Games With Bad Promotional Campaigns
Games with infamous marketing, be it print ads, tv spots, or press events. RIP to Acclaim for being the kings of this shit.
i need more so if you know any i'm taking suggestions lmao
i need more so if you know any i'm taking suggestions lmao
37 Games
26 Comments
Rayman 3 had a foursome ad, feel free to look it up.
*Rayman 2
This comment was deleted
I dunno if the medal of honor thing would fit for sure (I guess it'd just be like... product placement / advertisement, and not promoing the game, right?) but that's so fucked haha, definitely the first I'm hearing of it
and I had to add Rayman 2 from that ad. what the fuck.
and I had to add Rayman 2 from that ad. what the fuck.
The Just Cause 3 win an island campaign https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe-uL40a500
madworld severed arm campaign. https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2009/03/british_tabloid_blasts_sega_for_gory_madworld_marketing_campaign
Dead Space 2 was amazing, actuallly
Ocarina of Time had the infamous “Whilst thou save the girl… or play like one?” adverts
Deathsmiles. Part of it's marketing was various flavours of ice tea... themed after being pee from the game's characters.
EA mailed raw meat to people for Bulletstorm which seems, at best, ill-advised. https://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2010/06/08/bulletstorm-meat.aspx
Super Monkey Ball Adventure had this masterpiece
https://twitter.com/MonkeyBallTweet/status/1164900271576817664
https://twitter.com/MonkeyBallTweet/status/1164900271576817664
Oh, there's that time Ubisoft sent a beeping safe to a company that doesn't even cover video games and got their offices evacuated because they thought it was a bomb.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27607826
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27607826
Not sure if this counts, but Mario Strikers Charged had a rejected testicles ad.
the yoshis island ad where the dude eats so much he explodes https://youtu.be/F36fNqZN5lg
Jam Sessions on the DS had that pretty infamous cheese cake ad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLvrKNq362k
There's also this really weird old Sonic ad
https://i.redd.it/7x3rduui8a511.jpg
There's also this really weird old Sonic ad
https://i.redd.it/7x3rduui8a511.jpg
considering half the acclaim ones were bailed on or just published ideas, I'll take the Super Mario Strikers one. I'll take anything as long as it's about promotion, one way or another, and there's evidence of the promotion or ad existing.
Also the fact that I had to dig for the Deathsmiles one to get two grainy pictures. Thank you but also I hate that I have this information.
https://64.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5b794qRbd1qd4q8ao1_1280.jpg another strike against the british for this one
They can't keep getting away with this
Black Ops III actually had a publicity stunt where they called in a bomb threat on a fake twitter news page.
Maybe these are stretches but I saw the battleborn one so I might as well suggest.
The injustice 2 mobile game getting a pride event that involved beating up Poison Ivy, one of the games queer characters.
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-06-04-injustice-2-mobile-dev-apologises-for-pride-event-that-challenged-players-to-beat-up-a-queer-woman
.and the Dead Rising 4 marketing email that noone proofread so it included something very close to a slur
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vg247.com/amp/microsoft-apologises-for-perceived-racial-slur-in-dead-rising-4-marketing-email
The injustice 2 mobile game getting a pride event that involved beating up Poison Ivy, one of the games queer characters.
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-06-04-injustice-2-mobile-dev-apologises-for-pride-event-that-challenged-players-to-beat-up-a-queer-woman
.and the Dead Rising 4 marketing email that noone proofread so it included something very close to a slur
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vg247.com/amp/microsoft-apologises-for-perceived-racial-slur-in-dead-rising-4-marketing-email
Cybermorph commercial for the Atari Jaguar that heavily implies the game is nauseating by showing a kid puking on the camera.
https://youtu.be/UQVai3i5Vpw
https://youtu.be/UQVai3i5Vpw
Earthbound
That time Mighty No. 9, an anime-influenced game, had an ad with the most ham-fisted "self-aware" dialogue imaginable that also insulted its potential playerbase ("...and make the bad guys cry like an anime fan on prom night!").
FMTownsParty
2 years ago
Cool list either way! I love those embarrassing, sexually-charged ads from the 90s about how mascots can fuck.