http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/kotaku.com.png http://kotaku.com/tag/flackery http://kotaku.com/tag/flackery

Alice Lee heard my pleas and (after a proposterously long wait) decided to do something about it. Back in 2004, seriously, 2004, I pleaded with Sega for come out with a Feel the Magic goldfish shirt. Did they listen? Nooooo. But Alice did, and after giving Sega pa-lenty of time to do their own marketing, she decided to create her own goldfish shirt. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=154950&view=rss&microfeed=true

Gran Turismo 4 launched with much fanfare this week. The ultimate driving simulator for the PS2 hit coast-to-coast but still managed to miss my mailbox. Besides the game just plain rocking, one of the coolest things about the release was a neat little publicity stunt Sony pulled in California. The publisher offered up free gas and play time with GT4 at a local gas station Tuesday morning. Despite my predictions of super long lines, it looks like things went pretty smoothly. Had I known they were going to have hot pit stop crews I would have made some effort to get someone out there. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=33865&view=rss&microfeed=true

Nintendo manages to stay in the top ten with titles from all of their platforms through January. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=33864&view=rss&microfeed=true

I love the new viral campaign for Super Monkey Ball Deluxe. It's a series of short videos titled The True Adventures of Chad, The Guy Who Was So Into Super Monkey Ball Deluxe That He Decided To Live In Ball. It's about this college student named Chad who well I don't want to ruin it for you. I do love the theme song, it's kinda short and goes something like this: More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=33686&view=rss&microfeed=true

On Feb. 22, Sony Computer Entertainment America will be giving out free gas at a Van Nuys MOBIL gas station, on the corner of Sherman Way and Sepulveda, from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. People willing to brave the lines will be greeted by a Gran Turismo pit crew, who will fill tanks, wash windows, and give gamers a chance to check out Gran Turismo 4 at racing kiosks set-up at the station. And it s all free. Don t ever say I didn t give you anything. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=33584&view=rss&microfeed=true

OK, tell me honestly: Did a chill run down your spine when you watched the video linked below? The footage of a plane silently drifting toward the British Parlimentary building on Feb. 11 2005 may be a clever marketing campaign for Atari s Act of War, but it s also a bit of a visual gut-punch to everyone who saw the planes slamming into the twin towers on the real Sept. 11. Marketing gone too far, or something edgy enough to get you to buy a new war game? Let me know. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=33581&view=rss&microfeed=true

If you re willing to part with all self-respect for a chance at winning a mystery prize, have I got a contest for you. All you have to do is print out a giant pair of monkey ears and then have someone take a picture of you making an ass of yourself for publishing on Sega s Super Monkey Ball DX website. On March 31, Sega will randomly draw the names of 50 Europeans and give them um something. They don t seem to mention what the actual prize is, but its gotta be great to inspire people to take big-eared pictures of themselves, right? More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=33006&view=rss&microfeed=true

It never ceases to amaze me just how stupid people are. I mean, besides me and you. When Nintendo kicked off a little viral marketing campaign for Metroid Prime 2 by placing a fake ad for a bounty hunter on Monster.com more than 90 people applied for the position. And I don t mean people screwing around, I mean 90 honest to God bounty hunters. The ad was obviously a fake, requiring that candidates have experience operating in subterranean, low-oxygen, zero-gravity environments. Many of the applicants were of the highly armed, not so highly intelligent variety. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=31846&view=rss&microfeed=true

One of the best things about being a game journalist, besides all of that money, fame and women, is the schwag. I m not talking free games, because that s sort of pedestrian. No, I m talking Ratchet & Clank underwear, City of Heroes capes and Mario pens. Sony just dropped a new favorite on me to kick off the release of The Getaway: Black Monday. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=29721&view=rss&microfeed=true

Is it just me or do experts start to crawl out of the woodwork when something like CES or E3 blows into town? Tony Fair, the director of strategy and lifestyle expert for AMPdi, sent Kotaku along some thoughts on PSP s showing at CES and its chances at future success. He says that the CES fanfare will absolutely translate into sales. Then he proceeds to shoot his credibility in the foot, leg and head: More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=29144&view=rss&microfeed=true

How many times do I need to ask for a Feel the Magic goldfish shirt before someone breaks down and tells me how to get one? The latest insult to my pathetic need for this bit of merchandising is Sega s other Feel the Magic crap that they are now selling to promote the bizarre Nintendo DS game. You can pick up a mug that changes pictures with heat, a beach towel, a watch and even a DS case, but still no goldfish shirt. What the hell! More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=28620&view=rss&microfeed=true I kind of dug the Stargate movie, and the TV show was pretty good back when it was on Showtime. I can put up with the Sci-Fi version of Stargate SG-1, but Stargate Atlantis is just beating the crap out of a dead horse. And for every over-played, under-written television franchise there has to be a computer game. The Austrian makers of Stargate SG-1 The Alliance are trying to drum up a little attention by auctioning off a chance to become a character in what looks to be a craptacular game. Bids have already topped $2,000. I think I d pay that much to not be in the game. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=28393&view=rss&microfeed=true

File this under lessons learned, if you do public relations for a governor: Always check the .com and .org sites before you start handing out an address. Last week the governor of Illinois announced a crusade against violent and sexually explicit video games. To help bolster his point of view the state s school officials pointed parents to a web site set up to promote the governor s new initiative. Problem is, they pointed to the wrong address. When parent s went to www.safegamesillinois.com they found a site attacking the governor s idea and links to pages on Amazon.com that let you buy the sorts of games the governor wants to put the kibosh on. The real site is www.safegamesillinois.org. Fortunately for the governor, the .com site is a mature attack on his position and not a bunch of pictures of him playing patty-cake with a Norwegian stripper dressed-up like a very naughty teacher. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=28085&view=rss&microfeed=true OK, I admit it. I m a closet Haikuphile. You probably should have figured it out after I insisted on writing a Nintendo Haiku contest. But don t blame yourself, the onus is on me. No, seriously the ONUS is on me: Get it off! Get it off! More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=27812&view=rss&microfeed=true

Sonic the Hedgehog will be showing up in Happy Meals starting tomorrow. I m psyched, especially since they don t mean he s going to be slapped between two sesame seed buns and wrapped up in one of those greasy bits of yellow paper. The Happy Meals will feature eight new handheld games based on the plucky, blue rodent. If you find one of the 2,500 silver toys you could win $2,500 cash to buy the ultimate gaming system. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=26806&view=rss&microfeed=true

Seriously, there s no way this is a coincidence: Nintendo is giving away $3,750 in prizes to the person who enters the best haiku poem about Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. A haiku expert will judge the winner. The contest kicked off three weeks after I wrote my very first Haiku review for the GameCube first-person shooter. I ve got one thing to say to all of you Haiku review naysayers...um, okay, I can t think of anything clever. But consider yourself chastised. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=26589&view=rss&microfeed=true

Sony is launching a 10-minute a day online TV channel that it likes to call a holiday for the mind, but I like to call an ad. The show will run from 4:25 p.m. to 4:35 p.m. and started its ad run on Nov. 26. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=26419&view=rss&microfeed=true

Wood is good and I m not just talking morning wood, I m talking the kind you hang ornaments from. The National Christmas Tree Association has a corny little game that has you taking out robotic artificial Christmas trees bent on canceling the holiday season. I m not making this shit up. Between the rounds of tossing snowballs at angry fake trees an elf pops up and says things like Nothing says Christmas like a real tree and Wood is good. Yes it is, yes it is. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=26415&view=rss&microfeed=true

The race to create the most obnoxious ad campaign for a Vietnam video game may have a new leader. Take2 had to pull down their Vietcong Purple Haze billboard in the UK after seven people complained to the Advertising Standards Authority. The billboard featured a big picture of a solider standing in the jungle over the quote: Napalm never smelt this good. That s subtle. How about just: Buy this game and you can napalm the clothes of 9-year-old children? More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=26291&view=rss&microfeed=true

A big chunk of video game players are way the hell behind the times. New marketing research shows that one out of every three gamers gets their rocks off with a PSOne, Nintendo 64 or Super Nintendo. For God's sake, what are they playing? Rock, Paper, Scissors: Immortal Kombat. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=26154&view=rss&microfeed=true

Got gams, um, I mean games? There s a heated discussion going on over at MeFi about whether the Frag Dolls, the Ubisoft-sponsered, all-girl game team, is exploitative or not. Let s see: They re all hot, they had never met before being picked to join the team, and they re all hot. I m thinking this is E3 booth babes all over again. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=26012&view=rss&microfeed=true

For years sports video games have been trying to mimic real life, now NFL broadcasts are trying to mimic video games. For awhile now television stations have been using games from EA and Sega for replays and analysis. It s a great idea, the games are strikingly realistic and you can literally put the camera anywhere. I had a chance to interview Madden earlier this year and he was talking about it. I think the next big thing is gonna have to be games where you control the players — something that lets you tell a player where to run and who to hit. Viva la reality. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=25995&view=rss&microfeed=true

You may have game and you may have bling bling, but do you have bling bling game? If not, Nintendo can solve your lack-of-flashy-game-console problem. The kings of marketing are giving away seven 24-carat gold Game Boy Advances in the UK. Sadly, the giveaway is to promote yet another Zelda game, not a GBA version of Shaft. Shut yo' mouth! But I m talking 'bout Shaft! More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=25876&view=rss&microfeed=true

Electronic Arts signed All-pro New York Giants tight end Jeremy Shockey and hip hop artist Xzibit for the cover of NFL Street 2. The search took awhile longer than they expected, what with having to weed out all of the football players with arrest records. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=25798&view=rss&microfeed=true The concept for Rumble Rose is near and dear to my heart: girl-on-girl wrestling. So, you can imagine my delight when I received a box full of Rumble Rose swag in the mail today. I can t decide which of the freebies I like more. There s the 2005 Calendar, which has revealing pictures of the girls of Rumble Rose and a nice spread of Dixie with a little nippleage action going on. But I also really like the little pack of Mud Bath & Mask, which has a great picture of two nearly naked women wrestling in mud on it. It s nice to know Konami is taking the high road with their marketing. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=25585&view=rss&microfeed=true I can t imagine why anyone but the most hardcore fanboy would want a 288-page book on the making of Half-Life 2, but it still found a publisher. Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar describes the origins of Valve and the development of their projects with exclusive new details, images and interviews. Sample entry: Day 135, 04:00 hours: Programmers running low on Twinkies and Jolt. Sent Mike to the AM/PM for more. Scintillating. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=25554&view=rss&microfeed=true You have a few more weeks to prove your Indie game has balls. Er, make that BAWLS. Deadline for the Big C Independent Game Competition, created by BAWLS drink and the Slamdance Film Festival, is Nov. 29. I m not quite sure what the nasty little energy drink in the bumpy blue bottle has to do with Indie gaming, but it s all good. The company is giving away $5,000 worth of cash and prizes to the winners. Just hope it s not $5,000 in BAWLS. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=25530&view=rss&microfeed=true

Missed the blog ad campaign for Halo 2? Then download the DVD. One of the creators of the oddly compelling underground ad site, I Love Bees, recently posted that it s OK to distribute the DVD anthology of the campaign. The DVD includes more than five hours of audio, behind the scenes looks and a handful of extras — all geared toward getting you to buy Halo 2. Now if they could figure out a way to get you to pay for this DVD, that would be a marketing campaign. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=25482&view=rss&microfeed=true

Sony best seller or Nintendo innovator? That s the question Japanese gameshop owners are wrestling with as they prepare to place their orders for the Playstation Portable and Nintendo DS. At least one shop owner hates that the systems and games that sell best are usually the same old crap and the the games he likes tend to bomb. Maybe if he weren t such a freak for poke-my-bottom games he wouldn t have that problem. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=25392&view=rss&microfeed=true