GDC 2007: The trials and success of the Burger King games

There were some people who raised their eyebrows when Burger King announced that they would be dabbling on Xbox 360 games. Then, they released three affordable games – Big Bumpin’, Pocketbike Racer, and Sneak King. And much to our surprise, the games did well. What happened?

In the concluded GDC 2007, game developers were given a sneak peek as to how this unlikely success happened. In a presentation delivered by Blitz Games‘ Sion Lenton, entitled “Burgers and Blitz: Creating a Brand-Funded Game”, he stressed two major pieces of advice – avoid forcing brands down players’ throats, and woo players with gameplay, fun, and quality.

Just in case you don’t know who Sion Lenton is and what Blitz Games is all about, the UK-based developer, was tapped by Burger King to create the three mentioned games. He shared the challenges their team faced when they were creating the games. The first challenge is limited time – seven months to make three games sure is short. They also had to deal with the fact that Burger King ads are miles different in the UK, so the team had to learn about the world of the Burger King brand.

As the talk progressed, Lenton focused on quality over quantity, visuals as the key factor of making games, and the importance of the studio’s internal middleware. He urged advergame developers to really get to know the brand and to work closely with clients. He also recommended a separation between art and gameplay so that client reviews won’t slow down the development process. In parting this is what he had to say:

There’s no reason why advergames can’t be approached like any other game, (however low-quality advergames) actually work to the detriment of the brand…(but with the three Burger King games), I think we have proved that advergaming on this scale is a viable business model.

There were some people who raised their eyebrows when Burger King announced that they would be dabbling on Xbox 360 games. Then, they released three affordable games – Big Bumpin’, Pocketbike Racer, and Sneak King. And much to our surprise, the games did well. What happened?

In the concluded GDC 2007, game developers were given a sneak peek as to how this unlikely success happened. In a presentation delivered by Blitz Games‘ Sion Lenton, entitled “Burgers and Blitz: Creating a Brand-Funded Game”, he stressed two major pieces of advice – avoid forcing brands down players’ throats, and woo players with gameplay, fun, and quality.

Just in case you don’t know who Sion Lenton is and what Blitz Games is all about, the UK-based developer, was tapped by Burger King to create the three mentioned games. He shared the challenges their team faced when they were creating the games. The first challenge is limited time – seven months to make three games sure is short. They also had to deal with the fact that Burger King ads are miles different in the UK, so the team had to learn about the world of the Burger King brand.

As the talk progressed, Lenton focused on quality over quantity, visuals as the key factor of making games, and the importance of the studio’s internal middleware. He urged advergame developers to really get to know the brand and to work closely with clients. He also recommended a separation between art and gameplay so that client reviews won’t slow down the development process. In parting this is what he had to say:

There’s no reason why advergames can’t be approached like any other game, (however low-quality advergames) actually work to the detriment of the brand…(but with the three Burger King games), I think we have proved that advergaming on this scale is a viable business model.