Potential Realized: The Macross Concerts in Japan’s Home
by HearItWow, HSM guest contributor
“Want to go watch a commercial for an hour?”
If a friend asked you this, your default response would likely be a swift “No” from the L1 button. But what if it was the most amazing commercial that you’d ever seen; one that changed and evolved based on your participation?
This was the conecept behind the recent Macross Concert held in Japan Home. For two weeks, visitors from around the world piled into a public space up to an hour early, allowing time for some extensive downloads, so that they could sit and take part in a virtual commercial for Macross products.
It was one of the most brilliant events yet realized in PlayStation Home, both in terms of concept and execution, and one with significant implications both for the future of Home and the future of advertising.
For the uninitiated, Macross is one of Japan’s most popular anime series, chronicling the adventures of a future human society as it tries to colonize deep space. The series’ mix of transforming mech suit combat and pop songs sung by teenage girls – which play a key role in the storylines – has led to broad acceptance among men and women alike, and launched a few J-Pop careers.
To create the event, the producers recreated the concert arena seen in Macross Frontier: The Movie, The False Songstress, and dropped visitors into a key moment in the film, when a concert to raise the spirits of the Macross’ population lures enemy Vajra aliens, who unleash destruction on the ship.
Upon entering the Macross space, users find themselves in a seating section of the arena. Once loading completed, a giant screen at the front of the section played a loop of Macross commercials: buy the DVD, buy the game, download the two-song pack.
At the appointed starting time, the screen disappeared, a metallic ship emerged from the river in front of the stadium, its sails shimmering with CGI and anime images, and Sheryl Nome, voiced by J-Pop Idol May’n, belted out the first song of the night, “Don’t Be Late.” At the end of the song, a cut scene familiar to anyone who has ever played an RPG game, with two-dimensional characters displayed above scrolling text, advanced the story before the next song began.
Wait, this is PlayStation Home?
After a few songs, it was time for an intermission and another ten-minute loop of the Macross commercials. Following this, the second half exploded with a recreation of the Vajra attack on the stadium as the concert played on, the collective power of the singer and the audience uniting to drive the alien invaders back.
All of this was rendered using Home’s engine, with professional animators offering an eye-opening look at the amount of characterization and expression possible with manipulation of the camera and a Home avatar. By itself, this made the event worth attending, but there was still more to enjoy.
Tapping into the interactive nature of Home, the event required collective user participation. At various times during the concert, either a dancing hot dog, which certainly has a name and isn’t a hot dog, but Macross is hard to find on our domestic shores, or a rotating Macross logo would appear on screen. If the audience in the instance cheered by pulling up the Cheer emote from the R1 menu, additional lighting and special effects were added to the presentation. Fans of the series could also purchase costumes of Sheryl Nome and Ranka Lee (voiced by J-Pop Idol Megumi Nakajima) and influence events by taking part when animations of those characters appeared on screen.
Depending on the amount of audience involvement, one of several different endings played. These included additional animations and cut scenes, offering a reason to come back and experience the event again.
Hey, those guys didn’t pay for their tickets! Get ‘em!
Brilliant animation, audience interaction and a real sense of immersion combined to create one of the most unique Home experiences yet. This was not the passive act of sitting in a Home Theater and watching game trailers play; it was a simple game wrapped in a concert experience where a full instance of users working together could determine the outcome. From the jaw-dropping alien invasion at the start of the second half to the delicate, personality-rich animation of Ranka and Sheryl, Home avatars similar to the ones used by the community every day, the event showed Home’s potential for riveting, emotionally driven storytelling.
As advertising, it engendered a level of audience engagement that a basic mini game simply cannot reproduce. Catch the falling angel, win the reward is an experience that is fine in the moment, but is quickly forgotten when the reward items disappear into the land of forgotten items known as Storage.
Those who had never previously engaged with a Macross story had a chance to see everything that the series offers. Fans had a chance to live through a pivotal moment of the film.
Seriously, THIS is PlayStation Home?!?
Were the success of an event like this measured solely in popularity, the months spent developing this event were time well spent, as instances rapidly filled an hour before each show. The real gauge, of course, is sales, in the very immediate sense of whether this event convinced people to buy the music downloads or Blu-ray/DVD Hybrid Pack hawked during the intermission. There is also the lingering question of whether an event of this nature – which involves a fair amount of sitting and waiting – would hold any appeal among attention-challenged Americans determined to cram their leisure time full of the same stress-inducing levels of stimulus found in working life.
Business realities will determine whether Home’s North American servers ever see an event like this. For now, those who attended are left with memories of something that showcased the potential of Home to raise advertising to the level of interactive spectacle, and the hope that some advertiser will take the risk to bring a bold new dimension to their in-Home campaign.
August 15th, 2011 by HearItWow | 20 comments
HearItWow is the former producer of HomeCast, which may have entertained some people as recently as 2012. He is currently attempting to reinvent talk radio and occasionally pokes his head up to write about really cool things happening in PlayStation Home. His weekly radio show can be heard live on wmfo.org from 7 to 9 PM Eastern on Wednesday nights.
WOW. EXCELLENT story. Great descriptive article and videos! It sure made me wish that I had been there.
Great article HearitWow. I had gone to see one of the final showings of this concert with some people from YPSH and had a great time. I was impressed with the graphics and how the concert atmosphere was rendered too. I wish that they had events like this in NA PS Home.
WOW! I was told a bit about there being a concert in Japan when this was occurring but since I am not an anime person nor do I have a Japan account, I just took it in and stored it in my memory banks. But now to see what they achieved is very cool. It is amazing to think that we can do these types of things within the capabilities of Home. So all I have to say to any of the advertisers and developers here in NA is “when do we get one?” Great article HW
*grumble* missed it. I need to visit japan more often! lol. I have been to a few of Japans limited run events. They are pretty great. It is an aspect of Japan Home which NA and EU could learn from. Thanks for the videos, at least I can see what it was.
I loved this event! I danced through the whole thing, most of the crowd just sat and waved. I can’t believe that this was just produced for japan, the time and money that went into this had to be big. and the cute little Ai-kun that I got for attending has been sitting on my head for a while now. I wish square would do something like this with the final fantasy girls for us!
Macross / Robotech FTW!!!
Thanks for the article and videos. I missed this completely. It is a pretty large production. It would be interesting to hear how successful it was.
First of all, I’m always glad to see you submitting a new article HearItWow, so please don’t stop. I hope you won’t mind a little negative feedback however.
I don’t know that referring to the recent Macross concert as a one-hour commercial really does it justice. I’m sure you had your tongue firmly in your cheek when you penned that line, however, the broader point I’m trying to make is one of focus.
I guess I should back up a little. The blurb for your article describes marketing in the North American and European Homes. Use Central Plaza/Home Square to showcase a game. At first free games, but more recently pay to play games. Maximize numbers at minimum cost.
This isn’t the way it’s done in the Asian and Japan Homes. I won’t go into details, because this impacts upon an article I’m writing myself, so instead I’m just going to hit the bullet points.
The NA and EU Homes betray a mentality of Home as a game. I believe this is wrong. Go to the Asian or Japan Homes, and the Central Squares are large, empty areas which to my mind evoke a college campus. Occasionally games are displayed in these areas, but usually they’re located not on the grassy knolls themselves but rather in the plaza below immediately before the Gamer Space.
What is the psychological effect of all that empty space? It makes you focus on the people. In the Eastern Homes, the clear message that comes across is that Home is a virtual reality. In the Asian and Japan Homes, the Central Squares are normally reserved for events, community building events that are usually free and usually quite elaborate.
The Macross concert was one such event. No, not everyone in Japan loves anime and mechs. I don’t want to give that impression. Still, the Macross franchise is huge in Japan. And the collaborative nature of this most recent concert not only encouraged repeat viewings, more importantly, it encouraged repeat viewings with your friends.
One hour early? I showed up for some concerts more than 2 hours early, and I was far from being the only one. I’m sure NA and EU devs might find that hard to believe, that someone would actually show up hours early for a virtual concert, but if so, all I can say is, get your virtual passports in order and experience it for yourselves. I know there are Western devs who are starting to make visits to the Eastern Homes. I hope this is something they all start to do.
What I do not want to see happening, is Western devs producing one hour commercials in the Western Homes. If that occurs, I and many others will continue to vote “Japan” with our feet. The Macross concert wasn’t simply designed to sell virtual goods. It was also designed to build the community. This essential point cannot be overlooked. These past 2 weeks, I spent at least 5 times as much money in the Eastern Homes as I did in the Western Homes. These community building events are a large part of the reason why.
You raise some good points here, Aet, but the important thing to remember is that nothing happens in Home without some consideration given to the bottom line.
Yes, this was a community-building event, but the commercial aspects of it were front and center. Why else would we break for 10 minutes to show a loop of commercials?
I think you could make a much stronger case for community building with the VR Aquarium space currently in JP, which exists for no other reason than to get the community together and raise awareness of what’s happening in the world’s oceans. It’s brilliantly designed and paced, with something to do constantly, but it doesn’t keep you so busy that you can’t talk to friends.
I agree that we’re driven toward commerce in NA’s Home, but on some level, that’s a reflection of who we are as a people. As I like to say on my radio show, when there’s a crisis, Americans have two questions: Who can I blame, and what can I buy?
And I’ll stand behind my description of the concert as a one-hour commercial. Yes, it was so much more than that, but when someone was sitting there deciding whether or not to write a check for it, that was a dollars and cents decision.
Why break for 10 minutes? How about to give ladies a chance to go powder their noses? One hour is a long time to be sitting still after all. Personally I really appreciated those breaks. For another thing, if you got disconnected during the first part of the show, the 10 minute break gave you a chance to still catch the second half of the show. I suspect there were technological reasons for that 10 min break though.
I’ve never denied that the Japan Home makes decisions for commercial reasons. All I’m saying is, they take other factors into consideration as well.
I totally agree AET! Asia and Japan especially are all about community. Sadly that isn’t the focus of North American Home. North America is focused on selling virtual content first and foremost.
Events such as these are responsible for getting friends together over an extended period of time. I get to see my good friends more in Japan than I do as a group in North America. That is a sad fact of life.
I’m starting to feel that the N.A. Home is commercialized enough as it is without hour-long infomercials.Personally I don’t frequent Home just to make purchases,I go there to be entertained so if developers or Sony itself found a way to make commercials entertaining,as it seems this concert accomplished or at least attempted to accomplish,then there would be a much better chance that I’d buy w/e it is they are selling.I realize the way a product is sold has little effect on it’s enjoyability to me but there’s no way I would invest an hour of my time for a commercial,no matter how great the product,unless I was being entertained somehow.If the product is truely great I’ll hear about it from my friends and purchase it without investing any time,but if it’s being sold in an entertaining way the time spent watching the commercial wouldn’t seem wasted,which is how most commercials make me feel.
That’s the genius of this thing, cthulu. Apart from the 10-minute intermission, there were no direct commercials, but the whole thing was promotional in nature. The closest comparison I can draw is Star Wars. Say there was an hour-long Figrin D’an concert in Home, set in the cantina, and during this you’d see Obi Wan take out Ponda Baba, Han shoot Greedo and Alderaan explode. You’re there for the music, which is great, but as you’re watching, you remember all the things you love about Star Wars and start thinking, “I should go rent or buy that movie.” That’s the effect this had.
Yeah I agree that this can be duplicated in other areas,and actually hope this type of selling gets copied extensively.Watching a concert or sporting event provides ample opportunities for product placements and other soft-selling tactics,which to myself are far,far more palatable than a commercial that has no entertainment value and merely shows the product sitting there doing nothing.Fact is the more I’m entertained the more likely I am to spend cash on related,or even semi-related,items.On a slightly related note,I’d be very interested in seeing the tech. used to make that concert used in making games for Home.Once that happens Home’s games will be much closer to disc-based games,in terms of graphics.With the addition of well-done product placements in these games they could probably make enough cash to cover development costs even before they’ve released the game,all cash made after launch would be pure profit.
Well of course it’s promotional in the sense that it raises awareness for the series but in my view it’s really more of a celebration of the series for fans who love it. They sold a few virtual items when they could have sold an awful lot more in the mall.
I was there numerous times and granted I don’t read Japanese but for me at least it didn’t appear to be a sales pitch for the series.
Japan Home knows how to have events. North America really needs to pay attention and try and figure out what it would take to get friends together over extended periods of time. I see my friends more as a group in Japan than I do in North America.
Macross was also featured in the theater by the way with numerous short films which would also allow for the winning of various virtual items as well.
Thank you for reminding me of something which I had also meant to mention. In the Japan Home, events are seldom “one offs,” a good example being the Black Rock Shooter events that occurred last year, which were coordinated among several Home spaces including the Central Square, the Music Cafe and the Theaters. Sure, one can turn a cynical eye towards this and dismiss it as mere marketing, even so, it’s marketing that is being done on a level far above anything you’ll find in the Western Homes. Events like these engage the community and get people to log into Home week after week after week.
I don’t think viewing events as marketing tools is inherently cynical.Companies are in business on Home to make cash,it would probably be more profitable for them and certainly more fun for us the users if the selling was done in an entertaining and fun way.I don’t view marketing as a bad thing,but it can be done in a bad way which ends up having the opposite effect than was intended.I think the above event and others like it could be used in a positive way to not only market items,which would be the financial engine for future events,but also to bring users together and.in effect,forging a community atmosphere.Which might have unforeseen beneficial side-effects,ppl who feel they are actively part of the community tend to misbehave less in that community.
Maybe they could’ve sold more items in the mall but for someone like myself who has no idea what Macross is an item in the mall wouldn’t catch my eye,unless it was exceptional somehow.However tell someone that doesn’t know anything about Macross that there will be a concert they will more than likely check it out,just out of curiosity,where then product placement might then sell me on some items that normally I wouldn’t even take notice of.Idk if there was any product placement at this concert but I would rather be served soft-sell tactics like product placements than sit in CP and watch a constant loop of the same commercials over and over.Also there really is no reason why they couldn’t both sell items in the mall and offer them at events,maybe even offering a slight discount during the event at both places.Some of the best sales pitches are the ones you don’t even realize are being made yet result in sales.Events and selling things are a natural fit,the events are what should be supplying the captive audience for the selling to take place,which in this scenario would supply the profits that could then in turn lead to more events.
For those who want to see all of this, complete with subtitles throughout, visit the following link, which was generously shared by Joanna_Dark_. One of her friends put a tremendous amount of effort into translating this, and it will give you a much deeper appreciation of the event.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2UXA1uitoQ&hd=1
Plus, Anata no Oto is the best love song to come out of Japan since the Pizzicatto Five.