media studies alevel assassin's creed liberation

what franchise is assasins creed liberation 3 apart of

the assassins creed franchise

what is good about liberation being apart of this franchise

its apart of a very highly popular community with an already pre sold audience which means they guarenteed previous comsumers to come back and play this game

who publishes this video game

ubisoft

who is ubisoft

a very large global company, which makes them very powerful, that produces video games and other franchises

how is the fact they are a global company helpful to the franchise

being a global company will help them massively with distribution, in a global fashion and in a competitive way

how did ubisoft market the film

they used promo on the tv in adverts where they used lots of game footage (essential as people really want to see what the game actually looks like before playing it)

filmic sections int railer which made it feel more epic and appealed to audiences who enjoy consuming large budget, triple A rating games

posters that had many similarities and intertextual references to other assassins creed games, similar styles and colour schemes - makes it recognisable

where was the game exclusively released

PS vita, handheld console, PS vita was brand new and had very few games you could play on it, having assassins creed on it would attract audiences to the game and PS Vita lovers would be attracted to AC therefore using synergetic partnerships as a way to market the game

why was PS Vita a good way to market the game

handheld gaming consoles were becoming very popular at this time so people would be more drawn to buy the vita anyway and would then see the limited game selection they had and would download assassins creed

what makes this game unusual

they had a main playable female character called avalene, unusual as she was a woman and also mixed race, presented as strong and dominant whereas in stereotypical games women are often under-represented and over-sexualised for viewer entertainment

who would this have appealed to

female gamers and people of colour who are now taking up quite a big proportion of the gaming market

what did ubisoft release to help audiences with gameplay?

they released a series of videos, targeting audiences who spend alot of time online, videos included things like gameplay, tips and hints on how to play the game

use of social media is a great way to globally attract users online

how did new technologies affect this franchise

when new technologies began to be released, ubi-soft re-released assassins creed 3 liberation in hd and that meant a lot of dedicated fans brought the version again just to get a higher quality version (hesmondhalgh) ( curan and seaton )

how did ubisoft use gaming conventions to their advantage

ubisoft took the assassins creed franchise regularly to conventions such as ComicCon where you can meet up with video game fans and they even made an obstical course that fans could take part in as if they were inside the video game like an assassin. this is the kind of thing people would film and put on youtube therefore this is an example of consumer marketing

how is new technology making regulation difficult

it is harder to regulate video games as now, you can just go onto ur consoles online shop and buy the game with no proof of identification needed

what do people think about the lack of regulation

people think that no regulation will result in the wrong demographic being exposed to these medias and making them become violent, wanting to be like the people in the video games they see (U&G personal identity) (banjura theory - media affects theory , if you are a particularly young player you may copy the violence you see in video games

what is as3l rated in regulation

an 18

why was it given a 18

primarily due to the level of violence and although it wasnt that gory, the killings were deemed unjustified and being done with no motive - characters kill for the sake of killing

who is ac3l regulated by?

vsc (video standards council) and they use the PEGi rating system

what did PS Vita offer that appealed to audiences

people enjoy online interaction now and the PS Vita offered that by using wifi online capabilities so people could play games online more regularly with their friends

what is the narrative based around?

slavery

what makes this engaging for audiences

certain audiences might have particular engagement in the game as they might have an interest in historical topics within games or it could appeal to a more mixed race and minority audience

how did the game make use of downloadable content

as people progressed through the game they could download more stories and when they finished the game they could download the ability to play as ‘connor’ which is an additional chracter from the main franchise.

if you bought the main content and the extra content then you could be exposed to even more exclusive content - pushing audiences to spend as much money as possible