Sex sells. It's a cheap and simple ploy that video game marketers have used for years. The Chinese game industry is no different. In recent years, famous Japanese adult film stars have been tapped to represent and market games to consumers, but now, one of the country's biggest newspapers has come out against sex in…
Know for its scenic mountain vistas and sheep farms with an economy based on fishing, tourism and whiskey-distilling, Scotland's Isle of Skye is now the first real-world location officially twinned with a video game setting. One of the prettiest places on the planet, now a Skylanders: Swap Force marketing tool.
Mobile puzzler Dragon Academy didn't have millions to spend on cinematic trailers and E3 booths. Indeed, it ended up with a marketing budget of...$11.13. What can you get for $11.13? Some stupid Vine videos, that's what.
The "brand guidelines" for the new Xbox One have been published by Microsoft, and while they're intended for use by people like advertisers and partners, there's still some good stuff in there for people like you and me.
Mere days after the announcement of its $350 price tag and June release date, Nvidia's Shield Android handheld is already showing up in the background of popular television shows. Look what Modern Family's Luke Dunphy has traded in his Nintendo 3DS for.
Last night, an Australian TV commercial for the Wii U came on. My wife looked at it, then at me, then back at it, then at our Wii, before finally asking "wait, don't we have a Wii? What's this?"
The PS Vita has front touch and rear touch, giving the portable a new type of gaming sensation. Here, a French PS Vita promotional ad's interpretation of that dual touch sensation seems somewhat different.
Over the years countless researchers and marketeers have sought to split the ever-growing gaming population of the world into easy-to-understand categories. This latest attempt, crafted by predicative gaming analytics company Playnomics, makes more sense than many of those, narrowing us all down to eight gamer…
Every so often, I get to go behind closed doors and preview games early. Well, not before signing a non-disclosure agreement and sometimes giving proof that yes, this scrappy looking kid is in fact writing for [insert name of publication.]
First THQ's media relations folks send me a furry hat that's too small for my head. Now they've signed my death warrant.
Imagine living in a town so remote, so isolated, and so dreary that the prospect of a Taco Bell opening nearby ignites a spark of hope in the populace so intense it has to be set to moving music.
Sega recently announced that their upcoming game Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed will feature the titular hero of Disney's November film Wreck-it Ralph as a playable character. The movie's director, Rich Moore, calls it a "dream come true" that we can see "Wreck-It Ralph in a real video game alongside Sonic and other…
I bet the folks that do public relations and marketing for innovative and thoughtful games like From Dust and Journey spend days and days brainstorming inventive ways to communicate complex ideas in ways that appeal to the consumer. Meanwhile The Amazing Spider-Man UK marketing team nipped off early after putting in an …
When the bears of Perfect Island neglect to invite Naughty Bear to their island resort vacation, amazing advertising ensues. Oh, and a new Naughty Bear game coming to Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network this fall. But man, that advertising.
After spending months parading about multiple live-action versions of Lollipop Chainsaw heroine Juliet, the game's marketeers dress up four models in cheerleader outfits and bad zombie makeup and have them pile on each other. I can't believe it took this long.
Perhaps my friend Dan Golding, over at Crikey, put it best: "The sophistication of Assassin's Creed III's "do free advertising for us and we'll give you more advertising" online campaign is amazing."
Demographic projections. Drip-feed PR. Invoking the name of popular, established games to create interest in new ones. It's the cold calculus of marketing, also known as everything you hate about modern day video games. Want to know how it works? Here's a leaked marketing plan from Sega that lays bare the marketing…
Ubisoft's critically acclaimed platformer Rayman Origins is going to get a sequel; it's pretty much inevitable. What form that sequel will take might be hinted at in these screens taken from a marketing survey by one of our readers, hinting at a world filled with dragons, ghosts and Greek gods.
It might not be the video game-branded cereal Lisa Foiles craves, but the Atari-classic branded General Mills cereal boxes popping up at Target stores across the country might have you bringing the box back to the breakfast table again.
Whoa there, viral marketeers! You have to be careful not to overshadow your product with the promotion, as these lovely shots of everyday people dressing up in Gotham City Impostors garb readily demonstrate.
