Marketing for Halo 3

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Halo 3 is a first person shooter video game developed by Bungie Studios which was released on September 25, 2007. Upon release, the game sold a record 3,300,000 copies in its first week of sales alone, and broke records for the biggest entertainment debut in history.^[1] The buildup to the release of the game included heavy marketing and hype by Microsoft, Bungie, and associated advertisers. The saturation of advertising and promotions led Wired magazine to state: "The release of Halo 3 this week was an event that stretched far beyond our little gaming world. Everyone from the New York Times to Mother Jones wanted to cover it."^[2]

Microsoft's marketing and its corporate partnerships came in many forms, including launch parties, television ads, Internet video, viral marketing, and licensed merchandising. Halo 3 was first announced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in 2006 with a real-time cinematic trailer, and subsequent trailers were broadcast on television and distributed over the Internet. Bungie Studios kept interested fans appraised of development of the game, as well as showing off teasers and revealing new game features, using video documentaries or "ViDocs." Licensed action figures, toys, and even Halo 3-branded soda was released. This exposure led to massive sales of the game and related merchandise, although some reviewers of the title felt that the Halo 3 could not live up to the extreme hype that surrounded it.

Contents 1 Trailers 1.1 Announcement 1.2 "Starry Night" 1.3 E3 2007 trailer 2 Live action videos 3 "Believe" campaign 4 Developer documentaries 5 Public beta testing 6 Alternate reality game 7 Merchandise and promotions 7.1 Halo ActionClix 7.2 Action figures 7.3 Other promotions 8 Launch parties 9 Impact 10 References 11 External links

[edit] Trailers

[edit] Announcement

The first public look at Halo 3 came in the form of a real-time cinematic trailer shown at Microsoft's press conference at E3 2006.^[3] The trailer is set in the dry plains of Africa, with the ruins of a space elevator and other damage visible. The Master Chief is slowly revealed walking through through smoke and dust, occasionally obscured by distorted images of the artificial intelligence Cortana transmitting a message composed of portions of the character's lines in the Cortana Letters, as well as a line from the poem "The Hollow Men."^[4] The distorted voice of Cortana was a deliberate clue to the character's predicament in Halo 3, with a Bungie staff member stating, "We don't know what has happened to her...We don't know it's Cortana. It could be any sort of bizarre, almost Satanic sort of voice. Something seems wrong."^[5] The trailer featured music by Martin O'Donnell, with the addition of a piano and brass section to the classic Halo theme.^[5]

[edit] "Starry Night"

The company Digital Domain created a second trailer that was aired only once on ESPN during December 4, 2006, Its airing marked the start of registration for the Halo 3 beta. The video is a mix of CGI and gameplay footage, using a mix of live action, the game's game engine, and computer graphics.^[6] In addition to showcasing new vehicles and weapons, the trailer introduced "Equipment", special items which have effects including a "bubble shield" seen in the trailer. The commercial was directed by Joseph Kosinski.^[7]

[edit] E3 2007 trailer

Bungie revealed a new trailer consisting of actual campaign cinematics and gameplay on July 11, 2007 during E3 2007. Set to a rearrangement of the "Halo" track from the Halo Original Soundtrack, the trailer revealed weapons, vehicles, and characters, including the arrival of human forces at the The Ark.

[edit] Live action videos

The video teasers for Halo 3 included a series of videos directed by Neill Blomkamp, and the proposed director of a possible Halo film produced by Peter Jackson. Unlike previous trailers and videos, the shorts were the first to depict the Halo universe in a live-action setting. The production was a collaboration between Weta Workshop, Neill Blomkamp and Bungie Studios. When asked about the shorts, Neill said that he hoped that it would help to interest movie studios in his currently inactive movie project, since it lost its studio support in October of 2006. GameTrailers released a compilation of the three videos edited together, titling it Landfall.^[8]

The first live action video, titled Arms Race, was originally shown at Electronic Entertainment Expo 2007. It was followed up by another short, Combat, which featured Covenant and human vehicles and weapons. The final video in the series aired on October 4, 2007 and was used by Discovery Channel to promote their reality show Last One Standing.^[9] The short ties the events depicted to the beginning of Halo 3, which begins as the Master Chief plummets to Earth.

[edit] "Believe" campaign

The last major advertising campaign before and during the games release was a series of videos marketed with the tagline "Believe". These videos were directed by Rupert Sanders (known for video game advertisements) and made to depict a generic representation of a single battle in Halo 3.^[10] The central element of the videos was a massive diorama over 1,200 square feet (110 m²) in size and over twelve feet tall, with handcrafted human and Covenant figures each standing eight to twelve inches (305 mm) high. The set and vehicles were built by New Deal Studios and the figures were supplied by Stan Winston Studio. A mockumentary "Making Of", detailing the making of the diorama was released on Xbox.com on September 14, 2007.^[11] Microsoft also launched a special "Believe" website, calling it "The John-117 Monument" to those who perished in the greatest battle in human history. The site allowed people to explore the diorama freely, and use a camera icon to take their own pictures of the diorama to create wallpaper screenshots with the Halo 3 logo. Special "hotspots" contained information and 3D models of various combatants, personal accounts of the battle from individual soldiers, or several videos, which were released periodically.

In the first part of the "Believe" series of commercials, titled "The Museum", a live-action video featured an elderly veteran, Pawel Czernek, one of the few surviving combatants who fought in a battle alongside the Master Chief near New Mombasa, Kenya. The video takes place in the 26th century at the "Museum of Humanity", where Czernek relates the desperate situation of his fellow soldiers and how the Master Chief gave the humans hope.^[12] The video debuted online on September 11, 2007, and referenced a new television ad,^[13] which featured a camera pan over the length of the diorama up to a seemingly defeated Master Chief held aloft by a Covenant Brute. The Master Chief animates and activates a plasma grenade before the scene cuts to black.^[14] Further advertisements related the experiences of other human soldiers as they toured the museum and former battlefields on which they fought. The series of advertisements was localized; in Great Britain, the "Believe" campaign was presented as though it was the war photography of a photojournalist named Jake Courage.^[15]

[edit] Developer documentaries

To advertise the features of Halo 3 Bungie published five developer documentaries that it named "ViDocs" (a portmanteau of video documentary). The videos were made available for download on the Xbox Live Marketplace and soon after on Bungie's website.

Shortly after the release of the original announcement trailer, Bungie released a short documentary entitled Making of E³ 2006. The video has various Bungie employees discussing the challenges they faced in producing the trailer, as well as offering commentary on what was shown in the trailer.

The next ViDoc, Et tu, Brute?, was released on December 20, 2006 and focuses on how the Brutes have been almost completely redesigned for Halo 3 to be a worthy adversary for the player. The title is a pun on the famous line from Shakespeare's play, Julius Caesar. The ViDoc showed pre-alpha elements of the game such as the "Spike Grenade" which were included in the final release and others which were discarded.^[16][17] Et tu, Brute? explains how the three classes of Brutes have been differentiated in rank through color schemes and displayed the new, more violent animations for them to reflect their brutish nature. It also announced that the AI was programmed to incorporate the "Brute pack" mentality. A highly ranked Brute in Halo 3 may order its troops–Brute or otherwise–to throw grenades at the enemy at the same time or to focus their attacks on one character.^[16]

On April 10, 2007 a third ViDoc detailing the development of the multiplayer game was released. Its title, Is Quisnam Protero Damno!, is Latin meaning "I condemn him whom I trample under my feet". It highlighted the major ways in which the developers sought to improve upon the Halo 2 multiplayer game. Several previously unseen gameplay elements were highlighted; equipment and removable turrets, the ability to save gameplay footage and various multiplayer maps were displayed. The "Man Cannons" were also introduced as a method of quick transport across the map, that are both more interesting and dangerous than the teleporters used in previous games.^[18]

Cinema Paradiso (its title a reference to the film of the same name) was added to Xbox Live on September 20, 2007. It showcased the Forge map editor and saved film features of the game. Various Bungie employees discussed the development and controls of saved films and Forge.

[edit] Public beta testing

On April 10, 2007, Bungie announced that a public beta test of the multiplayer component would run from May 16, 2007 at 5 a.m. PDT to June 6, 2007 at 11:59 p.m. PDT. Bungie later announced that the beta would be extended to June 10, 2007 due to problems on the first day. Internal testing progressed for some time at Microsoft before the public beta and although internal testers were subject to a non-disclosure agreement, footage leaked on to the Internet showing previously un-revealed weapons, equipment, and other game elements.

Entry into the Halo 3 beta consisted of three phases;

• Phase 1: Sign ups on Halo3.com at the time of the "Starry Night" commercial release.
• Phase 2: "Rule of Three" promotion - be among the first 13,333 to sign up at Halo3.com after playing three hours of Halo 2 on Xbox Live during February 1st-3rd, 2007.
• Phase 3: Buy/Rent a copy of the Xbox 360 game Crackdown.^[19]

Additionally, some beta places were given out to certain community websites in Europe over the Xbox Community Network program. There was also a "Friends and Family" beta program that started a few days before the public beta, whose participants had already been chosen. Some of whom were Bungie.net members who received a Beta invitational code sent to them on the May 11 via a private message on Bungie.net.^[20]

The public portion of the beta consists of matchmaking play only on three multiplayer maps: Valhalla, High Ground and Snowbound.^[21] Bungie has stated that the beta supports split screen for up to two players.^[22] The public beta also contains only a limited version of the "saved films" feature, which allows players to save their games after they play them and watch them again later.

On May 16, 2007, the day the public beta began, problems were reported from owners of Crackdown that they could not download the beta. Bungie has made a statement that they had contacted the Xbox Live Authorities and were hoping for only a short delay for those attempting to access the beta via Crackdown. Later the same day, Bungie made an update saying the Microsoft team found a solution and that the issue "will be resolved shortly".^[23] At 10:24 p.m. EST, a patch was distributed over Crackdown, fixing the problem. Bungie also announced that the beta would be extended until June 10 to compensate.^[23]

[edit] Alternate reality game

Similar to the promotional ARG I Love Bees for Halo 2, Halo 3 has its own ARG called Iris.

On June 11, 2007, only a couple hours after the Halo 3 public beta ended, a surreptitious user named "AdjutantReflex" of "CompoundIntelligence" appeared in the official Halo 3 forums on Bungie.net and wrote "This will be a good place to begin." He responded to seemingly random users and their questions in a robotic manner, claiming to be a "Facilitator", whose purpose is the "Facilitation of Array requirements". His responses were vague and written in a gold colored font that individualized himself from the rest of the users, who were unable to change the color of their own font. Reminiscent of the events that introduced the "I Love Bees" alternate reality game, users were quickly led to believe that, because of the circumstances, this was indeed a new ARG from Bungie themselves to hype the forthcoming of Halo 3.

A Circuit City advertisement that wasn't to be seen until the Sunday from which these events occurred had leaked three days early and revealed a Halo 3 Comic that explained how the Forerunner race came to Earth to build their structures approximately 100,000 years ago. The last page of the comic was interactive and users could slide panels left and right or scratch out objects that revealed numbers. The numbers, 206, 16, 223, and 65, when put together from the interactive panels, formed an IP Address. Because the comic was not to be seen for another three days from June 14, the address, http://206.16.223.65, initially led to nothing.

Moments after the news of the secret address spread across multiple forums and blogs, a website appeared on it named "Transmission Log" that featured a background and a strange countdown.^[24][25] The counter was in base 7; Bungie's preoccupation with the number seven is evident in many of their games. The counter was counting down to June 21, the summer solstice or longest day of the year. On June 21, the page was updated, and now showed a 3D rendering of a Forerunner object which could be viewed at any angle.

Pressing a particular circular button on the Forerunner object activates the device, playing a video. When examined closely, the video shows a brief photo of the west coast of Africa again confirming the strong connection between Halo and Africa. Pressing other circular buttons allows the download of numerous different files, including a photo of a Flood infection, a picture of stars with a strange symbol among them, a log recording the last few minutes before the Forerunners activated the Halo rings for the first time, and the text file for the video.

[edit] Merchandise and promotions

[edit] Halo ActionClix

Halo ActionClix is a collectible miniatures game by Wizkids based on the Halo series. Released September 18, 2007,^[26] the first available set has 86 miniature figures from the Halo universe, including content from Halo 3. The set is comprised of figurines from the three factions in the Halo universe; the UNSC, Covenant, and Flood and a variety of vehicles.^[27] An average game for two players is estimated to take 45 minutes,^[28] however games can be played with more than two people in teams or in free-for-all matches.^[29]

There were 3 different packs available on release, a "Hunter Action Pack" containing 4 standard figures, two Hunter figures and a Portable Plasma Cannon,^[30] a 5 figure blind (random characters) booster pack and a 4 figure semi-blind booster pack.^[31][32] Other packs advertised but not available at release include a Warthog,^[33] Banshee,^[34] and the Halo 3 Scarab that was unveiled at the 2007 San Diego Comic Con priced at $249.99 in the US and £119.99 in the UK.^[35][36]

Each figurine is individually numbered and comes with a character card to explain its in-game traits. There are also many promotional figures available only at one-time releases. Gamestation stores in the UK offered a Master Chief figurine only available to the first 1000 pre-orders of the Halo 3 Legendary Edition,^[37] and Target sold a two figure pack of Master Chief and The Arbiter with a pre-order of Halo 3. Carolyn Koh of GamersInfo.net praised the ease of learning and depth of play commenting that "[it] will provide a fun and enjoyable game."^[29]

[edit] Action figures

Todd McFarlane announced new figurines based on Halo 3 for 2008, with the Series One figurines being released in March of that year, Series Two including ODST, Drone, Mongoose and Wraith figurines in June, and Series Three including Human Flood, Brute Captain, Banshee and Scorpion figurines in August, along with a special 12" Master Chief figurine. McFarlane promised three highly "stylized" figures for October 2008 as well.^[38]

[edit] Other promotions

Pepsi-Cola announced a new variant of Mountain Dew called Game Fuel. It is a limited edition citrus-cherry flavored drink. Twelve fluid ounces of Game Fuel contains 72 milligrams of caffeine, 170 calories, 65 milligrams of sodium, 46 grams of carbohydrates, no fat, no protein, and no significant source of other vital nutrients. The packaging ties in Halo 3, sporting images of the Master Chief.^[39] A Slurpee version of Game Fuel, with a specially designed Slurpee cup and lid, as well as special 99-cent Doritos packaging had also been developed for 7-Eleven Stores for a Halo Wars voice-acting sweepstakes. Despite being planned to be available for only 12 weeks, Game Fuel is still being stocked in many stores as of April 20 2008.

A Halo 3 inspired Zune developed in partnership with the game's creators Bungie was announced at a Halo 3 event in May 2007. The Halo 3 Zune is sold exclusively at Gamestop. The Halo 3 Zune comes in either dark brown or black, and features a Halo symbol on the back. Both versions are loaded with Halo content, including a custom episode of the popular series Red vs. Blue and were designed to feel like something that came from the game.^[40]

Ibanez Guitars presented a contest where if registered, a monthly winner will be presented. The prizes include Ibanez's own Xiphos XPT700 guitar with a custom Halo 3 graphic, the game itself, and 2 shirts by Ibanez and Halo 3.^[41]

Microsoft will also be sponsoring the #40 car driven by David Stremme for Chip Ganassi Racing in the Dover 400 Nextel Cup Series. The car will have a Halo 3 inspired paintjob featuring the title for the game printed prominently on the hood and rear bumper, as well as large pictures of Master Chief on each of the rear fenders.^[42] Coincidentally, they will be competing against the #16 car, driven by Greg Biffle, that is sponsored by Nintendo's Wii.^[43]

Microsoft sponsored the "Red vs Blue Charity Challenge" (unrelated to the machinima series Red vs. Blue), a series of sporting and musical "challenges" that aim to raise money for 2 Australian charities. Red team raises money for Mission Australia and blue team raises money for Make-A-Wish Australia.^[44] V8 Supercars driver Rick Kelly wore a Master Chief styled race helmet for the Bathurst 1000 to promote the Halo 3's sales in Australia and the sporting challenge involved Ford and Holden's racing teams. The team that won the Bathurst 1000 had AUD $5,000 donated by Microsoft to their respective charities. Holden represented red (Mission Australia) and Ford represented blue (Make-A-Wish Australia). Ford driver Craig Lowndes won the race.^[45] Other "challenges" include Xbox 360s with air brushed musicians faces on the case and celebrities arm-wrestling.^[46]

Burger King announced a special promotion starting September 24, 2007 (the day before the game's release) in which Master Chief, the Halo 3 logo, and the new "Believe" slogan would appear on large cups and French fry wrappers.^[47]

Pontiac announced a sweepstakes with a Halo 3-branded Pontiac G6 GXP Street and being the first to play the game on an IMAX screen as prizes. Pontiac will also have a promotion tour featuring their vehicles.^[48]

[edit] Launch parties

On September 24, 2007, a multi-city launch party was held by Microsoft to celebrate the midnight launch of Halo 3, in New York City, Seattle, Los Angeles and Miami, where the first copies of Halo 3 would be sold at the strike of midnight. All around the United States and the world at large, non-affiliated stores in other cities and towns held their own midnight parties, including such international cities such as Paris, Madrid and Amsterdam.^[49] However, there was some controversy as some launches were cancelled by city officials, such as the City of Westminster, where it was feared the crowds would be too unruly and uncontrollable for the local law enforcement to handle.^[50][51] However, no launch parties reported any serious crime or unruliness.

Bungie team members attended all four launch parties.

New York City

The flagship New York party was held at Best Buy, and was hosted by Larry Hryb, aka "Major Nelson", where figurines from the diorama of the aforementioned "Believe" videos were given away, along with Halo 3-themed Zunes, posters, strategy guides and copies of the game to some of the early line waiters. The event was heavily covered by mainstream and gaming press, such as Spike TV, G4, CNN, and network news.^[52]

Seattle

The Seattle launch party held a raffle to give away Legendary Editions, wireless headsets, and signed books to benefit the local Encompass charity organization.^[53][54]

Los Angeles

Zac Efron hosted the Los Angeles launch party, which was promoted by Entertainment Tonight.^[55]

Miami

Miami Dolphins stars Chris Chambers and Joey Porter signed autographs at the Miami midnight launch.^[49] (Note: Chambers was traded a few weeks later to the San Diego Chargers.)

[edit] Impact

CinemaBlend pointed out the Halo 3 phenomenon as evidence of the mainstreaming of video games, and "...Like movies, radio, and television before, games are becoming more and more accepted in the popular culture."^[56] To capitalize on the mainstream attention, Xbox 360 Fanboy (a Joystiq sister site) noted, "Microsoft contends that such a [marketing] push is necessary to maintain the appearance of 'a big budget, mass media event'."^[57] At the PR Week awards Microsoft won the "Technology Campaign of the Year" along with Edelman for Halo 3's launch and the "Believe" won the "GRANDY", the grand prize, at the 2008 ANDY Awards.^[58][59] Halo 3's advertising also won five "gold cubes", one "silver cube" and two distinctive merit ceritifcates at the Art Directors Club Annual Awards Ceremony, most of the awards relating to the Believe campaign.^[60]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Official videos

• HD announcement trailer, on Microsoft.com. (Direct link - WMV)
• High Resolution Behind The Scenes (of E3 2006 trailer) on Bungie (Direct download link - 383 MB - WMV)
• Et Tu Brute? Video Documentary (Direct Link - WMV - 360px)
• Halo 3 Documentary Bungie.net in-depth documentary of the E3 2006 teaser trailer.
• 720p E3 2007 trailer of Halo 3 Campaign (WMV - 720p - 92MB) A montage of campaign clips shown at the E3 2007 Microsoft Conference (Medium) (Small)

Marketing Products

• Game Fuel Product Site, in Pepsi's Akamai archive.(Direct link - Flash SWF)
• Halo Wars Voice Sweeps internal Blue Video., in Pepsi's Akamai archive. 7-Eleven tie-in loader deleted off server as contest is closed. (Direct link - Flash SWF)
• Halo Wars Voice Sweeps internal Red Video., in Pepsi's Akamai archive. 7-Eleven tie-in loader deleted off server as contest is closed. (Direct link - Flash SWF)
• 7-Eleven tie-in loader that was deleted when contest was closed. (Download link on Poggu - 4.7 MB Flash SWF)
• 7-Eleven tie-in screensaver's internal Flash movie. (Download link on Poggu - 670 KB Flash SWF)

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