Vita to have "the largest platform launch in terms of marketing investment" totalling $50 million

GB : Vita's launch will coincide with "the largest platform launch in terms of marketing investment we’ve ever had," he said. After pegging the total cost at $50 million.

[Mookie]

Yooo, let me do the marketing lol
I was playing the vita at best buy for the first time today and this chick was like is it that ??
..... Anyways I got her number. "the vita is sexy and u get Bitches" >:D

[NewMonday]

50m should be the marketing for a game, a platform should be more like 500m

[gamingdroid]

That is assuming a company is full of cash and highly profitable. Sony ain't so that's pretty generous.

[T900]

Considering MS launched a gimmick like Kinect with a 500m USD budget i would think 50M isnt much at all.

[zeeshan]

LOL! That's exactly what I wanted to say! M$ with their 500mil budget and poor SONY with only 10% of what M$ could afford and that too for an entirely new platform!

My my! How time changes! I remember back in Sega Saturn and PSX days, that how PS marketing used to roll all over Sega's marketing. This is so the other way around. I am afraid 50 mil, in this day and age, is not enough. VITA is surely the BEST portable gaming device out there and it deserves every single sale that it can get and I hope for Sony and gaming industry's sake that VITA does well. Makes you wonder how much SONY will spend on PS4 and M$ on 720! Who's betting a billion dollar world wide campaign for 720?

[saladthieves]

This is actually good news. There is no doubt that in terms of hardware quality, Sony always deliers. Their devices would always sell more or get more recognition if they were to be advertised more. I know of people who still don't know what the PS Move is.

An example is during the period in which Microsoft's Kinect was nearing launch. The media was flooded with Kinect adds. Here we are, less than 2 weeks away from the launch of the PS Vita and I've seen very few ads. Spending more on advertising this device is a step in the right direction. Until you've held the Vital in your hands you won't get how awesome it is!

[MasterCornholio]

Now will the haters stop complaining that Sony will not market the device?

XperiaRay

[fei-hung]

Its a shame the ad dnt show anything gaming related. A whole bunch of women will think the ps vita is a new nail salon!

[360GamerFG]

Lets make a deal, if you stop putting that ridiculous signature at the end of every comment, I'll personally tell everybody's mom on the interwebs to stop hating on SONY.

[dcortz2027]

I can't believe it! It's nice to know that Sony will be marketing the PS Vita well, it's an increbile piece of technology that deserves the recognition of gamers and non gamers alike.

[badz149]

that's like what? 1/10 of Kinect's?

[bahabeast]

way 2 go sony i mean its not 500 million like kinect but still 50 million is good alot better than you ever did before and sound like they will target the right places to advertise.
cnt wait to own a vita

[Agent_hitman]

GO! sony GO!

[360GamerFG]

Please don't remind them of their failed handheld.

[chadzer]

For 50 Million dollars, that had to be one hell of manicure.

[Darth Stewie]

Sony is not doing a good job because the only ads I see for the Vita is the Taco Bell ad. Sony also zero ads for Twisted Metal. Sony so far in 2012 is failing when it comes to advertisement sadly. Either way even with no ads for Vita or TW I hope they both do well.

[bahabeast]

ur rite i think thier should be tons of ads for vita by now and twisted metal and starhawk CUM ON SONY DO IT RITE IN 2012

[BlmThug]

Kinect, A add on, had a 500 Million dollar budget for advertising, that 10 times as much :O

[Crillvirus81]

Funny I live in new York and have not seen one ad and were one week away from launch yet another Sony fail lol

[tarbis]

They should have used some of it for a Super Bowl commercial.
I don't know how they're gonna market the PSV using that small amount. I hope the succeed.

[supremacy]

I already see people comparing kinects' marketing budget to this one.

But what I dont see, is people comparing the marketing budget for the 3DS which is in direct competition with this platform to this marketing budget.

I am sure Nintendo spend some change, but nothing out of this world thats for sure. And yet the sales for their 3DS are good.

M$ did what they did, because they had to. Kinect on its own without ads isnt a device that could sell its self like a Nintendo handheld or a gaming console.

M$ had to push it the way it did in order for it to even get the sales numbers its got. GT5 in comparisson got barely anything to brag about, but yet the sales were there despite both kinect and a usual call of duty being present.

My point is this, if the vita were to cost as much as a kinect, would any of you still stress the budget line for vita? I dont think so.

50 million dollars in marketing isnt a games marketing budget, its a games development budget. So that says a lot.

Kinect didnt have any brand awareness like the 3DS or the vita does with Nintendo or PlayStation brands. So the oprahs and the over the top marketing campaign were needed, just like they were for bluray. Which if you noticed was advertized to death.

Would I like to see Sony invest 500 million in marketing for their latest platform? Yes, but, the PlayStation brand in itself is very strong, so it doesnt take much really. The 360 has had all this marketing, yet after a year headstart its barely beating the ps3 in worlwide sales and like the ps3 is trailling Nintendos wii (which doesnt market like M$ does) and like Sony puts that money in game development instead. But to M$'s credit it has worked for them.

Make money of live, and use it to buy time exclusive rights and market that as well.

[DragonKnight]

You're the only person who got it it seems. Everyone else is jumping on the hate bandwagon, stating what MS spends on advertisements is some kind of well established standard. It isn't. $50 million is more than enough, and if people would read they would see that it's more than any other platform launch (including PS1 and PS2) that Sony has ever had.

But all you'll see is "$50 million, MS spent more than that." And "pff, I don't see any ads" Vita hasn't launched yet and has so much hate behind it it's sickening.

[supremacy]

Yeah tell me about it, with the 500 million dollar marketing budget M$ used on kinect, they could have easily funded 5 or 6 tripple A titles instead.

The thing is kinect itself doesnt have the appeal other devices and platforms do.

I hear the "in this day and age" come out of the wood work like if much has change in the world asides economy. If you look around you, we still have the same old companies running the show. The only difference is approach, and the fact we live in a more digital, socially connected, media driven world.

But the facts remain the same more or less.

Apple ads are one a dozen in comparrison to M$'s and in fact so are google's(but who am I kidding, these guys own more than 80% of the internet) marketing if there any to speak off.

Apple barely advertizes, and when they do, you know a new device is out or a day or two from release.

Microsoft advertizes halo, gears and kinect and figures that by buying skype they tap into a 140million accounts(brilliant,even though skype hasnt seen a single profit in god knows when) so no need for big push there.

Was android advertized like kinect with a 500 million dollar budget? Has any apple product or any other product for that matter has? I dont know, but whatever the case may be, I think people are getting ahead of themselves here.

500 million is the type of money use to try and establish something rare and unknown to the concesus. The vita isnt rare or unknown, its just a new iteration of something which already has a 70million units sold.

The wii was rare, yet the marketing for that were meager at best and we all know how thats turned out.

500 million is the kind money people in a company invest towards a new platform, or a major political campaign. Not to market an add-on device which closely ressembles an eye toy. Not saying you cant and shouldnt do that, if you have that kind of money to spend then by all means go right ahead. Just dont expect others to follow suit regardless of the results.

But like I said before to M$'s credit, everything turned out great for them, so the plan was a success.

Can Sony afford to do such a thing? Yeah ofcourse they can, they might be losing money, but Sony isnt a tiny company. They can afford to make such moves if they liked to, but what does that prove if ps move has over 10 million units in with barely the budget.

People need to just chill, and realize you dont need that kind of marketing money(specially for gaming, being that this is an industry where a lot of the products sell themselves really) seriously.

[BigBoss1964]

Why are you people comparing this to Kinect, that 500 million dollar marketing campaign was the only way that turd was going to sell especially the amount of hate it got after E3 2010 hell the Kinect doesn't even work as advertised

[_Aarix_]

Because of how people want the vita to match the kinect sales.

[Half-Mafia]

This $50m is only for the US. I remember awhile ago Sony said there going to have a big marketing campaign here in the uk aswell.

MS spent $500m worldwide on the Kinect and only got 8m sales. That is a terrible investment IMO. And Windows Phone 7 that also got a $500m budget only sold 2m. Money down the drain.

Apple spent $691m in 2010 and sold 39m iPhone and 15m iPad. The iPad is a new product category like the Kinect, which costs 3 times more then the Kinect. + god know how many million iPods and Macs.

Apple knows how to market there products and get a good sales return. MS on the other hand thinks the more marketing budget the better right?

[_Aarix_]

That 500 million dollar ad got them 1.2 billion dollars worth of kinect sales. Then they bundled them with xboxes and you cant tell me that kinect didnt help make the xbox the best selling console of 2011.