ESO on ESPN...Are My Eyes Playing Tricks on Me?

arena25 · July 2015

So I have a little under 36 hours left in my vacation. I was watching SportsCenter, when the anchor said..."SportsCenter brought to you by The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited".

I thought "Are you kidding me?" ESPN seems like the last place you want to have a video game sponsorship with...

I don't...I can't...I don't understand.

What are your thoughts on this, Community?

Psychobunni · July 2015

arena25 wrote: »

What are your thoughts on this, Community?

"LOL"

Stravokov · July 2015

LOL apples and oranges. guess they want to mix up this fruit salad!

i am officially no longer surprised by their decision making, that one blew the gasket.

Gamertaglemieux · July 2015

Think it's awesome.

Everybody in the world should be playing this game.

Rosveen · July 2015

What's SportsCenter and why is this decision strange?

arena25 · July 2015

Rosveen wrote: »

What's SportsCenter and why is this decision strange?

It's ESPN's flagship programming...and think about it...what video game would sponsor a sports news TV show?

Psychobunni · July 2015

arena25 wrote: »

Rosveen wrote: »

What's SportsCenter and why is this decision strange?

It's ESPN's flagship programming...and think about it...what video game would sponsor a sports news TV show?

Next week, Fox and Friends brought to you by The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

Reeko · July 2015

Would you prefer they get a childrens channel/show and flood the game with elementary school kids?

Phinix1 · July 2015

The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

"It's got what plants crave!"

-Brought to you by Carl's Jr.

Seriously though, no one watches TV anymore so where would they advertise? Netflix I guess, or Amazon.

Psychobunni · July 2015

Phinix1 wrote: »

The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

"It's got what plants crave!"

-Brought to you by Carl's Jr.

Seriously though, no one watches TV anymore so where would they advertise? Netflix I guess, or Amazon.

Walking Dead. That would be worth the money spent, could even do a zombie scene

asteldian · July 2015

Well, given that you, a gamer, saw the advert on sportscentre, it would suggest gamers do indeed watch sport. So not all that crazy especially given that sport brings together people from all walks of life.

RadicalSpirit · July 2015

I personally don't think the link is that strange, considering the whole "eSports" thing that we have these days, maybe ESO will end up being featured in MLG sometime.

It would be weirder if they were sponsoring baby nappies or something.

Kazzy56 · July 2015

PS4 EU

Whats the big deal? Seems to me that in some peoples eyes they can't get anything right.

Have a great Tamriel day.

Funkopotamus · July 2015

yeah I was shocked to see a commercial on tv the other day. The wife and I were watching and we both were surprised to see that ZOS spent the money for it.

Come to think of it you honestly do not see game commercials that much.
Everyone remembers the BF4 commercial drive though I bet.. I swear it took a month or more to get that song out of my head lol..

Wolfshade · July 2015

Better ESPN than pay-tv like SKY. There you could see the release-trailers, exclusively! That was a shockin moment

Dagoth_Rac · July 2015

I have seen ESO commercials on SportsCenter, too. Although not last night. My guess is that very late night/early AM ads are fairly cheap, while at the same time SportsCenter probably has decent ratings at that hour, especially on the west coast. What other network airs its flagship show at non-primetime hours? And the demographic for SportsCenter is likely similar to ESO, skewing young and male.

DaveTheMinion · July 2015

"Game of thrones sponsored by The elder scrolls online"

It has to be the above, nothing else

Yinmaigao · July 2015

There seems to be a boatload of money being dumped on advertising, but (from what I have seen in my gameplay) numbers are not improving.

I frequent a number of game stores around my house, and though there are teaser trailers playing all the time, the employees recommend not purchasing until "the kinks get worked out".

So while media hypes the game, a subset of gamers and reviewers keep thrashing it, so the numbers stay about even in the end. At least from what I have seen as of late.

stefan.gustavsonb16_ESO · July 2015

It's probably a very simple case of matching the demographics. Potential MMO gamers are believed to be the kind of people who watch late night sports TV. They obviously reached some of the active players, so they might even be right. I doubt the sponsoring will make any difference, though. Now that the huge hype has faded I am not so sure there are many people left who wanted to give the game a try but still haven't done so.

Paradox · July 2015

The purpose of marketing is to introduce new customers to something, not show current customers the same. Where would you have them market their game? Game sites? Places people who already know of ESO frequent? They want potentially new players to see the ads, not current ones.

Funkopotamus · July 2015

Yinmaigao wrote: »

There seems to be a boatload of money being dumped on advertising, but (from what I have seen in my gameplay) numbers are not improving.

I frequent a number of game stores around my house, and though there are teaser trailers playing all the time, the employees recommend not purchasing until "the kinks get worked out".

.

I have heard the same.

But also have heard employees tell people the PvP system is horrible due to the CP system and the transfer's. One girl working there even made me laugh when I heard her try to make a sale by telling the dude "You better get in now if you are wanting to PvP because of the CP grind" LOL

Psychobunni · July 2015

Yinmaigao wrote: »

There seems to be a boatload of money being dumped on advertising, but (from what I have seen in my gameplay) numbers are not improving.

I frequent a number of game stores around my house, and though there are teaser trailers playing all the time, the employees recommend not purchasing until "the kinks get worked out".

So while media hypes the game, a subset of gamers and reviewers keep thrashing it, so the numbers stay about even in the end. At least from what I have seen as of late.

^This, our local Gamestop warned us away too lol

Pman85 · July 2015

I think the age demographic from ESPN is right where it needs to be for ESO. Generally ESPN might be more a male demo vs a female, but the same can be said for the ESPN views. If you really think about it, it makes a pretty good spot for advertising your game.

P3ZZL3 · July 2015

Just think how many developers you could afford from that cost to get actual DLC issued and tested and released in time for a community?

Dradhok · July 2015

Pman85 wrote: »

I think the age demographic from ESPN is right where it needs to be for ESO. Generally ESPN might be more a male demo vs a female, but the same can be said for the ESPN views. If you really think about it, it makes a pretty good spot for advertising your game.

I was going to say the same thing. ESPN and ESO cater to the same core demographic. It would be odd if you walked into a EOS tavern and SportsCenter was on behind the bar. I'd probably stop and watch some highlights, I'm not going to lie.

GreySix · July 2015

People who watch sports on TV also play video games?

Next thing you know, we'll learn that high school kids like to show off in front of their peers!

tinythinker · July 2015

Is this the commercial?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYQLhqooh0E

Danikat · July 2015

They're apparently targeting commuters in Europe. I've seen a lot of adds around the London Underground, and when I was in Paris they were all over the Metro too.

That one kind of makes sense though, since the adds were pretty much just the name, logo and a tag line about not having a subscription fee any more, I guess they're targeting people (like me) who are fans of the TES games and/or like the idea of playing an MMO but don't think they have enough time to justify the cost.

phairdon · July 2015

Wolfshade wrote: »

Better ESPN than pay-tv like SKY. There you could see the release-trailers, exclusively! That was a shockin moment

ESPN is on Sky TV where I live. Did not notice anything about Tamriel Unlimited on SportsCenter after watching the baseball today. Must pay more attention today.

Junipus · July 2015

P3ZZL3 wrote: »

Just think how many developers you could afford from that cost to get actual DLC issued and tested and released in time for a community?

You could get all the developers in the world but without organisation, leadership and communication/cooperation they'd still be in the same place as they are now.

You can do a lot more with a core team that knows their stuff than a legion left to their own devices.

stefan.gustavsonb16_ESO · July 2015

Awesome low-budget commercials starring Sophie Monk notwithstanding, I think heavy advertising at this point in the game's development cycle is not a very good idea. They should fix their game first, and only then try to attract a new crowd or win back the old crowd.

For the PC version, they managed to find a substantial amount of new and returning players with the re-release of TU, but they didn't actually fix the game, it was just re-branded, repackaged and made cheaper. The people prepared to give TU a chance on PC were met with the same old problems, and that didn't play out so well.