Amplitude Studios used newborn babies to announce HUMANKIND II

Strategy game trailers usually follow a familiar playbook: rendered map fly-overs, dramatic voiceovers, and tiny animated armies clashing on fields. To announce HUMANKIND II, Amplitude Studios and BETC Paris skipped the gameplay footage entirely. Instead, they built a 95-second launch film that travels through thousands of years of human history, seen exclusively through the eyes of newborn infants waking up to the world.

Directed by Benjamin Le Breton and Arnaud Assouline, the campaign frames every human life as a fresh playthrough, setting up the game’s core premise: history is about to begin again.

The Perspective Shift

Before this campaign, historical strategy marketing focused on the view from above. Games ask players to act as omniscient rulers overseeing civilizations from a god-like vantage point. BETC Paris inverted that framing completely by dropping the viewer into the most vulnerable position possible.

The entire film is shot in a continuous first-person perspective. The camera acts as the eyes of a newborn baby opening for the first time. Each time the baby blinks or closes its eyes, centuries pass, and the viewer wakes up in a completely different era and civilization.

By tying the game to the single universal moment shared by every human being across time, the ad reframes a complex historical strategy simulator into an emotional story about human potential.

Nine Eras, Zero AI

The film moves through nine distinct historical moments, spanning from the Neolithic era to a near-future setting. In one frame, a mother in Ancient Egypt smiles down at her child. In the next, the baby opens its eyes inside a Viking longship caught in a roaring storm. The sequence moves rapidly through Maya civilization, feudal China, plague-ridden medieval London, and modern delivery rooms.

However, the real achievement of the production sits in its physical craft. In an industry increasingly reliant on generative synthetic imagery, BETC Paris chose to shoot the campaign with real actors, practical sets, and physical period costumes built by Bulgarian production house B2Y Productions.

Furthermore, CG and digital effects were used strictly to enhance environments rather than generate them. The production team relied on practical camera rigs and physical lighting to match the natural disorientation of a newborn’s vision, giving each historical period a tangible, grounded atmosphere.

What Made It Different

Video game launch campaigns often prioritize features, mechanics, and graphics over thematic arguments. HUMANKIND II chose to sell the emotional thrill of starting over.

By using the newborn point of view, the film highlights the central tension of history: every person arrives in a world they did not choose, surrounded by environmental threats, ongoing wars, or technological progress. The game then hands the controls back to the player, asking what kind of world they will build from that starting point.

Instead of lecturing the viewer on new gameplay systems, the spot relies on contrast. The quiet joy of parents welcoming a child sits directly alongside the chaotic reality of the era outside the tent, ship, or room. That emotional balance gives the commercial a cinematic weight that stands far apart from standard gaming marketing.

Credits

HUMANKIND II (2026) — Amplitude Studios, global campaign originating in France. Agency: BETC Paris. Chief Creative Officer: Stéphane Xiberras. Creative Directors & Directors: Benjamin Le Breton and Arnaud Assouline. Art Director: Damien Binello. Production Company: Prose On Pixels. Executive Production: B2Y Productions. VFX: LIGHT VFX. Music: Isaac Albéniz (Asturias), arranged by Lionel Polis.