Alien is a very successful 1979 science-fiction horror film that has been turned into multiple games, such as Alien Isolation (2014).
As the latest instalment of the game is released over 3 decades after the original film, there is no real promotion of the game in the film itself, however, the game does promote the film in more subtle ways. Instead of directly advertising the original film, Alien: Isolation promotes the 70's classic by using a similar artistic style. Like the original Alien film, Alien: Isolation features a lo-fi, '70s vision of what the future would look like. This is done in the hopes that people will become attracted enough to the visuals to want to go back and watch the original film. Another way the game promotes the original film is, surprisingly, through how the game actually plays. Unlike previous video game adaptations of the Alien franchise, Alien: Isolation places a strong emphasis on stealth and survival horror gameplay, requiring the player to avoid and outsmart a single alien creature over the course of the game with the help of gadgets like a motion tracker and a flamethrower. This aligns itself perfectly with the mood of the original Ridley Scott Alien.
The game, Alien Isolation, was heavily advertised through youtube. Famous YouTubers like PewDiePie and Markiplier were paid by Creative assembly (the games developers) to play through the story of the game. This was a very affective form of above the line advertising as the two previously mentioned YouTubers have a combined total of around 74 million subscribers meaning that the game would probably seen by the majority of people who watch youtube videos and also play video games. I would also add that this form of advertising allowed the developers to show more actual gameplay than a standard TV advertisement as they are usually limited to around 30 seconds; this is likely to be better at persuading people to buy the game as there are many people who don't want to 'waste' their money on a game because they don't know what it will play like. The game was sold as a hard copy in all known video game retailers. It was also available as a digital download from the online stores of all current and 'next gen' consoles (Xbox 360/One & PS3/4).
The target audience for Alien: Isolation is men and women between the ages of 18 and 30 who are from the ABC1 categories of the NRS social scale and enjoy high intensity, horror games. I would say the game is aimed at both genders as although video games are played mostly by men, the main protagonist and only playable character is female, which might make more women want to play the game. I have suggested this age range for the target audience as the game is rated 18 by PEGI, so no on younger than 18 can play it, and it is uncommon for someone over the age of 30 to be interested in horror or more specifically, video games.
The adaptation of the original alien film into the 2014 game Alien: Isolation was a massive success. It won numerous awards including the PC Gamer 2014 Game of the Year and Game Radar's Best Horror Game of 2014. It was also given a 9/10 rating by Steam, The most popular digital distribution platform for PC games. It is renowned for being one of the scariest horror games of this decade and many would say it belongs on a 'best of' video games list.
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