Machinima.com recently launched their first couple of Machinima Interactive Video Experience (M.I.V.E.) YouTube videos for Halo 3 and Killzone 2. If you haven’t seen them yet, be sure to take a couple of minutes and experience the Halo 3 MIVE here or the Killzone 2 MIVE here.
Now that you’ve checked them out, you’ve probably been exposed to more of the game then you would have from a regular game trailer, and at your choice with some fun sprinkled in. It’s a unique twist on the annotations feature on YouTube that is lending itself well to video game trailers, as Machinima.com has created.
I chatted with Allen DeBevoise, CEO from Machinima.com, to learn more about this new method of showcasing a game online and what it means for a game’s marketing.
GamingBits: What is your role with Machinima.com?
Allen: I’m the CEO of Machinima.com. There’s a lot of activity that has increased in the last year or so on YouTube. We have over 40 million views a month on YouTube. We’ve been constantly able to interact with new ideas, like the new M.I.V.E. we’re doing. Gamers are the most interactive crowd that there is.
GamingBits: Could you explain a little about the Machinima Interactive Video Experience (M.I.V.E.)?
Allen: We’ve been taking advantage of YouTube’s annotations tool, but what I think is an interesting thing is there are a lot of different things we are trying. Just one is to have it be fun and engaging. We’re also going to play around with interactive narratives. When you watch a trailer, you get a sense of what a game looks like, but one of the things we think is an interesting possibility is to get a bit of a sense of what a game feels like to play. What we’re working on now is to give you a sense of the way a game feels like as you make choices. Obviously it’s not as fast or highly interactive as the game, but it can become a new form of a gaming marketing tool or new form of game trailer. The interactivity itself gives you a sense of the interactivity that is in the game.
GamingBits: We were first typically introduced to games through screenshots in magazines and then through video trailers online, but this new form of game trailers is an interesting spin. What is one of the biggest challenges in creating one of these interactive videos?
Allen: The challenge is that you have to figure out all the paths and you have to create a bunch of videos. Essentially what is happening is all these videos are linked through the annotation tool. I think it’s a real promising thing for publishers to give people a sense of what is possible.
GamingBits: About how many videos does it take to do a M.I.V.E.?
Allen: Depending on the complexity, it could be about 30-50 videos for one M.I.V.E. Once it’s figured out, it could take someone about a week to make one. We’re sort of testing the idea with these early ones and seeing what the community felt about them. You can imagine that these interactive videos not just help you understand a new game, but give you insight on how to think about more advanced things.
GamingBits: Yeah, I was going to ask if you thought this could influence how gamers play the game when they actually get it.
Allen: Yeah, and one of the things we’ve been talking about is maybe getting top level players from the pro circuit to help us create one, with higher order strategy.
GamingBits: Did Sony or Microsoft sponsor the M.I.V.E.s you’ve released?
Allen: No, we just worked on them initially. In the case of Killzone 2, Sony did give us the game early so we could actually create some of these assets. Everyone is excited about it because of not only the insight into the game, but new marketing opportunities.
GamingBits: Could game footage premiere in this kind of format versus the traditional game trailer video?
Allen: Yes, one of the things I think this becomes is not a replacement of the trailer, but a companion to a trailer. A trailer can show you some of the multimedia in a game, but this can give you an idea of the choices you have. Like which weapon you can pick. If your game has lots of maps, that’s one of the things you could show in this kind of model.
The combination of Machinima, YouTube and gaming has created a really powerful performance. We get very good click-through rates on our ads/videos and lots of viral video views. It’s a very compelling opportunity to promote a game.
GamingBits: Is there any other M.I.V.E. you guys are thinking of doing next?
Allen: We’re working on some right now. We’ll probably be coming out with one every few weeks or so and testing them at different levels of complexity. We’re going to test it on a new game and probably on World of Warcraft.
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Here’s some interesting stats on Machinima.com’s YouTube Channel to give you an idea of the impact this can have on the gaming industry and how it is marketed:
"Machinima.com’s YouTube channel is the #1 Most Viewed and Most Subscribed Entertainment Channel of ALL TIME on YouTube. Monthly video views for Machinima.com leapt from 1 million monthly views in October 2007 to over 40 million monthly views in December 2008.
Because of their unrivaled ability to guarantee video views, Machinima.com is attracting some of the world’s leading entertainment brands including EA, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Paramount Pictures, Sega, Warner Bros and most recently, big action films."
Thanks to Allen and Emily for making this interview possible. Make sure to check out Machinima.com!
