University of Illinois at Chicago Video Game Case Study

1. Read the SMM Case-Study for Epic Games below, and read Chapters 8 & 9 from the Tuten & Solomon textbook
2. See Epic’s free games incentive tweets on their Twitter: https://twitter.com/epicgames?lang=en
3. Answer the question/s after the case study, within 250 words.

Case Study: 

Brand/Background: Epic Games, Inc. is an American video game and software developer and publisher based in Cary, North Carolina. The company was founded by Tim Sweeney as Potomac Computer Systems in 1991, originally located in his parents’ house in Potomac, Maryland.

Problem: Epic Games has always received stiff competition from their direct competitor, Steam. Steam has had a monopoly on the gaming industry for PC players for the better part of a decade. Epic has tried numerous strategies to get themselves known, but their opponent was always a little bit bigger and better. However, in recent years with the success of their own third-person shooter game Fortnite, Epic has officially gotten themselves into the eyes of the public, but even with that massive success, they were still miles behind their competitor.

Solution: As many people were stuck at home during the pandemic since last year, this was an ideal time for Epic games to reach their audience. Specifically, using Twitter, Epic gave hints to a big announcement on May 15, 2020. At that point, they revealed that they would have a weekly free game available from their store by clicking on the link embedded into their tweets. The free games that were rotated every week weren’t just small games, but big triple AAA titles starting off with the 2013 Game of the Year, Grand Theft Auto 5. 

Results: Epic saw a massive increase in its player base and their brand quickly rose to popularity. No other competitor had ever done such an event on this scale. As of summer 2020, the total number of Epic game users is officially reported over 110 million, and with their weekly releases, it seems the numbers will only go up. Additionally, tweets relating to the free games get 1,000 retweets and 5,000 likes, while other posts only get about 100 retweets and 500 likes. These metrics just prove the social media engagement Epic/gaming companies can generate with free games.

Questions: 

Gaming or Social “Entertainment can be thought of in the context of play and brands that utilize entertainment as a channel (whether via paid or owned media) are ingratiating themselves into the consumers’ realm of play” (p. 252). In the case study above, Epic games tried to reestablish their brand identity within the competitive social entertainment market, by creating free game incentives for their consumers on Twitter. 

1. Name the 4 motivations for users to participate in ‘social entertainment as play’ (p. 252)? Which of these 4 ‘play motivations’ did Epic Games leverage, that then led to a massive increase in their player base? 
2. In social shopping, it is said that there 6 main sources of influence that draws consumers to specific brands or influencers (pp. 301-303). After briefly browsing Epic Games’ Twitter presence (link provided above), in relation to their free gaming campaign, which of these 6 social shopping influences do you think attracted the gamers to Epic games/Twitter incentives?