Assassin's Creed: Rogue

The Basics 

Assassin's Creed Rogue was released in November 2014 developed by Ubisoft Sofia and published by Ubisoft. It is an action-adventure game which storyline covers a plot set in North-Atlantic, following the millennia-old struggle between the Assassin Brotherhood, who fight to preserve peace and free will, alongside the Templar Order, who desire peace through control. The main plot is set before and during the seven years' war from 1752 to 1760 and follows the main protagonist, Shay Patrick Cormac, defects to the Templars and helps them hunt down members of his former Brotherhood after becoming disillusioned with their tactics. During the release time, the game received a mixed of reviews, with praise directed at the game’s twist on the traditional formula by playing as a Templar, the conventional storyline, complex protagonist, with the depiction of Assassin-Templar conflict, as well as the additions to the franchise’s story and the gameplay.  

Explore the production of the game 

Rogue was budgeted at $30-35 million directed by Mikhail Lozano, Spass Kroushkov, Martin Capel alongside producer Ivan Balabanov, who is the Managing Director at Ubisoft Sofia in Bulgaria, he worked on a few projects as 3D Artist. An estimation of around 2,000-3,000 individuals worked to make Rogue and be successful along the Assassin Creed franchise. The storyline of the game and its uniqueness reflect the games market by how successful the reviews were of the outcome of the game, fans of the game were impressed with the game, and stated that it was “Short n’ Sweet”. 

Exploring the Audience 

The target audience of the game were original fans of the Assassin Creed franchise, and the continued storyline of the protagonist, making them more keen to buy and play the game as on interest to see what happens next in the story. The demographic profile of the target audience for Assassin Creed’s can include the characteristics of Rogue’s players, including their age, gender, sexuality and social class of the audiences' players. By knowing this information, directors and producers of Rogue can tailor how they develop the game further and the games content. A psychographic profile of Rogue is more of a detailed description of the target audience including their characteristics, attitudes, opinions and beliefs. This can link to Rogue as individuals can leave reviews and opinions on the game and feedback towards the producers and developers of the game. 

Marketing: Where Audience Meets Industry 

The game was marketed by Ubisoft constructing several territory specific advertising campaigns to promote Assassin's Creed with unique advertising trailers constructed for Australia, Japan and England that used specific audience relatability. However, the same day of the release, the game ‘Unity’ was released the same day and could have made Rogue less popular because of this. It wasn’t supposed to be originally released on the same day; Unity was supposed to be released two weeks before Rouge. It got pushed back due to all its bugs/issues and just happened to be released the same day as Rouge. The ‘Assassin's Creed Rogue - Announcement Trailer’ creates a mysterious aspect of the game with a hint of the audience wondering – what's going to happen next? The setting of the game is in North-Atlantic, with the snow, icebergs, and the lonely setting could persuade the audience to want to know what's going to happen and why is the game set here? As well, the audience also sees a sign of redemption with the protagonist and another player seeking for forgiveness when a weapon is pointed at him, until the trailer ends. The website draws attention to detail with Shay Patrick Cormac, the protagonist and ending the short trailer with what's included in the game, including missions and packs. Unfortunately, social media wasn’t in popular use during the early 2010s, with the release of the game in 2014, suggesting that they may have lacked sales as they couldn’t advertise the game, as social media wasn’t a reliability and had to trust the marketing campaigns to work, including trailers. Synergy was used to market the game by interlinking different elements across media platforms to introduce the platforms to others – this can include YouTube, Twitter or Facebook. 

The appeals of the game can include a source of mysterious included within the teaser trailer with the game – also advertising what's going to be on offer to buy, if wanted, when the game is released. The target audience could like this side of Assassin’s Creed with wanting to know what's going to happen next, making them feel more obliged to buy and play the game. The gameplay "Assassin's Creed: Rogue" walkthrough (100% sync) Legendary Battle: Pirates of a Lost Age – includes a source of dramaticism with loads of battleships battling for their lives in the middle of the ocean, being loud and hectic. The gameplay is typical of the modern era games, as continuing now there is games that include ‘fighting for their lives’ and especially in dramatic settings. The representations of the game are typical of modern gaming as it includes a fast-paced scene, where you cannot miss even one second, as one wrong move could lead to your death within the game. The production values reflect on modern games as the production is well-made, considering the time it was released, and how much the budget was spent on the game, suggesting that players wouldn’t expect anything less.  

Success: Where Industry meets Audience 

Assassin's Creed Rogue is estimated to have made around $6.5 million in the end, winning no awards. The response of gamers liked the game Rogue, as they stated it was ‘Short n’ Sweet’ with the game being something different, but something different they liked. A positive review of the game stated “One of my favourites. GREAT story length. Just right. Because before I played it, it seemed like the straggler before new gen and why would I play that. Glad I did. Finally, a game was human shield reliably worked.” This review has taken a preferred reading of the game. However, not all reviewers were positive with the game with a review stating, “This was the first AC game I played, and man did it bore me to death.” This review has taken an oppositional reading of the game. Twitch TV is a live-streaming platform focused on gamers to share their platform. Rogue has been portrayed playing gameplay over the course of years to share their experiences of how they liked the game.  

Regulation 

The game reached a PEGI rating of 12. The rating would be suitable for mature 12-year-olds to the general audience of 13 and above. Rogue in general gives very good and engaging gameplay/combat.  

The benefits of the franchise model for games like Assassin’s Creed is the fact that players of the franchise are already familiar with the game style along with the characters and storyline of the franchise, suggesting that every time there's a new game release, there is already a fanbase.  

Albert Bandura (Audience)

Albert bandura believed that the media implants ideas and media inject into the brain after consuming it. Behaviour used within the media product can be mimicked and imitated by audiences, especially by children, as they don’t understand what’s right and wrong yet. Within Assassin’s Creed Rogue, violent behaviour is used constantly throughout gameplay to defeat any issues standing in the way to complete tasks and storylines, for instance, villains. As well as this, the protagonist doesn’t forgive anyone throughout the game and continues with his journey, rather than a need for forgiveness. Young players of this game may copy these actions, as they may believe it’s the norm to do and inspire to be like the protagonist of the game. Bandura would believe that children will go away from this game and mimic this aggressive behaviour on others around them if they have problems to overcome, or, not forgive those who do them wrong within their own life, copying the protagonist. However, Bandura’s theory may be a positive aspect from children imitating their characters behaviour if doing a good deed. This can involve the protagonist within Rogue Shay's narrative focuses on his journey and motivations, emphasizing a desire to "save the world" through the Templar order. This can inspire others by being determined to not give up if they have obstacles to overcome.

Henry Jenkins (Audience)

Henry Jenkins believed that fans are active participants within the construction and circulation of textual meanings. He suggests that fan’s feedback is crucial towards the development of games and the success of the games is owned all to the fans. Assassin’s Creed Rogue fans have portrayed their love and support towards the game from creating ‘Fanfiction’ of the storylines and creating their own spin-off of the game, making the game more on the spotlight. As well as this, fans of the game release their own videos of themselves playing the game, to show other fans how to complete certain levels that others may find difficult to finish. By doing this, it can bring fans together with their love of the game and building friendships or even relationships.

Curran and Seaton (Media Industries)

Curran and Seaton believed that media is controlled by a small number of companies primarily driven by the logic of profit and power. It is the seventh major instalment in the Assassin's Creed series and is set alongside 2012's Assassin's Creed III and after 2013's Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. So, Ubisoft had a few chances to take a few risks as it was still early days of the whole franchise. Through the characters of the game, there are only male characters to play, but not female. While the game focuses on the male protagonist Shay Patrick Cormac, there are several female characters in the game, though they are not playable characters. This could put off female gamers of the franchise to play Rogue, as they may want to play a female character to represent themselves, but they cannot play them. Because of this, Ubisoft may lose some fans of the game, especially female fans, as they may be bothered that they cannot play female characters