2M Burger King games sold

[Acert93]

http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/12/21/burger_king_xbox/

Warwickshire (UK) - The hottest new video game character in town seems to be "the King", as developer Blitz Games has announced that more than two million copies of the Burger King Xbox games have been sold in the US in only four weeks, reports GamesIndustry.biz.

The games, Big Bumpin, Sneak King, and Pocketbike Racer, were made available at the end of November, and can be bought for $4 each (or in some locations $10 for all three) with any meal purchase at Burger King. The games are playable on both the original Xbox and Xbox 360 and feature such recognizable characters as The King, Subservient Chicken, and a man in a Whopper costume.

...

The move is an example of Microsoft's big push to market the Xbox brand to casual gamers, after nearly exhausting the true hardcore crowd. The promotion with Burger King has actually turned out to be an unexpected large part of the holiday marketing for Xbox.

Maybe we will start seeing $10 games that are... good? Could be a trend: Offer (branded?) games, cheap, at fast food chains. Low price, high sales, and maybe as a marketing partnership? e.g. something like Ronald McDonald's Kart Racing. Make a half way decent game, sell it cheap (impulse buy), partnerships (e.g. McDs) that are mutually beneficial (marketing for McDs, mass exposure and location availability for MS/Sony/Nintendo), and so forth. Kind of what they are doing now... but pushed with, you know, good games This could be a new avenue for games :smile: Of course the possibilities of ingame marketing...

 

[vazel]

I hope Burger King or another store chain(doesn't have to be fast food) does this again. It was really neat. Standards have to be lowered for these games but I thought Pocketbike Racer was ok, I had fun with it. Big Bumpin' I didn't like. Haven't acquired Sneak King yet.

 

[Dural]

Pocketbike Racer and Big Bumpin were actually pretty good, Sneak King not so much. Sneak King was good for a laugh or two but after that wasn't much fun. Pocketbike racer actually has a good selection of tracks for a $4 game though the framerate does leave a lot to be desired. Big Bumpin just needed more mini games, the ones there are a lot of fun. I'd welcome more of these promotional games if they are done right.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Maybe we will start seeing $10 games that are... good?

Aren't the download titles for Live! Arcade and Sony's EDI the best place to look for this? The EDI games so far certainly show some excellent production values. I think Arcade is a bit hampered by the 40 MB limit, but that doesn't stop good, entertaining games being produced.

I'd rather have low-cost, independent download creations over corporate sponsored advertisements mascarading as entertainment. I don't want to play as Burger King any more than I want to watch half-hour ads in the thin guise of 'The Animated Adventures of Ronald MacDonald' or a movie epic contrived around the plot of 'Sure Antiperspirant.' And in terms of PR, this has to be a bad choice! Fast food joints encouraging fast food to kids sat on their arse playing computer games...that'll go down well!

Anyway, enough ranting. I'm going to play 'The World of Cadbury's' MMORPG. I've got my Cadbury's Parrot class character up to level 16 and my next quest is to retrieve Minieggs to feed the starving village folk, as only the goodness of a pint and a half of full cream milk in every pound can cure them of the mysterious plague...

 

[vazel]

Something that just crossed my mind, I can't believe they didn't have an actual Burger King game where you work in one like in the Yoshinoya PS2 game. How fast can you serve the customers!? http://uk.videogames.games.yahoo.com/ps2/previews/yoshinoya-ff6bd2.html

 

[Acert93]

Aren't the download titles for Live! Arcade and Sony's EDI the best place to look for this? The EDI games so far certainly show some excellent production values. I think Arcade is a bit hampered by the 40 MB limit, but that doesn't stop good, entertaining games being produced.

I'd rather have low-cost, independent download creations over corporate sponsored advertisements mascarading as entertainment. I don't want to play as Burger King any more than I want to watch half-hour ads in the thin guise of 'The Animated Adventures of Ronald MacDonald' or a movie epic contrived around the plot of 'Sure Antiperspirant.' And in terms of PR, this has to be a bad choice! Fast food joints encouraging fast food to kids sat on their arse playing computer games...that'll go down well!

Download...

Different market The fast food industry is much larger than online penetration. I think they both could have their places. Yeah, the branded/marketing tool games walk a fine line, but if done right could be good exposure and a cheap way to get entertainment.

Interesting dry run -- and "good" news in a) using alternative mainstream means to distribute games that b) exposose new audiances (isn't that all the rage these days?!) to gaming and legitimize mainstream gaming. Toss in that it was a success could encourage further experimentation. Sure, this time the games were average at best (even for the price), but I think this could be well worth it if we see some quality "B" level games coming out at $4-$10 through channels like this. CHEAPER gaming and broader distribution.

 

[London Geezer]

Pffft... A console shouldn't be called "next gen" until you can download a Burger King software, and a XL Double Whopper Meal comes out of the thing. With drink. And a choice of sauces of course. There must be lots of options in the software.

 

[hey69]

well thats nice. 2 million? damn
speaking of ..
too bad there is no burger king in belgium. I love it, and speakin of it , it makes me hungry

 

[Skrying]

Need achievements and when you reach a certain point you get a free Whopper.

 

[Acert93]

Need achievements and when you reach a certain point you get a free Whopper.

Now THAT is the spirit! You need to go into marketing

 

[Skrying]

Now THAT is the spirit! You need to go into marketing

Funny enough, it wasn't my idea, but someones who indeed does work in marketing.

 

[London Geezer]

Funny enough, it wasn't my idea, but someones who indeed does work in marketing.

Heh, marketing is actually "common sense made academic" sometimes... But don't quote me on that.

 

[22psi]

Amazing, simply amazing. Thanks to all the wonderful healthy eating fast food Americans!

 

[Tap In]

have not played it but a couple friends told me they had a riot with these games.

Regardless, 2 million is 2 million exposed to xbox brand.
the King is a pop culture icon at the moment too in the US.

 

[AzBat]

If most customers were like me, they bought all 3 of them. I wanted Sneak King for myself. The kids got the others. So far the youngest likes Big Bumpin the best. I haven't tried them myself. Will do when I finally open the 360 box. Although Sneak King was cool, it probably would have been a little better on the 360.

Tommy McClain

 

[Nesh]

Heh, marketing is actually "common sense made academic" sometimes... But don't quote me on that.

I think marketing is more like "exploiting the weaknesses of common sense" which justifies it for being academic perfectly

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Regardless, 2 million is 2 million exposed to xbox brand.
the King is a pop culture icon at the moment too in the US.

That explains why it's not happening here. There's been a couple of King adverts, with a creepy looking Burger King looking a bit of a prat. He hasn't made an pop culture headway from what I can tell. Now instead they have an Aberdeen Angus burger advert, which is far more likely to get me into a BK!

 

[archangelmorph]

That explains why it's not happening here. There's been a couple of King adverts, with a creepy looking Burger King looking a bit of a prat. He hasn't made an pop culture headway from what I can tell. Now instead they have an Aberdeen Angus burger advert, which is far more likely to get me into a BK!

This really shows just how powerful it can be for a development company to leverage licenses and the biggest suprise to me is that it show's us that those licenses don't have to come from other form's of media only (movies, books etc..)

Get ready for..:

the adventures of Levis man!
Dunlop Sports!
Jacob's cracker jacker!
The adventures of Gucci - Fashion Saga

It could happen!

 

[Nesh]

This really shows just how powerful it can be for a development company to leverage licenses and the biggest suprise to me is that it show's us that those licenses don't have to come from other form's of media only (movies, books etc..)

Get ready for..:

the adventures of Levis man!
Dunlop Sports!
Jacob's cracker jacker!
The adventures of Gucci - Fashion Saga

It could happen!

NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

[Cobra101]

Who says crap doesn't sell?