Category: Marketing Sucks (Page 3 of 4)

Video Game Awards: Expect Another Travesty

November 21, 2005 / Damion Schubert

Last year, I complained about the travesty that is the Spike TV Video Game Awards. I gave 55 reasons.

This year, I may only need one, courtesy of Jamie Fristrom who saw the awards live late last week.

So, here’s the thing. This show doesn’t air until December. They were giving awards to games that aren’t even done yet. So who chooses these things? “Your bullshit academy,” as Jack Black put it, accepting an award for a game that isn’t done yet in a prerecorded sequence – I wonder if they’ll leave that in the final cut?

Ye gods. The game Jamie’s talking about is King Kong, which goes on sale today. And while everyone here at the office who has seen it (it’s an Ubi product) has raved about it, it doesn’t bode well for the overall integrity of the awards.

RYL Cancels Million Dollar Tournament

November 14, 2005 / Damion Schubert

Sure, offering a million dollars to a lucky SOB who plays your game often doesn’t pan out (see Advent Rising and their recently deceased contest). But it’s got to be doubly embarrassing to cancel it, and have to state as the reason it’s because you can’t eliminate cheating. Continue reading

How To Make In-Game Ads Work

August 12, 2005 / Damion Schubert

Here’s a free idea for Massive Inc, the people putting ads in games like SWAT 4 and Planetside.

Encourage your partners to make the ads destructable. Continue reading

In-Game Advertisements

August 11, 2005 / Damion Schubert

In-game advertisements, courtesy of Massive Incorporated, have begun showing up in Planetside. SOE’s small Tribes-like cult favorite isn’t the first MMO to drink the Kool-Aid, but the previous game that did so, Anarchy Online, preceded the move with an option to play certain parts of the game for free. As of yet, no such price decrease has occurred in Planetside. A quote from SOE:

Louis Figueroa, Director, Business Development, Sony Online Entertainment, commenting: “Realizing another revenue stream in PlanetSide will ultimately be good for the entire PlanetSide community. The additional income will allow us to support the game with continued development and new features that the community has been asking for. Working with Massive’s network helps make this possible.”

Why Don’t Some Great Games Sell?

July 17, 2005 / Damion Schubert

Over on Game Matters, Scott Miller has started a good thread discussing why Ico didn’t sell, despite it being considered a work of wonder by everyone whose tried it. Idlenews has a similar thread about Psychonauts, a game that appears to be doing abysmal numbers despite being beloved by anyone that’s tried it. The latter was closer to my heart — I only dabbled in Ico, but I’m now nearly done with Psychonauts, and I’m loving every minute of it (well, up until I get jumping-puzzled out for the night). Both threads are good, albeit depressing, reads. Continue reading

The Value of IP

June 28, 2005 / Damion Schubert

Scott Miller (of Duke Nuke’m fame) recently re-iterated the value of creating and owning your IP (it’s one of his mantras). His reasons were all from the point of view of the developer, and were sound, although he’s a bit optimistic in how much negotiating power developers who aren’t 3D Realms have in the matter. Highlights:

Owning an IP…

Gives a studio clout and leverage.

The ability to better control their future.

Much better company value.

And a way to cash in on that value without having to sell the company.

This is in curious juxtaposition with Stuart Roch’s point of view. Stuart had recently read a snippet from David Jaffe’s blog. David was the Design Director for the recently released, bosom-heaving yet very excellent God of War. David let it slip in a throwaway comment that God of War has only sold 500K units so far, according to NPD. Continue reading

Life as Booth Beefcake

May 27, 2005 / Damion Schubert

Gaming Horizon has an entertaining article about Professional stuntman and actor Ilram Choi’s experience as a performer on Namco’s stage to promote Soul Caliber III. He played Mitsurugi. Continue reading

Gamer’s Manifesto

May 25, 2005 / Damion Schubert

This one’s been making the rounds lately (I first saw it on Game Girl Advance): a players’ manifesto on how to fix the gaming industry. A seriously entertaining read, here’s one of the less profane snippets: (2014- Damion notes: updated to a new version of the article from 2007)

[P]romise me that you won’t play the same Madden commentary sound files on every fifth play. “Whoa, he looked like he was hit by a truck! A five-ton truck hauling a trailer!” Yes, you’ll hear that one six motherslapping times in one game of Madden ‘05. YOU HAVE A HARD DRIVE NOW, taking data from a 9 GB DVD. You have NO excuse to keep recycling the same mindless observations over and over and over again until we’re pointing at our television with a shaking finger and screaming “EAT ME, JOHN! JUST EAT MEEEEEEE!” as most of us do now.