PlayStation Marketing: One Bad Decision After Another

GXC: "Have you turned on your TV and seen a commercial, so catchy, so great, that you just will never forget it? Or has there been a commercial that comes on so often, that it has been beaten into your brain? More than likely, you have experienced both. There are just some companies that know how to market their products and services. Whether it is a TV spot, magazine ad, or some other form of marketing venture, some companies just get it. As I’m writing this, the Pillow Pet song, Mario toys with BK Kid’s Meal, those catchy colorful silhouetted iPod commercials, all resonate in my mind. However, there are some companies that just don’t get it. One in particular leaves me a little disheartened – Sony Computer Entertainment of America, aka, PlayStation."

[remanutd55]

I totally agree with this article, I dont understand how sony is putting The Last of Us demo on a God of War game, God of War doesnt need any demo to sell copies, why not adding that demo to a game that really need it? God of War is one of the best selling franchises sony has in their repertoire so the game will basically sell itself, if you gonna invest $4m why not investing that money in something that really need advertising like the vita, why they dont release a "psvita entertainment on the go" tv ad featuring Little Big Planet, Sly Cooper Thieves in Time, Ratchet and Clank Full Frontal Assault, Soul Sacrifice and even Killzone Mercenary, that would probably do more good than a God of War Ascension ad. Just my opinion.

[smashcrashbash]

Because that will help not only sell God of War but at the same time advertise Last of Us too.It is not that hard to understand.If you are anticipating both games then it is an incentive to buy GOW to play the demo. It's not as if we won't be getting a demo later on PSN.You guys are just mad that Sony decided to kill two birds with one stone. The reward for buying GOW and supporting it is a demo for Last of Us another upcoming game which will give incentive to people who are doubting buying GOW and wondering why they should buy a prequel.

Sony can't win with anything they do as people will attack them no matter what. They try to advertise things and all people do is critize them and when they don't you just critize them more.you are just letting the fact that only GOW supporters get to play the demo first cloud your judgement.

If they had added GOW to some lower level game people would be complaining about Sony is forcing them to buy a game they don't really want just to play a demo of Last of Us. This way you are not just getting an awesome game but an great demo of another awesome game.In short you complain no matter what Sony does. You want them to hype the games but you also want to tell them how to hype it, how much to hype it and hype in the way you want them to hype it.I think you guys don't really have much to complain about but that you aren't happy unless you are complaining about something.

Microsoft and Nintendo are lucky that they have sheep that follow them no matter what they do. At least they don't have to listen to as much annoying,endless complaining and telling them how to run their business and how to spend their money.If they didn't spend any money on hyping GOW their would be just as many articles complaining about how Sony never supports their AAA games. And if they do spend money hyping it people complain that they are spending too much money hyping GOW and why don't they hype this instead.They can't win

[remanutd55]

You dont understand my point, God of War and The Last of Us are 2 of the most anticipated titles this year so why not adding that The Last of Us demo on a game that really need that kind of promotion, God of War certainly doesnt need it, the game will sell a lot by itself, it has the fanbase behind it, and why wasting that much money on a single game when they can create a psvita tv ad instead (you know the system really need advertising right now) and not sony wanting the fans to sell the system to other people. I think its great that sony advertise God of War or any game as a matter of fact but right now the psvita should be their priority, Heck Sly Cooper is about to come out and im pretty sure they wont be any tv ad and its a great franchise.

[rainslacker]

@Reman

If you read the article, he points out that GOW is followed by a lot of people. He also points out that internet forums...such as N4G...are a relatively small part of the overall gaming market, which is true.

The Last of Us is a highly anticipated game among us internet goers, and as such it may not make much sense to include a much anticipated demo on a disc for a game which will already sell. Obviously they could have added it to a "lesser" anticipated title and boosted some sales for it, which as crash pointed out, they would be criticized for.

However, if you look at the number of people that will already purchase the new God of War no matter what, it's obvious that it is them marketing the new IP, The Last of Us, to a much larger population than exists online. It's inexpensive for them to include, and will go a lot further than spending a fortune on TV advertising.

Quite honestly I don't know why Sony, or any other publisher, doesn't include demos or trailers for all their upcoming games on every game they release similar to the way movies are released on DVD. There is certainly enough space on the Blu-Ray's for it, and if the product is readily available without the need to download, people may try it just because.

[iXenon]

Since they previously said that Vita sales met their lowest expectations, they should invest everything they have in putting information out there. My brother, who isn't a gamer, still thinks it's a PSP when he looks at it because he's never seen any advertising for it.

Those who live in Europe and aren't gamers are aware of Wonderbook. Because of marketing. C'mon, SCEA.

[ThatGuy2]

Sony-"hhehehe lets make a superbowl commercial for our ps3 exclusive even though our vita badly needs marketing its okay"

[Dmarc]

Lol
yea hopefully for scea they will throw in a few ps vita commercials on supperbowl day.
I mean when I watch soccer or even college football and football on sunday I see a few ps vita commercials so its not like they arent advertising it.

[BuffMordecai]

That is a completely retarded move on Sony's part, if you are going to pay Superbowl money for an ad, at least use it on something that needs it.

[rainslacker]

That's probably for the best. I like Sony, and have all their consoles, but their commercials for the Vita are kind of lame. They can't seem to strike that balance of showing how good the system is, and communicate the quality of the software that is on it...ie. showing game play. The COD one is pretty cringe worthy, plays out like a Nerf gun ad, and seems like it's aimed at the 12-15 age demographic.

[smashcrashbash]

@ remanutd55. You obviously did read what I wrote at all.It will have the absolutely opposite effect. People will not want to be forced to buy Sly Cooper juts to play the Last of Us demo. In fact they will be outraged that Sony put the game on something that is not as highly anticipated.But if you put it on GOW something that is already anticipated you will get more people to advertise Last of Us to. Who do you think you are talking about? Do you seriously think gamers would waste their time buying a less anticipated game just to play the demo? No they won't. They will just wait for the public demo and still not buy Sly Cooper. They have to make sure their AAA games sell.That doesn't mean they won't spend any money on Sly.We have already seen all the trailers and the whole Sly short to advertise for it but they need to make a sure their higher priority games get sold which is why they gave the Last of Us demo to GOW to make sure they sell. I don't know what business school you guys think you went to but your ideas are really dumb. What game company do you know ever spent tons more money on their lesser games? Neither Microsoft or Nintendo do that.They spend millions on adverting their best no different then Sony does. I have never seen either Microsoft or Nintendo paying more attention to lesser titles.Despite Mario and Halo always selling millions they still dump tons of money into commercials and hype and barely pay any attention to other things. Who spends more money for their less anticipated products? What kind of business sense is that? It's a good thing companies don't listen to people who write on message boards, write articles and on sites about what they should do. They would go bankrupt.

[ThatMiamiGuy]

Yeah, I agree to a degree with this article. Sony's marketing has left a lot to be desired.

Great big budget games tend to get overlooked because of absolutely no promotion from them.

[dafegamer]

The only thing i really dislike/hate about Sony = Marketing
Seriously there were some great Vita games like Gravity Rush, which didn't even get a TV Commercial. Why creating such amazing games and not supporting them well? Marketing Strategy is like the only thing, i wish Sony should copy
from Nintendo or Microsoft. Hell i even saw a Donkey Kong returns commercial yesterday(yup donkey kong returns=launch 2010)

[smashcrashbash]

Yawn.Another long article talking about Sony's advertising as if Nintendo and Microsoft have never lapsed with commercials for their lesser games or had crap commercials. Nintendo hasn't had a good memorable commercial this gen and Microsoft commercials are equally as boring.I am not going to sit here and pretend that they do any better with commercials because I know that people pretend that Nintendo' crappy commercials and Microsoft whoring out only their best stuff is somehow better then what Sony is doing.But I waste my time talking because no matter how much Sony advertises anything it will NEVER be enough for the haters. They launched a whole campaign for UC2 and it STILL wasn't enough. Neither Nintendo or Microsoft put any more effort into their lesser games then Sony does but keep pretending that they do. All you do is complain when they advertise and complain when they don't. You guys are really confused. You have no idea what you want. The only games Nintendo make a big deal about are their own and Microsoft leaves a lot of games out to dry. It's no different but people pretend it is.Nintendo and Sony are the only ones that have more games then Microsoft to advertise for and Nintendo doesn't even bother with them all. Microsoft has only about two or three games to make a big deal about. This year they barely even have anything to advertise for.Sony has a busy year.They can't spend money on everything. And if you think they can then you guys are even more clueless about business then I thought and I am wasting my time here.

[black911]

God of war commercisl is online only.

[SoundGamer]

Yeah, the article says that.