Xbox: the birth of gaming tourism
Videogame marketing has typically focused on hero characters, guns and explosions. But gaming has become so much more. The graphics in Xbox games are now almost life-like. Open-world games are vast, and developers are increasingly including photo modes in their games. We showed people there’s another way to experience games, not just to play, to visit.
The Birth of Gaming Tourism Case Film
Xbox partnered with Rough Guides to do something they'd never done in their almost 40 year history of publishing travel guides: create a fully-functioning Rough Guide to virtual destinations. Our writers and researchers spent months exploring Xbox's worlds, noting down points of interest in order to make the 'Rough Guide to Xbox' work as a genuine reference book and travel companion, just as a 'Rough Guide to Paris' or a 'Rough Guide to Italy' would. Except the villages to explore, monuments to visit, sights to see and info on money, accommodation and getting around are all in Xbox's richly-detailed games. Each chapter is about a different Xbox game, and gives the reader vital travel advice for that world - from hidden bars to grab a drink in Sea of Thieves, to elusive wildlife to spot in Anthem, to unmissable churches and temples in Shadow of the Tomb Raider.
We launched the book at one of London’s largest travel expos. People could take a tour in a game while listening to an audio travel guide.
Instead of selling games, we sold destinations.
Live-streamed in-game tour groups.