Sony Could Be Holding Back Resistance 2's Success

Blend Games Says: "If you have paid attention to any of our editorials here at Blend Games since late 2006, you would have noticed a consistent disdain for a particular section of Sony's business model: their video game marketing section. Sadly, these guys and gals have done very little to properly promote many of their own first-party games, and in result have managed to create a very sub-par community outside the initial fan-boy hype."

[Flops ''R'' Us]

*YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWN*

[---------Nona-------]

It's like xbots can't get it through their thick skulls that Resistance 2 sh*ts all over gears of war 2s breakfast lunch and dinner

[RoidRage]

Gears 2 wipes it's ass with Resistance 2 and the PS3.

Jamie Foxx? Is that you? Rick Astley?

[AngryBot]

R2 is the opening of E3. Cant get better publicity than that!

Fact of the matter is, R2 is a niche game (shooter). Anyone who is remotely interested in hardcore games, already know and heard of R2. There is no need to blow away 10s of millions on a marketing campaign when very few casuals are buying this game anyway.

And oh yea there is also a beta coming. That’s enough promoting right there. Whether this will be enough, remains to be seen. But Sony IS promoting R2.

And oh yea, IT SUCKS TO BE AN XBOT, PEOPLE!

[Blip Blip]

Gears 2 (gameplay starts at 0:58
http://www.gametrailers.com...

Resistance 2 (gameplay starts at 0:26)
http://www.gametrailers.com...

[BLuKhaos]

RROD wipes it's ass with Gears 2

[PopEmUp]

Hmm so this confirm that GEOW 2 GOT PWNED In XMAS

[Pain]

givin to M$ by Brain Dead M$ Followers that they cant Pi$$ millions away on Advertising Like M$ Hypes HALO. piss Offf

Shooters of the year 08 = RFOM 2
/09 = KillZone 2

[dukadork]

R2 drops a leviathan brownie on gears from 300 feet: SPLATCH!
it's a sh!t drowning massacre with no survivor

[360degrees]

even when they have a moderately promising game such as Resistance 2, they always seem to fail at providing the proper Advertisement, and promotion that it deserves, resulting in lackluster sales figures and very few "Sony" titles breaking that oh-so-rare million units sold mark until many months of it being on the market...as much as Sony fans hate to admit it...Microsoft is truly the current Trend setter on how to truly provide promotion for its AAA titles

[Hershy999]

There's not enough money in the world to advertise all of Sony's first party games.

(Joke)

[sonarus]

@Hershy, i think that is the real reason. Msoft can afford to put marketting weight behind their games cus they aren't losing as much money off the 360. Sony has to be held accountable for all the money spent and made in their gaming division.

Long story short, sony has to cut back on expenses and not enough money for marketting. Thats jut my guess though could just be sony being lame

[BulletToothtony]

sony definitely should spend some millions on some of these games..

MS does spend a lot more than sony does and it's proven that it works, i don't know why sony doesn't do it.

But just in case some people didn't know.. insomniac isn't a 1st party developer.. which should make sony promote the game even more.. but that's just my opinion.

[silverchode]

in my opinion sony is using the money they could use to advertise to make games.

[sonarus]

Its all about trade offs. PS3 game development is really expensive and PS3 is selling at a loss (maybe just broke even now) Every dollar spent on marketing is a dollar that could have been spent on another title instead.

The marketing situation will improve as sony starts making more profit in its gaming division

[Time_Is_On_My_Side]

This is what PlayStation Home is for, to advertise PlayStation games because the best advert is an advert to the right audience.

[INehalemEXI]

If they advertised the hell out of things people would complain about hype. I rarely watch TV, and they always have viral marketing so Im not tripping.

[thePatriot]

and everyone on my friends list friends list will get R2. R2 has insomniac logo on the box and they have a huge following. while a few comertials will be nice (still too early if u ask me (for everyday Joe)) this game will sell regardless

[jaysquared]

Its hard for Sony to advertise their games when they are still losing money for each PS3 sold and lose even more money when that PS3 owner signs up for PSN. More people on PSN means more servers that Sony has to buy and maintain which cost money as well. On top of that providing Home and updates that are free for PS3 owners are costing them a lot of resources and money.

I give props to Sony for keeping PSN free and providing great updates but they are probably regretting their decision about keeping it free. Now if PSN was like XBL with a subscription fee maybe Sony would have the funds to market their games and keep the former PS3 exclusives from coming to the 360 as well.

Don't get me wrong i'm a 360 owner and envy PS3 owners because PSN is free but M$ has really stepped up in providing a great gaming library this gen compared to last gen and I believe the $$40-50 a year that people pay for XBL has something to do with it. Of course if XBL were to be free I would not complain.

[Time_Is_On_My_Side]

PlayStation Network is free because Sony doesn't handle the servers the developers do. It's the same thing with PC online games and is the reason why XBOX Live has a subscription. Sony only handles the names / information while developers have to create their own networks plus the stores and soon to be PlayStation Home. The thing with PlayStation Home too is that companies will pay Sony for advert space, but is allowed to have their own company space for free. So in a way PlayStation Home is a source of revenue for Sony.

This is the reason why so much XBOX Live games have some sort of online component. At the same time XBOX Live is more prone to lag and is the reason why Resistance 2 and M.A.G. (Massive Action Game) are created so easily without lag. Each developer's servers don't tie into other games creating less chances of lag unless you have a bad connection. That's why mods were allowed with Unreal Tournament 3 for the PlayStation 3 and not the XBOX 360.

Warhawk is another game and it will show ping numbers for each server. The ping tells you how good your connection is with the host of the game. The lower the ping the better the experience.

[bgdaddy6780]

this is the difference of ms and sonys strategy. ms is to spend massive amounts of money putting out ads and getting their games known because even if they loss money themselves doing it, it kills their competition faster. well sony doesn't waste as much money on ads they focus on giving their developers the money and freedom that they deserve.

[JRaptor]

Another factor, at least early on in the cycle is that hardly any people actually had ps3's at the higher price point. So spending a lot of money on advertising would probably not have resulted in much increase in sales.

I'd hope that is turned around now as the ps3 sales have picked up and it is a much more attactive purchase: as the price has dropped from the high $600 level, the PSN has improved to the point of being only marginally worse than XBL and the difference in game library has narrowed considerably.

These games over the the holiday period definitely need marketing and would benefit the system as a whole to do so. I would be very disappointed if there was no major marketing to the mainstream (viral ads and other sorts of promotions only go so far).

[jaysquared]

Yeah you are right that the servers are hosted by the developers. But what about the developers that are owned by Sony and games that are published by Sony like Motorstorm, Resistance 1&2, Warhawk, M.A.G, Socom, LBP and any other first party titles.. Those companies and games are backed and owned by Sonys so i'm pretty sure Sony is helping them maintain and set servers up which again takes money. Thats why most First Party games have better online compared to third party titles like COD4 and MGO because Sony is the ones providing and maintaining it for their developers. Konami and IW were getting a lot of slack for the problems that their games had online now can you imagine if it was a Sony published games that had the same problem. Imagaine how much sh*t Sony would've gotten from PS3 owners and the gaming community in general.

Also content on PSN like demos, videos, movies, trailers, games,updates etc etec are hosted through Sonys server which again cost money to maintain and host. Bandwidth cost money as well because i'm pretty sure Sony has an ISP just like how I pay for Comcast cable. Another thing is paying the engineers and software developers to that create updates for the PS3 because i'm pretty sure in game XBM wasn't a feature that was just activated it was a feature they had to implement thus changing around a lot of the PS3s OS. Home is costing them a lot of money as well to develop. The last I heard there is currently no sponsors that are lined up to advertise in home so Sony is having to deal with the up start cost.

Again i'm not trying to defend M$ and them charging for XBL. I would perfer for XBL to be free just like PSN. That is probably one the reason I would buy a PS3 because of the free online play. But you also have to look at the big world. Many PS3 fans brag about how PSN is free and they should. However somebody still has to pay the piper and Sony is the one doing it and PS3 fans are paying for it by the lost of exclusive games which makes that PS3 less and less values because many PS3 owners chose that console because DMC4, GTA4, FF13, Ace Combat 6 were only suppose to be on the PS3. Now they find out that they could've played those same games on a cheaper console.

[jtucker78]

It's not just Sony. Look at Metroid Corruption. Nintendo never bothered with much advertising for that. The gamers were the only ones that knew it was coming. The public didn't.
Which is wierd because that is the only FPS the Wii has that is actually worth a play. In fact the folks at IGN got so upset over it Matt C wrote several articles about it.

[Saigon]

has anyonne noticed in the past sony has never done this...they never advertise as heavily as they needed to...the only reason why it stands out now is because of what MS is currently doing...but remember people if you live in the states the marketing campaign for the 360 is much high...also (i said this in a nother thread) sony has advertise better than what they have done in the past (system launch) i see many PS3 commercials...as far as in the environment if you go to a sporting event...PS3 signs are out there...

[Overr8ed]

I agree with Sony not advertising well for their games. Hopefully they learn how to advertise well for games like LBP & Resistance 2 since those games are in need of a lot of public attention this Fall.

[likedamaster]

Sony does have money and maybe even more than Microsoft. They are a hardware company(Sony tv's/lcd's, computers, etc.) and they own a Major Record Label if not many, and a Major Movie Studio, so yeah, they have money. I for one don't think they are putting emphasis on their games to date. They should though because triple A is triple A! and 1st party to boot. Don't short change 'em Sony, do what you're supposed to. This game is receiving a lot of hype I don't see why they shouldn't give the game more hype thru ads and such. I personally thought it was the most boring shooter of all time, but that's just me. Message to Sony, don't skimp out, you didn't skimp on promoting Bluray!

[Mr Marbles]

Sony does not have more money than MS, MS is far more profitable as a company, and has little to no debt. Sony has gobs of dept. You are thinking of revenue, Sony probably has higher revenue, but that is worthless if it does not generate profit.

[MazzingerZ]

SONY HAS NEVER EVER DONE THAT! MICROSOFT is the one using the american model where they even sell you a stone as a chair, why SONY would change?...GTA series became now "just" a game thanks to all the HYPe MSFT created around it...SONY has always let the gamers hype the games instead

SONY's games sell themselves, MSFT sells HYPE!...in SONY's case games end-up in the hands of gamers, in MSFT's case too but also in the hands of people that has no idea why they bought the game but since they were brain washed with all the ads ended up buying it...

is THAT SUCCESS? for MSFT maybe but not directly for the game as such...or ARE you going to tell me that SW:The Force Unleashed is a great game, game of the year,etc just because it sold 1M copies during its first week?

[Bloodwar]

I was going to make a similar comment. I don't think people understand. The Cell and the Blue Ray are still cutting edge tech. You still can't find a Blue Ray player for under 200 dollars US. And the PS3 has the Blue Ray plus the Cell.

I am curious if the PS3 really could get a price cut as early as this Christmas or not. Probably not. I am not bashing the PS3. I do believe that the PS3 are equal to the Xbox 360 in it capabilities to release some triple A games that are going to satisfy its gamer base, but with the lack of advertising money... this article was written for a good reason. I just believe that the advertising money isn't there.

Sony's gaming division isn't going to be allowed to tap into the advertising money of the movie or music division. So here we are today with a very expensive game console with a lot of untapped potential and not a lot that Sony can do to reduce its price or provide ad revenue for its first party games.

[thewhoopimen]

Here's some info about MS's servers

Some quick stats: 15 datacenters hosting 148,357 servers sitting on 17,406 racks consuming 72,500KW of utility power as of the end of January 2008 (as indicated by the bar chart).

On the same page there's also an interesting graph showing the distribution of servers per "property". Live Search is in the clear lead with approximately 75,000 (50%) of the servers pushing out those less-than-desirable search results, followed by Hotmail. The other notable property occupying a large chunk of the servers would be "other" (appropriately named), which one could assume be dedicated to XBOX Live services and the like.

So.... you guys playing on xbox live are also sharing space with MSN Live search, Hotmail, Messenger and MSN.com lol.
http://www.xbox-scene.com/x...

@arrrgh where is your source? I'd like to see how 3rd party servers would operate on a proprietary network designed to prevent achievment score hacking, verify your live ids off of ms servers, etc.

[iHEARTboobs]

I believe Resistance has been lacking advertisement simply because for Sony, marketing LBP will be more profitable for them in the future. There's been a lot of talk of Sackboy being the future face to associate with the PS3 and I think that's what will happen. And lets face it, I don't see as many PS3 commercials as I do 360 commercials. But MS likes to advertise, look at how much money they paid for Seinfeld. For better or for worse, they'll always advertise more than Sony (at least here in the States). And they have to, even though the PS3 has sold less they're still a leading name in the industry. That's why you see MS advertise more 3rd party games than Sony. MS is fighting and working hard for it's share of the pie and Sony is mainly relying on their games, word of mouth and some advertising to sell their games/console.

[Stubacca]

You're right, Microsoft tends to truly promote their games, where as Sony don't. But I like this. Halo 3 is the most overbloated, overhyped game I've ever played, whereas Resistance: Fall Of Man was a pleasant suprise as I knew very little about it.

Bottom line: Let the games do the talking. (Ahem, that is if your console is still working. lol)

[Time_Is_On_My_Side]

Sony didn't lose exclusive second party intellectual property (IP) because of money it was the user-base. Some developers were scared that they wouldn't make their money making a game exclusive to the PlayStation 3.

With the networks I do believe Sony is helping them, but it is cheaper to run your own networks than to run your games on someone else's. Like for example it's cheaper for Sony/Microsoft to have their online stores because XBOX Live is about multiplayer not distribution. The gaming companies/developers will have to pay Sony / Microsoft a portion of money for using their online stores. Where the money will be steep will be the network topology because different kinds of networks require a lot of money to run.

XBOX Live is an example of an expensive method of creating an online experience for games. Another would be persistent online games like World of Warcraft because of the network topology. On XBOX Live you're going to have to pay a fee on top of your XBOX Live subscription when playing persistent online games. In the end running your own networks and choosing the right network topology won't cost you as much.

Example: Warhawk uses P2P (Peer to Peer)servers this requires very low lag because the host runs the games. Plus running true P2P servers don't require a lot of bandwidth, small companies do this all the time. Since Sony now has unified online names this time around it's a switched network like XBOX Live. It's just a little different from XBOX Live. XBOX Live works very similar to a cell phone company, while the PlayStation Network works like small cell phone companies under one network.

XBOX Live is like a cell phone company because Microsoft provides the network while the developers provide the games. Like a cell phone company Telus provides the network and the phone companies like Apple provide the phones. PlayStation Network is almost the opposite Sony provides the IDs/accounts while the developers make the games and networks. That was a problem last generation when Sony didn't have unified online IDs, gamers didn't like that. This allows more freedom with PlayStation Network because it's under their servers not Sony's. That's why mods are allowed with Unreal Tournament 3 for the PlayStation 3 and not the XBOX 360. If Microsoft allowed mods it would affect the whole network including other games.

That's the sole reason why XBOX Live is more prone to lag than PlayStation Network and why PlayStation Network is free/cheaper. That can bring me to authentication servers that I personally think Sony has a safer network than XBOX Live. I won't get into that too much at once.

[jaysquared]

"Sony didn't lose exclusive second party intellectual property (IP) because of money it was the user-base. Some developers were scared that they wouldn't make their money making a game exclusive to the PlayStation 3."

So this should debunk all the rumors that PS3 fans spread about how M$ is buying up former PS exclusives like DMC, GTA, Ace Combat and now FF13. No! its a known gaming industry strategy of buying exclusives from developers. Nintendo did it, Sony has done it and now M$ is doing it. Yes the user base of the console was a factor in determining if their product was going to go Multi Plat or not but if Sony would've gone to Square Enix and said here we'll give you $50 million to help develop the game and keep it on our platform.. You think FF13 would've gone multi plat still? No it would've stayed on the PS3 but too bad for Sony and its fans that they didn't have the money to help Square Enix keep the game on the PS3 only.

I'm not an expert about XBL vs PSN architecture but I would like to point out some of your comments:

"Example: Warhawk uses P2P (Peer to Peer)servers this requires very low lag because the host runs the games. Plus running true P2P servers don't require a lot of bandwidth, small companies do this all the time. Since Sony now has unified online names this time around it's a switched network like XBOX Live. It's just a little different from XBOX Live. XBOX Live works very similar to a cell phone company, while the PlayStation Network works like small cell phone companies under one network"

So wait PS3 fans always bagg about how XBL is all P2P networking and PSN is all dedicated server and the fact that P2P is always laggy? So your sayinig that P2P is better because of the low lagg? XBL is P2P while some PSN games have dedicated servers that are run by Sony. Warhawk has its own official Sony servers and so did Resistance and every PSN fans were braggin how they have dedicated servers and XBL have laggy P2P. So your pretty much contradicting what many PS3 fans bagg about XBL.

"XBOX Live is like a cell phone company because Microsoft provides the network while the developers provide the games. Like a cell phone company Telus provides the network and the phone companies like Apple provide the phones. PlayStation Network is almost the opposite Sony provides the IDs/accounts while the developers make the games and networks. That was a problem last generation when Sony didn't have unified online IDs, gamers didn't like that. This allows more freedom with PlayStation Network because it's under their servers not Sony's. That's why mods are allowed with Unreal Tournament 3 for the PlayStation 3 and not the XBOX 360. If Microsoft allowed mods it would affect the whole network including other games. "

This is a double edge sword.. It can be a good thing or a bad thing. Yes its always nice that developers can run their own servers and do whatever they want with it. The bad thing is that they have to run it and they can do whatever they want with it. One of the reasons why COD4 and MGO have so much problems with their online component because some developers don't want to have to spend the money to run and maintain their own servers while on the 360 all they have to do is focus on updating and making their games better.

[Time_Is_On_My_Side]

Oh, yes Sony didn't buy that particular IP from Square Enix and solely relied on them just choosing their platform. Sony believes that having blu-ray discs (50GB) and a unique architecture that developers will cater to them to achieve their goals. Example would be Infamous, Little Big Planet, or Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Sony wants to show with their exclusives you can achieve a whole new level of gaming. It’s a hit or miss strategy and could have said the same with Blu-ray discs at the beginning of the war considering the investment they made with the risks.

With the XBOX Live (XBL) and PlayStation Network (PSN) argument, XBL is a P2P (Peer to Peer) network and PSN does have dedicated servers. A switched network means that it combines two or maybe more types of networks at once. XBL starts like a broadcast similar to a phone then switches to P2P without really being a P2P connection. The thing that sucks is that there is a single point of failure meaning if one game’s server shuts down the whole network is down. With PSN it’s similar to the sense that Sony just polices (Authentication Servers/Software) the accounts activities while developer mostly chooses P2P servers for online play. Sony is like the bouncer before you enter in a club and each club you enter is hosted by the host themselves. The difference between the two is that XBL the host doesn’t really have host privileges (still a client), while PSN the host actually is a host.

Example would be the Halo Series when the simulated host leaves the network reboots and picks another host with the fastest connection. With PSN when the host leaves the whole game ends and you’ll have to find another game. In the end PSN does have dedicated servers with each developer while XBL is just a simulation of real P2P connections. It’s kind of hard to explain, but PSN is built up upon many networks while XBL is built on one. In simple terms XBL is a client server with P2P connection, while PSN has security guards with many types of networks being connected. One developer might want to do P2P with pings etc. while another one would want to do something else.

In the end P2P on the PSN is better than the P2P on XBL because XBL isn’t a real P2P connection. In a real P2P connection each game acts like it’s its own server so the cost to develop one is so low because the host is sending the images to the other clients. Remember the traffic that XBL went through around Christmas that won’t ever happen with PSN. If Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots’ servers go down I can still play Resistance: Fall of Man online. In the end with PSN you can do things that is particular to your game like in-game friends lists that many PS3 games have, or adding keyboard and mouse features etc. With XBL the developers can’t customize their network too much because most of it Microsoft has to offer it to the consumers.

Sorry for the long comment, but explaining networks can be a little hard with one or two sentences.

[Flops ''R'' Us]

*Scratches Testicle* Resistance 2>>>>>>Gears 2,I thought we came to this conclusion yesterday!

[---------Nona-------]

We did,apparently cinemablend didn't get the memo.

[Silogon]

Could be?

Please, this is absurd at best. A ploy to get hits and to cast doubt. For every dollar Microsoft spends on GEOW or HALO marketing, that has to be made up in the end. Marketing isn't cheap, guys. Wake up!

Ever notice Sony and Microsofts buisness models are night and day to one another? Why is that? See, Sony will toss some money out in marketing and adverts, but the scale it back. They will see how well the game does on its own and then later on, as we seen all the time with their big games 3 or 4 months down the road, they blast out from out of nowhere marketing ads and commericals.

They do it all the time. Why is this you ask? Well, Sony is smart about marketing. They over spend on it and the game ends up not bringing in as much money cause of useless R&D not needed. Sony has the better, more profitable, business model between the 2, easily.

Microsoft will toss money out and and out and out and won't count those chickens cause they see 4 or 5 million sold on a game. Well, all that marketing has to be made back, guys. It isn't cheap or free. I'm willing to bet Motorstorm and Resistance 1 made more money for Insomniac and Sony than GEOW did for Epic and Microsoft.

Just the cold hard truth.

[Kuest]

however, i am afraid all your assertions are based on non substantial claims, such as the profit margin for Epic or Insomiac respectively.

In my opinion, Microsoft does in fact waste an exuberant amount of dough advertising titles, when it could perhaps offer support through more indirect means, or even wait to let things "just play out" as you suggested. Ultimately, however, i believe Microsoft is doing the correct thing with regards to market share.

In other words, Microsoft may be sacrificing additional profit, but their consumer awareness has definitely skyrocketed since the Xbox 1 days. PS3, on the other hand, is just coming around, although its past legacy has made the transistion a little smooth. Had it been in Microsoft's position, it would have failed drastically due to lack of locomotion.

To conclude, I agree that microsoft's advertising tactics thus far are becoming counterproductive, but I contend instead that their method of advertising should change, not that they should discontinue advertising. Why? Consumer awareness, as i stated earlier. In short, microsoft does not have the historical backbone of either playstation, or Nintendo.

Moving forward, Sony can easily afford to be more conservative with marketing dollars because of 1) its brand recongition and 2) its present occupation as a hard core product. To further explain, Sony has never quite tried to distance itself from the hard core crowd, instead becoming the self-proclaimed 4-D console of choice.

To that degree, a high level of marketing on Sony's part would not be especially warranted, since the hard core consumer can usually be expected to keep up with certain titles. Hence, Sony's relative impassiveness towards advertising. For example, who here is considering to buy Resistance 2? All of you no doubt, and Sony is already no doubt aware of this. Thus, why advertise? Resistance is not a causal product...

I think the defining mantra of Sony is to maintain its dedicated connection with the hard core crowd. Bearing that in mind, one could argue Sony's marketing campaign is ingenious because it demonstrates how well they understands the market. However, the recentl advertising of LBP has indicated that perhaps Sony is now ready to broaden its wings a tad bit, as Meus pointed out before me.

So, to sumarise, on the one hand, we have Microsoft struggling for brand recognition, and thereby sacrificing profit for market share. On the other hand, we have Sony wisely catering to its knowledgable hard core base, only expanding recently in accordance with the up coming LBP release; Still, one should acknowledge that the only reason Sony can afford to undertake this strategy is because its still riding high on the success of PS2

[LinuxGuru]

Silogon:

That's a cold hard OPINION, not the truth.

Sony Corporation has averaged more than TWENTY BILLION DOLLARS more revenue than Microsoft over the past couple years.

Trust me. Sony has money to spend on advertising for a few games. It would be a little teeny tiny drop in the bucket for them.

[DarK-SilV]

I will degree with you without reading your post
MR flipflop

[Kleptic]

MS already stated (by means of a loaded kotaku question earlier this year) that they over marketed Halo 3...in that it 'didn't have the legs we anticipated'...that was basically how they fessed up to the fact that CoD 4 was hugely unpredicted in massive AAA game sense, and Halo 3 stalled out way short of the hopes of MS...it sold extremely well, but it didn't keep doing it into 2008, which is what MS's giant push was focused on in the first place...

thats not a fanboy 'halo sucks' rant...I am simply stating that predictions had Halo 3 being hard to find for 6 months, not 1...while initial sales were overwhelming, the marketing didn't do its job at all...the game could have matched the current sales just by word of mouth, and half the investment in marketing that MS put into it...

but MS is doing it again apperantly this year...however it may be more necessary with a game like Gears 2, which simply doesn't have the global recognition of 'halo' yet...Resistance 2 falls into the exact same category...not everyone knows about it...if anything these are the titles to really be pushed by their respective publishers...

but I think this article also made a conclusion far to early to really see what Sony does...its unlikely to start TV spots 6 weeks before the game releases...this time in October though, it will most likely be everywhere...there will definitely be some above average pushing of Resistance 2, Home, and LBP in the coming weeks...more than what we have been used to from Sony this generation so far...but it will never match the balls out throw money around like crazy tactic MS used for Halo 3, and is pretty much in the middle of with Gears 2...Resistance 2 already has a pretty large and decent budgeted viral ad running currently, as well as a planned novel...but we won't see Hale posted all over taco bells, or chimera flavored Mt. Dew this fall...which kind of sucks...I was the oddball I guess, I loved that Halo Mt. Dew flavor last year...

more than anything though...I am simply happy that Resistance 2 seems to finally be getting the respect it deserves...as big as Gears 1 was...Resistance 2 is going to be a MAJOR title, despite how well Gears 2 does...I can guarantee that the praise the game yesterday made plenty of execs sweat at MS, and may even had CliffyB admitting he ran his mouth too much again...don't get me wrong, Gears of War was an excellent game imo...its just that Resistance 2 without question was the underdog going into this fight...and it is nothing short of hilarious to hear cliffy's "bigger, badder, and more badass" phrase applied more correctly to his competition...

I can't wait to see how this plays out...Resistance 2 one week ahead of Gears 2...as it stands right now, at least critically, advantage: Resistance 2...not one 'meh, more of the same' preview from over 10 independent sources yesterday...where as Gears 2 has recieved almost nothing but that...also, many sites asked "did you find fall of man average?"...then followed with a blunt "who cares, you'll love resistance 2"...competition is excellent...

[Kuest]

let me first retaliate Linux's claim, who implied that Sony presently commands greater spending power than Microsoft. Based on revenue alone Linux's claim is, of course, valid. However, in reality, such an impressive admission fails to truly matter, as Microsoft's net income far out strips Sony's by roughly 400%. How's that for drop in a bucket, eh?

Moving forward, allow me to refute Kleptic's response... nice name, by the way.

By and large, the majority of your post pertained to Resistance's potential capacity for mainstream appeal, which no doubt implies it has the ability to surmount Gears 2- be it immediately, or later on. Now, as far as i could discern, the basis for your accusations pertained largely to critical response. In addition, you cited several obscure viral caimpaigns, issued by insomiac themselves, as evidence to Sony's marketing muscle.

I counter, first, by referencing the abscnece of official resistance advertisements, which extends to tv commercials, or online ads, etc. I juxtopose this with Sony's suprisingly high level of involment with MGS4, which DID in fact include tv advertisments, toys, etc.

Now, obviously, both titles are reasonably hard core, however, knowledge of one brand far exceeds another due to a) brand recognition and b) level of consumer interest. To clarify, MGS 4 had been a long ways in development for an extensive period in time; so, by the way, has Halo 3 and Gears 2 to varying degrees.

As such, I argue that MGS4's success depended on either brand recognition or consumer interest, or both. In effect, MGS4 had been able to undergo the excessive time interval neccesary to build high expectation from the hard core consumer. To put it more simply, everyone knew about MGS4 far before it was offically revealed. The same case, albeit to a lesser degree, was also true with gears as well.

With Resitance, the title is relatively new, with no legitmate fanbase, nor consumer involvement (by that i mean, people are now just starting to care about resitance). To put it simply, resistance 2 does not derive from an established brand name, nor has it had the chance to build steady consumer interest, the type that can only manifest over a large period of time. Therefore, one cannot expect its actual sales to be of landmark status because it LACKS both of the two defining factors, which i mentioned above.

To conclude, Gears- at least for now- has nothing to fear from Resistance. it is still very much seated in the imcumbent's chair, so to speak.

[Kleptic]

excellent post...and I am assuming you know the history of the name, of which you would be one of the first to bring it up...and i have been using it since Quake II online back in 1997...however, i assure you; I am by no means 'the real deal'...

one thing though, which will turn into several: I was not saying that because Sony/Insomniac are running a relatively expensive viral ad for Resistance that they have more marketing power than MS...just stating that that was something this article overlooked...

Also, I think you may undermind Resistance as an IP slightly...the title did sell over 3 million units...call it whatever you want; it was bundled for a period of time...but that is over 3 million people that at least played the first game...compare that to ~5 million who played Gears 2, and it makes Resistance as a franchise less irrelevant than it would first appear...

Resistance 1 and Gears 1 released in the exact same window...Resistance however struggled at first because it was a launch title for a system that was quickly written off by all but 10% of the industry media...all the while Gears 1 quickly became THE console game to own well into 2007, gathering ridiculous praise across the board...so in that sense...Gears, as a franchise, has a far better seating in the hardcore gamer area...at least in terms of people that frequent sites such as this...

But Resistance 2 was announced before Gears 2...and Resistance 2 has some much bigger marketing slang to throw around...'60 player competitive online'...'8 player co-op'...'2 seperate campaigns'...etc...Sony starts tacking crap like that on ads everywhere, and beating it into heads on tv commercials, and it WILL have an impact...Gears 2 has nothing marketing wise to counter intangibles like that (intangible in the way that an ad will be noticed or remembered by the viewer/reader)...these intangibles are also way more valuable than what a core gamer like us would think too...something like 60 players online sounds impressive to any ignorant kid anywhere...more is always better for that type of audience...doesn't matter which is better...I guarantee there will be 12 year olds at gamestop flipping boxes around to see which game allows more players online...and that will show 60 vs. 10...see what I am getting at?...again, i am not saying which is better...I am just saying which has a more powerful impact on an ignorant mind...and for this argument; correlate an ignorant mind with...the casuals...

and that is the meat of my point...Resistance 2 is in a wierdo area where it appeals to the core audience already, but has the converter ability to pull in otherwise casual gamers to a new genre, and even gamer type...in a way exactly like Halo has done over the past 7 years...How many people have you met admit that halo was the first shooter they ever played?...for me, its a lot more than I ever would have guessed when Halo 1 launched...there are ton of shooters...but the shooters that pull new people in are the shooters with features such as Resistance 2 (of course, assuming review scores and reception reflect that)...features that if nothing else on paper look better than the competition...comparing on paper starts the entire thing, because these people have no real way to compare otherwise...they can see the features plastered on posters, then watch videos online and read reviews...if all of that ammounts to something above competition...they'll come pouring in relentlessly...

and now the backside of my point...the PS3's price is still simply to high to allow this to happen on a massive scale...Resistance 2 can set the entire US on fire, yet a large chunk of eager players will still be out of reach because of the $400 PS3 price point...and until that changes, it will only hurt...

you also say that there are no tv ads for Resistance 2 as of now...which is completely true...but as I stated in my above post, I don't think that is any reason for alarm yet...late October, if nothing has shown up yet...then its obvious how Sony is treating it...but I highly doubt that will be the case...correct me if I am wrong, but I have yet to see a Gears 2 commercial of any kind as well...also, this article never pointed out that Resistance 2 also has a planned special edition, of which amazon votes were tallied for the box art...and some figurine or something, as well as the normal dose of behind the scenes stuff is included for the extra $20...Gears 2 has the same type of stuff, its only that the article made it sound like Sony wasn't doing that for Resistance 2...

and finally as far as the advantage: Res 2 comment...I wasn't saying that is how it will finish...i was merely pointing out that Insomniac managed to get their first bombing raid out before Epic (which have been busy making little documentary style things on how cliffy wanted a chaingun to sound, etc.)...yesterday res 2 recieved almost nothing but the utmost praise in all areas...with many saying 'its easily the biggest gaming package of this generation so far'...that doesn't mean MS/Epic don't have plenty of bombs of their own...but where they are and what they are, are still in the air (pun intended)...

My overall point is simply that Resistance 2 is set to do extremely well...but I don't doubt for a minute that Gears 2 will slaughter Resistance 2 in sales this season...but I think attatch ratios for res 2 will be remarkably high for a sequel to a launch title that never recieved much attention...the 'winner' of this battle will simply be determined by the press...there are double the 360's in the US, arguably the biggest market for both games...the sales fight most likely won't be a contest...but 'best shooter of the year' definitely will be...

[RememberThe357]

Let be frank, most people will concede that Gears of War 2 will sell many more units than Resistance 2. Now that thats out of the way, we can get into the real issues that I see.

The first is product recognition, I am sure there are a large number of people who know the name Resistance but haven't played the game and don't know what it's about. In my opinion Sony needs to put out adds showing what the game is about, showing the amazing footage we saw at E3. Otherwise this will remain a hardcore game only and will not become the breakout hit that Gears is posed to become.

Second, Sony has a chance to play two different cards. They can play the gangster card that sold so many PS2's or they can try to court the casual market that has been selling so many Wii's. Now days there really isn't any good gangster games, but Sony has been able to thrive off the image of the PlayStation being a bad ass gaming machine, something that MS did really well with the 360. There really is only two roads right now. If you go hardcore, you raise the potential of alienating the casual market, however on the flip side, if you go too casual you could alienate the hardcore base. Plus, with the lowest price point they're offering at $399 the casual market seems a little out of reach for Sony at this point.

So, in essence, Resistance 2 seems as though it is poised to offer a ton of content. Sony needs to capitalize on the potential that Resistance 2 has without spending too much money. That very well may be what they are doing, so I say lets take a back seat on this and see what happens.

[jaysquared]

Wow there some long post in this thread!

[LinuxGuru]

Thank you for the heads up Kuest. You're right, I was quite incorrect in using revenue instead of net income. To be honest, I didn't think there would have been a huge difference, hence me using that figure in ignorance. I'll have to go one step further in my research from now on.

Thanks for writing a post that makes sense, too. Major bubbles for you.

+++

[AssassinHD]

+Bubbles to you Kuest. Your posts are intelligent and very refreshing to read.

[Black_Jack]

this is what n4g should be about, reasonable and debatable discussions, which better us all. just from reading these posts, i myself am learning more about the market and i find it interesting. this fanboy bullshit needs to stop and more constructive discussions should be encouraged. there is always a time for fun and a laugh sometimes, just not the fanboi type. bubbles to all those above.

to add to teh discussion i think it could be the distinction between western and eastern marketing trends. Microsoft is an american software giant and of course their approach to marketing has always been tailored to that of a western market. i would say brand recognition is much more important in places like europe and japan which is where the ps3 has good success but lesser in america to an extent, which is why Microsoft invests so heavily in advertising, especially in the states, but this isn't enough for the world market.

I think both companies can learn something from one and other. sony should really invest in advertising in the western market, while to Microsoft should concentrate on getting that credibility and reputation that brand recognition brings. which would help expand their worldwide market.

[Flops ''R'' Us]

Oh well,it won't hurt to list why Resistance 2 trumps Gears of war 2 in every respect,would it?

[Flops ''R'' Us]

It's as follows:

-Storywise
-Graphicwise
-Audio score
-Singleplayer
-Multiplayer
-Online
-Cover Art
-Cover font

Etc etc etc etc

[---------Nona-------]

Preach on my brotha preach on!

['_']

{i am still waiting for sony to send me a lbp beta invite come on sony you are holding back the success of the beta lol}

[Jamegohanssj5]

I guess you're just making yourself happy by doing this correct?

TGSI

[Joey Gladstone]

The JOEY has Spoken........

[Jamegohanssj5]

It's more like The Joey has spoken.

The Genius Said it.

It's nice to see you're back around dude.

['_']

{just kidding the beta is already successful all my friends on neogaf are saying the game lives up to the hype so im not worried just send me a beta code plz plz plz sony}

[Meus Renaissance]

Sony's marketting this generation has been quite poor, and mediocre in comparing to Microsoft's marketing blitz. I mean, Halo Fuel? Whoever came with that idea got a massive paycheck.

However, the advertising of LBP seems to be a sign that Sony are aware they've got a massive hit on their hands. They just need to be more vocal with Resistance 2 and Motorstorm 2 after all this.

[RememberThe357]

Where they waited until week before release then ran a massive marketing blitz. I can actually remember people talking about this very subject before MGS4 came out. They may want to focus on LBP then when it releases focus on Resistence 2.

[DiabloRising]

Sony under advertises sadly. They assume the game will sell on its own, which is foolish.

MS over advertises while insulting both your masculinity and your coolness. Not playin Halo? You're not a man!

While I don't prefer the latter, no denying it works.

[tuney41]

I'm sure they will promote the game heavily when it gets closer to launch

[pixelsword]

...and that was probably one of, if not the biggest game this year.

Truthfully, Sony needs to step-up their ads. It's like if they can't do it some weird "thumb-for-a-d!ck" ad they won't do it at all.

[Kleptic]

MGS4 wasn't pushed in the US...it had a huge push in Japan, albeit from Konami more than anything...

this is a different situation though...this is the holiday season...and this is a SCE published game...while Sony does get royalties for every MGS4 sku sold...its nothing like what they rake in from an IP they own, and a game they distribute...believe me...all this 'focus on profitability' is putting some major pressure on making sure these huge first party titles sell like sex toys at a trailer park...

[Close_Second]

...I don't understand why MS and Sony don't just showcase the great games they have instead of going down some artistic ad campaign path. I mean, "Jump In" and "This is Living" were utter tripe. Mind you, the trailer for Gears of War featuring music from REM was just fantastic and is a shining example of how to promote a game.

They need to get the professionals who cut together movie trailers to put some together for some of the big name games. I mean, if they can sell Episode I then they could have turned clunkers like Lair, Haze and Too Human into huge blockbusters.

[Kleptic]

Gears of War with an REM song?...i never caught that one I guess...i remember the big one having mad world in it...a song made infamous by the emo Donnie Darko crowd...however, my hate for the song aside...the commercial...was absolutely fecking unstoppable imo...

but selling a game is not just advertising it...all the ad money in the world couldn't have shifted any more than a 1/3rd more units of Lair or haze...the games were potty floaters...some people don't impulse buy just because of a commercial...the ad just gets them aware of it in the first place, most may still try to play at least part of it first, especially with games (being that they are of the more expensive entertainment variety)...and pretty much any warm blooded human that played more than 15 minutes of either game would rather be audited then purchase either...ah, at least for Lair...I went beast mode: ON the day i rented it, and pulled out my own front teeth...haze, I got through it...it was very mediocre, but I wasn't flipping out mad I rented it...just very happy I didn't buy it...

[VF34EJ25]

What I don't get about Sony, was the MGS4 trailer. It was advertised like a big blockbuster hit movie and even had the "movie guy voice". If they would have just struck a deal and have that trailer in the movie theaters, MGS4 would have done a lot better in sales and get the recognition it deserves.

[Marceles]

Seriously...I remember I couldn't get away from a Playstation ad...you would always here that BOOM sound, then look at your screen and there was the PS logo. Then the commercial followed by the PS2 logo and sound. It's hard to find a PS3 ad now. I thought they had it together once they made that one ad with the cool music showing GT5 Prologue, Uncharted, Heavenly Sword, HOME, and the PS store...but it's died down again.

[Kleptic]

yeah that was last years holiday season campaign with that saliva song or whatever...it died off into the spring, which then switched to a few GTAIV PS3 specific ads, then a new montage with some guy yelling, and a few clips of MGS4...at least for the US...I still catch those occasionally on adult swim, but only really late...

they will come up with something for this season too no doubt...its the specific game trailers that are unknown at this point...meaning will it just be a 30 second montage of LBP, HOMe, Socom, Resistance 2, Motorstorm PR, etc...or will it be several commercials dedicated to each one...in the sense of Resistance 2...it 100% needs its very own ad with something completely awesome happening...

[LinuxGuru]

Yeah, we need to see this game on TV. It's going to be a killer title, and it deserves the proper attention.

Everyone on this page: Thank silogon for your disagrees.

[DJ]

To this day, i have never seen a GTA IV ad that has the 360 logo on it (california resident). And instead of a huge marketing blitz, they market titles steadily over a long period of time. I still see plenty of printed ads for both future and past released titles like LBP and Warhawk.

[LinuxGuru]

I have noticed the same, DJ.

Los Angeles here....never seen a GTA IV ad with 360 logo either.

And I still to this day see Warhawk ads in magazines.

[Adriana Lima]

sweet

[VF34EJ25]

Really? Must be the different areas then. Up here in Nor Cal, there's a lot of GTA IV 360 ads. In fact, no PS3 ads at all. The only time I saw a lot of PS3 ads was for Assassin's creed. Other than that, I see more 360 ads on a regular basis.

[DJ]

So that makes some sense.

[LethalToxins]

Above it was argued about marketing business models and strategic differences between Sony and MS. Well, I think much of that is irrelevant when it comes to certain titles. MS may have gambled on GoW at first as they had no idea how well it would sell. In this case, we're talking sequals to already established IPs which deserve the proper attention. Sony should at least show love to IPs that have earned it.

[Kleptic]

um...MS was pretty aware that Gears 1 would sell very well...it had little competition in its window (only PS3 launch titles), and recieved massive critical praise for its announcement in 2005, and playable form in 2006 (at each E3 respectively)...I wouldn't say they 'gambled' with GeOW...of the 360 titles MS pushed pretty hard, halo 3 and GeOW were there sure winners...

what they gambled with was titles like Bioshock and Mass Effect...both had a lot of people excited, but they were both difficult titles to see small amounts of and understand how good or bad they were...Gears you could decide in 5 seconds whether it was something you were into, or not...Bioshock though had all kinds of new ideas...and new ideas can back fire (read: Lair/Haze)...it ended up somewhere in the middle...neither title set the world on fire, but they also were complete successes respectively...and MS didn't really ad the hell out of them either...so it worked out...

[LethalToxins]

I only said gambled because critical acclaim, no matter how much, doesn't necessarily equate to massive sales. It's a gamble, at least in my opinion, when you're spending that much money to advertise the game.

[Imallvol7]

Agreed. ADVERTISE SONY.

[jvillan]

dude its not revenue that counts, net income is what matters, which msft has more of

[LeonSKennedy4Life]

Honestly, Sony.

Hire someone to do this.

Zac Snyder would be perfect for this!

[kewlkat007]

so it already has the Upper-Hand...Like I said Sony never really had a challenge the last 10 years to promote itself that aggressively since it had the market all to itself.

Sony dumped more money into the console technology, studios and exclusives. Now it has left them with a tight budget from a marketing POV. Hey Sony is High-Risk. We know this.

Has it been working? Well they did win the format war but the Cost of??? Well that's still up in the air...Marketing is a start.

[k280]

that is true they need 2 try a lil. just think if they did

[jvillan]

Sony does not have as much money as microsoft... Point, Blank, Period...

[IntelligentAj]

I think they advertised pretty well to move the system with the PS3 commercials with the Saliva music. They should apply the same scheme to marketing their games. Instead of trying to come up with gimicky commercials they should showcase the trailers, which in most cases will sell themselves.

[T-Baggins]

A lot of you don't seem to know much about companies and how money is distribute, Microsoft could be the richest company in the world (it’s not, Wal-Mart is, no joke) but they still have separate divisions, in other words all the money they have is split up between all their products such as windows, zune, Xbox, etc... and there not going to take money from one product and use it on another, so Microsoft can’t just spend all their money on advertisement nor can Sony each divisions is given a budget and that is how it’s used, so if Sony deemed it necessary they could advertise the snot out of Resistance but instead they have decided to do that with Little big planet, Why? Resistance although a good game that could (and will) make them money its a sequel to a game that most of the people who are going to buy it know about it because of their interest in the first one but Little big planet is a new IP that could appeal to a much larger audience so it would be wiser to put money towards it like they are doing, and with all that said they will still advertise Resistance 2 in some form or another and Insomniac will as well.

[VF34EJ25]

Well said! Agreed.

[jvillan]

Wal-mart is not the largest company in the world, but the largest retailer...you may want to research ExxonMobil or BP for that title my son

edit:
actually the top 3 are PetroChina, GE, and Exxon

microsoft is like 6th... while sony is like 250 or something lol
no seriously, check it out... maybe this explains the lack of advertising... NO CASH ON HAND

http://www.forbes.com/lists...

[LeonSKennedy4Life]

http://money.cnn.com/magazi...

http://www.allbusiness.com/...

[Nineball2112]

It helps if everyone agrees on what we are ranking them on, eh?

Is it Sales (revenues), Profits, Assets, Market Cap?

I'd say the important number here is Profits and as such here is the top 10:

1. ExxonMobil
2. Royal Dutch Shell
3. Gazprom
4. General Electric
5. BP
6. Total
7. HSBC Holdings
8. Chevron
9. PetroChina
10. Microsoft

http://www.forbes.com/lists...

Make sure you sort by the Profits column.

[Doctor Strange]

Advertising is always good but what do you call the media blitz R2 had this week with new screenshots and videos that they showed off? I think for R2 word of mouth is going to be the best advertisement for game.

Would I like to see more advertisement sure but I think Sony knows what they're doing and the game is still a couple months off maybe they have something planned. Just have to wait and see.

[The Lazy One]

they released a whole article in a magazine that got scans put up on the internet. HUGE MEDIA BLITZ.

[da7dal]

NOTHING IN THE WORLD CAN HOLD BACK RESISTANCE 2 SUCCESS

[rekonizakilla]

apart from gears 2 ,lbp,socom,kz2,wipeout,and a few more.trust me dude after playing the beta I can safely say r2 is seriously tedious and 100 percent boring. Fair enough if you want the game but nobody should over hype it or claim that all ps3 owners must buy this game.

[Rhezin]

this game isn't going to sell what are you people blind? LOOKS like "Nonuts" and "Dongs are Us", are! Hah first game sucked and guess what NO ONE BOUGHT IT DO YOU SEE ANY RECORD BREAKING SALES IN THE PS3 DEPARTMENT?!........... *crickets*........ YAH didn't think so. Sorry to shat on yer hopes for an ACTUAL AAA exclusive, but it seems an ongoing trend with sony to not make an AAA games. :) have fun with Can'tResistance Fan of Men 2............LOL that's hilarious...for all of you anyway.

[ThatCanadianGuy]

You do know R1 was a launch title right? You expect it to sell millions and millions when the userbase wasn't even there?

F*cking dumbass 360 fanboys.Man im so sick of them..

[joeymp]

This article is an epic fail. "don't premote first party titles" uhh have you not seen all the hype in the last few days for lbp. Resistance has been getting hype recently too with the beta coming up and all the videos/screeenshots that have been released in the last few days.

[T-Baggins]

jvillan - NO, Microsoft is the 63 not the 6th and Sony is 182 according to your post, why don't you actually read what you post,

also,
According to the Fortune 500 list, the top ten are, in order:

1. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. $351.1 2006 1,500,000 United States (NYSE: WMT) H. Lee Scott, Jr., $12.44M
2. ExxonMobil Corp. $347.2 2006 88,300 United States (NYSE: XOM) Rex W. Tillerson, $4.12M
3. Royal Dutch Shell plc $318.8 2006 112,000 UK, Netherlands, Jeroen van der Veer, € 7.509.244
4. BP $253.6 2005 103,700 UK,(LSE: BP), (NYSE: BP) John Browne, $4.73M
5. Chevron Corp. $198.2 2005 61,533 United States (NYSE: CVX) David O'Reilly, $7.82M
6. DaimlerChrysler AG $193.0 2005 362,063 Germany (FWB: DCX), United States (NYSE: DCX), Singapore, Canada, Argentina, Netherlands, France, Austria, Switzerland, UK Dieter Zetsche
7. General Motors Corp. $192.6 2005 323,000 United States, 32 other countries (list omitted) (NYSE: GM) G. Richard Wagoner, Jr., $8.51M
8. ConocoPhillips $183.3 2005 39,000 United States (NYSE: COP) James Mulva, $6.88M
9. Toyota Motor Corp. $179.0 2006 285,977 Japan, United States WORLDWIDE(NYSE: TM) Fujio Cho
10. Total S.A. $178.3 2005 111,401 France, United States (NYSE: TOT) Thierry Desmarest, $3.79M

Microsoft is 136 and Sony is 75

http://money.cnn.com/magazi...

[jvillan]

Wow you guys on N4g are complete genious... sales hardly have anything to do with how much a company is worth... wow you guys are smart... if i did 1 million in sales, but it cost me 2 million to to make those sales how much is my company worth????

its all about net income, not revenues(sales).. just b/c walmart did the most in sales does not make it worth more money than exxon mobil... there is much more than factors into the equation besides sales.

and of course Sony does more sales than microsoft, but there net income is lower than microsoft, b/c it costs sony alot more to make those sales than it does microsoft... you guys are geniouses

['_']

{i agree resistance 2 will be so successful it feels great being a ps3 owner}

[Allowen]

PPl that want to buy a PS3 or Xbox360 they do check the console's power and games at the internet and magazines so Sony should not worry much with TV but raise the propaganda about R2 on sites such IGN and N4G.

On the other hand ppl interested on buying a Nintendo Wii they seems to pay much more attention to the propaganda on TV instead the internet.
Just check the game Metroid Prime 3,it did not appear on tv cometials but did appear rasoable well in the internet.
This game unfortunetely did not sell as much as it could if Nintendo had supported the "poor" Retro Studios.Shame on you Nintendo.

I think R2 is appearing a lot all around the net where they talk about vgs.Really,I will not get surprised if R2 end selling more copies then MGS4 did on the first month.
R2 will do alright and there is no need to doubt that.

[Pika-pie]

True! Sony should do a hell of a lot more.

[jc48573]

While is free to spread the words on how good a game is (a very contagious move).

*cough cough* Costco *cough*

[Gantrfaxx]

Resistance 2 really doesn't need any additional promotion. Is there any gamer (especially Ps3 owner) that doesn't know about this game?
Resistance 2 speaks for itself.

[VF34EJ25]

Anyone related to PS3 knows about the game Resistance. But the point of marketing or advertisement is to get newcomers who don't know anything about Resistance, and perhaps best case scenario buy a PS3 for the game.

[juuken]

I believe that Sony and Microsoft have different business models when it comes to advertising. Sony doesn't need to advertise the crap out of their games in order for people to know what it's about. There is a such thing as over-advertising and I don't think Sony goes that far.

They've been promoting just fine.

[Shane Kim]

R2 will be so good and so successfull, that not even my PS3 will handle the game.

[lalapin]

Well , that's why IU ,Too Human , TOV , VP , Banjo bomb so f**king hard . Just let all games speak for themselves.

[VF34EJ25]

Banjo is out already?

But you're right with your hidden message. Just because it's advertised, doesn't mean it's going to do well.

[PirateThom]

Here's the problem:

Sony have a lot of games they publish from first, second and third parties.

They don't have an infinite supply of cash to advertise since they have so many first and second party games to publish.

The problem is, people look at that ridicilous, over the top Halo 3 advertising campaign and expect Sony to follow suit with their games. It's completely pointless to have expectations like that, the Halo 3 marketing campaign cost as much as it did to make the game. Sony have to choose their battles - LittleBigPlanet has more potential system selling power than Resistance 2, so gets more advertising.

I also think it's worth noting, LittleBigPlanet is out before Resistance 2, after LBP comes out, who's to say Sony won't switch it?

[VF34EJ25]

100% Agreed. Ever since MS with their insane Halo 3 advertising campaign, people have been putting the same expectations for other games.

HOWEVER, I would say that one game that deserves that kind of marketing is MGS4. Nothing would have been better than a massively hyped game, that actually lives up to the hype it generated. Halo 3, was not that game.

[RonRico]

I want to see some Resistance 2 Mountain Dew damnit.

[rev20]

Wait till a few weeks before LittleBigPlanets release then you will see Sony advertising the hell out of the PS3.

Its blatently obvious to anyone with a bit of common sense that sony have been biding their time waiting for that one game they think will be the killer title to start the ball rolling and judging by the interest by the critics and gamers alike LittleBigPlanet is about to kick it off.

All this Beta offering atm is free advertising but its working a treat ;)

[Jdoki]

Marketing budget, development budget, R&D budget and so on are all separate 'pots' of money. Just because one is losing money doesn't mean investment is stopped in other areas. In many companies the marketing budget is usually one of the biggest outside of the core operations.

Sony has a substantial marketing budget - but they are not focusing on games. In the UK most of the adverts are for the console itself - and even then most of them are for the 'This Is Living' catchphrase.

Sony could easily pump money in to 1st and 2nd party marketing, but for some odd reason they choose not to.

The argument that while PS3 is losing money they won't advertise is rubbish. Marketing the hell out of a product creates more sales. The more sales (of PS3's) Sony generates the quicker they can start making a profit per unit.

It's not like Sony are a marketing shy company - they advertise the heck out of the Bravia range, and currently sponsor the ITV-F1 show in the UK - which strangely doesn't include any Playstation products...

It's an odd situation, but I'm sure Sony have their reasons.

[bbelly9320_]

but I do agree, they really need to properly market their games.

Uncharted suffered from the lack of proper advertising, but in the end it managed to sell decently due to 'strong word of mouth'.

It could have sold so much more with Sony backing it up 100%.

[IWentBrokeForGaming]

on tv they always do more montages of games rather then letting people see 1 game at a time (the latest commercials do this, I remember back to the motorstorm/resistance days they had their own). I don't like the montage idea cause commercials only run for a minute if that. To cram like 3 games in like they do is a little much. Little Big Planet deserves a commercial by itself to better give a consumer the idea of the concept. Not 3 seconds of it thrown in with 3 of metal gear solid 4, etc.. like I've seen. They just have to give games dedicated commercials insted of mash-ups. Im saying this from the point of view of a consumer, not the side of me that's a gamer and already knows of the games. Resistance 2 already knows it will do well so for that game to be in a montage kinda deal would be okay (just not for new comers). But Little Big Planet deserves it's own marketing for sure. Can't wait to get both games in the next 2 months along with Fable 2 and Gears 2. Anyone know if Mad World is due out in time for christmas? cause my Nintendo Wii has turned into quite a relic!

[VF34EJ25]

Agreed with that. Each game should have had proper time for the people to see what it's about. I'm pretty sure that 5 seconds of MGS4, people didn't even know what game it was.

A good advertisement is something that catches people's eyes instantly and get them interested.

Sony's advertisement, does not do that at all. Instead (like you mentioned) they put those silly montages where people won't catch anything from it. Thus, beating the whole purpose of advertising.

Sony needs to get some advertising help from Bridgestone. Those guys are marketing geniuses. I still remember the dog who tried to commit suicide and the ones where the lady and the animals were screaming. That kind of stuff people remember.

[KiddyBrownTurd]

"PS3 is holding back Constipation 2's success"

*fixed*

[AbdullaMTR]

loool its really scratch too xD

[KiddyBrownTurd]

nah. that's all the sh1t smeared on my face from being a dumb droid.

[Whoa Its Wes]

If there's 3 games I would say they REALLY need to market incredibly well they would have to be:

Resistance 2
Killzone 2
God of War 3

I would say LittleBigPlanet.. but that game will sell itself

[rekonizakilla]

I agree with this article.I think sony need to sort out their advertising in general.I remember having liberty city stories multiplayer on my psp and thinking why isn't everyone talking about this.There biggest crime though has to be with socom for psp where i experienced some of the funniest gaming moments I've ever had.The thing what bugs me is when nintendo release a console they will tell you what it can do,they tell you all the special features but sony simply don't. Not many people knew you could go online with ps2,hardly anyone knows of the extra features psp has to offer and why for feck sake will they not just show everyone some of the cool stuff a ps3 can do like video chat or streaming to psp or even show people how sexy the xmb is ,especially when you see the videos all running at the same time.Hopefully when home comes out we're gonna see some kind of major advertising campaign but I wont be holding my breath.

[Coke-a-Cola]

Sony has been WILDLY SUCCESSFUL without any help from us ... aside from our purchase of games and hardware. I get the distinct feeling they know something about long-term strategy .

[Johnny_Boy]

mmmmmmm when did everyone become pr experts. Dont worry bout the job of someone else to hype up a game no matter how many dollars are spent the #1 MARKETING TOOL NO MATTER WHAT ANYONE TELLS U IS WORD OF MOUTH. If u tell your friends its awesome chances are they are gonna follow suit and get u in on the action plain and simple. Sure slapping a master cheif on a mountain dew helps or appearing on a super bowl commercial or whatever the hell it maybe but U are sony's greatest marketing asset and thats what they are banking on this holiday.

[Karum]

There's a lot of really good points in some of these comments but as a PS3 owner looking forward to R2 I do agree that they need to at least advertise the game a and even the console in general little bit more.

I know about R2 because I visit sites like this, hear about the games and then track what I'm interested in. Not everyone does though, a friend of mine through work is an avid lover of blu-ray movies and a big movie buff in general as he is a PS3 owner and playstation lover in general and enjoys shooters too, didn't know about R2, Socom or MAG coming out, didn't even know about LBP as he buys games for his kids to play also.

Yeah these games get coverage on sites like this but they also need a presence in the more mainstram media, at least in the UK anyway I dunno how other countries/regions are. A few television advertisements and the odd newspaper segment shouldn't really be too much for a company like Sony.

[flOw]

Resistance doesn't need a huge marketing campaign, the first one sold more than 3mi copies, and i think that R2 will sell more than 4mi... Let SONY spend their money on LBP (I doubt it will sell more than R2).

[The Lazy One]

because there were only a handful of games out.

PDZ sold well too. That didn't make it an amazing game.

[DFresh]

Nope.
I don't think that's true.
Price point is holding back Sony's success.
Sony said this holiday season they're gonna promote like crazy for all their games so this article is false.

[Djomblade1]

Doesnt matter at all. Nothing is being held back. Resistance was (for a little while) the only thing that the ps3 had initially. It sold very well and got fantastic exposure. Not to mention it has THE best (IMO) community out there with Myresistance.net. Its already got a huge fanbase so it doesnt need all this marketing crap. I wouldnt want to see R2 energy drinks in the f**king first place. How retarded would that be. "Durrr this shi* will give you the energy you need to kick some Chimeran a**, get yours today!" LOL. No thank you. To much media or commercial exposure has RUINED many a good thing.

[kenshin329]

to put ads on myspace or facebook

[Guitarded]

The ps3 is a crap console for gaming. All the ad's in the world can't change that.

[pumpkinpunker]

Resistance: Fall of Man received a metascore of 86. It is accepted that to be a triple A title a game has to receive meta-score of 90 or higher.

Viva Pinata recieved an 84 and Tales of Vesperia received an 81 and no one discusses these titles as if they are triple A, cream of the crop titles.

Maybe Sony doesn't consider Resistance 2 as a title on par with MGS4 or Gears of War 2 and are just banking on LBP and next years lineup to generate sales. I know it's hard to believe with all the fanboy hype on this website

[na2ru1]

It already earnt its hype.

300ft tall boss is bigger, better and more badass indeed!

[StrikingDmc4]

hundred feet boss wtf does that prove?

[NanoGeekTech]

Ad campaign will go down this Holiday season...But I will have to agree Sony does not seem to spend tons of money on TV Advertising.....

I do still see commercials for MGS4....I saw tons of commercials for Heavenly Sword...R&C:TOD had a pretty good ad campaign......

People need to remember ad dollars are being invest in totally different ways: especially the net....and most importantly people are trying to find new and creative ways to advertise...i.e HOME..

Look at this web site....N4G is a big viral marketing..for Sony and Xbox...
TV ads are great...but word of mouth is the best advertising...

[rroded]

just look at Warhawk or even r1 If sony spent half as much on advertising as ms they'd have way more sales.

[Premonition]

Even though it does cost a lot to develope games I think sony should put the money up on games that they feel will do well in the market and that would push hardware system. Example LBP and Resistance 2. Also I think they should advertise on certain tv show nights, tv shows that bring in big views such as shows like Heroes, Amercias got talent, and CSI etc, tv shows that have people glued to the tv even when commercials are on. That way if say 40million viewers tune into heroes, imagine out of how many of those 40mill will actually think or consider buying a PS3 along with resistance 2, I mean it wouldnt hurt to try alteast once to see if it will have any postive impact on their product.

[Crazywhitie]

Son'y doesn't promote these games because they don't want to be tagged with them if the fail...I think they should be promoting LBP more then R2, Because R2 already as a following... Look at Socom nothings been seen after the big beta up roar... the game comes out in less then 1 month and I have not seen one Commercial???? MS does a great job at Promoting and I think sony should take a page from it....

[sephy 9 2 5]

There are a vast amount of examples proving that 90% of time you can advertise all you want and still not receive big sales.

And even if you compared the successful games with big ad campaigns, none of those games are anywhere near the highest selling of all-time. In fact, what you see is that these games sell fast, have no legs, then fall off.

[Bengoshi-San]

sony isn't too savvy with advertising and marketing and yes.. that is costing them money because of lost profit.

look at nintedo, the wii is basically a marketing success. as a product, it sucks, but the marketing and advertising has pushed it up to ridiculously high level sales.

[Stubacca]

I still play Resistance on PSN but haven't touched Gears on PC since it was released. Good game, but come on! Resistance and the mighty PS3 wipe the floor with that faulty M$ console!

Case-in-point= As of yesterday, everyone I know who has bought a 360 has had it die on them! Still on my first PS3.

[PimplePopperMD]

all set with crappy, generic fps games

[shutupandplay]

sub-par community? That`s pretty generous.

[Jsynn7]

This is what I've been saying for the longest time. Sony never really promotes their games well. I'm guessing their motto when it comes to promoting games is "actions speak louder than words". That is respectable because usually any game shows off is great but, when it comes to keeping up the momentum, they leave everyone flat. There are rarely any commercials about some games or vid docs on them. They need to see how M$ sells their game a lot closely. M$ has a master's, a PHD, and a 3rd degree black belt in hyping games. Their so good at making a mediocre or even bad game look like it'll set the new standard of gaming. They pull out all the stops. Look a Gears of War. They actually had a red carpet premier of the game with celebs and everything. I'm not saying GOW is a bad game but all the hype made the game that much better. Halo, forget about it, from short films to virals, you name, M$ did it and after all the hype settled and the dust cleared the game was just "good". I remember when Eye of Judgment was coming out. This was the most original game in recent memory. At this time, FPSs were flooding the gaming market and start to get old. EOJ was a breathe of fresh air form all that because it was something completely fresh and it brought out a new level of interactivity. Now, you would think, with something like this, Sony would have brought out every bell and whistle they had to make this game known to the world. This game barely got a whisper of promotion. All it got was some ads in mags and a sorta low budget commercial barely seen by anyone. Sony let it get shoved in the background by all the other games coming out at the time. I live in New York and I went to the Digital life Convention in 2007. They had a very small section where they were demoing EOJ and I mean small as in you would have to look real hard to see it. This game could've been a phenom but Sony left it out there to fend for itself. It was sad really because, to this very day, I am an addict when it comes to EOJ and I'm sure there are millions of people who don't know about this game and would love to play. I can argue that, if marketed and hyped correctly, this could've been a system seller but Sony just put it out there and hoped for the best. I don't have a problem with just showing off a game and letting it speak for itself especially when it's an awesome game, but it doesn't hurt to hype it up. You never know what you'll get out of. Maybe something more than expected. It wouldn't hurt to put LBP in big beautiful neon lights with fireworks going off all over, water fountains shooting off rythmically with dancing girls high kicking a doing the splits. The demos have been great so far but lets see what happens when when you put it on a lunch box or bill board on the side of a highway ( maybe a limited edition energy drink). Sony really needs to learning how to market and hype their games better. Only then will their 1st party exclusives and systems start moving the way they should.

[Cynical-Gamerzus]

Sony is not worth that much and with the economy the way it is it's real sad,they could learn alot from say Apple or a company like Nintendo.
Obvious the Cell is desgined for the future in 8 years we will see Cell with 60 cores..??and people will have a grip with them..BUt for now money is draining from Sony..

They took big risk developing the Cell and Bluray and now they blew their wad.

The REAL PROBLEM is ignorant uneducated consumers and perception of the price of the PS3!

The PS3 is an amazing deal yet ignorant consumers can keep buying their Zunes and Vistas and Wii's and RROD high failure rate crap blissfully and wastefully..

This is beyond me why they do.

Im sitting here Enjoying High Def in all its glory watching Speed racer on BLu-ray and all the HD Discovery torrents and Music Videos etc etc I download on my PS3 surfing the web and Now soon TO PLay Resistance 2!!!!!60player online!!.

I don't get it ???It is an amazing deal and it is practically given to you at a loss???Everyone of my friends nvies me!!
What gives???

[PSWe60]

on the success of Gears of War. The PS3's standard HDD, Blu-Ray disc space and the cell processor would have made Gears of War look much better running on the PS3.

perfect example: Metal Gear Solid 4

[cmrbe]

of factors to take into consideration.

1. Number of Sony Franchise compare to MS.

2. Sony's relationship with their internal and external partners.

3. Balancing investing in new IP's with millions spent on Ads.

If Sony were to Spend the same amount of money on Ads for all its promising titles which there are alot like MS did with Halo 3 and Gears then Sony might not have much money to invest in their Internal studios to create new IP's.

How would Sony choose which title to give the red carpet treatment anyway?. This will create alot of friction amongst Sony partners. Also reducing funding for first party projects will make internal parties unhappy. Ever wonder why Devs that are developing titles for Sony only have great things to say about Sony?.

Perhaps Sony is banking on Gamers to see games as they are and also the fact that PS brand is gaming. The Author provided some good points but i feel that he forgot to take in consideration these points. If fans are already hyped up about a game like R2 fans are then there is no need to spend extra cash on marketing instead invest it new IP's. In any case. Sony would never hold the success of any game on their console. It doesn't make sense.

[Mutley416]

Some very good comments in this thread-

but I believe if Sony Does`nt get more aggressive with there advertising Dollars, They will always be playing second fiddle to MS-

The first Gears ad campaign was excellent, everybody was talking about it-

I myself a loyal Sony Fanboy(right down to my Dream Surround System) am getting a XBOX because of the price drop because the Hype Gears 2 is getting, because of the great warranty in place-

Really thought I could careless if they don`t Advertise... I know, and the gaming public knows... I hope the little brats don`t learn about this game- Cause one thing I do know is RFOM2 will raise the Bar yet again for FPS`s