An Analysis of Blizzard’s use of Social Media for “Overwatch”
One company which has done a fantastic job utilizing social media has been Blizzard Entertainment and its management of social media for its game “Overwatch”. The organization has been making use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram in order to advertise the game, provide teasers for upcoming new content, receive feedback, and interact with the gaming community as a whole. The constant updates has been a daily occurrence on at least one of the game’s social media accounts, providing a stunning amount of engagement for anyone who has an interest in the game.
The social media accounts for Overwatch are naturally used heavily for advertising, with the big difference from other companies being that Blizzard is clear not to use any clickbait techniques in order to draw in an audience. This transparency was clear from even before the game’s launch, with developers noting that while there is plenty of downloadable content and expansion planned for the game, with the only mandatory charge for accessing all of the new content being the initial purchase of the game (Frank, 2015). One of the most interesting moves I’ve seen Blizzard make with their use of social media was promoting a completely free trial for a weekend, with no limitations or restrictions only six months after release. This wasn’t even just for one gaming platform, with Blizzard offering free trial for the game for anyone on PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One (Blizzard Entertainment, 2016).
While the concept of offering free trials and promoting that via social media is nothing new to games, offering a full trial with no restrictions of one of the hottest AAA games of the year is generally unheard of. This is in contrast to the Star Wars Battlefront release one year earlier, which was promoted as a fully completed game, though containing very limited map and game mode options, forcing gamers to buy further expansions (Mooku107, 2015). Blizzard did a great job at providing a social media promotion with zero clickbait, providing gamers with exactly what they promised, and being completely transparent in both future planning and advertisements. It’s a bit obvious to say what gamers were much happier with.
Blizzard’s use of social media has been integral to the continued interest in Overwatch, as the company is constantly updating fans and providing teasers for new content or updates as they are working on them. Most notably, Blizzard goes beyond simple advertising when teasing a new playable character, by giving the community subtle hints in the form of web comics, riddles, videos, and cryptic images before releasing a formal teaser trailer. This leaves fans of the game with pure excitement and creates a flurry of activity on Facebook and Twitter as gamers try to solve the mystery as to who a new character might be, what their abilities are, and if there is any deeper meaning in social media posts.
One of the most notable cases of this was the time leading up to the release of the second additional playable characters in Overwatch. Blizzard planned the use of an alternate reality game, with hints being placed in-game, and in blog and social media posts on several platforms, providing a myriad of puzzles and riddles for the community to solve in order to uncover the backstory of this new character (Grayson, 2016). Every Facebook post, tweet, YouTube video, and Instagram photo were heavily scrutinized, with threads on Reddit and the official Overwatch forums exploding with theories, possible solutions, and brainstorming. This campaign was an excellent example of Blizzard’s planned content, as the campaign spanned over several months, with developers spending an equally long time putting together the promotion. This careful crafting of the content ended up providing users with an extremely engaging and interesting way to be introduced to new content, and created a level of stimulation and engagement that goes much further than a simple advertisement posted on a social media platform. While many fans of the game were irritated by this alternate reality campaign due to the fact that it was simply just a teaser leading up to Blizzard’s official release notes, I still believe it was a very interesting and brilliant use of social media in order to promote a new feature in the game.
The major positive to Blizzard being so involved with Overwatch’s social media platforms is that the company is willing to accept feedback received on social media, and act on it. The most notable example of this was changing one of the character’s victory pose models after receiving heated feedback on Overwatch’s official forums, Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter. During the closed beta test of this game, many fans were bothered by this victory pose as they felt it provided unnecessary sexualization of a female character and had nothing to do with the character’s characteristics (Good, 2016). The game’s director quickly responded to the comments and soon announced that the creative team would remove and replace it in the game. This change was implemented in the game far before the beta version was open to the general public, with the majority of fans being satisfied despite a small feeling within the community that the change did not end up improving on much.
Similar to this case, there was some controversy when Blizzard released the initial character cast of Overwatch, with feminist critics pointing out that all of the female characters fit into stereotypical oversexualized notions of female characters, and that none of these female characters had much to offer in terms of diversity. Blizzard was quick to respond to this social media outcry by designing and releasing a female character who was specifically designed in order to tackle the notion of diverse body types and sizes. Furthermore, Blizzard streamed this announcement on Twitch and its social media platforms during a PAX East presentation in order to let the public know that they are listening to fan feedback and are striving to provide content which provides diversity not only in a racial sense, but body types, and country of origin (Hernandez, 2015). While I still feel that Blizzard relied on stereotypes for creating this character who is a strong, buff, Russian soldier, I still believe that it is a step in the right direction for diversity in video game characters and that I have to admire the fact that Blizzard designed this character specifically with feedback they have received in mind.
Blizzard has also done an amazing job at community engagement, with constant replies to fans on both Facebook and Twitter on a daily basis, polls for future content ideas, and the development of media specifically for fans of Overwatch. Blizzard has been doing a great job at producing media for fans to consume, and takes it a step further than simple promotional value by providing videos and comics which aren’t intended solely as promotional items, but more for the entertainment of the fans themselves. These comics and animated shorts provide a more in-depth look into characters’ backstories and lore surrounding the game. While this knowledge is absolutely useless for in-game purposes, it provides fans with a peek into this fictional world and stresses the game’s brand of providing users with a positive and fun experience rather than simply being another game that is set to steal your money.
The most notable instance of this extra content being produced solely for entertainment value is an animated short created for one of the original characters from the game’s launch, three months after the game was public on the market. By all intents and purposes, this animated short wasn’t needed for advertisement or promotion of the game, and in fact, would only have been fully understood by people who were familiar with the game, the character, and some of the lore of Overwatch. Despite the fact that the game had already been out on the market for months and it was not a promotional video providing a look into any new content, this video has the highest view count on Overwatch’s official YouTube channel with over 13.5 million hits (PlayOverwatch, 2016). This video has even surpassed Overwatch’s first cinematic trailer which was released two years earlier, and had only racked up 11.7 million views (PlayOverwatch, 2014). To me, the view count only signifies how much the fans and community enjoyed and appreciated this extra content released solely for entertainment by Blizzard, with the intent on providing a good experience for the community.
Finally, the last point in Blizzard’s social media management for Overwatch that I want to analyze is another example of how deeply the company cares about interaction with the users. One of the playable characters is a 19 year-old pro gamer who is heavily sponsored and a major celebrity in this in-game world. Fans of the game quickly created a meme for this character by throwing in the cliché of hardcore gamers’ diets including Mountain Dew and Doritos as staples. Pictures of this character depicted as a gamer slob feasting on Mountain Dew and Doritos quickly started circulating the Internet, providing the world with the gem of a meme known as “Gremlin D.Va”.
To the surprise of Overwatch fans, Blizzard eventually ended up releasing an in-game emote where the character sits down and takes a break from combat to turn on a video game, and periodically munches on handfuls of suspiciously triangular, nacho flavoured chips and slurping from a can of what we can only assume is some sort of neon beverage. While Blizzard has been known for including memes as easter eggs or references in games such as World of Warcraft, it was completely unexpected move that took Overwatch fans by hilarious surprise. This was, however, a very smart business decision as this in-game emote is also one of the most expensive items that can be purchased in the game.
Overall, I have to commend Blizzard’s use of social media for Overwatch. It has been almost a year since the game has been on store shelves and there is no sign of Overwatch’s social media accounts slowing down in activity, nor are the fans of the game getting tired of interacting with the company itself. Game on!
References:
Blizzard Entertainment. (2016, November 9). Play Overwatch Free November 18–21 on PC, Playstation 4, and Xbox One. Retrieved from https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/blog/20372506
Frank, A. (2015, December 7). Overwatch will receive additional heroes and maps for free. Retrieved from http://www.polygon.com/2015/12/7/9864448/overwatch-will-receive-additional-heroes-and-maps-for-free
Good, O. (2016, April 6). Here’s Overwatch’s replacement for the victory pose that caused such a fuss. Retrieved from http://www.polygon.com/2016/4/6/11376814/overwatch-tracer-pose-butt-replacement
Grayson, N. (2016, November 7). Blizzard, On Overwatch’s Sombra: ‘We’re Not VeryGood at ARGs’. Retrieved from http://kotaku.com/blizzard-on-overwatchs-sombra-were-not-very-good-at-a-1788673279
Hernandez, P. (2015, March 6). New Overwatch Character Shows Blizzard Really Is Listening Retrieved from http://kotaku.com/new-overwatch-character-shows-blizzard-really-is-listen-1689904549
Mooku107. (2015, November 14). Battlefront’s Lack of Content. Retrieved from http://starwars.ea.com/starwars/battlefront/forums/discussion/7770/battlefronts-lack-of-content
[PlayOverwatch]. (2016, August 18). Overwatch Animated Short | “The Last Bastion”. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/to8yh83jlXg
[PlayOverwatch]. (2014, November 7). Overwatch Cinematic Trailer. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/FqnKB22pOC0
