SXSW 2009: EA Dead Space - A Deep Media Case Study
by Kevin Kelly 
{ Mar 21st 2009 at 12:10AM } 
One of SXSW's panels that showed off the effects of Panelitis Fakeoutitis (where a panel sounds much better on paper than it actually is) was "EA Dead Space: A Deep Case Media Study," which sounded like it would be a dissection of the game and what went into creating it.
A closer reading of the synopsis noted that it was all about "the method and the madness behind Electronic Arts' use of cross-platform marketing." Wait? What? Marketing?! Well, we went anyhow, and you can check out the highlights beyond the break.
A closer reading of the synopsis noted that it was all about "the method and the madness behind Electronic Arts' use of cross-platform marketing." Wait? What? Marketing?! Well, we went anyhow, and you can check out the highlights beyond the break.
The panel was basically just a pat on the back fest about how EA churned out the comic book, the "No Known Survivors" website and the animated series Downfall to amp up awareness of the game. But did it all pay off? The game was critically well-received, but it hasn't been burning up the sales charts. It's obvious that EA spent a lot of money marketing this new IP, and it plans on spending even more on marketing this year. But will it continue to be on this level?
Deep Focus definitely went above and beyond normal marketing on this game. From getting Film Roman to animate Downfall ("They were so excited not to have to draw yellow characters with spiky hair anymore, and they were so happy to do something with gore in it."), to hiring Antony Johnston and Ben Templeton to work on the graphic novel. Ian Schafer from the company explained the game document EA provided to them was full of tons of details that aren't apparent in the game. It'd built such a rich backstory and world to draw from, that it gave Deep Focus a lot to work with.
Andrew Green, the online marketing manager for EA, called the process a two-way street, and said what they were doing, "Helped get both EA and Deep Focus team members even more excited about the game, and they were able to pass that excitement along to outsiders." He went to to say developers and marketing people shouldn't ignore something as simple as Wikipedia. "Wikipedia drove the lion's share of the traffic to the website. It should not be underestimated. That was all from a simple link at the end of the web entry for the game."
While it remains to be seen if providing this much detail and marketing on a brand-new IP will continue, Green feels like it was a success, and it wouldn't be surprising to see EA try it again. "It is a sequel business. And launching a new IP when Gears of War 2 was coming out, or a 3 or a 4 of anything else, was very hard. All of the community work we did helped that pay off." Ian Schafer was amazed it could have happened at all, "If you know EA, you'll know that it was really amazing that they could do this. They're a huge company, and this was just incredible."
The Q&A didn't yield anything terribly exciting except for this nugget about DLC: Chuck Beaver, the senior producer on the project said, "DLC has become a consumer expectation. We're happy to do it, but it's a tax on the development team. But, if done properly, people can keep touching the brand and keep buying the brand, and that's important."
Deep Focus definitely went above and beyond normal marketing on this game. From getting Film Roman to animate Downfall ("They were so excited not to have to draw yellow characters with spiky hair anymore, and they were so happy to do something with gore in it."), to hiring Antony Johnston and Ben Templeton to work on the graphic novel. Ian Schafer from the company explained the game document EA provided to them was full of tons of details that aren't apparent in the game. It'd built such a rich backstory and world to draw from, that it gave Deep Focus a lot to work with.
Andrew Green, the online marketing manager for EA, called the process a two-way street, and said what they were doing, "Helped get both EA and Deep Focus team members even more excited about the game, and they were able to pass that excitement along to outsiders." He went to to say developers and marketing people shouldn't ignore something as simple as Wikipedia. "Wikipedia drove the lion's share of the traffic to the website. It should not be underestimated. That was all from a simple link at the end of the web entry for the game."
While it remains to be seen if providing this much detail and marketing on a brand-new IP will continue, Green feels like it was a success, and it wouldn't be surprising to see EA try it again. "It is a sequel business. And launching a new IP when Gears of War 2 was coming out, or a 3 or a 4 of anything else, was very hard. All of the community work we did helped that pay off." Ian Schafer was amazed it could have happened at all, "If you know EA, you'll know that it was really amazing that they could do this. They're a huge company, and this was just incredible."
The Q&A didn't yield anything terribly exciting except for this nugget about DLC: Chuck Beaver, the senior producer on the project said, "DLC has become a consumer expectation. We're happy to do it, but it's a tax on the development team. But, if done properly, people can keep touching the brand and keep buying the brand, and that's important."
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
StLouisRibs7734 @ Mar 21st 2009 12:18AM
They should have called Dead Scace: Dead Case
InFaMoUs1- @ Mar 21st 2009 12:20AM
i got deadspace at CircuityCity for dirt cheap and only played ONE MISSION and I've owned it for about a month now, now the game isnt bad or anything it just doesnt grab my attention for some reason. also why the fuck is there so much DLC suits and weapons for this game? that just turns me away from the game even more because I feel like they im getting less than I should have. I see a shit load of DLC for all these guns and etc so why wasnt it in the damn game to begin with?
DiGiTAL SiN254 @ Mar 21st 2009 12:41AM
most of that stuff is to get weapons earlier then you would normal get them (i think) for a fact though they just give you different skins for your suit and guns. one of them is for this elite suit (that you get for free once you beat the game i think) looks pretty BA and give extra defense and what not. None of the DLC is for actual new guns. just new looks to the same gun
flanker22 @ Mar 21st 2009 12:42AM
dlc generally sucks, they're just more powerful versions of the guns that exist in the game (just different stats). the suits are just recoloring.
feel free to tell me if im wrong.
DiGiTAL SiN254 @ Mar 21st 2009 12:49AM
the only suit that is not just coloring the the elite suit that specifically says "level 5" in the description. other then that you pretty much spot on.
TheFireSideChats @ Mar 21st 2009 1:17AM
EDIT: Trolling. I've been banned.
Gehodra @ Mar 21st 2009 1:27AM
"It's scary...like very tense/RE4 scary."
Dead Space tense: "God I hope no one jumps out at me"
RE4 tense: Regenerators
Quite the contrast...
WRE @ Mar 21st 2009 1:32AM
Dead Space was fucking awesome!
DiGiTAL SiN254 @ Mar 21st 2009 1:46AM
Do you guys when to know tense? Tense is being in a room full of people who committed suicide like some kind of cult, writing written on the wall in blood, many of them are blindfolded. All while some bitch you can't see is singing twinkle twinkle little star in the creepiest voice possible. This is all right after you escaped a room filled with "infected" along with an infected that makes Nemesis from RE look like a bitch. You are down to the tinniest amount of health you might as well not even try to continue, not to mention you just realize you only have half a clip of ammo left, pistol ammo at that. you enter the said room after you endure the longest walk without an encounter ever, to realize the room has a store. The one thing you have plenty of is credits. Time to get ammo and health right? No. The room goes dark and red lights start to flash signifying the room is in Quarantine. Multiple infected crawl through the caged vents in the floor. One of them is infecting the dead bodies to become more infected. you have to sprint to the store buy as much ammo as possible before they slice you in half. You manage to get out of the store just in time to blast the first infected away. you sprint to the nearest corner realizing there will be to many at one time so you use stasis. But nothing happens, you suddenly realize are out of stasis, and doomed.
This was the scariest moment in a VG ever for me. and I play a lot of survival horror games.
DiGiTAL SiN254 @ Mar 21st 2009 1:48AM
Christ, a typo in the first sentence, and part of the second is worded weird.
sorry....
this and my other post is bound to get voted down :(
Levi @ Mar 21st 2009 11:10AM
Leave the DLC alone until you beat the game. I played through it before there was any DLC, and I can tell you that the game was complete without it. The DLC is extra crap, certainly not required for the game at all.
Ps, I really liked the game, but twinkle twinkle little star was so cheesy and out of place... Am I the only one?
Gehodra @ Mar 21st 2009 12:35PM
I never noticed the Twinkle Twinkle bit.
But jeez, Sin's story makes me think I played the game wrong. I enter the same room, see the bodies, shrug, then proceed to stomp on them so the necros can't take them over. When the necros do come, I quickly obliterate them with the shitload of ammo I have, because I stocked up at the previous store using the absurd amount of money the game hands out. Out of stasis? Fuck stasis, never used it. Health? I got like 4 large med packs in my inventory. I actually just want to get to the store so I can get rid of them.
I had 200,000 credits left over at the end of the game. And I was playing on hard. And I've only played the game once, so it wasn't my previous experience with it that allowed me to do that.
DiGiTAL SiN254 @ Mar 21st 2009 1:51PM
I forgot if there was a higher difficulty then hard, but i know for a fact i was playing on the highest one possible for achievements. I wouldn't say you played it wrong, whatever works works. Obviously you have beaten the game. I'm still stuck on that part...
Misfit Toy @ Mar 21st 2009 12:30AM
A good point about branding. Even if not many people buy DLC, the name is getting out there and they are likely to buy the 'next' time they hear it. That's the way marketing works...pummel the consumer with the brand till they submit and buy your product.
HaloEleven @ Mar 21st 2009 12:44AM
Dead Space is one of my favorites. I'm currently on my 4th playthrough. Didn't get the DLC tho. That sort of stuff should've just been included.
Khaled @ Mar 21st 2009 12:50AM
I was going to get this game, but I don't know. Is it any good?
BTW- SXSW is awesome, Metalica was playing there today.
DiGiTAL SiN254 @ Mar 21st 2009 1:05AM
Dead Space feels the way Resident Evil 5 should of felt like. In other words it's very badass. The only down side is the lack of co-op or any kind of multiplayer.
WRE @ Mar 21st 2009 1:33AM
Dead Space was so kick ass it's better described via an ass-kicking than in words.
ToRo @ Mar 21st 2009 1:03AM
Man. Dead Space is awesome. Best Survival Horror game of this generation.
mgsrocks1 @ Mar 21st 2009 6:27AM
Condemned 1 & 2 are pretty good too.
arrness @ Mar 21st 2009 1:31AM
I want to pick Dead Space up, but I feel like I could get a better price than $50 and I have KZ2 and a unplayed Fallout 3
Popfrogs @ Mar 21st 2009 1:51AM
Unplayed Fallout 3? Gimme your gamer card, you don't deserve to carry it.
kentuckyfried @ Mar 21st 2009 3:07AM
Unplayed Fallout3. Goodness, what's wrong with you?
lol. I only stopped playing it b/c my ps3 YLOD'ed. Can't wait to pick it back up again.
mgsrocks1 @ Mar 21st 2009 6:28AM
I rented Fallout3 and I put it aside for a while before going back again. I'm new to the RPG genera and got frustrated very quickly with the game. It took me a while to understand how the game and works and stuff so I'm probably going to buy it when I have the money.
kentuckyfried @ Mar 21st 2009 3:10AM
EA's efforts at marketing this game...I have mixed feelings on. The "No Known Survivors" website was confusing to navigate, to me. To top it off, I couldn't navigate it at work b/c my company's proxy ended up blocking it for some reason.
As for the animated film, I wish some other company had done it. It was an enjoyable film but it's unlikely I'll ever watch again b/c it was a damn ugly film.
As for comics? The online ones were good, I'm not so sure about the printed ones, were those the same as the online version or a separate series (I didn't bother trying to stop by the local shop to check it out since I wasn't even sure when it was going to come out)
mgsrocks1 @ Mar 21st 2009 6:29AM
The "twinkle twinkle" Dead Space ads were creepy as hell. I think that's what really got people interested.
Devastater9951 @ Mar 21st 2009 8:21AM
I am really glad that EA dident include a partner on this game like Capcom did with RE5 if your playing alone the computer AI you want to just stop playing. So far i've found that Dead Space is far more Enjoyable that Resident Evil 5.
Adriaan @ Mar 21st 2009 3:41PM
You clearly haven't played RE5 with a friend. One of the best co-op experiences ever.
DiGiTAL SiN254 @ Mar 21st 2009 4:29PM
ever? really? It's good no doubt. but ever? you are just in the moment. A year from now, RE5 will not be a co-op experience I come back too.
Devastater9951 @ Mar 22nd 2009 7:07AM
I have, I dident mind it with a friend, but was it really necessary throughout the entire game? can't they make games like they used too, my favorite example is Gunstar Heroes for sega genesis it had co-op with a friend, but if you just wanted to play alone then you dident have to play with an AI. how hard would it have been to make a partner optional?
Phil @ Mar 21st 2009 7:31PM
Correction: Ben TempleSMITH on the accompanying graphic novel, not TempleTON.
beeporama @ Mar 22nd 2009 1:14PM
If they consider the comic book and movie just marketing for the game, I'd say they still don't get it. Both were enjoyable but could have been better; they could have been moneymakers in their own right with a little more effort. Look to the .hack franchise for inspiration; the books and a couple of the anime were better than the games.
Rob @ Mar 24th 2009 4:18AM
Hey "Kevin Kellee", the name for the comic art guy is Ben TEMPLESMITH just so you know. Might want to correct it.