Copyright Issues Addressed

As part of our project we have to create a promotional TV advert for our new video game. Selected visual images and sound used in existing gameplay and promotional trailers is what we are going to use. However, we thought it would be best to carry out some research regarding copyright issues related to  this.

Our TV advert would consist of featuring heavy game footage from existing games in our chosen genre. For example, one of the games we are thinking about featuring in our TV advert is Rocket League created by Psyonix. Before we would go ahead and start creating the trailer, we thought it would be best to make sure we wasn't infringing any copyright laws. As a result, we researched about the creator and looked at their policies online.

Furthermore, we also have looked at various video game creators and they have all said gamers are welcome to use visual images from their games in videos created by themselves as long as footage is not taken by their official trailers produced by the video game company itself.

Rockstar Policy

Rockstars Policy on Copyright.

Rockstar clearly says in this post that gamers are allowed to use gameplay from their games to be used in videos as long as it's not for commercial use. E.g. promoting to sell a T-shirt.

Psyonix Policy

Psyonix Policy on Copyright

Psyonix clearly states in their copyright policy that gamers are to share, copy, distribute and transmit any work. However, it must be used for non-commercial use. Also, if you reuse or distribute work of others, you must make clear to others the license terms of their work. E.g. link to their web page or acknowledging that the content being used is somebody else's.

How I will do my research?

I will be producing a promotion package, which in simple terms is a way a business promotes their product/service to increase the number of sales to turn high profits. Our product is a new video game for a computer. I believe it is vitally important to promote it in a way such that it will encourage the target audience to become interested from the start of them knowing about the game right to when they purchase the game.

My research will consist of:-

• Watching TV advertisements for new video games. - this will give me an insight to what big video game companies do to attract their target audience. 

• Looking at video game covers for video games - I will be able to see what kind of techniques are used to make the front covers appealing to the audience. This is important as this is one of my ancillary tasks that I will have to complete, so having the knowledge will enable me to create a top quality front cover for the video game. 

• Video game trends - This will allow me to see what the most popular games are and for which platform. I will mostly focus on PC video games as this is the game we are promoting. 

• History of video game distribution - This will enable me to see how video games are distributed and gaining this extra knowledge will help me in the main task. 

• Number of gamers - This will enable me to see who our target audience could be. This will help with the creation of the front cover, making sure it is targeted to the right audience. e.g. if it is male teenagers a colour scheme could consist of dark colours rather than light because this is what they would be attracted to. 

• Popular platforms & genres - This will enable me to see which platforms are mostly played on and which genre is most popular. From this, we can decide what genres are the best to incorporate into our new game in order to attract our target audience. 

• Analyse video game covers - This will help me with the ancillary tasks which is to produce a game cover for our new video game. From the analysis we will be able to gain an understanding of the sort of features which are used to make a professional and attractive cover.

What is a Promotion Package?

This a Prezi on what a promotion package is and the importance and key benefits related to a video game promotion package.