Videogames 3 - Assassin's Creed: the role of trailers in marketing

Tralier of Assassin's creed valhalla

The trailer targets both mass and niche audiences. It has very high production values which are easily noticed by new good music and sound and the use of hair and costumes mean it was a high budget production.
The trailer is not game play footage (in-game graphics), instead is uses pre-renderd computer generated footage. this gives the trailer a different look to how the game is actually played. This makes it look more like a film trailer with paradigmatic features to target a mass audience. 
It has a clear narrative and includes intertexuality of the other assassin's creed games.
It engages a local and global audience but because Ubisoft is such a large company it is mainly going for the global audience through locally people in the north of England (where this videogame was set) might recognize locations which would attract them to this game and globally it uses universal themes such as violence, blood, and history. Digital convergence has also allowed them to reach a global audience using streaming services such a youtube where people watch the trailer.

David Hesmonhalgh theorist
"It is essential for industries to minimize risk and maximize profit  

They have minimized risk by making reference to film, other assassins creed games, and by including extremely high production value which demonstrates to the audience that this is going to be a big exciting game.


The problem with the trailer was that many fans where not happy with was the fact it was not game play footage. I think Ubisoft made this decision so it wouldn't just appeal to the niche videogame audience but also to people that may never have played a videogame but like the look of the trailer becuase it looks more like a film. This didn't go down so well with the fans but it was a risk they took



 One marketing strategy utilised by Ubisoft is the use of prerelease trailers accompanied by a famous pop song. The song selected is often wildly at odds with the setting of the Assassin's Creed franchise.
Why does Ubisoft employ this marketing strategy? How can it appeal to mass audiences?
They use this as more people will be engaged, if they like the music they are more likely to watch the trailer resulting in appealing to a mass audience.

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