At some point today, a fascinating email will be dispatched from AMD to roughly 15,000 of their most hardcore evangelists around the world known as the "Red Team." Its contents? An invitation to happily crash Nvidia's Game24 party in the name of PC gaming. I intercepted it.
"No one appreciates a good celebration of gaming more than AMD, as evidenced by our recent #AMD30Live webcast and the warm and humbling reception the event received from the enthusiast community," the letter begins. "In that spirit, we’re intrigued that another graphics products company jumped on the #AMD30Live bandwagon this week by announcing a similar event on September 18th and 19th, called #Game24."
You may have heard about Nvidia's Game24 event. I suspect that AMD's "intrigue" is due to the fact that Game24 resembles -- at least in spirit -- #AMD30Live, a webcast which celebrated 30 years of PC gaming and graphics, with nostalgic glances back at its history, as well as GPU giveaways, overclocking contests, and interviews with influential game developers and members of AMD's product team.
An email being sent out later today by AMD to 15000 members of their global 'Red Team."
Nvidia's Game24 event is shaping up to have a similar theme -- complete with nostalgic glances back at PC gaming's history. On paper Nvidia's event looks much more ambitious, however, and that's a good thing. My personal opinion is that AMD consistently exhibits more interaction directly with their community (minor proof of that in this Twitter thread), and it's an area Nvidia needs to improve on.
The email continues: "We believe there is no such thing as a bad celebration of gaming, so we warmly encourage you to attend this event in person. Game24 events will be conveniently located in Chicago, IL, Indianapolis, IN, Mission Viejo,
Let's stop to think about this. While it's true that AMD's "Red Team" aren't just casual fans and more of a global strike force of enthusiasts engaged with the brand, it's still a bold little guerrilla marketing move by AMD. I'm quite certain that Nvidia's Game24 event will also be a launch party for the company's new Maxwell-based GTX 980 and GTX 970 graphics cards (press was already briefed on these products though I was not in attendance). What if these AMD fans crashing the party get sucked into Team Green? Or win an Nvidia graphics card that outperforms their existing AMD hardware? I suppose those possibilities exist, but something tells me AMD isn't concerned.
It's worth mentioning here that AMD revealed their last two GPU architectures (Hawaii and Tonga) to the community via live-streamed events. The tech press was not pre-briefed, a decision AMD tells me is to emphasize the fact that their community is just as -- if not more -- important.
Here's how the email closes: "On Sept 18th and 19th we’ll be watching the #Game24 hashtag and the @AMDRadeon twitter channel for pictures of you in attendance at the events, proudly wearing your favorite red T-shirt. Boldly tweet pictures of yourself wearing your colors while at these events, and we’ll send some love your way. The funnier and more inventive the photos, the better – remember, this is a celebration! Make sure to mention @AMDRadeon so we can find your posts easily."
I have it on good authority that "some love" equates to free AMD graphics cards. I don't know the exact details, but AMD doesn't want their initiative to go unrewarded. It should prove fascinating to follow the resulting photos and shenanigans that ensue next week.
This isn't remotely the first plan of this type to hatch from AMD. Earlier this year they previewed their Radeon 295x2 to press (with their team decked out in super spy tuxedos and stretch SUV limos, no less) during Nvidia's annual GTC conference. In 2013, they crashed
To some I'm sure it's viewed as a sleazy, sneaky move. I applaud the company for being creative and proactive about their marketing and engaging their passionate community in the process.
Just remember Team Red and Team Green: In the end, we all love PC gaming so play nice at Nvidia's Game24 event.
