Branding and games: The Unique Rockstar Case

Quality is a word that’s thrown around in any chance a marketing team has to talk about their “revolutionary new project”, but as we all know, it often doesn’t reflect the final product. In the past months, we saw a special example of how much this word really is important to the market, with the internet going insane over 2 images that Rockstar uploaded to their social networks.

The first, their logo in a color scheme that reminds those of Red Dead Redemption, the second, the one at the top, in which 7 cowboys are walking with a beautiful sunset behind them, and a question remains, why does that happen with Rockstar? How can get they create so much expectation with so little?

They don’t announce anything at E3, gaming’s biggest stage, when other companies fight for attention, instead they manage to do their own thing, revealing their games whenever they want, in the way they desire. Without releasing several trailers, the first few minutes, and offering as little information as possible, they create a level of excitement, hype, and a positive reaction that is practically unrivaled in the business, showing an incredible brand awareness.

And the main reason behind it is the focus that they put on quality, with a strategy of releasing games only when they’re ready, instead of making their franchises annual, they only start advertising them a few months prior to release. Each title usually has some innovation, like GTA V, and its multiple leading characters, they use unusual settings, like schools or the Wild West.

Red Dead Redemption was a perfect example, having its debut trailer in December 2009, being released in May 2010, after several years of development. Receiving rave reviews, being regarded by many as the best game of the generation, and one of the best ever, being recognized for its story, stunning world and memorable characters in a genre that flirted with irrelevance, not only in the games industry but in movies as well.

John Marston, Trevor Phillips, became some of the most prominent figures in the games industry, as a display of the power of the studio and how it has mastered storytelling. The way they handle open-world games is impressive, creating lively environments, being their most famous trait, telling stories that bring different perspectives, maintaining a high level of quality throughout their library.

By creating franchises like Red Dead, GTA, just to name a few, they achieved a level of liberty that few have in the entertainment history as a whole, spending hundreds of millions on their projects whilst breaking records with every GTA sequel. All with a marketing strategy that no other studio would be able to pull off, due to the image they’ve accrued after releasing game of the year contenders, selling tens of millions of copies, achieving both critical and commercial success.

The fuss that has been going on about Red Dead Redemption 2 is a statement to how unique they are as a company in the games industry. People are losing their minds over a sequel of RDR, that was a sequel itself, without nobody caring about the continuity of the franchise, or possessing any concrete information regarding it.

Consumers are creating a huge level of hype on the promise of the product, that because of the studio behind it, they are sure that it will be an amazing experience. Rockstar through careful quality control, a focus on innovation, and an ability to create compelling characters and remarkable stories, reached a position that most companies only dream of, being able to advertise their product only relying on the power of their brand.