Burgers and Blitz: Creating a Brand-funded Game

Speakers: Sion Lenton

Track: Business and Management

Format: Lecture

Experience Level: All

Description: In a unique promotion for Burger King, Microsoft's Xbox team worked closely with leading British developer Blitz Games to produce three Xbox 360 games for a massive in-store promotion beginning November 2006. The promo sold 3.2M units and was cited as being responsible for a 40% increase in BK's Q4 profits. 

The three games, heavily themed around BK's brand and 'The King' character have taken in-game advertising to a whole new level - not just a logo placed in-game, instead, these games are a living, breathing embodiment of the BK brand. For Xbox, BK, Blitz and the games industry - this was a first - at no other time in the industry's history has a game development tie-in on this scale been attempted. Is this the beginning of a new trend? Will we see more brand-funded games? How was it achieved in only 7 months? (The games include multiplayer and online features). And what do Xbox and Blitz stand to gain from this in the long-term? How successful was the promotion - what elements did/didn't work?