Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has said that launching a game is as challenging as its ever been, as older marketing tactics have become less reliable.
During an interview with Game File’s Stephen Totilo asked Phil Spencer what, in his judgment, makes a game sell these days. In response, the Microsoft Gaming CEO stated that launching a game in today’s world is as challenging and big an effort as it’s ever been, as older marketing tactics are no longer as reliable.
According to Spencer, a franchise like Call of Duty has a ton of IP and name value. But the work that the marketing team did across social with content creators to spotlight the game with their own voice. He said that the team did the same with Compulsion for South of Midnight.
In Spencer’s view, people are looking for those that they trust to talk positively about a game that they want. Sometimes the people one trusts is a friend, sometimes it’s a game journalist like Stephen Totilo etc. He said that because it becomes so diverse, as a game creator, one doesn’t know where their advocacy is going to come from, but one needs to be prepared to use it when one sees where it takes off. Spencer said that it’s less “Excel” now, and more about having a team of people that are really plugged into a lot of different signals, because people are looking for trust signals of what to go play next, and it comes from very different places.
Regarding the mention of Excel, the Microsoft Gaming CEO clarified that he meant the marketing team used to allocate the budget for different expenditures, such as game marketing, Above The Line (ATL), and post-launch support, and then “watch” the “waterfalls”. He termed it as a formula, in the company’s language.
