ARG games: Marketing tools or just good fun?

The world of Alternate reality games (ARG's) has exploded in recent years, with various games popping up in conjuction with this and that but is this just a mareting tool for bigger fish? Or are they a new area of gaming and just good fun.

Internet Marketing Consultant

ARG games are growing in popularity with such hits as 'I love bees' and 'the beast' this new format in gaming is on the rise. Considered the original ARG 'the beast' though some would consider others more prevelant to that title, 'the beast' was probabaly the most inluential.

Based around the film AI the beast expanded this world and created a whole new genre of gamers with there own community and terminology. The initial hook lines to entice the gamers (or rabbit holes as they are know in the industry) were placed within various marketing materials including movie posters and trailers. Also placed within the credits was a credit for 'Jeanine Salla as Sentient Machine Therapist'. This was the initial catalyst as other rabbit holes stated 'Jeanine is the key' and 'Evan Chan was murdered. Jeanine is the key'.

This then led onto the start of the game and a community was born called the cloudmakers (named after the boat Evan Chan died on)at its peak it had thousands of memebers all interacting with the game and each other to try and solve the mystery.

This was just the beginning as a pre-launch to the latest blockbuster video game Halo 2, 'I love Bees' was spawned again using all forms of media and technology to relay the story this then created a new world for the game and a lot of pre-launch interest.

As a marketing tool ARG's have a lot of scope to create hype before the game or film or whatever it may be is released. This can give an indication of the potential market this product can reach and maybe a marker of the projected sales.


For any new product having an idea of the potential numbers regarding sales or users is always an attractive proposition whether you are a small to medium sized business to a large conglomorate. This is what ARG's can provide and this form of internet marketing has proven succesful with such programs as Lost and Hollyoaks creating there own ARG's .

With the size of ARG gamers expanding at a rapid pace (approx two million players for 'I Love Bees' and 'The Beast' according to there designers) the potential for more of these games is huge this shows that as both a marketing tool and as a gamers past time it works on both counts.