The original Battlestations: Midway was a massive success for veteran Britsoft publisher Eidos. The game reached No.1 in the UK All Formats Charts, prompting the firm to deliver a sequel to its hungry fans.
Battlestations: Pacific offers everything that made the original so popular as well as extra features to entice new fans – and the publisher is confident the game won’t disappoint.
“There is no other game out there like Battlestations: Pacific so we have to gauge our expectations against the success of the original, which established a loyal following due to its unique mix of action and strategy,” says Eidos’ product manager Grant Tasker.
“With Pacific, we’ve listened to the community and are delivering a vastly improved experience, which is far more accessible as we look to broaden the audience, whilst also being careful to retain the key gameplay elements, which made the original successful.”
BATTLESTATIONS: MARKETING
Eidos expects to reach an even bigger audience this time around, as the 360’s installed base has expanded since the release of Midway in 2007. The improvements made to the game, combined with the marketing and PR campaign built around its release, should ensure that this goal is realised.
A three-month specialist print campaign kicked off on March 5th across all 360 and PC publications, consisting of ads on inside front covers, spreads and outside back covers.
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The online campaign began on April 17th, which Tasker describes as Eidos’ “most targeted online campaign ever” as it fully utilises competitor and behavioural targeting capabilities of the largest gaming sites on the internet.
“We will be gradually broadening the audience reach from the beginning of the second week, as well as communicating the release of the demo with high impact channel takeovers on key sites such as Gamespot,” he says.
“Coverage will be broadened further the week before launch, with takeovers on Eurogamer, and further still over launch week with takeovers across selected sites, as well as increasing our impressions through run of site activity across a wide range of portals.”
ACTION STATIONS
One of the most impressive aspects of Battlestations: Midway was the game’s scale and the way the battles are fought. For Pacific, Eidos has built on this, giving players the ability to either command or take control of air, sea and undersea units.
Should gamers want to jump straight into the action, the cockpit view gets them closer to the conflict. This mode allows gamers to appreciate the lengths Eidos has gone to in presenting the Pacific Ocean and its islands as realistically as possible, with day and night cycle and varying weather conditions.
This time around, aspiring admirals will be able to play through some of World War II’s crucial Pacific naval battles as either the US or Japanese forces.
“In terms of size and scale, Pacific is twice the size of Midway with 28 missions in the single-player campaign and a skirmish mode with over 100 different scenarios,” Tasker says.
“Finally, the multiplayer combines the scale and uniqueness of this game and then takes it online with five modes. Gamers will have a lot of fun online.”
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