In 1994 I worked on the Arcade Game Primal Rage for Time Warner Interactive and was busily working on the sequel while the sales and marketing department were conducting their campaign.
On the development side, we were responsible for the creation of the game, and worked with the marketing department through beta testing of arcade locations where the game would earn sometimes $1000 over a week one quarter at a time (although some games were priced at $0.75 per play) Using these earning numbers over several weeks from a handful of different locations - large arcades, minigolf centers, bowling alleys, even convenience stores - the sales and marketing departments would sell to arcade machine distributors, who then would lease the machines to arcade locations.
The sad truth is that there is really no room for second place when it comes to arcade machines; why buy a #1 earner and a #2 earner when you could simply buy two #1 earners? The competition for quarters was fierce and that determined the success or failure of all arcade game sales.
As far as Primal Rage was concerned, we had several weeks' worth of #1 earnings data from many different locations. This resulted in several thousand units sold for the arcade game and a healthy success for Time Warner Interactive.
The fascinating aspect of the marketing of Primal Rage was the campaign behind the consumer versions of the game. Less than a year after the release of the arcade game, there were ELEVEN different consumer versions either available or in production. I have a marketing brochure that lists all SKU's and shows a timeline of 'Marketing/Promotional Support' that spans the months of July through December.
The 'Support' as listed comes in such forms as: Nationwide TV and Print Advertising, Electronic Gaming Monthly Nationwide Mall Tour, In-Store Merchandising, Public Relations, Major Market Radio Advertising, In-Pack Promotion, Sega Channel Promotion, Online/Internet Activities, Polybagged Demo Disks, National Six Flags Videogame Tournament, and a Consumer Strategy Guide, all of which have different life spans.
Coordinating all of these dates and promotions nationwide would be too much for one person, and I'm not sure how many people the Marketing team had. I also have no idea what the size of the budget for this project was, but I can imagine that could have been in the millions of dollars.
What is equally fascinating to me was the coordination of merchandising of the brand into toys and apparel. I still own 6 out of the 7 original Playmates 6" action figures of the characters in the game, as well as some compact collapsible playsets, arcade and consumer strategy guides, some large 12" action figures, and the Primal Rage slide projector! The work that went into negotiating these merchandising deals must have been exciting and fun to be a part of!
