The 5 Worst Video Game Marketing Campaigns of 2009
Update: Due to heavy traffic from GamePolitics & Kotaku… my site got broken. I apologize for the loss of images and normal theme. It will resume when the traffic subsides, I never expected this much attention.
2009 was a pretty good year for video games. It gave us Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Modern Warfare 2, Dragon Age, Assassin’s Creed 2, Scribblenauts and so many other good games.
On the flip side, we were assaulted with horrible games like NBA Unrivaled, Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust and Dragonball: Evolution.
Some of the video game marketing campaigns left us thinking “what fresh hell is this?” 2009 saw some incredibly stupid, offensive, ineffective and dumb marketing campaigns for video games too. Here are the ones that angried up our blood and became stains on the internet.
Enjoy.
#5: Dead Space Extraction
For a decent game that followed up a fairly successful attempt at an original IP from EA, Dead Space Extraction really pushed what the graphics could do on the simpering Wii. The story didn’t suck, the characters were interesting and there was a surprising reaction to Lexine Murdoch (which is a pretty dumb name) as a compelling character in which people actually cared about her final fate.
Where they went wrong with this was the marketing of the game. It was really nowhere to be found. For a decent prequel to a decent game, the marketing was haphazard. It really felt like EA didn’t know how to market this game. It’s a survival horror – rail shooter game for the Wii. Prominently featured is Lexine, but her game time wasn’t really representative of the top billing on the cover art.
Overall, Dead Space: Extraction’s marketing felt shoddy, incoherent and plug and play. Sad, because it’s a decent game. I felt like EA’s marketing for this game basically said, “Hey gamers, here’s Dead Space, remember you kinda liked the other game? Well, this one’s a prequel, and it’s for the Wii. We think you’ll really enjoy it, or not. Either way, it’s here and you can buy it if you want…”
#4: Modern Warfare 2: Infinity Ward
There’s no doubt that Infinity Ward spent a shitload of money on this marketing campaign. They integrated an excellent social marketing campaign through Twitter, their display at E3 was phenomenal and everything gelled at the right time, had the right message and at all times, reinforced gamers’ resolve to buy this game, twice.
Until F.A.G.S.
Or, “Fight Against Grenade Spam”. Where you see the “Blunt Trauma” perk (get it? get it? It’s a pot joke! OMGLOL) Where Cole Hamels gives this incredibly stupid PSA message about grenade spam.
Ultimately, the video was taken down by Robert Bowling who then issued the standard non-apology apology on Twitter where he said:
I agree. I think the core gag is great, the end is a bit too far from the intent of the joke & can appreciate the concerns. Pulled.
I can see his point and I give Robert Bowling a tremendous amount of credit for his work, effort and excellence in the marketing of MW2, but this video… at the very end of the campaign… just felt like a bitter pill to swallow. This isn’t good marketing, this is a douchebag chestbump to the Xbox Live cacophony.
#3: Rogue Warrior
Gamespot gave Rogue Warrior a review of 2.0, one of the lowest its ever given to a AAA game. From Bethesda no less. This is the studio that’s given us Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth and the entire Elder Scrolls series. Then they roll in Richard (Dick) Marcinko to make this game that’s not worth the plastic its printed on. The entire game feels like someone at Bethesda thought they’d take someone who was marginally cool among militia types and then make a shit-eating game that could actually inspire real violence… that is, if anyone bought the damn game.
Where the marketing went wrong was that it was promoted as a kick-ass, stealth, combat ops game, comparable to Ghost Recon or Rainbow 6 type games. Not even close. Any marketer worth a hill of beans knows that marketing is about delivering expectations and making sure your product can actually fulfill that. In this case… not so much. Bethesda Softworks should have known better.
However, I do like their new marketing campaign.
The Rogue Tour
-
Also known as Call of Duty: The Quest for More Money
It’s about as believable as Palin 2012
#2: Dante’s Inferno
Dante’s Inferno manufactured controversy wherever it went. From throngs of faux-Christian outrage to the infamous “Sin to Win/ Grope a Booth Babe” contest. Dante’s Inferno effectively got its word out to gamers and pissed them off.
They pissed off the religious, they pissed off women and then, they sent $300 checks to the gaming media to “tempt” them to cash the check in some damned if you do, damned if you don’t marketing campaign.
Most of the video game media told EA’s Dante’s Peak to piss off.
While I understand the controversy as marketing ploy, in this case, Dante’s Inferno & EA seemed to try to piss off anyone who came even close to caring about their game, a game by all accounts, should be pretty kick-ass.
#1: Evony
Oh Evony, how I hate you. You cluttered up the internet with your stupidly ripped off images, you sued people who reported on your gold-spamming and malware, you spammed blogs with comments, you ripped off image assets from other games, you and your sniveling CEO complained about people shining the light on your deceptive practices and lastly…
YOUR GOD-DAMNED GAME SUCKED
Screw You Evony
It was the worst Civ clone ever. You stole a shitty game, crapped it out onto a browser, enticed people to play it, charged them for talking, deleted comments and never… ever… gave a penny back.
Worst Marketing Ever.
Similar Posts:
- A New Circle of Hell: Greed: From EA’s Dante’s Inferno
- Dante’s Inferno Gets a Mafia-Wars Clone Facebook Game
- Misogyny Marketing: EA Pimps Booth Babes for Dante’s Inferno Game
- Dead Frontier: Post Apocalyptic Zombie MMO Going 3D
- Developers Stepping Out of their Element — Bethesda Gets Wet
December 22nd, 2009 at 8:03 pm
I'd flip #1 & #2. Asking people to grope and photograph the groping of boothbabes has to take the cake for me. The whole illusion of boothbabes is the same as with strippers. They're hot, they smile at you and flirt with you, you stare at them, and you never touch them lest you want to get the crap kicked out of you. The boothbabes, while not having the most honorable profession, are real girls who have the reasonable expectation of not getting groped by strangers, rather only get started at and be commented about. EA completely broke the fantasy/reality border when they started their sin to win thing. In any other year, Evony would get #1 hands down, but I can't overlook this from EA. They should have gotten the shit fined out of them for that campaign.
December 23rd, 2009 at 4:15 pm
It was a tough call for 1 & 2. I ended up choosing Evony for #1 because it combined the blatant exploitation of sexuality in their imagery, deceptive business practices and the obvious attempt of deceptively micro-transactioning their users to death.
For me, Evony filled the bad marketing trifecta. Bad marketing, exploitive imagery & screwing their users… not to mention their litigious nature.
But, for the record, the ire towards EA for their Sin to Win campaign had a much more lasting effect. I'd get intermittently pissed at Evony, but my disdain for EA reached a much deeper level. It was a tough call for me.
December 23rd, 2009 at 3:48 pm
is this really a top? Guys you really need a life.Close the consoles and get out.Lol you don't have a f…in clue about marketing.
December 23rd, 2009 at 8:20 am
“I can see his point and I give Robert Bowling a tremendous amount of credit for his work, effort and excellence in the marketing of MW2, but this video… at the very end of the campaign… just felt like a bitter pill to swallow. This isn’t good marketing, this is a douchebag chestbump to the Xbox Live cacophony”
A douchebag chestbump from Mr. Real Senior Douchebag Bowling, whose head has grown so big in the last couple of years that I doubt he can even enter in his house through the door anymore.
December 23rd, 2009 at 4:25 pm
It was amazing that IW got such good reviews for such a lousy game in the form of MW2. The critics loved it and the people who spent the $60 didn't. MW2 is a rip-off that really has little playability, too short/lame story solo play and very poor multiplayer. As a sometime game reviewer, it just amazes me when reviewers get it so wrong and so infuriate their readers. One has to wonder what "perks" reviewers got for reviews that were so off the mark.
December 23rd, 2009 at 4:32 pm
I dont understand, where was this this "grope a booth babe" ad?
December 23rd, 2009 at 9:09 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ryan Kelley, JP Sherman. JP Sherman said: The 5 Worst Video Game Marketing Campaigns of 2009: http://bit.ly/8qk8jw The choice between #1 and #2 was a difficult choice [...]
December 23rd, 2009 at 12:08 pm
[...] Article here [...]
December 23rd, 2009 at 7:29 pm
[...] The 5 Worst Video Game Marketing Campaigns of 2009 | Set On Stun … [...]
December 24th, 2009 at 2:40 am
The only thing wrong with the Dante’s inferno campaign was that they kept apologizing for it.
I’d put the MW2 video at #1, though. With all the loudmouth, racist, homophobic bigots on Xbox Live and PSN, the LAST thing those little bastards need is validation.
December 29th, 2009 at 12:06 am
[...] The 5 Worst Video Game Marketing Campaigns of 2009 | Set On Stun … [...]
December 29th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
I agree with your point on MW2, but that wasn't the end of the story. The larger failure, to my mind, was the PR response to the IWNET/no dedicated servers announcement. They insulted everyone's intelligence, and then insulted the clans and content creators that had been with them since the original CoD.
December 30th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
@messiah complex
Excellent point. The decision to not support dedicated servers and the community that IW worked so hard to cultivate in the early CoD franchise history was a gut-punch to all of us who'd grown up with dedicated server gaming.
My only thought is that they knew that they could afford to lose the people who would not play their game if they cut it because they knew that their marketing blitz would add more buyers to their ranks.
I'm a father of a very bright and inquisitive 4 year old boy, and there have been times I've made a decision that affects him and he questions me. When I realize that I'm either wrong, or he noticed something about my decision that didn't make sense, unless there's potential for harm, I let him know that it was his argument, his reasoning that changed my mind. Infinity Ward seemed to take the reasoned response of the gamer base and ended up saying "cause I said so, now shaddup!"
December 31st, 2009 at 1:09 am
That's a great encapsulation. I've written a lot about the whole ordeal, but you managed to nail it in three sentences.
January 5th, 2010 at 1:59 am
Very good read. Does anyone know a good Modern Warfare 2 Clan I can join??
January 8th, 2010 at 9:38 am
I completely agree with the above comment, the internet is with a doubt growing into the most important medium of communication across the globe and its due to sites like this that ideas are spreading so quickly.
January 13th, 2010 at 4:27 am
Google have issued a statement that their email system has been hacked by the Chinese, possibly using malware placed on people’s computers. Browser games put client software on tens of millions of computers and could easily be used to farm for information such as email addresses. This article looks at the evidence.
http://www.bruceongames.com/2010/01/13/google-hacked-by-chinese/
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January 21st, 2010 at 6:31 pm
[...] A friend of mine sent me an invite to play this game, and my first thought was, “you’ve gotta be shitting me, is this an app to promote the same Dante’s Inferno game from EA that got second place on my Worst Video Game Marketing Campaigns of 2009?” [...]
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