Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead is a game created by independent game company ‘Valve’. It is a horror genre, first person shooter game. The game is based specifically upon the un-dead, and the gamer’s task to try and survive this terror. Unlike many other games, the aim isn’t to kill as many zombies as possible, therefore saving the world. In this game it is much more basic; the gamer must play to survive the continuous waves of flesh eating zombies. The game has a single player mode but after reading many reviews, and playing a demo of the game it is clear that the more gamers (up to 4) that play, the more exiting and interacting the game becomes.  

Marketing

To market the game, ‘Valve’ chooses an expensive avenue. The company decided to release various TV adverts, website clips of game play and info regarding the game, prints in papers and magazines and outdoor posters and small billboard images. The aim of this expensive advertisement campaign was to expose ‘Left 4 Dead’ too as many people as possible to conjure up huge demand and anticipation for the game. In all, advertisement cost reached a staggering 10 million dollars (approx). These campaigns were rife all throughout the USA and Europe. Valve was aiming to hit a huge part of the gaming sectors, therefore trying to create as much revenue as possible.

Valve hosted multiple competitions to engage with the audience, with prizes such as a free copy of their new game. The most notorious of these competitions was, "Dude, where's my thumb?” Entries that created and submitted the most realistic and gory pictures of events involving zombies were chosen as winners of this.
An intro- film was released on Halloween 2008 showing events that happened prior to the ‘No Mercy’ campaign. This was created to further promote the game by showing potential gamers the experience being thrown into a zombie apocalypse would really be like. Valve discussed the whole process of the creation of this film on their consistently un-dated internet blog, keeping gamers involved and up-to-date right up to the games release

Left 4 Dead was also widely marketed through social networking sites, mainly Face book. Valve decided this was a money and time saving way to directly interact with potential fans, gamers, and people they hoped to persuade to buy their game. This was a great way to engage with their target audience and realise information upon the game such as new characters, potential add on’s and general information upon the ‘extraordinary’ game play. Valve released pictures and snap-scenes of the game before its actual release, in hope that this would create a further appetite for the game.

Production ‘Left 4 Dead’ was originally developed by ‘Turtle Rock Studios’ during 2005. Valve recognised the potential of the game, and therefore brought game rights from Turtle Rock, and continued development themselves. The game was horizon tally integrated as a strategy by Valve to keep as much of the profit to themselves as possible. Valve relied upon their most expensive and up-to-date source engine which included components such as multi-core processors and physics- based animation. This was done to create extreme realism in the game, down to fine features such as eyes, mouth, hair and clothing. This software was also used to create amazingly life-like reactions to being shot or killed during game play. This was a goal of Valves as they believed this would separate them in contest with other zombie based games such as ‘Dead rising’, and future zombie based games such as ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops’ latest zombie game play release. Distribution After game development began in 2005, it was finally completed during the early stages of 2008. Valve released 2 different types of digital game play; A digital retail disk version which was sold in all popular game-based stores, and an online downloadable version.  Game play is available on consoles/software; Windows, Xbox 360 and Mac OS X. The game proved particularly popular on Mac based products. Microsoft brought game play rights from Valve, and then sold shares in the game to Apple who integrated the game to be compatible on their Apple products. The game currently is still being sold, although not nearly as popular as it initially was. This is mainly due to a new release of the game; Left 4 Dead 2 Valve also created downloadable content sold through Xbox live such as new weapons and stages. This meant that customers continued to spend even after purchasing the game. As well as this, Valve released free content they could include within the game if customers purchased the game before certain dates. This proved successful as customers felt happy with their purchase, believing they had struck lucky with a great deal and saved money in the long run.   Distribution techniques seem to have worked very well, as game sales reached levels well above that which was expected. The Xbox 360 release proved to be the 7th best selling game over Christmas period of December 2008, selling in excess of 629,000 copies in the United States. A few months later, ‘Electronic Arts’ revealed that the game had sold 1.8 million copies since release. Only 1 month later, a new stat was released. ‘Mike Booth’ released that the game had in fact exceeded 2.5 million sales (original target) to which Valve rejoiced. Later on that year, Valve released final information upon the game, stating that sales figures showed the game sold well over 3 million copies had been sold.   Consumption There are many different ways consumers can play the game. One which has seemed the most popular is online game play (mainly Xbox 360). Gamers can play alongside friends and rivals on the game to create a more social experience. There is a single player campaign within the game, giving gamers an aim to complete before enjoying add on’s and social gaming. Finally, there is an off line multi-player split screen function. This allows friends to get together and game on one screen, working as part of a team to survive the game plays apocalypse. These different functions of the game allow versatility, and means gamers with different game preferences have choices as to which sort of game play they are involved in. To keep customers happy, frequent new game play was released such as weapons, maps and characters. This created a ‘timeless’ effect within the game, as there was always something new to complete.