Has anyone seen a cinematic trailer for Origins yet, or will they skip the cinematic trailer for this game? I was wondering since they have had cinematics for every ac game so far, some even with multiple cinematic trailers. Most of their other games @e3 seem to have a cinematic, far cry 5- skull & bones- beyond good and evil 2- starlink... Hell, even the crew 2 got one. So many games with cinematic trailers, it's just surprising to not see one for Origins.
If they haven't made one for origins, why do you think they chose not to? Did they not want to spend the money on a cinematic? Or did they replace a cinematic with ingame trailers?
tell me what you think!
They are going for a low-key marketing approach.
There's also the fact that Ubisoft wanted to "dilute" AC's presence, i.e. they wanted people to talk about their other stuff. Far Cry 5 got the Full Press treatment, glossy advertisements, CGI Trailers and so on and so forth. BG&E2 got a CGI Trailer as did SKULL AND BONES.
Of course if I wanted to be truly and really cynical, I can say that Ubisoft's approach for Origins is to emphasize the setting of Ancient Egypt more than their protagonist Bayek. The game's box-art literally has Bayek as a tiny bug beneath the great and mighty architecture around him. The first in a series where the Assassins have always been Front and Center on the Box-Art (sometimes literally) as in Syndicate. Bayek is being described as being "Like Altair" and having "an intensity" (as per Ashraf Ismail), which is code for "he's really like Connor" (as is visibly clear in the gameplay) and Ubisoft probably don't want to make a big deal over their major non-white protagonist. So that could be another reason for the diluted marketing. But that's me being cynical. It could be truly what happens since such practises and double-standards in advertising happen all the time.
Now of course that also favors a gameplay over advertising glitz approach. If you want to emphasize the setting, don't show glossy cinematics that you can't deliver on. Fans don't like that anymore.
The Cinematic Trailers have always focused on the Protagonist and His Story and not the setting, except in background. This time they want to emphasize the setting. If they feel the protagonist has "un-marketable" qualities, or if for story reasons they want to hide and de-emphasize his story and save it for the game since it might have too many spoilers, that's what they will do.
Compare the Box-Art of early Games to Origins.
Most AC Box-art features the protagonist front and center with the setting. AC1-ACR (Altair-Ezio) simply had the Protagonist against a white Animus background with very little hint of the setting and era.
That changed with AC3. where they decided to bring the setting into the box-art alongside the protagonist. BLACK FLAG is the best example:
They did something odd with UNITY (the worst Box-Art so far, of by far the worst AC Game):
Where you have a setting but you have Four Arnos to emphasize the Co-Op. But again you have the protagonist at the front. SYNDICATE returns to business as usual:
Now generallly, whenever Ubisoft tries to portray non-white protagonists on the box-arts, its not as dead-centered as white protagonists are: Ezio is Front and Facing to the camera in the middle with a kind of smile under his hood. As is Arno and his Co-Op Bros, as is Jacob Frye as is Edward Kenway. In AC1, Altair is facing Left and away from the camera in the classic "hope-the-security-camera-doesn't-see-me'' pose of a wanted man/outlaw.
Connor in AC3 likewise, has him facing Right, away from the camera, albeit in the center
But the image and box-art emphasize the setting and him in the middle.
Now you have Bayek and he is literally a bug at the bottom of the pyramid. Centered but marginal and with his back to the camera. As if his outfit and posture was not compelling enough.
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@VestigialLlama4
Well you're right about the covers for AC1 and AC3 but I'm just not convinced that was a deliberate choice especially when it's not even that obvious that they're not white with their hoods covering half their faces.
I feel as if Origins' cover is more due to the fact that they're trying to differentiate from the old covers. Plus Egypt is the most exotic location we have had so far by quite a margin (and one of the most demanded by the fanbase) therefore focusing on the setting rather than the character in this case seems to be the better choice.
It's not obvious because they don't want to make it obvious. Whereas Ezio, Edward, Jacob and Arno announce their whiteness out and loud.Originally Posted by modernwaffle Go to original post
This doesn't have to be deliberate. It's kind of the unthinking nature of advertising, marketing and PR, Ubisoft is not being deliberate about it, but merely unthinking and uncritical.
Like in the case of AC2, they went..."Ezio is not-Altair, he's cool, brash, handsome and attractive...let's put him front and center with arms outstretched and a hint of a smirk under the hood"...they do it unthinkingly because it never occurred to them that it came from Ezio being white. Likewise, with Edward Kenway, he's standing on a deck, proud/heroic and powerful...whereas in the AC3 box-cart, Connor is kneeling on the ground, and both sides there's a battle emphasizing his vulnerability.
It's the unthinking, almost unconscious signals they are sending. You kind of have to go out of the way to do the opposite. Like take Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, the upcoming standalone expansion mission for Dishonored 2 starring Billie Lurk:
In all my years I have never seen a boxart cover of a single non-white character like that, shown just as boldly, directly and dead-center like a white protagonist. Ubisoft damn sure haven't done that.
Compare the covers of Watch_Dogs and Watch_Dogs 2:
Aiden Pierce is BADASS all!Caps, imposing, looking up and pointing down with no emphasis on setting, whereas Watch_Dogs 2 has Marcus Holloway with his back to the camera with the setting emphasized, and Marcus likewise, has his eye staring suspiciously at the camera, just like Altair in AC1: i.e. "Security-Camera shy" which emphasizes vulnerability and caution rather than being super-confident and strong.
Well there's a way to differentiate while presenting your character. You can compare the composition of Origins to Zelda Breath of the WildI feel as if Origins' cover is more due to the fact that they're trying to differentiate from the old covers. Plus Egypt is the most exotic location we have had so far by quite a margin (and one of the most demanded by the fanbase) therefore focusing on the setting rather than the character in this case seems to be the better choice.
which is inspired by this famous painting by Caspar David Friedrich:
Now Origins doesn't center Bayek like the way Link is, even if both of their backs are to the camera. There's a way to emphasize setting and character simultaneously. Ubisoft emphasizes setting over character.
VestigialLlama4 your attention to detail never fails to amaze me![]()
But whilst you've made some objective points about character positioning that does seem to show certain trends for white and non-white people I would have to disagree about their overall portrayal.
Yes Connor is kneeling down but he's taking down a British soldier in a badass way at the same time so that hardly suggests vulnerability. AC3's cover struck me as by the far the best at the time and ofc this will inevitably cause me see its cover character as more imposing before I even get to know Connor's proper character.
The 'security camera shy' look applies a bit to Altair but not so much for Marcus. For one his whole team is looking away in the cover image not just him and whilst he has some vibe of suspicion to him essentially the whole of DedSec is overlooking San Francisco from a high vantage point so they all appear badass and very much in control as a team.
I certainly agree about the example with BOTW, Bayek could have had more presence in the cover whilst still emphasising the setting of Egypt and they could have made improvements in that respect. More importantly, the point about Dishonored's cover rings quite true and it's nice to see Arkane Studio making that move.
Mind you, I'm not disagreeing about the very possibility of unconscious marketing decisions that take place when it comes to portrayals of non-European characters not just in gaming but in all mediums of media - this is quite a fascinating topic for me personally - and you can quite well argue that Altair and Connor's side poses (and now Bayek's back pose) as the non-European characters of AC hardly seem coincidental. But tbh there's just not enough evidence to suggest that these specific differences are intended to be used in a negative light and I highly doubt a majority of people who see these covers are influenced by such decisions in any way since I certainly wasn't, it's always a neutral design choice first IMO.
Discrimination to non-European people surely exists and I'm sure there have been people who have been so close-minded that they have disliked say Altair or Connor simply because they are not white. Yet, I think this mindset represents an extremely small proportion of the fanbase and nothing of Ubisoft. The fact that we have Bayek as the staple figure for the semi-reboot for the franchise would suggest even if there hypothetically was some level of unconscious discrimination to non-European characters in the AC franchise, it's so insignificant that it'll pass by a majority of the public completely unnoticed.