Yikes. PSN is still down, you say? Well it looks like Sony’s Kaz Hirai is apologizing for that as I write this post.
You’ll hear more on my thoughts about the whole PSN hack-n-crash on this week’s podcast, but for now, I will go as far as to say that this is a nightmare for Sony in terms of PR. The sad thing about it, from their point of view, is that this seems to come right on the heels of some recent efforts to get back in gamer’s good graces over the last year or so.
Anywho, with all of this bad PR and marketing business, I thought this list of the Top 10 Embarrassingly Bad Moments in Video Game Marketing was certainly relevant these days. It was posted about a month ago, but I think it’s found a bit of new life in wake of the PSN fiasco. It’s got some goodies on there, especially the time when Peter Moore tattooed release dates on his arm, as well as some of the old Atari Jaguar ads. Good memories, there.
So what do you guys think? What are some other terrible bits of video game marketing and PR? I’d say that “Riiiiidge Racer!” and the 360 RRoD probably round out the top of the list, but that’s just me. Go!
Source – Calm Down Tom
I can’t believe I totally missed that “White is Coming” ad. How could someone let that picture be plastered on billboards? I’ll also agree about the RRoD, from which Microsoft somehow seems to have walked away scott-free. I’ve got a PS3 and red-ringed 360 (third one) sitting at my house now, so I’m at a bit of a loss in the downloadable games area (and Outland just came out, which seems pretty cool), but thankfully I got Clash of Heroes before PSN went down, so I can occupy my time with that.
My personal worst bit of PR would have to be the FFVII add I saw in a movie theatre. At first, I thought it was cool that I was seeing video game ads (that and LoZ:OoT) on the big screen, but then I saw (SPOILER ALERT!) Cloud dropping Aeris into the lake while a message flashed about “loss”. I got so angry that they just spoiled Aeris’s death for me. I kept trying to convince myself that that’s not what actually happened, but I was prepared for the moment when it came, and I wish I wasn’t. I even knew about when it would happen, since the soundtrack in the Forgotten City is so eerie (and excellent!)
So that would be my advice…don’t spoil huge plot points in a preview!
I take exception to the Blast Processing entry. That actually worked. The marketing, not the feature.