Shadow of War is Warner Bros’ biggest marketing campaign ever

No one can miss the massive Shadow of War poster outside the Koelnmesse, and that’s because the new entry in Warner Bros’ Middle-Earth franchise is the publisher’s biggest ever investment for one title, according to SVP of international Olivier Wolff.

“[Our sales expectations] are massive,” he told MCV. “Top Five or Top Ten massive. We’ve never had such an investment in one game and in a marketing campaign, and we believe that we have the right product in order to seduce a mass audience. We have very high expectations. It’s definitely going to be our game of
the year, there is no doubt about that.” 

He continued: “We had a great start of the year with two big sellers, Lego Worlds and Injustice 2, and both of them were really big successes. But Shadow is War is going to be even bigger and we believe it’s a true Q4 triple-A flagship title.”

When asked about whether Warner Bros is worried about the competition during Q4, which, as always, will be buzzing with triple-A releases, Wolff’s answer was straight to the point: “Not at all.”

He continued: “Pre-orders are pretty strong. They are above what we had for Batman: Arkham Knight and we are very happy with what we have.”

Warner Bros is already planning to support the title over the long run, too, with Wolff adding: “It’s a title that, for us, is going to last for a long time and we’re going to support it for at least 18 months after launch.

“Middle-Earth is a broad franchise with lots of appeal. We think we just scratched the surface in a very nice and successful way with the first game, but we believe Shadow of War can seduce a lot of other players because there
is so much innovation in the gameplay.”