Unit 3: Research techniques for the creative media industries
Assignment 2 - Be able to apply a range of research methods
Sonic Adventure 2: Battle - May 3, 2002
Band Hero - November 3rd 2009
Undertale - September 15th 2015
Uncharted 4 - May 10th 2016
Primary (Qualitative):
Sonic Adventure 2: Battle -
Because this Sonic game was made in 2002 it's very hard to find any information on its creation whether that be before or after it's release. However, this does create an obvious point that it would have been very difficult to conduct any interviews or questionnaires but I imagine that they would have taken any feedback that they got for the first one and put it into consideration when creating the second. This game has a review from IGN that said, 'I quite enjoy Sega products. I loved Super Monkey Ball (who doesn't?) and am extremely satisfied Sonic Team decided to bring Sonic Adventure 2: Battle to GameCube. It can be a fun game at times, but it can also be extremely frustrating. This is why I'm anticipating the next edition of Sonic. Hopefully an all-new, ambitious take on the franchise custom-tailored to GameCube hardware. For Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, I recommend renting it. You should get your money's worth out of it in that time. For those of you that played the Dreamcast version, there's little to no reason to pick up the GCN incarnation. The differences in visuals and added multiplayer modes probably aren't worth it unless you're a hardcore fan.' This game generally has some good reviews but a lot were definitely hating on the mechanics of the game. This game has no fan websites or blogs that I could find, this is probably because making a blog or website was nowhere near as easy as it is today. From what I can find there is no merchandise for this Sonic game, it could be that there used to be but now its gone completely out of circulation. The only news coverage I can fine on this game is from a website called NintendoWorldReport that shares the information that the game sold a lot of units.
Band Hero -
The developers (Neversoft, Budcat Creations (PS2) and Vicarious Visions (Wii and DS)) and the publisher (Activision) of Band Hero didn't use any questionnaires or surveys to determine the content of Band Hero and nor did they use any suggestions from Guitar Hero. Band Hero had its setlist decided by whatever rock/pop music was popular around its time of release. There is an IGN review by Greg Miler that says this, 'For better or worse, this is a re-skinned version of Guitar Hero 5. Now, that's not bad because that game was great, but it is disappointing if you were expecting something special from Band Hero. All the functionality you'd expect from a GH sequel is here (drop-in/out gameplay, GHStudio, etc.) except that it's framed in a sugary sweet pink/purple motif. The career is shallow, the songs are poppy Top 40 tracks that you'll either love or hate, and there's a focus on getting in, playing and getting out. Band Hero is a good game, but it lacks any kind of spark that makes it feel unique. In the end, this is one of the examples people will point to when they talk about Activision milking the Guitar Hero franchise for all it's worth; even though this time the milk is quenching the thirst of every Taylor Swift fan out there with a plastic guitar.' Perhaps this wasn't the most positive review because it basically stated that the game was an awful knock-off of Guitar Hero but in all fairness it is marketed as a spin-off. There are no fan websites that I can find based on Band Hero but, that is pretty much a given with a game that only musical content rather than a story line making it very hard to have anything to discuss. Band Hero didn't have any merchandise even though its partner Guitar Hero did. The only news coverage I could find on Band Hero was on GameSpot but even that was very vague about any details.
Because this Sonic game was made in 2002 it's very hard to find any information on its creation whether that be before or after it's release. However, this does create an obvious point that it would have been very difficult to conduct any interviews or questionnaires but I imagine that they would have taken any feedback that they got for the first one and put it into consideration when creating the second. This game has a review from IGN that said, 'I quite enjoy Sega products. I loved Super Monkey Ball (who doesn't?) and am extremely satisfied Sonic Team decided to bring Sonic Adventure 2: Battle to GameCube. It can be a fun game at times, but it can also be extremely frustrating. This is why I'm anticipating the next edition of Sonic. Hopefully an all-new, ambitious take on the franchise custom-tailored to GameCube hardware. For Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, I recommend renting it. You should get your money's worth out of it in that time. For those of you that played the Dreamcast version, there's little to no reason to pick up the GCN incarnation. The differences in visuals and added multiplayer modes probably aren't worth it unless you're a hardcore fan.' This game generally has some good reviews but a lot were definitely hating on the mechanics of the game. This game has no fan websites or blogs that I could find, this is probably because making a blog or website was nowhere near as easy as it is today. From what I can find there is no merchandise for this Sonic game, it could be that there used to be but now its gone completely out of circulation. The only news coverage I can fine on this game is from a website called NintendoWorldReport that shares the information that the game sold a lot of units.
Band Hero -
The developers (Neversoft, Budcat Creations (PS2) and Vicarious Visions (Wii and DS)) and the publisher (Activision) of Band Hero didn't use any questionnaires or surveys to determine the content of Band Hero and nor did they use any suggestions from Guitar Hero. Band Hero had its setlist decided by whatever rock/pop music was popular around its time of release. There is an IGN review by Greg Miler that says this, 'For better or worse, this is a re-skinned version of Guitar Hero 5. Now, that's not bad because that game was great, but it is disappointing if you were expecting something special from Band Hero. All the functionality you'd expect from a GH sequel is here (drop-in/out gameplay, GHStudio, etc.) except that it's framed in a sugary sweet pink/purple motif. The career is shallow, the songs are poppy Top 40 tracks that you'll either love or hate, and there's a focus on getting in, playing and getting out. Band Hero is a good game, but it lacks any kind of spark that makes it feel unique. In the end, this is one of the examples people will point to when they talk about Activision milking the Guitar Hero franchise for all it's worth; even though this time the milk is quenching the thirst of every Taylor Swift fan out there with a plastic guitar.' Perhaps this wasn't the most positive review because it basically stated that the game was an awful knock-off of Guitar Hero but in all fairness it is marketed as a spin-off. There are no fan websites that I can find based on Band Hero but, that is pretty much a given with a game that only musical content rather than a story line making it very hard to have anything to discuss. Band Hero didn't have any merchandise even though its partner Guitar Hero did. The only news coverage I could find on Band Hero was on GameSpot but even that was very vague about any details.
Undertale -
The creator of Undertale, Toby Fox, when he created the Kickstarter he included a comment section. This mainly included an option for any tips or suggestions for the funders to share with Toby to make the game better. Kallie Plagge from IGN reviews the game as so, "It's hard to express just how much I adore Undertale without spoiling anything significant, but that's what I love about it. It tells its story in such a dynamic way, and with such a great understanding of the RPG player’s mindset, that it couldn’t have been told in any other way. It's a masterfully crafted experience that I won't forget any time soon." There are many Fan Made websites based off this popular game and here are just a few:
The attitude to any of the products related are all very positive with Toby catering to his audiences requests. The majority of reviews tend to range on average from 4-5 stars with everyone being very positive about the released products. Other than being on IGN news a few times Undertale does not appear to have much news coverage based on it, this is probably due to the fact that it is an indie game with very little paid for marketing. Any trailers related to this game have very positive feedback, this is backed by the mass amount of funding Toby received at the start of the game (within 30 days the game received $51,125 in pledges with a total of 2,398 backers. This was just over 10 times the amount of funding Toby asked for).
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| Undertale - Figures |
Uncharted 4 -
The developer (Naughty Dog studios) and the publisher (Sony) of Uncharted 4 didn't choose to conduct any surveys for creating the 4th Uncharted game but did use reviews and suggestions past on over from comments on Uncharted 3. These comments included how there should be improved graphics quality and improved controls for the movement. Lucy O'Brien from IGN wrote a review on the game which reads, 'Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End is a remarkable achievement in blockbuster storytelling and graphical beauty. Though it’s let down by a lack of imagination and some self-indulgence, especially in a third act that drags on far too long, Uncharted 4 carries on the series’ proud tradition of peerless polish and style, with a great multiplayer component to boot. Most importantly, it’s a gentle sendoff to the rag-tag group of characters we’ve known for nine years. A worthy thief’s end, indeed.' This review pretty much sums the entirety of this game up, although it may have a small flaw its generally a well made game that does justice to its prequels. Uncharted 4 definitely has a much bigger fan-made site than Undertale but from what it appears this one is the only vaguely easy one to find. This is most likely due to its many reviews from larger websites:
http://allthingsuncharted.com/news/
Uncharted 4 has got quite a lot more merchandise than any of the above games floating around on the internet which I can only imagine is because of it being a much bigger and newer game. The merchandise consists of a few shirts and many collectable items. However a lot of Uncharted fans have been disappointed with the merch available as it's nothing new or innovative let alone unique to any of the other big games. Uncharted 4 is probably the game with the most coverage surrounding it within the games I chose to cover myself, this is most likely to do with how much more opportunity it has. Its definitely the game with the most public following currently and has been developed and published in a time where the internet is at its peak time and so many websites cover its journey. A few of the bigger websites include IGN, PlayStation and gameinformer. These websites are also all over social media making it so much easier to read about the game which was gratefully received by all fans.
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| Uncharted 4 - Hoodie |
Secondary (Quantitative):
Sonic Adventure 2: Battle -
This game perhaps has the worst score of them all but is generally rated above halfway making it better than just an ok game. It got reviews of 6.9/10 from IGN, 73% on Metacritic and a surprising 9/10 on Steam which is definitely overwhelmingly positive for this game as a re-release. There are no sales figures that are just for the UK but as of the 11th March 2017 it had sold 2.6 million physical copies with North America buying 66.3% of that amount. If we look at the figures from Steam it says that 438,440 people own a virtual copy, the total of people that actually play it is 287,641, 13,539 people have played it within the last 2 weeks and the peak amount of people playing it at the same time yesterday was 199. That compared to Undertale sounds pathetic but if you add up all the sales Sonic Adventure sold over around 100,000 more copies though it still sold less than Uncharted 4.
Band Hero -
Band Hero got a rating of 7.9/10 from IGN, 76% on Metacritic and a 4/5 from Common Sense Media making it rank higher on average than Sonic but still no where near reaching the bar of Undertale or Uncharted 4. Band Hero's sales were much more harder to find than the others with the only information available being that they sold a total of 596,000 units making it the least sold game on my list despite not having the worst reviews.
Undertale -
Undertale has a 10/10 rating on Steam and IGN as well as, reaching 92% on Metacritic and 91% on PC gamer. The circulation of this game consists of around 2,505,981 owners, the amount of actual players are 2,265,987 with 149,630 playing it within the last two weeks and a peak of 1,981 playing the game at the same time yesterday.
Uncharted 4 -
Uncharted 4 ratings are again very high like Undertale but has a slightly higher rating on Metacritic at 93%. All of the games I have included in this report are on completely different platforms so they can't all be fully compared to each other. Nevertheless Uncharted 4 has reviews of 9/10 on IGN and 9/10 on Trusted Reviews as well as 10/10 on GameSpot. Within the first week of it being on sale it sold 194,461 copies of the game, after 10 weeks it had sold 334,668 copies and in the first year of it going on sale the total number of copies that had been bought was 551,564 (this total is for the UK alone). Globally 2,255,865 were sold in the first week and the global total ever sold was 8.84 million as of the 11th March 2017. This makes it the most sold game out of all of the games I chose selling over 6 million more than the next best selling, Sonic.
Undertale has a 10/10 rating on Steam and IGN as well as, reaching 92% on Metacritic and 91% on PC gamer. The circulation of this game consists of around 2,505,981 owners, the amount of actual players are 2,265,987 with 149,630 playing it within the last two weeks and a peak of 1,981 playing the game at the same time yesterday.
Uncharted 4 -
Uncharted 4 ratings are again very high like Undertale but has a slightly higher rating on Metacritic at 93%. All of the games I have included in this report are on completely different platforms so they can't all be fully compared to each other. Nevertheless Uncharted 4 has reviews of 9/10 on IGN and 9/10 on Trusted Reviews as well as 10/10 on GameSpot. Within the first week of it being on sale it sold 194,461 copies of the game, after 10 weeks it had sold 334,668 copies and in the first year of it going on sale the total number of copies that had been bought was 551,564 (this total is for the UK alone). Globally 2,255,865 were sold in the first week and the global total ever sold was 8.84 million as of the 11th March 2017. This makes it the most sold game out of all of the games I chose selling over 6 million more than the next best selling, Sonic.
Audience Research:
The target audience was for anyone above the age of 3 however this was based on the age rating of the game when the PEGI rating system had not come into place yet. So the game was rated a lower than it would be now. If the games target audience was rated again it would fall under the 7+ category from PEGI. The game is definitely not gender restricted with you being able to play as multiple female characters however, its still not as gender neutral as Undertale.
Band Hero -
Band Hero has a target audience of 8+ seeing as it's age rating is a PG that generally shouldn't unsettle a child of the age of 8 or older. It's rated a PG because it a music game that, 'Contains occasional mild language and drug references in song lyrics,' according to is rating. Its definitely a gender neutral game because you can choose or create a character and sing any song despite the original singers gender.
Undertale -
The target audience for Undertale is based towards players of the age 9+ because of the lack of shown violence. However, there are some more dramatic scenes and a lot of life lessons trying to be shown through the different routes you can take making the game much more hard hitting. The game is very far from being restricted to one gender and has a main character that is perceived to be neither male nor female. This proved by the protagonist's character only being referred to as, 'the human,' Frisk,' and, 'Chara,' all of which are considered to not be gender restrictive. Not only this but the player can name the character what they would like, giving the player they're own choice of identity.
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| Chara (left) and Frisk (right) |
Uncharted 4 -
The target audience for Uncharted 4 is supposed to be for players of the age 16+ because of the violence involved. It is also generally aimed at male players as the game contains a lot of fight scenes and a male main character which are stereotypical factors towards men. However it could be for any gender as there is a female character that plays a big role and defies all of the things that make it a boys game. It's also aimed at players who enjoy action games but also enjoy a story line and aesthetic backgrounds.
Market Research:
Sonic Adventure 2: Battle -
Sonic Adventure was very hard to find any competitors for it or even any games similar. But players of Sonic and Mario games are often at war with each other with someone loving one more than the other despite the characters having games together. Unlike Undertale but similar to Band Hero and Uncharted 4, Sonic Adventure had a TV advert:
Sonic Adventure also had multiple advertisements that were put in British and German magazines or books as shown below. This was an advertising techniques that Band Hero and Undertale didn't use and Uncharted 4 didn't do a job anywhere near as good as Sonic Adventure did:
Band Hero -
Band Hero seemed to have a few competitors along with the rest of the its industry (Guitar Hero) this mainly included games like Rock Band and sometimes the Just Dance series seemed to clash. Like Sonic Adventure and Uncharted 4, Band Hero used a TV advertisement to widen it's audience with famous faces from the music industry like Pete Wentz from Fall Out Boy and Taylor Swift using the Band Hero Instruments. The advertisement is shown below:
Undertale -
Undertale does not have a specific competitor although it has to fight for a credible place next too bigger games by bigger companies. This is partly because, compared to other companies, Toby Fox and his indie game had nowhere near as much funding for things like advertising making it a whole lot harder to put his creation out into the world and meet up to the very high standards that are set. Undertale is often however compared to a game called, 'LISA,' that is even less well known but was released earlier. This game also is supposed to cause high emotions but generally only focusing on the guilty ones, However, it's audience is more for males over the age of 18 due to its mature theme which is why it is not classed as a competitor. Undertale had and still has very little opportunity to advertise with its only chances being on, 'Kickstarter,' and the, 'Steam,' homepage, Luckily, this game has won a few, 'Game of the Year,' titles and awards without needing a ton of it. It has become a game that is recommended by other users making it a game that relied on the word of mouth concept.
Uncharted 4 -
Uncharted 4 doesn't have any major competitors that give similar gameplay however, it was beaten by Dishonored 2 for IGN's PS4 Game of the Year but settled for second place and was the People's, 'Choice winner for Best PlayStation 4 Game of 2016.' It has many games like it that include titles like, 'The Last Of Us,' and many of the, 'Tomb Raider,' games but none of them are considered as popular. Uncharted 4 had a lot of advertising that was particularly, 'out there,' and definitely had more than Undertale, Band Hero and Sonic Adventure put together. with a few gaming magazine ads, posters in shops like, ' GAME,' on The PlayStation Store, cinema advertising, TV advertising, out of home advertising, trailers that circled the internet and many more that are show below on PlayStation's Marketing Campaign:
The original price for this game seems near impossible but the price its going for now is £5.99 for Sonic Adventure 2 alone plus £1.99 for the Battle DLC but that is just for a virtual copy and obviously not on the original console. A physical copy can be anything from £15 - £30 depending on the condition, I can only imagine the price will go up over time as they become harder to find an original Gamecube copy of. There was no trace of any information on what technology was used to create the game online but it was stated that they didn't alter much when it was transferred from the Dreamcast to the Gamecube.
Band Hero -
Band Hero's original price was around $200 at the time making the most expensive one, with it now being sold for anything from £50 - £100 still depending on how much of the kit is still there and intact. They seem pretty difficult to fine very much like Sonic Adventure however, this is the only game I chose that will eventually no longer exist even virtually because of the needed kit. This was another game like Sonic Adventure that I couldn't find any information on what technology was used to create it.
Undertale -
Sonic Adventure was very hard to find any competitors for it or even any games similar. But players of Sonic and Mario games are often at war with each other with someone loving one more than the other despite the characters having games together. Unlike Undertale but similar to Band Hero and Uncharted 4, Sonic Adventure had a TV advert:
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| https://youtu.be/uq0AXdQOR90 |
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| UK Advert 1 - Page 2/2 |
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| UK Advert 1 - Page 1/2 |
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| UK Advert 2 |
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| UK Advert 3 |
German Advert 1 - Page 1/2 German Advert 1 - Page 2/2
Band Hero -
Band Hero seemed to have a few competitors along with the rest of the its industry (Guitar Hero) this mainly included games like Rock Band and sometimes the Just Dance series seemed to clash. Like Sonic Adventure and Uncharted 4, Band Hero used a TV advertisement to widen it's audience with famous faces from the music industry like Pete Wentz from Fall Out Boy and Taylor Swift using the Band Hero Instruments. The advertisement is shown below:
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| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHBcGG_9HBk |
Undertale -
Undertale does not have a specific competitor although it has to fight for a credible place next too bigger games by bigger companies. This is partly because, compared to other companies, Toby Fox and his indie game had nowhere near as much funding for things like advertising making it a whole lot harder to put his creation out into the world and meet up to the very high standards that are set. Undertale is often however compared to a game called, 'LISA,' that is even less well known but was released earlier. This game also is supposed to cause high emotions but generally only focusing on the guilty ones, However, it's audience is more for males over the age of 18 due to its mature theme which is why it is not classed as a competitor. Undertale had and still has very little opportunity to advertise with its only chances being on, 'Kickstarter,' and the, 'Steam,' homepage, Luckily, this game has won a few, 'Game of the Year,' titles and awards without needing a ton of it. It has become a game that is recommended by other users making it a game that relied on the word of mouth concept.
Uncharted 4 -
Uncharted 4 doesn't have any major competitors that give similar gameplay however, it was beaten by Dishonored 2 for IGN's PS4 Game of the Year but settled for second place and was the People's, 'Choice winner for Best PlayStation 4 Game of 2016.' It has many games like it that include titles like, 'The Last Of Us,' and many of the, 'Tomb Raider,' games but none of them are considered as popular. Uncharted 4 had a lot of advertising that was particularly, 'out there,' and definitely had more than Undertale, Band Hero and Sonic Adventure put together. with a few gaming magazine ads, posters in shops like, ' GAME,' on The PlayStation Store, cinema advertising, TV advertising, out of home advertising, trailers that circled the internet and many more that are show below on PlayStation's Marketing Campaign:
Product Research:
Sonic Adventure 2: Battle -The original price for this game seems near impossible but the price its going for now is £5.99 for Sonic Adventure 2 alone plus £1.99 for the Battle DLC but that is just for a virtual copy and obviously not on the original console. A physical copy can be anything from £15 - £30 depending on the condition, I can only imagine the price will go up over time as they become harder to find an original Gamecube copy of. There was no trace of any information on what technology was used to create the game online but it was stated that they didn't alter much when it was transferred from the Dreamcast to the Gamecube.
Band Hero -
Band Hero's original price was around $200 at the time making the most expensive one, with it now being sold for anything from £50 - £100 still depending on how much of the kit is still there and intact. They seem pretty difficult to fine very much like Sonic Adventure however, this is the only game I chose that will eventually no longer exist even virtually because of the needed kit. This was another game like Sonic Adventure that I couldn't find any information on what technology was used to create it.
Undertale -
Undertale's original price was £6.99 and is still being sold on Steam for that price making it the cheapest game, which is a lot less than any of the other games, this definitely add to its already large appeal. Toby Fox knew how much other indie games were going for on the the market and tried to go for an average whilst still predicting to make some sort of profit. Toby Fox used a game engine called GameMaker which is rarely used in gamers that are published to Steam but he decided to stick with it after making a few simpler and easier games using it.
Uncharted 4 -
Uncharted 4 had an original price of £44.99 with it still staying at that price for an official virtual or physical copy. However you could probably get a cheaper copy which works the same for under half the price. Naughty Dog use their own game which is claimed to be one of the best which is clearly shown in their games.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_European_Game_Information
https://www.playne.com/games/uncharted-4-thiefs-end/games-like
http://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_Adventure_2:_Battle_advertisements
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/dj-hero-spins-for-120-band-hero-for-200-retail-radar/1100-6212159/
http://www.trustedreviews.com/uncharted-4-review
https://www.playne.com/games/uncharted-4-thiefs-end/games-like
http://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_Adventure_2:_Battle_advertisements
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/dj-hero-spins-for-120-band-hero-for-200-retail-radar/1100-6212159/
http://www.trustedreviews.com/uncharted-4-review
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