MLB 2K11 Developer Insight #1 - Marketing Looks Back at MLB 2K10

[Spanky]

Great insight there, guys.

I can't help but feel they are hiding something. Or trying to. Like they have a disaster on their hands and they keep delaying information.

And quit patting yourselves on the back for this $1 million nonsense. Except for the guy who won, nobody cares.

A 1 in 10,000,000 chance of winning of $1 million isn't going to make me want to buy some piece of junk game, if that's what this title turns out to be.

[jeffy777]

Quote: Originally Posted by Spanky

I can't help but feel they are hiding something. Or trying to. Like they have a disaster on their hands and they keep delaying information.

I wouldn't read too much into it. They do this with NBA too. For some reason, they just like to save all the real info for the last few weeks. As we've discussed several times before in other threads, it's a pretty lame marketing strategy, but it's just 2K's way.

Here's how Ronnie put it on twitter:

Quote:

Ronnie2K @TrentSouth Late stream of info on all our titles, just the way we roll. We don't want to give away everything so far ahead of launch

Yeah it sucks, but it's just how their marketing does it, no matter what the game is like.

[Dazraz]

What are you doing 2K???

If you want to have any chance whatsoever of challenging Sony for sales then you need to match them for the amount of information & video highlights that are coming out on an almost daily basis. All we've had is a few, undoubtedly, touched up screenshots.

Is 2K's lack of response due their game not being ready to show or have they seen the videos for MLB the Show 11 & thought, s**t, we better do the $million thing again to garner some sales because our game is not that good again.

I hope I'm wrong because I really liked the way MLB 2K appeared to be heading. The MLB Today feature made The Shows commentary feel old while the pitcher/batter interface was also impressive.

[rudyjuly2]

Quote: Originally Posted by ryan36

The 1 mil comes from an insurance company, if it's anything like other promotions...not 2k. They pay 200,000 give away 1mil

After someone got $1 million on the first day last year there is no insurance company who would cover that this year. There has to be a win for them to do so.

There was a local fishing contest where someone got $100,000 if they caught a specially tagged fish on the day of the contest. An insurance company covered it and someone won. The company was pissed and went and saw a stats professor of mine asking how likely that would have happened as they had obviously hoped it would have been harder. He simply said, "Given that someone did it I would expect the odds of winning to be pretty high." He kind of laughed that the insurance company didn't like that response.

Those insurance policies only makes sense if the number crunchers see an expected profit. I think there is a 99% chance someone wins $1,000,000 again which means no insurance company would touch it.

[DaveDQ]

Quote: Originally Posted by Jayhawker

That said, I was pretty disappointed that this was the first info we got. But really, it's not a big deal. What the devs tell me will have nothing to do with how good the game is. It's just another part of the spin. It's not good or bad. It just is. It's kind of sad how entitled many of us act here.

That's it in a nutshell for me. I know we are in times when information is so easily obtained, so the style in which 2K puts out info is odd to some, but there is a very unhealthy gaming culture these days that expects a great amount.

Gone are the days of me driving to the mall on release day and watching two TVs suspended from the ceiling in Babbages showing the most recent release. I can remember trying to persuade them to put different titles up there.

[econoodle]

Quote: Originally Posted by DaveDQ

That's it in a nutshell for me. I know we are in times when information is so easily obtained, so the style in which 2K puts out info is odd to some, but there is a very unhealthy gaming culture these days that expects a great amount. Gone are the days of me driving to the mall on release day and watching two TVs suspended from the ceiling in Babbages showing the most recent release. I can remember trying to persuade them to put different titles up there.

Damn, u just went really old school. lol

I remember the days

but yea, its 2k strategy.
But they have such bad will with people over the baseball franchise, plus it sells like junk, which makes me think they should rethink the marketing strategy for this game.
Its different for the NBA game which has the fans wrapped around their finger. They could release a trailer and people would buy it.

This game? they need to turn it up a notch and try something different, give the fans way more then they expect.

for the final month i would do something called, Once A Day, All The Way.
Thy could put out a piece of info every day all the way to release.
Could be as something small as focusing on announcing changes down to a feature in franchise.

[Doormat]

...Less than 2 months 'till release date and all we have as "info" is Roy Holladay as the guy in the cover, a few screen shots, a little more better animations for fielding, and... another 1 million dollar reward.

[bigfnjoe96]

This is how 2K Markets. It's been this way every year since the Next-Gen jump. Why are people acting surprised? That's why yesterday I posted

"It is what it Is"

I know people want info but I've also learned to be cautiously optimistic with the MLB Series. I've also learned to take anything Ronnie says with a grain of salt.

I'm also from the ol school that "No News is Good News"