The reality of marketing a VR game in a 2D world
Experiential is obviously the way to go? Well yes, and now that we’re fast approaching launch expect the major headset players to attend the main consumer shows such as EGX or Paris Games Week in a big way, or set up their own hands-on events, such as HTC’s current tour of the Vive in North America. These experiential opportunities will be the key focus for the hardware manufacturers to get headsets on as many heads as possible, and create the evangelists and desire for their product.
However experiential isn’t going to be an available option for everyone, especially your smaller studios.
In reality, once VR has become a part of all our lives and everyone is interacting with content on a daily basis, much of the marketing will be done within the headset where it’ll be at its most effective and where viewers can interact with what you’re selling to them. Technology will have figured out a way to do this cheaply and effectively – as we do now with our 2D assets – and the next thing you know we are all Wade Watts living in a virtual world…
In the meantime: Stick to your 2D trailers, maybe do a bit of picture-in-picture if it works for your product and you have the resource. Otherwise, don’t worry, the VR early adopters will get it and it’ll come down to how good your content looks, not how fancy the marketing is. Then cross your fingers that the first parties do a great job with their experiential events and come this time next year everyone is a virtual reality expert.