Available now on Azure, XR Server is designed to help PlayFab users hit the ground running – and stay running. Its robust data warehouse and analytics platform are designed specifically for gamification, monetization, and retention.

Right out the gates, users can use XR to visually model audience segments, user journeys, digital economies, and multi-device experiences without extensive onboardings or change management. Its SDK integrates seamlessly with web, iOS, Android, Unreal Engine, Unity, Oculus VR, Twitch, and many more. If PlayFab puts the power of gamification right at your fingertips, XR Server makes you feel like that power has been there all along.

The complete package will be on display at NAB, featuring a live demo of virtual reality watch parties powered by Unreal Engine, as well as seamless tablet and IOS integration.

Visit XR Server today and discover the full power of Microsoft PlayFab for Media LiveOps.

Paradox Interactive Bloodline 2 Interactive Marketing Campaign

Hello Game No Man’s Sky Alternate Reality Campaign

Paradox Interactive San Francisco Interactive Theater and Transmedia Event

Alice & Smith Gamification Engine

Instead of taking a more traditional marketing route, Paradox Interactive decided to team with Alice & Smith to create a transmedia campaign and take this historical announcement to the next level. Deeply rooted in the mythos of the World of Darkness universe, we crafted a three-month-long interactive journey that would captivate our fans until the very last moment at the official announcement party, set to take place at the 2019 Game Developer Conference in San Francisco.

Starting as a very simplistic rabbit hole—a cryptic code in a Twitch stream and weird new ads from a tech startup in Silicon Valley—every single weekend that followed pushed the envelope in level of immersion and experience. As the story got more rich and deep, the audience kept growing along with the journalistic and industry curiosity.

Very early on, fans resonated with the vampire vibe of a new tech startup company called Tender: a next next-gen dating platform that helped you find your perfect soulmate. In exchange for revealing your blood type and filling out a psychological profile, the company would welcome you amongst its beta testers and submit you to a wide range of strange behavioral and emotional tests.

The further players dug in the rabbit hole, the more intense and dark the activities became. By the fourth week, more than 350 websites, Discord channels, Reddit threads, and press articles were trying to tackle the mystery.

With the app live, we began creating buzz through an influencer campaign and a series of exciting live events in Los Angeles and New York City in which players interacted both in-person and online. One of these events involved an immersive escape room experience to the lucky fans who were able to attend, and every time fans were rewarded with more and more teaser content about the upcoming announcement.

As the final climax, Tender invited 300 fans and industry personalities to a 2-hour long interactive theater night in San Francisco. Three fans were also selected to be the official voice and boots on the ground for the community, based on their skills, performance, and leadership. They were flown, at our expense, for three days to perform specific ARG puzzles and tasks that ultimately changed the outcome of the ending and the full storyline. (Read more about the Tender Party in San Francisco)

More than 200,000 unique viewers followed the interactive stream and interacted with the live audience. Twitch drop campaigns, live voting, onsite emotions analytics, and many more features were integrated to create a complete transmedia moment.

Instead of reading about it, the fans had the chance to become part of the campaign. By the end of the final event, more than 40 press articles were written about the ARG, 600 000 attempts were made to solve puzzles, and 180 000 conversations were registered with our various NPCs operated by an advanced AI chatbot.

On the night of the launch, we revealed the new website and transitioned our ARG audience into the company loyalty platform, leaving them with tangible benefits from their participation in the ARG. We also created a very immersive 2.5D experience and a gamification layer, inviting players to explore and discover the content.

The return on investment of such an engaging and interactive marketing campaign can be measured both in sales and press coverage, but also in mementos that fans will remember forever—a key to success in building a strong brand in this day and age.

Gameinformer
Paradox Dating App ARG Seems To Hint At Something Related To Vampire: The Masquerade Next Month

PC Gamer
Paradox may be teasing a new Vampire: The Masquerade game with a dating app ARG

ARGNet
Literally Give Your Heart Away on Tender This Valentine’s Day

PC Gamer
Paradox continues to tease it’s V:TM game with new images

Destructoid
Paradox ARG Teasing a new game

IGN
A dating app is promoting Vampire: The Masquerade

Kotaku
Paradox seems to be teasing a new V:TM game via a dating app

Rock Paper Shotgun
V:TM:B follow-up teased by Paradox with ARG

Rock Paper Shotgun
V:TM – Bloodlines sequel might be sneaking up on us at GDC

PCGamesN
Paradox’s new ‘dating app’ could be the start of a new Vampire ARG

PCGamesN
Paradox is teasing its new Vampire: The Masquerade game

GamerRevolution
New V:TM game teased by Tinder Parody

AltChar
There’s a new Vampire: The Masquerade release on the way

GamerInformer
Paradox dating app ARG seems to hint at Vampire: The Masquerade

Eurogamer
Will there be a V:TM announcement at next month’s GDC?

VG247
Paradox could be teasing a new V:TM

GamePressure
Paradox will announce new Vampire: The Masquerade?

Trusted Reviews
Thirst Trap: This dating app ARG is hinting at a new V:TM game

Game Watcher
Latest ARG might be teasing new V:TM game

Game Watcher
New Vampire: The Masquerade game reveal next month?

Trusted Reviews
Thirst Trap: This dating app ARG is hinting at a new V:TM game

The Gamer
Paradox is teasing a new V:TM game with bloodsucking dating site

Video Gamer
Paradox might be teasing a new Vampire: The Masquerade project

Video Gamer
Vampire: The Masquerade reveal just might be coming next month

Game Reactor
Teases for a new Vampire:The Masquerade keep coming

Critical Hit Gaming
Paradox is teasing something with a new ARG, possibly related to V:TM

EGM
Dating app and ARG might hide secrets of new V:TM

Game Banshee
Vampire: The Masquerade game teased by Paradox Interactive

We believed that the best way to do this was to create engaging and collaborative events that brought fans from around the world together, created new friendships, and shared our passion for this unique universe.

We created Waking Titan: a six-chapter transmedia ARG event that ran for more than eighteen months. While creating content for Waking Titan, we were able to turn to the rich complexity of the No Man’s Sky’s procedurally generated universe and build a storyline that explored some of the elaborate topics that surrounded the game and its origin. This narrative also created a very creative platform to give players ongoing updates, teasers, and sneak peeks at upcoming content.

The Waking Titan universe was huge. With puzzles and events almost every single weekend, it spanned over X touchpoints (16 radio stations around the world, dozens of websites, voicemails, NPCs, YouTube channels, forums, Discord servers, physical locations, and many, many, many more) and also included crafting and community puzzles that showed the scope, passion, and talents of the global fan base.

In addition to having all of these avenues players could explore on their own, we also created live events in Boston, New York, Paris, London, and Montreal, as well as sending out physical packages, mystery boxes, and mementos to thousands of players so that they could hold a piece of the experience in their hands and know that their involvement wasn’t overlooked.

This experience resulted in 2.5 million puzzle-solving attempts, 800 000 interactions with our chatbots and terminals, and countless 3 AM panic attacks on Discord as we worked to make sure everything ran smoothly for our players as the narrative picked up and evolved.

PC Gamer
Mysterious NMS audio tapes kick off an otherworldly ARG

PC Gamer
The No Man’s Sky ARG is back in action

Eurogamer
NMS’s Waking Titan ARG is back

DailyStar
Waking Titan Stream the start of MASSIVE PS4/PC News

Kotaku
The Mysterious NMS ARG: Hidden Codes and Creepy Voices

IGN
NMS: Mysterious Cassette Tapes ARG points to Portal Update

Gamespot
NMS ARG Teases big new update coming next month

PCGamesN
The NMS ARG might be teasing the 1.5 update

TechRaptor
NMS and the Waking Titan Mystery

The Spinoff
No Walkman’s Sky? NMS devs send mysterious cassette tapes to Reddit

The Spinoff
No Man’s Sky is finally finally great

Gamerant
No Man’s Sky ARG now hosting Livestream

Newsweek
NMS Waking Titan ARG shares free steam codes and teases VR

VG247
NMS ARG hints that an update is on the horizon

From the start, our main idea was clear: leverage the community’s passion for the game to help us increase the reach of our campaign, avoiding yet another banners campaign strategy. Like our previous operations, we wanted this promotion to have Alice & Smith’s signature: crafting an entertaining and interactive campaign that would stand out from the rest.

In just eight weeks, we created a web-based immersive 3D world map that helped visualize the scope of the global community. The map featured screenshots and assets of the game, generated by the players, and geolocalized them in real time. By browsing the 3D world map, the players could now see just how vast the CSR2 community was, and by liking posts and sharing their own, they were granted additional in-game rewards, giving them an advantage in terms of progression.

By doing so, Alice & Smith let the community show their passion for the game and rewarded them for their engagement. The campaign reached 26 000 contributions from fans and showed newcomers that CSR2 was more than a F2P gaming app; it was a place where they could show their enthusiasm and achievements worldwide.

Paradox Interactive
Bloodline 2 Interactive Marketing Campaign

Hello Game
No Man’s Sky Alternate Reality Campaign

Paradox Interactive
San Francisco Interactive Theater and Transmedia Event

Alice & Smith
Gamification Engine