Namco Bandai readies £1m Dark Souls II campaign

Namco Bandai is spending big to make Dark Souls II the next big RPG blockbuster.
The publisher is splashing £1m on marketing the RPG, which is Namco’s biggest ever campaign. The title launches March 14th on PS3 and 360.
Dark Souls II is the sequel to the 2011 cult hit, which has garnered huge press attention with a number of celebrity and media fans.
“We really want to push Dark Souls as a franchise whilst looking after our core fans,” said Namco Bandai’s UK PR and marketing director Lee Kirton.
“It has our biggest TV, cinema and online support. We are spending over £1m on marketing in the UK, which is substantial for us. And we hope to sell over the units of the first Dark Souls.
“We view this as a reason to keep your PS3 and 360.”
The firm believes Dark Souls II can be a breakthrough for the series, and attract more mainstream RPG fans of titles like Skyrim.
“These games are very different beasts, but we think that fans of Skyrim, The Witcher and any RPG would be in to Dark Souls II and enjoy it,” said Kirton.
The firm’s cinema campaign includes spots around Robocop, Non-Stop, 300: Rise of an Empire and Need for Speed.
Print advertising has run for over a year, while the TV campaign begins on March 8th, running for two weeks across Channel 4, Film 4, E4, Channel 5, Dave, Sky 1, Sky Movies, Sky Sports and more.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/namco...mpaign/0128174