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
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
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 …
After spending months parading about multiple live-action versions
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
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.
This Sunday, Microsoft will launch an ad campaign that tout its "family" of consumer products together, rather than individual campaigns for each. What that really means is the company is ramping up the sex appeal for products like Microsoft Office by including the Xbox 360 and Kinect in the picture.
As promised last week, EA delivers the full version of its "99 Problems"
Back in June, EA Sports announced plans to open up three brick-and-mortar stores
Looking for a new line of work? Do you know anything about the potential harmful effects of shady experimental drugs and mad scientist-level bioengineering? No? Then you sound perfect for the Umbrella Corporation.
We covered Ubisoft's terrifying marketing ploy
Soon Xbox 360 gamers will be able to get some use out of their Kinect: Interacting with a new suite of multimedia advertising set to hit the console and its $150 peripheral next spring.
Deep Silver is a lovely little company, but when a game generates the sort of buzz Dead Island stirred up with its stunning trailer
This may have been a prediction. It sure as hell sounds like a threat. This year, Activision and Electronic Arts will both spend more on the marketing for two games than many publishers will ever spend on developing one, said Electronic Arts' CEO. As he was speaking to a conference of advertisers, it was surely music…
In this addictively epic edition of Speak-Up on Kotaku, commenter Aikage the Skilled Furby is having trouble dealing with the video game industry's ever-changing buzzwords.
