Jeff Pabst, Xbox’s Group Manager, Planning on a solution that raised the bar for branded gaming.
It was hugely ambitious: nine months to produce three full-length console titles; nine months to produce branded games that could stand comparison to their retail-level rivals; nine months to prove just how far brand involvement in gaming can go.
In the event, Burger King’s gaming trilogy succeeded on all counts. ‘Sneak King’, ‘Big Bumpin’ and ‘Pocket Bike Racer’ won the Xbox community over through high-quality and extreme value.
Gaming blogs such as IGN and games.net threw their weight behind the three “King Games”, referring to them as the ‘biggest surprise the Xbox 360 has ever seen’ and praising their delivery of ‘laughs for the entire family.’ Retailing for $3.99 at Burger King restaurants, the games sold 3.2 million units in six weeks (a successful console game enjoys worldwide sales of 1 million). Financial analysts credited game sales with helping to lead a 40 per cent rise in Burger King revenues.
Why did it work so well? For me it comes down to the quality of the brand fit that first led Burger King to explore an Adver-gaming solution and the commitment shown to delivering on that brand fit. There was no sense of exploiting the gaming community simply because they happened to be the brand’s target audience: Burger King set about producing and marketing Xbox games as if that was what it was put on earth to do.
The games all combined simple, compelling gameplay with the quirkiness that infuses Burger King’s US brand icon, ‘The King’. Sneak King put gamers in the role of The King, stealthily relieving hungry passers-by through the spectacular delivery of burgers and other meals. Pocket Bike Racer promised urban mayhem on two tiny wheels; Big Bumpin’ brought similar anarchy to the fairground.
Perhaps the most exciting aspect of the games’ success is that the potential for this type of solution has increased since. Xbox LIVE provides branded gaming with an alternative, online distribution channel and great potential for building on gamer approval through community word-of-mouth. It also gives such titles genuine global scope. The next time a brand produces games of the quality and integrity of Burger King’s, we could well be looking at an international phenomenon.
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