THQ threw a press event in San Francisco last Wednesday for their upcoming game Darksiders II. The event showed off the game, but the anatomy of the press event itself was even more interesting.
First, the game. Darksiders II is the sequel to Darksiders, a 2010 hit for THQ that sold over a million copies. It's an action-adventure game reminiscent of God of War, where the player takes the role of War (one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse) and tries to prevent a premature Apocalypse. The sequel, which is due sometime later this year, has the player take on the role of Death in a new plot. The game is twice as large, and contains many side quests and additional material to give the player an extensive and varied adventure.
The game play gives you a wide variety of attack options and combos. If you aren't dextrous enough to pull off the more elaborate moves, you can always look for magic items to improve your abilities. The developers wanted to have multiple ways for you to succeed. As David Adams, the Studio General Manager, noted, he's not as good with the combos as many of the guys,. So he makes sure to get plenty of good gear , spending extra time adventuring, so that he can compete with raw power.
Graphically, the Darksiders II game looks very nice, as the screen shots will attest. The game will be out for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. While the console games will be virtually identical, the PC version may have some additional graphic enhancements to keep the PC players reassured that their money on that new graphics card was well spent.
The press event itself was interesting for several reasons. First of all, the timing seemed odd, coming so far in advance of the release of the game. Is it too early to start building buzz? Unless the title is hugely anticipated, there's a chance publicity to early will not maintain interest among fans. Perhaps the unguarded remark by David Adams provides a clue: “They didn't do anything like this for Darksiders.” THQ certainly could use a hit or two, coming off of a rough 2011 that has seen their stock price sink to under a dollar a share. Putting some extra marketing and PR effort into Darksiders II makes sense if it can propel the game to a higher sales level.
The event itself was strangely programmed. The venue was The Regency Center, a 1909 building “considered the finest example of Scottish Rite temple architecture in the country.” Which means some very ornate wood and marble finishes, high ceilings, and when suitably decorated and lit (as this event was) it looks appropriately creepy. That means throwing in a series of simulated stone sepulchers, some demon skulls on the walls, and some wall hangings of tastefully tormented souls writhing in hellfire, and you're good to go.
After the press was checked in, and introduced to the bar, a number of appetizers were circulated throughout the room. Perhaps this was a signal that Famine was not to be the lead character in this game. Certainly the press was not ready for starvation.
There was a brief introduction followed by the new trailer for the game, and then a lecture by a scholar who specializes in the history of the Order of St John, on the history of Death as a figure in European art and lore. It was interesting, but not really clear as to how that would increase press interest in the game (and by extension, the fan base's interest in the game). We then saw a sequence of the gameplay, showing the quality of the combat and the graphics. That was typical enough, as was the following time when various team members were available for interviews by the press. The event wrapped up, apparently, with a bit of a dance party... which would explain the presence of the attractive young women in black cocktail dresses who didn't exactly look like members of the development team. It's not clear whether this was an event, at that point, for the development team members or for the press.
This, then , was the press event, which seemed simultaneously to be both too much and too little for a game that's months away from release. It was well-executed, and well-attended, but will it have the desired effect of increasing awareness of the game and therefore improving the sales? Much depends on when the game actually comes out, and whether there are a well-orchestrated series of events between now and then to keep reminding people of the game and releasing new information. It's hard to figure out the usefulness of the scholarly lecture on Death, but then again here we are talking about it. Those tricky PR people... fooled us again.
That seems like more than a two-handed weapon...
