Originally from Game Developer's Conference Online 2011, this presentation details the pre-launch marketing campaign of BioWare's Dragon Age Legends. This social network game ran an innovative, pre-launch campaign that garnered thousands of likes before launch. Learn what went right and what went wrong when applying packaged goods tactics to a direct to consumer, social network game. www.famousaspect.com

2. Intern & Test Metrics & User Test
Game Design Game Production

3. • Studio coming out of its “Incubator” Phase
• Legends to be first Monetized title
• Ambitious launch goals and scope set
– Pre-FB platform changes
– Lots of “free traffic” easy for a game to go viral
– 600k to 1m DAU target

4. • Facebook changed the platform (rightfully so) to
improve the user experience
• Much harder to go viral
• Huge advantages for pre-change companies
• Importance of Paid Acquisition
On a single day, two of Digital Chocolate’s games jumped by 200k users each

5. • Brand Name
– Dragon Age Journeys proved brand strength
• DA2 Marketing Campaign, Unlocks
• EA publishing, Marketing & PR
• BioWare/Dragon Age fan base

6. • Getting support behind a small, unknown is a challenge
• Especially when the game is early

7. • It’s difficult to sell “But, someday it will look like this!” … until
an example of what this is exists.

8. Dragon Age Legends App hit 100k likes from November 3rd to March 25th
• Publicly visible, easy to make comparisons against competitors
• Talk directly to your players on their FB news feed
• Ability for your stories to reach a wide audience with little work overhead

9. • 3 Press Releases
• IGN Frontpage
• Cinematic Trailer and 3 Promo Posters
• Closed Beta program w/Gamespot & Curse
• Email Marketing
• DA2 Unlocks
• EA.com website

10. • High Activity Facebook App Page
– Photos
– Screenshots
– Blogs
– News Stories
– Competitions
• Twitter
• YouTube
• Beta Key Giveaways
• Public Event

11. • Data from my daily logging of Likes
• 101k on 3/25
• 37.77% of Likes came from Big Brand Tactics
– This is counting the day of the event, plus 2 days of halo effect
• 62.23% of Likes came from the rest of the days
– D2C Tactics & general momentum

12. • 11/3 – Game Announce - over 50 articles written
• Favorite Press Quote Destructiod “Do you like dragons? Dig
ages? Love faces? Adore books? OH FOR GOD'S SAKE WE'VE
GOT A MOTHERSHITTER OF A TREAT! Electronic Arts is
bringing Dragon Age Legends to Facebook, which is sure to
make fans vomit blood out of their armpits with delight. ”
• 2/1 – Closed Beta Announce and Teaser Trailer release
• Hot article on Kotaku with 14,283 views, 170 comments in 24
hrs
• 3/16 – Open Beta Announce
• 40k DAU increase in the next 24 hrs

18. • Opening Cinematic by Adam Phillips
• Over 100k views by launch
• 3 flavors cut:
– Teaser Trailer
– Launch Trailer
– “Too Hot for Facebook” uncensored version

19. • Earning unlocks in DA2 was a huge driver of product interest and players
• This blog post received 396 Likes, 224 Comments, 1.41% Engagement

20. • Feb 11 - Initial B R BFF post hinting at a community prize
• 209 Likes, 40 Comments, 0.98% Engagement

21. • Mar 4 - Second Posting attempted to be more discreet about the rewards
• 256 Likes, 85 Comments, 0.83% Engagement

22. • Mar 18 - Update to B R BFF
• 280 Likes, 266 Comments, 0.69% Engagement

23. • Mar 25 - 100k Likes was achieved, 9 days after open beta launch
• 813 Likes, 273 Comments, 1.07% Engagement

26. • Google Dragon Age, Legends Does not appear till the second page
• This is bad for organic user acquisition
• Dragon Age Journeys appears on the first

27. • Posted to the App Page wall ~= Daily
• Art/Screenshots/Game News hit the sweet spot
• Competitions had highest engagement
• Engagement on a post measured as (Story Likes +
Comments)/App Likes

28. • Favorite Comment: “Isildacil Valarion Pish... Viscount ravi my foot. Stand back and lemme at
em. If I conquered a blight and lived, I can beat a couple of pathetic critters.”
• 140 Likes, 72 Comments, 1.03% Engagement

29. • Take advantage of all the concept art you have lying around
• Have fun with your community. When a user commented “Sanjeev Sripathi Look guys, I love
these weapons and they look really cool. But isn't it a little late in the day to be concepting
stuff?” we posted the final art the very next day!
• Concept Art – 99 Likes, 37 Comments, 1.06% Engagement
• Final – 85 Likes, 29 Comments, 0.88% Engagement

30. … a guaranteed crowd pleaser in the RPG crowd

31. • Screenshots are a quick and easy win for a daily post
• Have some fun with it… bugs that amuse you will probably amuse your fans
• 49 Likes, 30 Comments, 0.48% Engagement

32. • Competitions driven by fan comments were hugely successful
• NPC Warcry competition: 81 Likes, 327 Comments, 3.68% Engagement!
• Getting something in the game is hugely valuable currency for your players.
• Example entry: “*POW* THAT'S FOR NOT PREORDERING DA2!!!”

33. • Blog posts got a medium response rate, but
were very time consuming
• Keep it short & simple
• Started getting wider pickup using notes
• Currency helps…
– We gave away beta keys to the first 50 commenter
on some FB note posts
– This resulted in a post with 240 comments!
– Beta Keys are more difficult to distribute in bulk
then you would imagine

34. • Sometimes they’re worth the effort…
– 93 Likes, 24 Comments, 1.35% engagement
• Sometimes, they’re not…
– 63 Likes, 26 Comments, .80% engagement
– 2.8k Views

35. … trying to get Felica Day to notice your Dragon Age facebook
companion game by putting her in the background of your
goofy promo materials.

36. • We got good mileage from posting amusing things that happened around
the office
• 70 Likes, 18 Comments, 0.97% engagement

37. • Even a producer’s job can provide a good update for your fans
• 47 Likes, 22 Comments, 0.79% Engagement

38. • Mar 20 - Collage of our favorite post-launch tweets
• 140 Likes, 208 Comments, 0.40% engagement

39. • Feb 13 - ~50 Fans showed up at Philz Coffee in SF for Beta Keys

40. … your fans probably don’t care about out of genre games.

41. • Not the best source for leads, or amusement for your fans
• 45 Likes, 21 Comments, 0.21% Engagement
• *Results may vary for bigger, AAA games

43. • Strong launch, but we didn’t capitalize on the
momentum
• 132k Peak DAU, 814k Peak MAU
– #s from Developer Analytics
• Not enough content
• Couldn’t produce content fast enough
• Buggy release
• Inconsistent platform stability

44. • D2C marketing can be a lot of fun, but it’s also a lot
of effort
• Community managers are worth their weight in
gold, so hire them early
• A few Kotaku articles and IGN front pages does not a
hit make
• Make sure that your game is in a position to
capitalize on all the momentum you build with pre
launch hype!

45. • Shorter PR time from announce to closed beta
• Longer closed beta period with various phases
• Metrics should drive escalation in phases of
the beta
• Unlocks were great for driving installs, but did
not guarantee retention
• The brand can drive Installs, but the game has
to drive day 2, day 3, etc…

46. • You can reach me at elevy@ea.com
• PS… we’re hiring. www.bioware.com/careers/san-francisco