back then i wasn't as tech savvy as i am now so i went home and i tried to play but my pc sucked so i couldnt but after many many years my pc is now decent and i can play them but to advertise i always recommend them to friends though they tell me they have heard of the series but never actually bought it plus most of them heard it from steam so i think steam is a good advertising tool but sadly most people these days are more interested in mindless shooting as in zombies or soldiers or what not rather than the strategy games though i too enjoy those types of games but i prefer tw though i think ca already thought of this since they seem to be making rome 2 a more friendly game towards non strategy gamers imo

[TrizzyG]

Actually I think Total War is quite a prominent series.

A lot of my friends have either heard of or play this and it looks like Total War games sell more with every year.

I actually found out about Total War by going to EB games once and noticing a good looking Strategy game so I tried it out (I think it was summer '07) and saw on the back of the manual an advertisement for Medieval II: Total War. And that is when I hit puberty...

I think a bit of advertising should do but I don't want this game to be hyped up like no tomorrow and then 'disappoint' the hardcore fans whilst actually being a decent game.

[Ryou]

I just had a great idea. Tell me what you guys think.
Once CA releases the campaign map/ factions they should make shirts for all the major factions, and gamers could buy their favorite faction’s shirts. Each Shirt would have the faction icon/symbol in the front, as well as the faction name, and have Rome 2 Total War in the back. For example, gaul’s shirt would have the red boar/green background (from RTW) with badass looking Gaul written in the front, and the back would have big, golden letters saying Total War: Rome 2.
If they release these shirts, we could represent our favorite faction as well as advertise Rome 2.

[Drtad]

I just had a great idea. Tell me what you guys think.
Once CA releases the campaign map/ factions they should make shirts for all the major factions, and gamers could buy their favorite faction’s shirts. Each Shirt would have the faction icon/symbol in the front, as well as the faction name, and have Rome 2 Total War in the back. For example, gaul’s shirt would have the red boar/green background (from RTW) with badass looking Gaul written in the front, and the back would have big, golden letters saying Total War: Rome 2.
If they release these shirts, we could represent our favorite faction as well as advertise Rome 2.

I like the idea. I always wanted a total war shirt.

[Ichon]

Main problem for TW series is that TW for how simple it is compared to Paradox games is still a relatively niche game with Shogun 2 sales far less than the major titles. CoD and other top multi platform titles sell in the 10s of millions. TW does fairly well on Steam which is why they are sticking with Steam. I think CA just needs a blockbuster title like RTW2 to sustain higher numbers though it will never match CoD because it is just impossible to play as mouse driven and individual unit command&control interactive a game as TW with clunky console interface. TW games might be able to be played on the next gen of consoles but I have my doubts. The gen after that will probably be a merged market and hopefully TW could be played with a motion, speech, or touchscreen interface which PC/consoles will become by that point and sales with good content might be in the millions.

For reference ETW at 800.000 still sold more than Shogun 2 so far. Starcraft 2 the most popular "strategy" game released recently sold over 3 million. I don't really consider Starcraft in the same category as TW and probably more realistic competition is Civ V which sold over 1 million.

With the demand for Roman era entertainment helped by all the other media that feature Roman empire I would guess sales forecasts by Sega for RTW2 is somewhere between 1.2-1.4 million and seems feasible to me. Much more than that would be very difficult though with release date so far ahead and Steam continuing to grow and the release of Win 8 on multiple platforms I guess the forecast might be even higher though breaking 1.5 million would be a miracle in 2013 or 2014 total 5 years RTW2 figures through 2018 with electronic distribution wouldn't be impossible though I don't think that last 200,000 would add a huge amount to the bottom line at the low price points anything past 2 years is nice.

[Jack Lusted]

Main problem for TW series is that TW for how simple it is compared to Paradox games is still a relatively niche game with Shogun 2 sales far less than the major titles. CoD and other top multi platform titles sell in the 10s of millions. TW does fairly well on Steam which is why they are sticking with Steam. I think CA just needs a blockbuster title like RTW2 to sustain higher numbers though it will never match CoD because it is just impossible to play as mouse driven and individual unit command&control interactive a game as TW with clunky console interface. TW games might be able to be played on the next gen of consoles but I have my doubts. The gen after that will probably be a merged market and hopefully TW could be played with a motion, speech, or touchscreen interface which PC/consoles will become by that point and sales with good content might be in the millions.

For reference ETW at 800.000 still sold more than Shogun 2 so far. Starcraft 2 the most popular "strategy" game released recently sold over 3 million. I don't really consider Starcraft in the same category as TW and probably more realistic competition is Civ V which sold over 1 million.

With the demand for Roman era entertainment helped by all the other media that feature Roman empire I would guess sales forecasts by Sega for RTW2 is somewhere between 1.2-1.4 million and seems feasible to me. Much more than that would be very difficult though with release date so far ahead and Steam continuing to grow and the release of Win 8 on multiple platforms I guess the forecast might be even higher though breaking 1.5 million would be a miracle in 2013 or 2014 total 5 years RTW2 figures through 2018 with electronic distribution wouldn't be impossible though I don't think that last 200,000 would add a huge amount to the bottom line at the low price points anything past 2 years is nice.

We don't release sales figures, so I would take any you've heard with a pinch of salt. The ones you've posted certainly do not reflect our actual sales

[Rasic]

If they successfully pull off adding the "human face to war" the game will advertise itself. The best advertisement you can hope for as any company is good word of mouth. Now days our word of mouth comes from the internet as much as from actual people we know. I haven't bought a game in the last 2 years without watching a "let's play" or physically playing with a friend or a testimony that it was a quality product.

No one really trusts gaming reviews as it's all muddy water these days. When you go to a website that reviews an EA game at 9/10 and there is a huge ad at the top of the page for EA it doesn't take much common sense to put the pieces together.

Wasting dump trucks full of cash on heavy CGI 15 second TV slots isn't going to boost the quality of the game any or lure a bunch of people into a game like this.

[Ichon]

We don't release sales figures, so I would take any you've heard with a pinch of salt. The ones you've posted certainly do not reflect our actual sales

Good to know- I used Sega's 2011 financial report but obviously another 1/2 years of Shogun 2 on the market could have pushed Shogun 2 past 1 million especially with Steam sales I suppose though I also wonder if Sega counts titles 'shipped' as sold. I had Shogun 2 bundled with my last GPU so someone still paid for it but probably not at the same price as a retailer and my GPU was certainly not marked up above average

Games in general and PC games are hard to find reliable figures for and also total sales are somewhat meaningless at least as an absolute mark of financial success of a title. I can't see RTW2 selling multi millions of copies though it would be good for the next TW after RTW2 if Sega saw that kind of success.

[a tw player]

Something I've noted is that TW games have never been advertised on the tv? Perhaps that would help boost sales

[The Useless Member]

Something I've noted is that TW games have never been advertised on the tv? Perhaps that would help boost sales

It costs millions and millions of dollars to even air one TV commercial.

My guess is-not enough advertising.

Even if it isn't, I could see some ignorant kids going. "ogm dat game looks stupid and nerdy wur awsum ur not. hoo wood play that game?"