| |
The Guitar Hero franchise had a vested audience actively engaged with the popular and global Guitar Hero I and II releases. With Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Activision (NASD: ATVI) sought to capitalize on the success of the franchise to further engage their existing fan base, expand the game’s marketplace saturation through the attraction of new gamers and, ultimately, increase corporate sales.
Although the Guitar Hero brand ranked solid among existing fans, the market for rock star-focused games was approaching a crossroads with the release of competitor tiles, such as Harmonix’s Rock Band. Activision required an exceptional online solution to turn game enthusiasts, existing and new, into dedicated Guitar Hero franchise devotees
 To initiate GHIII buzz, excite and connect gamers with GHIII’s new game content and features, drive game sales, and establish an active database of current and new customers, the “Guitar Hero Backstage Pass” pre-game community website was created and launched under the recognizable GuitarHero.com URL.
An interactive teaser site, “Backstage Pass,” as the name implies, offered registrants privileged access to insider information; exclusive news; behind-the-scenes footage of featured game artists, such as Slash; in-game talent; and media galore. A compelling call-to-action prompted visitors to pre-order the game and register to reserve unique band and stage names for use within the community site. Registrants could also create a “rock radius,” allowing for the opt-in to connect with friends, tour group members and other players within the community.
Tying in with GHIII’s rock star-focused theme, registrants to the Backstage Pass site earned “groupies” to increase their popularity ranking. Enhancing the site’s viral nature, registrants earned additional groupies by encouraging friends to register for the site as well.
Upon the release of GHIII, the game’s extensive community site offered an engaging, immersive extension of a player’s game experience. Sample features of the community site include artist and band profile, ability to create an avatar, special awards, hall of fame gallery, unlockables, profile skins, top 100 scoreboard, favorites list, friends list, complete player stats, compare profile stats, news, featured artists, tour dates, polls, moderated forums and tour competitions.
- Hundreds of thousands of visitors pre-registered for the community site leading to a high percentage conversion rate to game purchase.
- Guitar Hero III sales over $115 million in the first week.
- Guitar Hero III is the first video game to surpass the $1 billion in sales.
|
| Guitar Hero is registered trademark of Activision Publishing, Inc.
Development work by Agora Games |
|
