Genshin Impact has been one of the most successful games of the past year, taking the mobile gaming space by storm. Earning over $245M in its first month, the game has been a monumental success.
Genshin Impact’s release schedule for content centered around three key dates: September 7th ( a week before PC open beta), September 28th (Open beta release for all platforms), and October 30th (Game update drops). A combination of video, image and written content was used to keep things fresh and effectively communicate the messaging.
Going further than traditional content, a mini-campaign was launched using AR (Augmented Reality) to enable players to take a photo of themselves, with one of the characters and then solve a puzzle relating to the game. The event spread across a number of international territories with individual prizes, and also community prizes which required large participation, encouraging sharing and helping to facilitate the building of a community. Sharing was facilitated through social media and the use of hashtags #genshinpuzzle and #genshin.
Genshin Impact’s media timeline showcases another crucial aspect of current-gen game marketing. Generating buzz surrounding important gameplay changes such as Genshin’s 1.1 patch on November 3rd, was crucial for maintaining consumer interest. Developers tweaking their games post-launch is commonplace today, and with this comes opportunity to send patch-specific media (showcasing new gameplay, stat tweaks etc) through advertising channels, which keeps current players engaged and also has the ability to convert potential players who were considering buying the game.
