Digital News Production: Contact

On the same day as deciding on our angle...

Are games being released unfinished?

We researched video game release dates and found the perfect game and date. Assassin's Creed Syndicate will be released on 23rd October 2015 (Game, 2015). It's a fantastic coincidence that this release date falls right in the middle of our shoot week.

Even better however, is the fact that Syndicate is the follow up from a previously extremely bug-filled game, Assassin's Creed Unity. It's a well known fact that this game was released without being fully completed, as "the conversation has been almost entirely about how many bugs it's got and how broken it is in certain areas" (Kelion, 2014). This allows our topic for the new game to be about the controversy on whether it will be as flawed and unfinished as the last.

Realising how strong this topic is for our news story, our next move was to find out if their was a midnight release event for the game. Discussing possible locations such as Maidstone and Ashford, we decided the best option would be Game at Bluewater. This is due to...

- The size and popularity of the location, as it's more likely to attract a lot of attention and customers

- The natural lighting provided by a shopping centre rather than outside in the dark (where we have no outlets for stage lighting)

- Weather conditions not being an issue

- The convenience of the centre not being far from us

Hesitant on whether we would stand a chance in getting to shoot at that location, our tutor encouraged us to start at the top, and if we fail then work our way down. We took the advice, looked up the contact number and got in touch with Game at Bluewater on the same day.

Thankfully, they were very open, professional and friendly (as were we) and told us that there is in fact a midnight release of the game. Following this, they told us it's very likely that we can film the launch, and they will confirm and get back to us soon. This gave us the green light to go ahead with planning and developing our idea further.




Bibliography:

Game (2015) Games Released In 2015. At: http://www.game.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/HubArticleView?hubId=183669&articleId=183671&storeId=10151 (Accessed on 22.09.15)

Kelion, L. (2014) 'Ubisoft apologises for Assassin's Creed Unity bugs' In: Bbc.co.uk/news 27.10.14 [online] At: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-30226586 (Accessed on 28.09.15)