tomb raider video game release

Groovy Gecko were chosen by Square Enix to help it realise its vision for a live Tomb Raider video game launch.

To win a £20,000 prize, fans were tasked with solving a complex series of puzzles to determine the location of the Tomb Raider gold dagger.

Objectives.

Square Enix wanted to launch the Shadow of the Tomb Raider video game release through a uniquely interactive treasure hunt. Streamed directly into several social media platforms, a series of complex clues and puzzles needed to be solved in order to work out the location of a replica gold dagger worth £20,000.

What we did.

We did the video production as well as the live streaming of this event from the set of a Mayan-themed tomb. Throughout the main live stream, a live feed of the dagger was visible in a small PiP (Picture in Picture) to show the audience exactly what they were looking for. The various clues supplied the viewer with several letters which could be brought together to form a three-word anagram. It took approximately 58 hours for a viewer to find the dagger and claim the cash prize while there were also spot prizes throughout. The stream also featured sport prize giveaways, an influencer taking over the stream as well as previous recorded content from the making of the game.

the results.

A total of 1.3 million viewers watched Square Enix’s live launch, with a combined viewing time of 14 years, 91 days, 4 hours and 28 minutes. After just three days, physical sales of the game made it the second most purchased in the UK at the time. With complex calculations required, with one winner having measured the angles of refracted light through of a window to determine where one of the live scenes were located, this treasure hunt proved a challenging task for fans and a successful launch of the Shadow of the Tomb Raider, completed in such a way and at such a scale which many other launch methods could never have achieved.