New World: Greatsword

In the games as a service era we’re all too familiar with new weapon drops but to use that content to regain lapsed players and satisfy the hardcore fans you need a multilayered hook. The Greatsword offers many threads to pull from, its weight, its history, its force. Our task was to justify this weapon with a trailer as powerful as the weapon itself.

Using these themes we drew up a familiar narrative, the master and apprentice. The script reflects this motif using the Greatsword as our magical heirloom which allowed us to accomplish a secondary goal for the hardcore fans, showing off the weapon’s ability tree while keeping the whole package engaging for a casual audience. We slotted in ancient pottery inspired motion graphics with gameplay examples of each attack showing off all six of the Greatswords capabilities.

The modern marketing machine isn’t always the keenest on machinema short film style trailers that tell a story end to end. It’s not good for the tiktok generation. “We need more action, more in your face, faster cuts, more syncopation, more effects.” We know games. We trusted our likeness to the fantasy genre and stuck to our guns with this execution. The writing and voice over performance provide connective tissue and the carefully crafted motion graphics provide some historical presence. The slow motion choreography and deliberate build leave you rooting for our protagonist. When his successes are punctuated by those epic vocal drops you can’t help but feel the power of the Greatsword.