VGAD

Analyzes video game advertising and marketing campaigns. What worked, what didn’t, and what’s just straight up gameplay footage.

Posted by:
Mike Eaton
May 1, 2013
2

Gearbox and Marketing Honesty – Do You Believe In Life After Lies?

By now it has hit all the major gaming news outlets that SEGA and Gearbox are being sued in a class-action lawsuit over alleged misrepresentation of quality and false advertising of their early contender for worst game of 2013; Aliens: Colonial Marines. I won’t go into too much detail here but you can get the full backstory via our friends at Polygon. This isn’t the first time video game publishers and developers have been under fire for delivering a product [...]

Posted by:
Josh Whitehurst
January 18, 2013
3

[RIP PS2] Hunter: The Reckoning Wayward

[The PS2 is now officially discontinued! We wanted to give this mighty system a proper farewell so we're dedicating an entire week to it.] There was a time when I didn’t have fun playing games. It still happens every now and then, but when I was younger, I couldn’t be bothered to play something I didn’t enjoy a second time. Whether it was too repetitious, too overwhelming, or just another World War II shooter, I decided that my time was better spent [...]

[RIP PS2] Sony Made Art Out of Ads

[The PS2 is now officially discontinued! We wanted to give this mighty system a proper farewell so we're dedicating an entire week to it.] In 1994, Sony marketing reached out to the TBWA advertising firm to begin selling their Sony Playstation. It was a relationship that would last 13 years as they would be the main firm used for Sony’s US and European branches. This partnership would lend to some interesting and creative ads in the Playstation era, but with [...]

Posted by:
Yamilia Avendano
December 4, 2012
2

[VGAD] That Hitman Facebook Campaign Was Crap: A Call For Better Marketing

I would love it if rainbows and butterflies existed with every ad campaign; it’d be amazing if they all worked perfectly and never sucked. Unfortunately, a really bad idea is bound to get an OK. The frequency of this within the game industry is just alarming. This rant isn’t just at Square Enix, but rather every publisher that attempts to OK something like this. I don’t sugarcoat much in it, either. The message is simple: try harder. It shouldn’t be that [...]

Posted by:
Rex Wolff
February 6, 2012
1

[VGAD] Letting The Advertisements Speak For Themselves

These days, a game purchase is something that rarely happens on a whim. With the high price of games and the limited budgets of many gamers, it’s important to put thought into purchases, making sure that a game is actually worth the fifty or sixty dollars that it’s being sold for. That involves looking at gameplay videos, reading previews and reviews, listening to the opinions of friends, and possibly more for those who like to be as thorough as possible. [...]

Posted by:
Yamilia Avendano
January 16, 2012
40

[VGAD] WWE 12 TV Spot

[VGAD analyzes video game advertising and marketing campaigns. What worked, what didn’t, and what’s just straight up gameplay footage.] I would like to begin by saying that I have not played WWE12. I’m sure the game is actually pretty good for a wrestling simulator. I’m basing this entire article on the TV spot Ihappened to catch one night at 3:00 AM.The commercial in question leads me to award WWE 12 with the “gayest advertisement ever award.”