On The Quality Of Videogame Commercials

Thanks to GameSpy for their opinion piece discussing why many videogame TV commercials sell the product short. They cite the Final Fantasy Tactics Advance spot, in which: "Three kids, pretending to be three characters from FFTA, were pretending to man phone lines, urging kids to call in to help them progress in their quest", and a recent Everquest PS2 commercial in which "a businessman, a slacker/skater, a punk girl, and some other stereotype get together to play EQ after the businessman makes a call on his cell phone, proclaiming, 'It's time to slay the dragon.'", suggesting that "If gaming is to truly grow up... then it really needs to get its act together with its commercials." Which game TV commercials work for you, and what do companies need to do to improve them?

Comments

Do it like the Japanese

[bconway]

Video game advertisers in the US really need to take a lesson from the Japanese. If I saw commercials like this on TV, they'd get my money every time.

Re:First Zelda commercial sold me

[JFMulder]

Does anyone remember that ad about a guy running in the dark screaming Zelda at the top of his lungs? I only realized years later that it was a Zelda ad, since when I saw it I didn't even knew what was a Nintendo, I was too busy playing with my Intellivision. ;)

xbox ads

[michael.creasy]

For bad commercials, there's no power greater than X

-gulp- Enter The, uh, Matrix?

[superultra]

In terms of keeping with the movie, the ad looked cool?



please don't hit me?

One of the funniest ever.

[crazyphilman]

Now, I never played "Magic, the Gathering" because I never got into the card games and could never figure out the attraction (I'm more of a first person shooter kinda guy). But their commercials were hilarious.

There was one where a bunch of scientists are looking down on a lawyer type through a set of high-set glass windows. He was in the middle of a big, roundish room with huge steel doors in the back, and he was basically sitting around, fiddling with his watch, etc. So one of the scientist types says, "Ok, bring in the troll." They press a button and open the doors, and a huge, at least fifteen foot tall troll with a huge club comes in and roars. The lawyer shrieks, and the next thing you see is a view through the windows over the scientist's shoulders, as the lawyer flies up into the air, spilling papers all over the place. A scientist takes a note down on a pad, saying, "Troll beats lawyer..." (or words to that effect).

Those commercials were FUNNY.

Re:Old sega commercials

[PainKilleR-CE]

guy playing game boy gets hit over head with dead squireel

oooh color

SEGA!