Dragon Quest VI advertised in Japan by these guys
Maybe this is why Dragon Quest games haven’t caught on in America like they have in Japan. Square Enix is promoting the DS remake of Dragon Quest VI the same way it did for IV and V: with a wonderfully goofy commercial featuring actors dressed up as hilarious semi-realistic versions of the game’s Akira Toriyama characters. This ad totally fills us with nostalgia for a childhood that we didn’t actually spend playing this game!
Check out the new ad after the break. Dragon Quest VI will be out in Japan this week, with a Western release to follow at some unspecified later date.
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Dragon Quest VI advertised in Japan by these guys originally appeared on Joystiq Nintendo on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Nintendo promoting Wii and DSi downloads in UK
Nintendo of Europe is planning an unprecedented move to promote its downloadable games: It’s going to tell people they exist. The company kicked off a three-week ad campaign in the UK this week, intended to increase awareness of the kinds of things that can be done with an internet-connected Wii or DSi. The initiative will be supplemented by leaflets in retail shops, and signage advertising the availability of Nintendo Points, and it’ll all link back to Nintendo’s UK site, which features more videos of the Wii and DSi’s downloadables.
According to MCV, a Wii-focused ad will highlight the BBC iPlayer, Band Hero DLC, and … Bonsai Barber. Three different ads will focus on Facebook, the DSiWare Brain Ages, and Dictionary 6 in 1 with Camera Function, the latter two of which coincidentally will come preloaded on the DSi XL.
Nintendo promoting Wii and DSi downloads in UK originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Stop moving and watch this stop-motion Tatsunoko vs. Capcom ad
We rarely get to praise advertising for a Wii game, because it rarely exists, and when it does, it’s rarely anything special. But Capcom nailed it with this TV commercial for Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars, featuring stop-motion action figure combat between Ryu, Mega Man Volnutt, Ken the Eagle and Tekkaman Blade. The animation is well-done, the combat is well-choreographed and at no point do three generations of family giggle at you from a couch.
Capcom says the commercial will be showing “in HD glory on USA, SyFy, Adult Swim and more starting next Monday.” Provided it runs frequently enough and at good timeslots, this thing could actually sell some copies of the game. Check it out after the break.
Continue reading Stop moving and watch this stop-motion Tatsunoko vs. Capcom ad
Stop moving and watch this stop-motion Tatsunoko vs. Capcom ad originally appeared on Joystiq Nintendo on Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Google and TiVo partner to analyze viewer data, sell ads, get filthy rich
We’re actually sort of surprised that this hasn’t happened earlier, but TiVo and Google announced a data-sharing partnership today that’ll give the Google TV team access to TiVo’s second-by-second viewing data — anonymized, of course. That means advertisers who buy their TV ads through Google will only have to pay for the ads that customers actually watch — a system the networks obviously aren’t so keen on, but which makes total sense given Google’s pay-per-impression online advertising model. Google’s already processing a billion remote clicks a day as part of a similar deal it’s had with Dish Network since April, so the new TiVo data should just help Mountain View inch its claws even deeper into our everyday lives. Happy future.
Google and TiVo partner to analyze viewer data, sell ads, get filthy rich originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Commercial success dependent on ‘more than just quality,’ Divnich suggests
Pictured: A successful commercial
Speaking during a presentation at the recent Montreal International Game Summit (as covered by Edge), EEDAR Director of Analyst Services Jesse Divnich highlighted a tenuous connection between game review scores and commercial success. In the case of Nintendo’s DS, Divnich is quoted as saying “scores don’t matter.” But do they matter among a more dedicated gaming audience?
“When we did compare Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 only games, we did, to no surprise, find that review scores highly correlated to sales,” Divnich told Joystiq. “However, marketing correlation was still just a tad bit more.” According to EEDAR’s research, marketing has played the “more crucial role” with DS games and, to some degree, Wii games (a point Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime seems to agree on).
While emphasizing that his aim was not to dismiss the value of critical evaluation, Divnich suggested that marketing plays a more persuasive role in what has become a burgeoning industry. “Video games are now a mass marketed product, it is a product that targets all major demographics, very similar to television or movies or any other sector within the entertainment division.” While Joystiq readers may lock out the din of marketing as they tap the F5 key and anxiously wait for review embargoes to lift, the industry has grown to encompass people who aren’t as exposed to the likes of Metacritic.
It seems that being informed takes precedence over being entertained — at least until you start playing the game. “Quality does matter,” concluded Divnich, “but marketing matters just a little bit more.”
Commercial success dependent on ‘more than just quality,’ Divnich suggests originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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FTC Orders Bloggers to Reveal Payments for Reviews, Game Journalism Dead?
The Federal Trade Commission has voted 4-0 that bloggers must now disclose any payments or freebies they receive in exchange for reviewing a product. Fines for failing to disclose this information are currently set at $11,000 per offense. As someone who has written thousands of game reviews, features, interviews and previews for a wide-variety of offline and online media (using several different pen names, so you might as well stop searching), I welcome this ruling with open arms.
The state of videogame journalism has never been as low as it is right now. Countless bloggers are on the take, eager to take those freebie trips to one event after another, put up in nice hotels with comped dinners, supplied with endless swag and secret advertising deals in exchange for a positive spin on a new product. When radio was a dominant force, this kind of activity was called Payola and it happens to be illegal. For far too long, the videogame industry has been getting away with murder in how it behaves with magazines and websites.
If I were to ever divulge the offers made to me over my 20 years in the industry, your hair would turn white. Much to my credit, I never buckled and kept my integrity intact, though the same can’t be said for the vast majority of sites out there who are actively involved in incestuous relationships with the very companies they are expected to be critical of. Perhaps I’ll write a book about my experiences some day, when I have plenty of money to fend off the inevitable lawsuits.
Expect a lot of hand-wringing and fallout from this FTC ruling.
The Federal Trade Commission today announced that it has approved final revisions to the guidance it gives to advertisers on how to keep their endorsement and testimonial ads in line with the FTC Act.
The notice incorporates several changes to the FTC’s Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, which address endorsements by consumers, experts, organizations, and celebrities, as well as the disclosure of important connections between advertisers and endorsers. The Guides were last updated in 1980.
Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect. In contrast to the 1980 version of the Guides – which allowed advertisers to describe unusual results in a testimonial as long as they included a disclaimer such as “results not typical” – the revised Guides no longer contain this safe harbor.
The revised Guides also add new examples to illustrate the long standing principle that “material connections” (sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers – connections that consumers would not expect – must be disclosed. These examples address what constitutes an endorsement when the message is conveyed by bloggers or other “word-of-mouth” marketers. The revised Guides specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service. Likewise, if a company refers in an advertisement to the findings of a research organization that conducted research sponsored by the company, the advertisement must disclose the connection between the advertiser and the research organization. And a paid endorsement – like any other advertisement – is deceptive if it makes false or misleading claims.
Celebrity endorsers also are addressed in the revised Guides. While the 1980 Guides did not explicitly state that endorsers as well as advertisers could be liable under the FTC Act for statements they make in an endorsement, the revised Guides reflect Commission case law and clearly state that both advertisers and endorsers may be liable for false or unsubstantiated claims made in an endorsement – or for failure to disclose material connections between the advertiser and endorsers. The revised Guides also make it clear that celebrities have a duty to disclose their relationships with advertisers when making endorsements outside the context of traditional ads, such as on talk shows or in social media.
The Guides are administrative interpretations of the law intended to help advertisers comply with the Federal Trade Commission Act; they are not binding law themselves. In any law enforcement action challenging the allegedly deceptive use of testimonials or endorsements, the Commission would have the burden of proving that the challenged conduct violates the FTC Act.
The Commission vote approving issuance of the Federal Register notice detailing the changes was 4-0. The notice will be published in the Federal Register shortly, and is available now on the FTC’s Web site as a link to this press release. Copies also are available from the FTC’s Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20580.
Rumor: Best Buy ad fuels the $50 Wii price drop fire
What you see above is the third circular image we’ve spotted in just five days advertising a Nintendo Wii price cut to $199.99. At this point, though the image that a Kotaku tipster sent in could very well be made of fancy pixel work by someone with too few extracurriculars on their schedule, we’re fairly confident in a forthcoming price cut reveal.
Considering the impending holiday season and those other consoles getting recent price drops, it seems likely something will occur with the big N in the upcoming months. If Miss Cleo’s Michael Pachter’s predictions based on slowing sales are any indication though, we’ll know soon enough.
Rumor: Best Buy ad fuels the $50 Wii price drop fire originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 18 Sep 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Rumor: Target circular advertises $199 Wii
The image above, posted by Kotaku, appears to be a Target ad for the week of September 27, featuring a $50 price drop on Wii hardware. This ad would further corroborate the Toys R Us ad we saw that also showed the same price cut — if we knew either ad was real. Us? We’re hoping for a drastic price cut on cameras so tipsters can get better pictures of these advance ads.
The DVD at the right side of the Target ad is Monsters vs. Aliens, which comes out on September 29. That at least shows that if this ad is a fake, it’s a somewhat clever one. As always, we’re not going to take this as confirmation of a price drop, but we will take it as confirmation that it would be smart to wait a couple of weeks before going to buy a Wii.
Rumor: Target circular advertises $199 Wii originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Watch this Scribblenauts ad with your pterodactyl
How often does a company get TV advertising for games absolutely right? There’s usually some aspect of a game’s presentation to the general audience that is groan-worthy or embarrassing — and potentially damaging to the game’s perception. That’s not the case with the Scribblenauts ad!
This live-action ad does a great job of getting the gameplay across, and presenting it in an appealing way. In fact, the events of this commercial would work as a real Scribblenauts level. Bonus points for using the real Scribblenauts art style for the summoned objects.
Watch this Scribblenauts ad with your pterodactyl originally appeared on Joystiq Nintendo on Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Guitar Hero 5 ad features Hugh Hefner, plethora of Playboy Bunnies
Activision continues its Risky Business ad campaign (remember Guitar Hero World Tour’s and Guitar Hero Metallica’s?) with Guitar Hero 5, which shows Hef and some of his gals (okay, mostly his gals) rocking out with plastic guitars. It’s an effective ad, for two reasons:
- It shows that, should we pick up Guitar Hero 5, we too could have a room full of hotties gyrating and looking all sexy-like
- Playboy Bunnies are skilled in the art of clairvoyance and don’t even need to look at the TV to play
Guitar Hero 5 ad features Hugh Hefner, plethora of Playboy Bunnies originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 29 Aug 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Top 10 Best Selling Games
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