SpeedRunners and the Changing Landscape of Marketing Tactics
There's been a few head-turning games when it comes to sales performance on a digital market. One particular gem on the near horizon is SpeedRunners, a wacky race-to-the-finish game that pits you against your friends. All it takes to win is reaching the end of the level first using an arsenal of techniques and environmental factors. Pretty simple. But there's a lot more to be said about success with this game from tinyBuild and DoubleDutch. The game has sold more than 1 million copies on Steam, but at an incredible sacrifice. The devil is in the details here, as tinyBuild gave away about 2 million worth of SpeedRunners copies while the game was in Early Access. It's unique to see that something akin to piracy can boost a developer's success. What are we seeing here?
It turns out the developer released a "demo" version of the game on The Pirate Bay with local multiplayer enabled, sparking a series of downloads so everyone could get their hands on it. However, online mode was disabled, whetting appetites for gamers that wanted more. The reception to buying the game in a Humble Bundle was overwhelming, leading towards a "black market key economy" where the game's player base was boosted significantly.
It's difficult to fathom that such a business avenue--releasing a free version on the web for local multiplayer--can be the launchpad for success, even at a sacrifice of 2 million in revenue. We're not able to take a time machine and test if tinyBuild would have seen a total of 3 million in revenue if they hadn't taken the "pirated" route, but something tells me the numbers wouldn't add up without this experiment. The kicker here is that the version released on TPB was available on Steam as well--it's only because the availability on such pirate sites boosted it's appeal, when the pirate avenue was just a facade to draw attention. Clearly, it worked.
There's more to explore here. In an age where game piracy is arguably down because of more stringent digital protection, are we seeing piracy being utilized as a marketing tool? Many remember the immortal pink unicorn from Serious Sam 3, one amazing (and brilliant) anti-piracy tactic. But is there more to it than that? I recall not following Serious Sam 3 until I caught word of the roseate arachnid. Could preventing and promoting piracy lead to success? Is this becoming part of a business model now? Clearly in tinyBuild's case it's one viable method. It rings in a more organic approach to marketing and allows players to give more feedback to the developer about strong development choices. Punch Club was a similar success with a piracy total hitting 1.6 million times across several countries. There's plenty more on the tinyBuild blog, but one sentence framed this tactic in a perfect light:
"It turns out the best way to beat piracy is to entice them with a portion of the game, then give it to them for next to nothing."
SpeedRunners releases April 19 with new features: a "Mario Kart"-style single player campaign, a speed trail shop, a betting system for Twitch, and a new opening cinematic. There's more info on tinyBuild's website if you care to take a gander.