Warframe is a fast paced Looter Shooter game, which first came to PC in March of 2013. It was released on the app Steam, which was and still is the main hub of PC gaming. When it first came out there was very limited content in the game, but it has evolved immensely over the years. When it first released, there were a total of 13 playable characters, respectively called “Warframes.” As of writing this in May of 2021 there are a total of 77 playable warframes. Of the cast that first released, only four of them were shown in their advertisements of the game.
Above is their original advertising for the game. The game has always been free to play, and as part of this they developed their original slogan of “Ninjas Play Free.” This was just a little joke since everyone was able to play free, implying that everyone was a ninja if they played this game. In the years since they have dropped that slogan, and changed the cover art of their ads dozens of times. It usually changes every time a new warframe gets released. Not every time though, because some updates are bigger than others. For example, this is their most up-to-date ad for the game.
The ad has changed quite dramatically since their first one. It now only shows the warframe associated with the major update, instead of trying to cram all 77 into a single image. The game also gets a new subtitle for every major update released. Heart of Deimos is the one shown here. It was released in August of 2020, and added a whole new planet to explore, as well as Xaku, who is the warframe shown in the ad. Xaku however, is not the newest warframe. Since his release, two new warframes, Lavos and Savagoth, have come out. They were not part of any major update, the only thing added with their updates was mainly them. The banner art for the game itself on Steam does change with every new warframe and update, but not the ads themselves.
Their main focus on what they are trying to show audiences has shifted. In prior advertising their focus was on the fact that you would feel like a ninja while playing the game. Warframe prides itself on its fast paced action style, which has elements of melee combat, plenty of guns and weapons to choose from, and a high speed movement system to traverse the land quickly and in style. This is what gave them their idea for calling their players ninjas, because it was exactly what you felt like while playing. Now that the game is more well established than it was eight years ago, they seem to have harped less on that aspect of it. This might have to do with the paradigm shift of the standard of games in current day. Innovation of game mechanics is becoming less of a priority, and instead progression systems are becoming more popular. People like having incentives to play the game more, so companies have added Battle Passes to almost every major game. Therefore constantly updating the ads to show off new rewards, characters, and missions added is a higher priority.
Neither of the ads should be seen as bad, or lesser than others. They are evolving over time with the gaming industry as a whole. New times require new marketing strategies. It can be seen almost everywhere. Warframe has a great way of showing off their newest and biggest additions with cool looking graphics, but also making sure never to leave out the “Free-to-play” aspect of the ad.
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