Infinite Marketing

WARNING TO ALL.  THIS POST CONTAINS MANY MAJOR SPOILERS FOR BIOSHOCK INFINITE AND BORDERLANDS 2.  READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.  I REPEAT: SPOILER ALERT.

Okay I'm just going to start with the fact that I loved Bioshock Infinite.  I may have been a bit scathing in a previous post, but don't mistake that for me thinking that Bioshock Infinite is not in fact fantastic.  And who could forget that ending?  I'll bet no one could.  Infinite parallel worlds, infinite possibilities, all similar but all linked.  On top of that, the ending was a brilliantly subtle marketing ploy.

Irrational Games set up their ending perfectly to allow them to make as many more Bioshock titles as they feel like making while keeping them all connected.  Not that I'm complaining.  I love the Bioshock series and am happy to see more.  Furthermore the great part is they can do something completely different with the next game while keeping it continuous in universe.  Infinite realities with big differences but some things staying consistent, aka general mechanics, strong plot lines fueled by ideologies, and philosophies taken to their extreme.  I'm excited.  We're all excited.  But that's not what I"m talking about today in this post.  What I'm going to talk about is how they did it so cleverly.

Bioshock Infinite's ending was a beautifully perfect way to cap off the story.  In addition it gave plenty of creative freedom to allow for entirely new worlds.  Rapture and Columbia are just the beginning, at least that's what Infinite's ending promises.  However it does not come right out and say this.  It blends the message smoothly into the ending, subtle and sweet.  Now lets compare this to another game that did the same marketing ploy except in a way that I don't find as smooth or lovely, Borderlands 2.

At the end of Borderlands 2, they show the locations of a bunch of vaults that have opened up on a bunch of other planets.  They give no doubt in any player's mind that they're going to stop making Borderlands games any time soon.  Which is fine.  I love the Borderlands games.  However the way they presented it just didn't feel right.  It rubbed me the wrong way somehow.  It was too obvious, too in your face about how they were going to do more and more and more.  I don't know maybe it's just me,  but Borderlands 3 seemed like a given after the extreme success of Borderlands 1 and 2, did they really need to throw out that they have plans for an indefinite number of games in such a blunt manner?

I think the key difference between these two games is just in how they approached the same marketing ploy.  One was subtle and you may have even missed that they were advertising, the other was blunt and in your face about making sure you knew there were plenty of games to come after the fact.  A wise man once said the best marketing ploy is the one that no one notices, because if you did everything right it will be as if you did nothing at all.

Thanks for reading!  As always, comments and sharing is appreciated!  If you have any games you'd like me to review or topics you'd like me to discuss, post em in the comments!

Gamer out.