Kotaku: Viral

Real Life Gotham City Impostors Looks More Entertaining Than the Game

Mike Fahey — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:00:00 EST

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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. More »

Is This Quantum Levitation Powered Real World WipeOut Track Too Good to Be True?

Mike Fahey — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:00:00 EST

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Reeking of amateurish CG and released by the seemingly nonexistent Japan Institute of Science and Technology, this video depicting a pair of miniature hover cars ripped straight out of Sony's WipeOut series sure gets me hungry for some futuristic racing. More »

"I'm the Best Man. I Did It." Viral Freestyler Eli Porter Gets His Own Documentary, "People's Champion"

Joel Johnson — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 12:00:00 EDT

Remember Eli Porter? You probably wouldn't by name. But he's the kid who went viral in the "Iron Mic" freestyle competition with the famous "I'm the best man. I did it." line. And for some reason filmmakers Trent Babbington and Walker Warren decided to make a documentary about that moment—and I'm glad they did. More »

They're Nude. They're Gaming.

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 24 May 2011 07:30:00 EDT

People in New York City are gathering, getting naked and playing video games. Or are they? More »

Homefront Balloons Don't Fly in San Francisco [Update]

Owen Good — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 20:00:00 EST

A Homefront promotion for the Game Developers Conference involved releasing hundreds of red balloons in the downtown of one of the most environmentally conscious cities in America. Many floated into its neighboring bay. Bad idea? Yeah, you could say that. [Update] GameStop has released a statement, saying publisher THQ initiated the promotion and used environmentally-friendly balloons. More »

The Source of the Call of Duty Hoax is Revealed [Update]

Owen Good — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 13:00:00 EST

The source of the stir created by a Modern Warfare-themed countdown site - believed to be announcing another sequel, or a competitor's - has been traced to a Canadian troupe set to debut a Modern Warfare film next week. More »

Coming February It's ... Rémi Kart 2!

Owen Good — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 13:00:00 EST

Not a game, but it is a sequel to "Rémi Kart," the hilarious viral vid by Rémi Gaillaird, the famous French prankster who also trashed a supermarket in a Pac-Man video. Rémi Kart 2 is due in February. More »

Kinect Player Kicks Cat Into Camera — Fake Or Not Fake?

Owen Good — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 19:40:00 EST

A cat innocently wanders by his owner playing Kinect, and is accidentally kicked across the room directly into the camera. Do you want to watch that? Hell yeah! But is it fake? You make the call! More »

For Electronic Arts, It Means 'Mothers I'd Like to Frighten'

Owen Good — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 14:00:00 EST

A Dead Space 2 viral campaign launching this weekend took plenty of chutzpah, I'll give it that. Electronic Arts brought in 200 middle-aged mothers under the auspices of a focus group looking at a new game. They were, aptly, horrified. More »

You Write It, Mr. Boomshakalaka Delivers It

Owen Good — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 18:00:00 EST

NBA Jam on the 360 and PS3 hit shelves yesterday; today EA Sports is taking a page from the Old Spice YouTube campaign that drew raves. The announcer, Tim Kitzrow, is reading off Twitter-submitted catchphrases. Apparently mine (above) wasn't objectionable. More »

Have You Seen This Wolf Pup?

Owen Good — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 22:30:00 EDT

Capcom's official Okami Facebook page is running a giveaway; first three to spot this lost-dog poster in New York will get a plush Chibi. See the page for details on submitting your entry. More »

2K Sports, Hire This Guy

Owen Good — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 21:30:00 EDT

After heralding Michael Jordan's return to video games, NBA 2K11 2K released a trailer comprised of NBA 2K10 footage, none of it featuring Jordan. MessenjahMatt, a pro at Jordan tributes, also used 2K10, but made something a little more blood-pumping. More »

Viral Video Apparently Teases 3D PS3

Brian Ashcraft — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 09:20:00 EDT

A viral video apparently plugging some new sort of Playstation technology surfaced over the weekend. Is it for 3D gaming (likely) or the Playstation 4 (seriously doubt it)? More »

Experience Tron's Legacy With Space Paranoids Online

Mike Fahey — Fri, 07 May 2010 15:20:00 EDT

If Tron lead character Kevin Flynn were around today, surely he'd be proud of the fact that you can now play his arcade classic Space Paranoids directly in your browser window. More »

The Hunt For Sam Fisher Begins On Facebook

Mike Fahey — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:20:00 EDT

Third Echelon's best agent has gone rogue, and they've turned to Facebook for help tracking down Sam Fisher. Where would you go if you were a top secret government agency trying to track down a traitor? MySpace? Please. More »

The Secret World: Postcards From The Edge Of Madness

Mike Fahey — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:20:00 EST

A mysterious postcard pointed me towards the outwardly unassuming website of a small New England town, where I am invited to become an honorary citizen "by being dunked in the Miskatonic River." Wait, what? More »

Tony Hawk: Ride Versus Skateboarding Dog

Mike Fahey — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:40:00 EST

This dog obviously has had more time to play Tony Hawk: Ride than 3 hours on a Saturday afternoon. More »

UK Viral Vid Teaches Us How to Cope with L4D2

Owen Good — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:40:00 EDT

Bad enough that this sucker's set in Louisiana and still features a cricket bat - I've truly never heard of anyone playing that game south of the Mason-Dixon, outside of university graduate students from India. More »

Will You Fight For Gratuitous Slow-Motion Panty Shots?

Mike Fahey — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:20:00 EDT

Namco Bandai's remarkably subtle and slow "What Will You Fight For?" viral videos for Tekken 6 get a lot less subtle the second time around. More »

Is There Half-Life In The Box?

Mike Fahey — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 12:40:00 EDT

An amazing 9-minute long film on YouTube has Half-Life fans shouting viral teaser. Is "What's In The Box" teasing something new from Valve, or is it just a damn fine homage? More »

The Final Resident Evil 5 Viral - Chris Kills A Television

Mike Fahey — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:20:00 EDT

Resident Evil 5 is finally upon us, signaling the end of live-action Chris Redfield's flashbacks and the beginning of his vendetta against appliances. More »

Could This Be Dead Rising 2?

Brian Crecente — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:00:00 EST

This just popped up all over the net. Our take? Too slick, too inside to not be a real, brief, tantalizing taste of Dead Rising 2. More »

Viva Piñata 'Museum' Video

Stuart Houghton — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 16:20:00 EDT

"On the seventh day, we ran out of candy..." More »

Yep, Another Grand Theft Auto IV Wanted Poster

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 06:00:18 EST

And the hype train continues! Here's another viral ad for Grand Theft Auto IV. This one was spotted in New York's Lower East Side. It's a wanted ad for Caribbean arms dealer Little Jacob. The joke is that the "LCPD will clear any outstanding parking/speeding violations in exchange for information leading to an arrest." This isn't the last of these ads, and there will be more, we're sure. Oh yes, we're sure. More »

Halo 3 - When Viral Attacks

Mike Fahey — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 14:25:43 EDT

One of the goals of viral marketing is to draw your target audience into your game by making them feel like they are an active part of the story. Sometimes this can backfire, however, as was the case with Grand Rapids Community College student Michael VanderZand, who found himself unexpectedly caught up in the Halo 3 ARG Iris. When a gamer tag linked to the ARG contained digits that looked suspiciously like a phone number with the last three digital removed, fans began randomly calling phone numbers that coincided with the sequence...one of which belonged to VanderZand. More »

Battle Of the Gods

fdemarco — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 13:00:00 EDT

Who knew one game could be marketed so much in so many ways? Sony has posted a God of War II promotional/viral website that allows players to choose two different characters from the God of War universe and them watch them battle it out. So what makes this different than just playing the game? The characters are all portrayed by real actors. It's charming in it's way and some the character lines are delivered hilariously in that over enthusiastic high school theater style. A fun way to waste a few minutes and have a good laugh at people in silly costumes. I'm just glad Sony actually fessed up to this little piece instead of trying to make it look like it was fan made. My fighter of choice? Chubby Kratos! "I am chubby Kratos and I am all out of bubblebum!" Flynn De Marco More »

EA's "Viral" Skate Clip

Michael McWhertor — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 23:40:51 EST

We've seen little of EA's entry into the next-gen skateboarding field, outside of some similar promo videos, but this latest episode popped up from the company today, featuring skater Jerry Hsu. While no gameplay footage is shown, it shows how EA is marketing the title. The choice of "viral" in the title was based on the filename, not my intention to cause some "buzz" about the title. Still I look forward to an alternative to the Tony Hawk series for my skateboarding fix. The only other update is a Hsu render after the jump. More »

All Sony Wants For Christmas Is A Better Marketing Company

Brian Ashcraft — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 13:22:11 EST

The above clip appeared on a blog called "All I Want for X-mas Is A PSP." From that site: More »

PS3 Viral Code Cracked

Brian Crecente — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 13:20:05 EDT

Those brilliant NeoGaffers managed to figure out the codes over on the Playstation 3's viral marketing site. Once you figure out what the symbols mean you can use them to spell out a list of words and unlock a bunch of freebies like soundtracks, wallpapers and tons o videos. British Gaming Blog was kind enough to upload and host videos for Lair, Genji, Motorstorm, Resistance: Fall of Man and Warhawk over on their site. More »

Rumor: Gears of War Demo in Two Days

Brian Crecente — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 14:45:34 EDT

Gears of War just got all viral on us. People who subscribed to the game's official site received an email this morning with a cryptic message and even more cryptic link. More »

Mysteeeeerious Sony Ads from Behind the Curtain

egauger — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 20:20:20 EDT

These come from deep in the bowels of Sony itself, via blindfolded carrier pigeon that's signed an NDA. More »

Blow Up Bunnies With Secret Splinter Cell Site

Brian Crecente — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 12:18:55 EDT

Anything that features exploding bunnies is A-OK in my book. a cool little viral site for Splinter Cell: Double Agent just popped up. The Fifth Freedom looks like an infomercial for a spy start kit, complete with weapons, disguises and Bleed Out, a blood stain remover. Toupee-wearing John Badsky talks to callers and pitches the Girls of the NSA calendar with equal alacrity. And then there's the Morality Test with the cutest big-eyed bunnies you've ever seen. Man they make a mess when they explode. Brian Crecente More »

Wii: It's (Not) For the Birds

Brian Crecente — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 20:30:10 EDT

How Wii Play, Nintendo's MySpace site for the Wii, has been holding a cool little video contest that asked people to create something that shows how people will play with the Wii. Here's two of my favorites. What do you think? More »

Valve Goes Viral for Portal

kotaku.com — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 09:00:18 EDT

Valve, you don't need to go viral to interest me in Portal. You had me at reaching down, fiddling with my junk, then saying "Hello." But now, you've given us Aperture Science. More »

Toon Crisis!

egauger — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 23:20:25 EDT

Another wee flash game to fill the long minutes between popsicles, Toon Crisis is a marketing effort by Walkman, but makes up for it by featuring the fantastic music of Gogol Bordello. More »

Swarm Watch: Dead Rising Viral Marketing

egauger — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 22:40:46 EDT

I'm not sure when this went up or how it got under our radar, but SwarmWatch.com seems to be Dead Rising's viral marketing effort, and it deserves a lot more attention than it's gotten. More »

More Mysterious MS and Razer Viral Marketing

Michael McWhertor — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 17:08:05 EDT

We've been tipped a couple times this weekend about the "viral" marketing site NotForNoobs.com. The site features nothing more than a small Flash page with a retro styled television and the instructions "Turn knob". This can be done three times for three channels, shown a countdown clock, currently at about 104 hours, ending some time on Friday. Then you are forwarded to a submission form. That's pretty much it. More »

UPDATE! Bite the Waxing Quintile: What the Christ is Eon8?

egauger — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 18:20:20 EDT

This was going to be a big comprehensive post about the Eon8 thing that's rattling all sorts of meme vectors right now, but as with viral marketing of this scale, the sheer number of forum posts, references, speculation and factoids gleaned via WHOIS and hacking are making that sort of thing redundant. So instead this will be a brief overview, followed by a linkstravaganza. More »

Counter-Paint: Striking Back at Sony's Viral Graffiti

lsmith — Mon, 05 Dec 2005 12:40:26 EST

The PSP graffiti that Sony wasn't talking about earned mention at Wired. Finally, something more than just idle bitching, Wired snapped pics (see image) of people tagging over Sony's desperate, stupid marketing ploy. Sony finally loosened its lips on the whole fiasco, opening up a little bit to Wired. Spokeswoman Molly Smith offered the following: "With PSP being a portable product, our target is what we consider to be urban nomads, people who are on the go constantly." More »

More Splinter Cell 4 Hints

lsmith — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 10:40:59 EST

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The whole Splinter Cell 4 pre-release "Beware Sam Fisher" campaign has some new wrinkles up at the official site. Pictures of guns, some mugshots, a wanted sketch and a picture of a young woman (Fisher's daughter?) are among those showed. Is Fisher getting framed for something? Does his own government turn on him after the frame-up? I don't know, but I bet there will be some new attacks and multiplayer modes in the game, too! More »