The final quarter of the year has become the domain of dominant IPs, like Halo, Gears of War, Gran Turismo and Call of Duty. Arguably, among these powerhouse franchises Assassin’s Creed has found its own place. The franchise has sold 19 million copies so far and the last incarnation, Assassin’s Creed II, was a global hit. For Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, things look to be bigger than ever before with the inclusion of multiplayer. In this [a]listdaily exclusive, we talked with Tony Key, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Ubisoft.
Tell us about the initial reveal trailer for Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, and what you were hoping to convey with it.
There’s a lot going on in there. We wanted to emphasize that Ezio is back, and that he’s a bit older, wiser and famous. We also wanted to reintroduce the Brotherhood. You have an entourage of people, and we wanted it to be a big surprise when all the the other guys show up.
Another point of emphasis was the setting in Rome, the center of power in the world at the time. All those things come out, plus the fact that there’s a whole new story, as opposed to a continuation; it’s a standalone story for Ezio many years later.
So it wasn’t as important to convey the fact that the game is a continuation of the story of Assassin’s Creed II?
No, not really; it was designed to be a standalone product. You didn’t have to know anything about Assassin’s Creed I or II to enjoy it. There’s a lot of content, and the single player is as deep as Assassin’s Creed II’s single player mode.
The idea surrounding Assassin’s Creed is that [Ezio] is an icon. He’s got this problem in Rome and with the Church and it ties into Assassin’s Creed II but it is a standalone experience. Those that play AC2 will get more out of it. Those that have already been introduced to the conspiracy in the previous game will find out even more details, so there’s a lot for them to like. But we wanted to emphasize that playing Assassin’s Creed II was not a necessary prerequisite.
Ezio in the first trailer.
It’s kind of like a syndicated show then. Things might build up, but each episode stands on its own.
Yeah, it’s not like watching 24 or Lost on TV where you have to keep up. Simply put, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood is the same character in a different setting.
What are some of the TV channels and shows Ubisoft is looking to advertise on before, during and after Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood’s release?
We have an adult male dominated push, on the NFL, a lot of NBA games, and we’re trying hockey this year. We’ve got our long standing association with the UFC. We’re not an official partner, but we think that the psychographics match up and the programming has worked out well for us in the past. We’ve got 90 second trailers during a Spike UFC event. We’ll also be on WWE, on standard cable channels like MTV and Comedy Central. GameStop is already running television spots for the game and pushing the Harlequin.
How was the idea for the “Rebuild your Brotherhood” viral series thought up?
There were unique aspects of the multiplayer we wanted to communicate on, but we also wanted it to be humorous. We got Rob Cordry to come in a be a counselor and help heal wounds from Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood’s multiplayer. After you play a bit of the multiplayer, you get paranoid over who is going to kill you. You have a very particular target and you are one as well and we wanted to do something with that.
It’s definitely a big differentiation that the killing is up close and personal rather than through the sights of a gun.
The killing is much more intimate, and it keeps you on the edge of your seat., This is the first time there’s been multiplayer for Assassin’s Creed; for those people who did play the previous games, this is what you’ve been training for. You’ve been playing this games for so many hours, and ultimately you’ll play the story mode just like with Assassin’s Creed II, but the multiplayer is the ultimate proving grounds. Everyone who plays the game will see how their skills match up. It also has scaling for multiplayer, so the skills for players will match up.
Was it seen as a key marketing point to emphasize the presence of multiplayer in Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood for the campaign?
Yeah, and it’s really been exciting for us. The response has been good; we won best multiplayer for E3. We had a beta with Sony that recently concluded that went well.
It seems like emphasizing the different characters for multiplayer was a key focus too.
The idea that there’s all the great characters created for the multiplayer, many of which are models in single-player as well . . . we had to play with it. All these really cool characters, from the harlequin to the doctor . . . we had a great time emphasizing the different characters in the trailers.
We were also able to offer retailer exclusives – the harlequin is unique to the GameStop version of the game and the Officer is exclusive to Best Buy. For the limited edition we wanted to create a unique desk toy and the harlequin and the doctor jack-in-a-box are really very cool . . . they really added to the limited edition. The harlequin jack-in-a-box is in the GameStop limited edition and is also featured in the game and it’s really something they’re excited about; they wanted him to be a celebrity, they wanted everyone to want the harlequin.
I would say if anyone was a face for Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood besides Ezio, it’s the harlequin.
We’ve tried to put him out there in front because he’s cool, and he’s something players can show off to others.
It seems like those sorts of pre-order unlockables work best for online, since you can more readily show them off to other people.
Our reserves at GameStop are much higher than Assassin’s Creed II and most of our reserves are at GameStop, so it’s up overall by a significant number. We’re pleased with how it worked.
The harlequin is here to ruin your day.
So we take it you’re pretty happy with the response to the pre-order downloadable characters for multiplayer?
We’re very happy with the reserves and the exclusive content we could deliver. Best Buy gets the Officer, and we were glad that we were able to give retailers unique offerings.
Mutliplayer is something that resonates more with the core audience, and I think it’s part of the reason the reserves are up and that plays right into the core audience and their desire to show off the content. When you get unique content, it transcends the 360 or PS3, so I think it makes sense to give people things they can show off.
Talk to us about some of the promotional partners for Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood.
One is with 7/11. They put Assassin’s Creed on one of their lenticular cups. You get Slurpee points. Maybe you get one of those cool jack-in-a-boxes, maybe you get to visit the dev team in Montreal. Their allocation went very quickly, regardless.
Virgin Gaming has been really good too. They’re interested in the multiplayer, they’re sponsoring our tournaments and $20,000 in cash and prizes. We worked with GameStop for an online multiplayer tournament.
Ultimately, people have to love the multiplayer and they have to stick around. We’re hoping that people embrace it. But the E3 judges thought it was excellent, so that was very encouraging.
Stickiness and constant engagement is a really huge chip to have.
Multiplayer dominates Xbox Live, and we’re working on DLC, and if the multiplayer really works we’ll be working on it for a long time. This can keep us active for a lot longer. By adding multiplayer to the brand, we’re opening up Assassin’s Creed to so many players that mostly focus on online gaming. This is a really nice opportunity to grow the brand.
Plus, it fits within the mythos of the game.
It’s contextual to the brand itself. It took us a few years to figure out what the multiplayer should look like. The idea of multiplayer wasn’t something we just thought of . You always have to be thinking about ways to expand a franchise with multiplayer, and sometimes the answer is no. It wasn’t easy to develop multiplayer and it took a lot of time in order to make it right. I think it’s here to stay, though.
Yeah, if it had come out previously and been seriously flawed, people might lose faith in it.
You need to get it right enough the first time. Every time you do multiplayer you improve upon it; you’re always looking for ways to innovate. But we think that this is a good starting point with the ultimate kill system. How appealing that is to gamers, we’ll have to see.
Anything you’d like to conclude with?
We’re proud of the fact that the game has so much content on it. This is a good development team and as a company our strategy is working on our big brands; put more focus on them, and deliver really great entertainment experiences. We’ve got 500 people working on [Assassin’s Creed] in four different studios, in France, Quebec, Singapore and Montreal. There’s so much focus on it and early indications are we’ll have great reviews and it will do well in the marketplace.
Tony, thanks.
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