Unless you’ve been living under a rock — a rock enchanted with Resist Gaming News, Level 10 — you probably know that Blizzard announced Diablo III this past weekend. The news was practically plastered all over the internet. But how? The company didn’t conduct a massive PR campaign. To inform the general audience that the fire n’ brimstone, hack n’ slash sequel was incoming, Blizzard didn’t do so much as lift a finger. Instead, with a simple viral marketing ploy and a clever picture, they relied on multiple existing audiences to do all the work for them.
There it is — the image that launched a thousand sessions of Photoshop.
Within hours of the illustration’s appearance on the splash screen of Blizzard’ home page, rampant speculation gave way to unimpeachable evidence that Blizzard was teasing Wrath of the Lich King. Though they might not have otherwise, several MMO enthusiast publications took notice. But the very next day, the image changed… and a Diablo rune appeared, etched into the ice. This new development was not lost on the legions of Diablo fans, who wasted no time in devoting at least 180 forum pages to its discussion, within the span of a mere 26 hours.
On day three, StarCraft fans got their own reason to tell a friend, as some realized that day’s rune belonged to the Protoss. Day four unveiled possibilities of Pax Imperia… day five an almost certain reference to The Lost Vikings.
Now, I’m a fan of Blizzard itself. I’ve enjoyed every game of theirs I’ve ever laid hands on, and I was ready to celebrate no matter which title Blizzard decided to reveal at their Worldwide Invitational. But in the aftermath of Saturday’s announcement, I got to thinking: what about those who don’t feel the same? Although OnlineWelten managed to corner Blizzard VP Rob Pardo long enough to confirm that the company still has an unannounced MMO in the works, there was little mention of anything else other than Diablo; and those gamers who spent sleepless nights theorizing about further StarCraft, WarCraft and Lost Vikings possibilities might have felt a little let down when their dreams melted away.
If Blizzard saw this coming — and it’s hard to imagine they wouldn’t — why would they choose to potentially disappoint those fans? I believe it’s because they were tempted to build that much more hype for Diablo by using the leverage of StarCraft and WoW audiences each ten million strong. Diablo is certainly not a game to sneeze at, but in terms of fanbase it pales in comparison to Blizzard’s other wildly successful properties. Thus, they devised an image that could easily be mistaken for any of their properties, to draw in as many Blizzard gamers as possible, changed the image day after day to keep them guessing, and finally announced Diablo III after the hype had snowballed across all else the gaming press attempted to cover. Brilliant.
There’s another synergistic possibility as well. Perhaps Blizzard was betting that their RTS and MMO fans wouldn’t be disappointed by the Diablo announcement, but rather drawn into a game that they hadn’t previously considered — certainly food for thought when you note that the eight-year old Diablo II (in its various retail incarnations) is selling like the proverbial hotcakes at Amazon and Blizzard’s traffic numbers are going through the roof. Of course, it’s hard to say whether this is an influx of new blood or merely uncorked nostalgia…
But if a recent petition is any indication, Blizzard is going to need all the new blood it can get.
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July 10th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
[...] days ago, after an incredibly successful viral marketing ploy ensured truckloads of eyeballs were at the ready, Blizzard Entertainment [...]
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