Assassin's Creed : Valhalla

The game was released in 2020. Players control Eivor Varinsdottir, a Viking raider who, while attempting to establish a new Viking clan in England, becomes embroiled in the centuries-old conflict between the Assassin Brotherhood, who fight for peace and liberty, and the Templar Order, who desire peace through control. Assassin's Creed Valhalla distinguishes itself through its Viking-era setting, emphasis on the main story and forging alliances, and a less traditional levelling system that focuses on skill trees. 

Assassin's Creed Valhalla made over $1 billion in revenue. This makes it the first game in the franchise to cross the $1 billion mark. Assassin's Creed Valhalla is a 2020 action role-playing game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is the twelfth major instalment in the Assassin's Creed series, and the successor to 2018's Assassin's Creed Odyssey. 

Assassin's Creed Valhalla is primarily set in the 9th century (872-878 AD), focusing on the Viking Age and the expansion of Norse tribes into England. The game specifically features the years 872-878, placing the player in the shoes of Eivor, a Viking raider, during the Viking expansion into England.  

Target audience:  

The primary target audience for Assassin's Creed Valhalla is gamers aged 18 and over who enjoy the action-adventure genre and the historical setting of the game, particularly those interested in Viking culture and lore. However, despite being predominantly for younger males, the company Ubisoft is attempting to expand their marketing to promote their video game for female gamers. The demographic profile of this is for people who prefer an open world type of exploration game which allows the players to do as they which in a world exploration game. The psychographic classification of this game is for those predominantly on mainstream media due to the universal use of blood, violence, history and bloodshed.

Marketing: 

Assassin's Creed Valhalla's marketing campaign utilized a variety of channels, including display ads, social media, and even a tourism campaign with Tourism Ireland. The campaign also focused on gameplay and visual aspects of the game, using trailers and commercials to showcase the Viking setting and action.

The trailer, at the beginning it focuses on the environment of the open-world game and shows the few main characters within this game. As many games have been released prior to this, this game focuses on the basic story line of this game. The trailer of this game mainly shows the scenery of Valhalla to possibly get the Viking-like feel like you are in the game. The target audience may be appealed as it differs from the assassin’s and gives you a Viking feel, but in another era for those who like history. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is drawn attention to its Viking setting, with its very engaging historical narrative which intertwines with the franchise lore, and the focus on its stealth gameplay and its interactive violence. Social media helped market this game through many social media’s such as: TikTok and Instagram. The marketing team employed strategies such as in-feed ads, live discussions, and engaging with fan communities to build excitement and foster a sense of identity with the game. The marketing team created a sense of synergy by connecting the games world with real world tourism whilst also leveraging the established Assassin’s Creed franchise brand.  For example, Tourism Ireland partnered with Ubisoft to use Valhalla in a promotional campaign, showcasing the game's Irish locations to inspire real world travel .

This gameplay sequence shows the different types of events that you may do throughout your time playing the game and how the mechanics work for example the combat and exploration. This game fits into the Viking-era because of the fur clothes the characters are wearing which is the type of clothing Vikings use to wear – it cleverly shows the context around the era. It allows the audience and the fans of the franchise to get a feel of what time was like back in this era.  

Success 

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla went on to become the fifth best-selling game of 2020 and in 2021 it became the sixteenth best selling game in the US. And by February 2022 the game made over $1 billion in revenue. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla also won a reward for the soundtrack to the Dawn of Ragnarök’s expansion won for the first-ever Grammy Award for "Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games”! People on Reddit where shocked that a video game won for the best soundtrack at the grammies since the audience there believe video games are only for “children” and yet a video game won at the grammies. However, some others on Reddit where not happy with the outcome, someone stated “couldn’t they get someone qualified. This is what, 6th or 7th material?”. Professional critics viewed Assassin’s Creed Valhalla as “too buggy” due to its excessive loading time which ruin the gaming experience for everyone. A positive comment received by someone on Reddit: “This one felt better in more ways than not compared to Odyssey. Some things I really appreciated were the varied nature of the side quests and overall open world activities. It does NOT feel like they copy/pasted assets throughout the world like in Odyssey, and you can tell that the people who worked in this game were really putting in a ton of effort into the little things. The overall quest writing and story was excellent for me, right up there with the writing in Black Flag, AC1, Origins, and the Ezio trilogy. The bosses and mythical creatures were more challenging than Odyssey and Origins.” Unable to find negative comments, however there are people on Reddit – well many people on Reddit – who are mad at how many negative comments are being said because “Most reviews I've seen are abysmally low, constantly comparing them to odyssey and origins saying how it lacks where they succeeded, though I see the opposite? I see this easily as the most enjoyable game in the new trilogy, so I don't understand the cons people are finding such as no real side quests and difficult combat, yet both things make the game so much more enjoyable?”. Twitch is a website where you can watch people livestream and play your favourite games whilst gaining tips, or also to be apart of a community with other people who have the same interests as you.

 People creating fan videos to help others out. 

Regulation 

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was given a PEGI rating of 18 due to its graphic violence and because it is not suitable for children. 

What are the benefits of the franchise model for games like Assassin’s Creed? 

There are three main theories in which I think are the most important following with the idea of the franchise model. This includes:  

Fandom, Henry Jenkins 

Media effects, Albert Bandura 

Cultural Industries, David Hesmondhalgh 

In Henry Jenkin’s theory of Fandom, he explores the active participation of fans within a fanbase and how they show their love for the media type (with fandom, it is particularly with TV shows or games). There are multiple ways in which a fanbase can express their appreciation for a franchise, which can include owning merchandise, fanfiction or even fan-made videos. With Jenkin’s theory he creates a sense of belonging and community, allowing everyone to express themself differently with how much they love the franchise. For Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, fans of the franchise create “how to” videos on YouTube to assist those struggling but to also share their greater knowledge with the game. With events such as Comic Con, it allows you to meet those of the same interest to further grow the community who like the same things, have similar interests. This can be through Cosplay. In the Assassin’s Creed community there are so many creative people out there using their creative skills to create costumes and cosplays which are like those in the game to emphasise how much passion they have for the game as well as their creativity. The Assassin’s Creed franchise is a game that has brought comfort amongst so many who may have been going through a difficult time, this game has brought comfort to them. In certain cases, saved them. People in other gaming communities may have been going through something, and a particular game may have helped them overcome a difficult period in their life. In my opinion, Fandom’s in a franchise is so important because it allows people to come together, to be a part of something big. And to feel comfortable around similar people to them.  

Another theory is Albert Bandura’s theory of the media effects – but specifically how the media effects younger audiences such as children. Bandura’s theory states that the media injects and implants ideas into the brain which them the audience will acquire the attitudes of the models from the characters themself. But specifically, by those of a younger audience. In Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, following the Viking era there is a lot of graphic violence and imagery which what makes the game PEGI 18 to begin with. This is why regulation is so important. It allows parents or guardians to know what or what not to buy their children under the age of 18 in case of inspiration to be like the character that you play as, whether that be male or female – the children may take inspiration for the model in game to be like them. But due to the newly discovered online shopping and being able to buy games on the store (you can even get monthly free games with game pass on Xbox, Valhalla is up on game pass right now for free) children will not need to ask for permission off parents, unless they have parental controls on. However, if that is the case they can borrow an older siblings gaming device if they have one – which therefore is slowly making regulation become useless as the underage will be able to play these types of games and not be protected from the transgressive behaviour explicitly shown. However, there are some positives into Bandura’s theory, due to the recent appearance of women and girls in the gaming industry that are strong and independent, which differ's from the original damsel in distress style, it allows those younger females to aspire to be strong and independent just like the model on screen. 

The final theory is David Hesmondhalgh theory on Cultural industries. Hesmondgalh states that cultural industries try to minimise risk to maximise audience. This is very true for the whole Assassin’s Creed franchise. This is because every game has the same game mechanics, however this is possibly because Ubisoft is a greatly large company, so they do not want to risk the whole franchise falling to shreds so therefore they keep the same game mechanics to keep it simplistic to continue gaining the same audience – just alternating the story with each game. The only major risk that the company made was to gradually allow to pick either between male or female. As the backlash they would get would be uncertain until release due to vit still being slightly rare that there is a stronger female protagonist in video games – and if there is it would possibly be a decision between male or female. Overall, Ubisoft minimises there risk as much as they can to get the same audience and potentially increase the audience due to its simplistic gaming style.