Top 12 Worst Video Game Marketing Campaigns (Part 1)

Marketing is one of the most interesting forms of communication. Advertising a product to a market, usually through a great display of creativity. Some events are entirely dedicated to marketing and advertising; in video games, think of the yearly E3 convention. Some people might watch the Super Bowl for the football match, but several just want to see what agencies have come up with to occupy the year’s most expensive ad breaks.

Taking a stroll down the rabbit hole of terrible
advertising campaigns is equal parts
fascinating and disheartening.

I have a bachelor’s degree in social communications, so I have touched upon marketing alongside journalism, media, public relations and crisis management. I was more interested in journalism, but marketing has a charm to it. Find the best way to get your message across and convince people to buy your product or your service. Aim for your target audience, be inventive, appeal to the mass. Think of something with the same tone as what you’re advertising.

When it comes to video games? Your target audience is either kids or teens of all stripes, from well-behaved to edgy, so you can go just about any way with the tone. Throughout the history of video games, we’ve had consoles that were considered more for kids (such as Nintendo), consoles more for teens (PlayStation) if not outright grown-ups (Xbox), and anything in-between. Titles ranging from the innocent and sweet (Animal Crossing, Mario) all the way to GTA, Postal or Saints Row. Some consoles aimed for a specific tone in their advertising; as an example, SEGA kept advertising itself with dirty jokes for a while, especially during its console rivalry with Nintendo.

Hey, remember that time
Nintendo basically had a whole
movie made just to promote
their dumb Power Glove?
...It's so bad.

Obviously, with more than 40 years of video games behind us, there’s been ad campaigns that we remember for the worst possible reasons. Too edgy, went too far, caused legitimate damage… Let’s make it clear: However insane the next points sound, these all happened. Being on this list doesn’t mean that the marketing campaign was unsuccessful; only that it went too far and/or was received harshly for it. But I am getting ahead of myself. We're counting down.

Fair warning, a lot of these entries discuss heavy topics and may include horrific imagery.

12. Name your baby Turok or Dovahkiin, win stupid prizes

A Jurassic Era FPS? ...Sure, I guess.

Not sure what the connection is between naming
your baby Turok and the Dinosaur Times from
the game...

Acclaim is a studio you’ll read about often on this list, as they are infamous for creating some of the most insane marketing stunts for their games. This first example, when compared to their other shenanigans, is tame. In 2002, Acclaim (also known for the Mortal Kombat series) created a campaign for their then-upcoming Turok: Evolution, the latest installment in their Turok series. They came up with a rather peculiar contest: New parents with children expected on September 1st, day of the game’s release, name your baby Turok for 10,000$!

The contest mentioned making the name official for only one year, and the prize money would only be won by the first baby registered for the contest (on the official Turok website) to be born on that day. To encourage participation, the campaign involved average people (actually actors) claiming they had legally changed their name to Turok for the occasion (they hadn’t). As far as I can tell, nobody was fooled, nor did anyone "win".

For some reason, nine years later, Bethesda had the exact same idea to celebrate the release of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Name your kid born on November 11th 2011 Dovahkiin and gain free download codes for every Bethesda game past, present and future. This time, one mother did actually participate and win. Be a big enough name, and silly ideas that don't work for smaller companies might work for you...

As far as my research can tell, the name stuck and the baby
is now a kid who'll turn 11 in about two weeks.
Happy birthday, Dovahkiin Tom Kellermeyer!

11. Homefront’s red balloons in the bay

A game with political commentary?
Oh boy, I can't wait! /s

Sure, it's pretty. But...

Upgrading from a dumb contest to an ecological disaster. In 2011, publisher THQ wanted to promote the latest shooter developed by Kaos Studios, titled Homefront, about a weakened America invaded by North Korea. At that year’s Game Developers’ Conference in San Francisco, THQ staged a rally meant to “decry the North Korean regime and the treatment of its citizens”. The stunt ended with the release of ten thousand red balloons, all branded “GameStop”, into the air.

However, what goes up comes down, and as they deflated, the thousands of balloons landed in the San Francisco Bay, littering the water with plastic. The balloons even had additional ads for Homefront pre-order bonuses attached to them. Attacked on social media on all fronts for their participation to the stunt, GameStop released a press statement indicating that the company had no prior knowledge of the action, and blamed THQ. On their end, the publisher’s PR team claimed that the balloons were biodegradable, so no actual environemntal harm.

...after that, you have to clean up.

As further punishment, the California Department of Fish and Game indicated that THQ could be prosecuted over the act, as littering  any sort of waste into the waters is unlawful per the California Fish and Game Code, section 5652. In response to that, THQ responded saying they hired a cleanup crew to remove the excess red plastic from the Bay.

They should have stuck to the other stunt they did during the event, offering free Korean meals from a food truck with Homefront written on it. Still, that’s not as bad as…

10. Ubisoft’s fake terrorism causes real terror - TWICE

At least the balloons were unlikely to kill anyone. After 2001, if the crux of your marketing involves staging a fake shooting or terrorist attack, you shouldn’t have to be told that it’s a really fucking bad idea. And yet!

AKA Just Another Shooter.

Hi, Ubisoft. Very smart of you to take a rather direct method to promote the then-latest Splinter Cell, subtitled Conviction, set for release in April of 2010. On the 16th of that month, an actor dressed as the main character of the game (articles mention bandages on the man’s hands) arrived to the Degree Bar in Auckland, New Zealand, and pointed a firearm towards the people present outside. Police were quickly called to the scene, and officers did not realize the weapon was fake until they took it from the actor’s hands. Ubisoft’s NZ marketing partner Monaco Corporation said it had hired a different firm for the event, and did not know that a firearm, however fake, was to be involved.

This legitimately could have ended with a real tragedy; someone panicking in the crowd, or the cops fatally shooting the actor. In our days where mass shootings are terrifyingly common in the United States, this stunt rings even stupider than it did at the time. (Yeah, that was in New Zealand, not in the U.S.; but such an idea is inexcusable no matter the place.) But the sad part is: It’s not their last act of fake terrorism.

A mysterious box is shipped to your job and it starts beeping.
How the Hell would you react?

This time promoting the upcoming Watch Dogs released on May 27th, 2014, the company sent to several gaming journalism offices black safes with numpads and messages telling the recipients to check their voicemail. Fine, right? Wrong. One was shipped to a reporter working for Ninemsn, an Australian news website. The reporter did not have voicemail, and Ninemsn doesn’t cover video game news. After trying the code taped to the box on the numpad, the journalists heard the package start beeping. Bomb squad was called. The media office did assume it was some sort of PR stunt, but preferred to be cautious. Inside the safe? A copy of the game, some goodies, and a request to embargo until 5 PM.

Of all the stunts on this list, these are among those that piss me off the most…

9. Normalizing sexual misconduct at Comic-Con

…but this one also pisses me off, to no end.

Dante’s Inferno is a semi-forgotten 2009 title developed by Visceral Games and published by EA. The marketing around the game sought to evoke the deadly sins in every way possible, from incurring Wrath from games journalists by encouraging them to smash a box that Rickrolls them, to baiting them with 200$ checks for Greed… Okay, but what would they do for Lust, then?

I couldn't find any images from the contest, therefore here's
a random online screenshot of the game. Out of respect, I'm
also not gonna post any pictures of "booth babes", either.

Simple: Set up a booth at San Diego Comic-Con and encourage congoers to commit “acts of lust” towards the models working at the booth… or any other booth at the event, whose "booth babes" weren't exactly made aware of in advance. Participants then had to post the pictures to social media and/or e-mail them to EA. Now, the creators of the contest clarified they merely meant taking pictures, not actually lusty ones, with the models, and judges even reserved the right to refuse any submissions that were “inappropriate”. But try explaining that to the guys who only read the title and not the fine print. Worse even, the contest’s grand prize further encouraged the potential for sexual misconduct, as it was stated to be "dinner and a sinful night with two hot girls, a limo service, paparazzi and a chest full of booty” (their words, not mine).

Encouraging sexual assault, promising sex, treating women like objects: Yeah, this gross and sexist contest checked every box of the Lust Sin Bingo. This was a terrible idea that should have never happened, and I fully endorse EA getting blasted (…in general, but also) for this boneheaded move. Women at conventions already have to deal with enough bullcrap without adding this to the list.

8. The SEGA Saturn’s surprise launch

The oldest screw-up on the list, and one of the most infamous “corporate Darwin Awards”; where a company does something stupid that tanks them, usually in a way they can’t recover from. This one has more to do with the business side of things, but is frequently cited as one of the reasons SEGA left the console market.

Tom Kalinske, whom (as interviews indicate)
in spite of this unfortunate turn of events, still
loves SEGA dearly.

The very first edition of the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, took place from May 11th to 13th, 1995. We’ve seen our fair share of both incredible and disastrous E3 presentations in the 27 years since, but the event had to start somewhere, and boy did it start with a bang. SEGA was competing with a new rival, Sony’s PlayStation; their new consoles, the Saturn and the PS1 respectively, had already been released on the Japanese market, leaving them to see who would conquer North America. There was a lot on the shoulders of then-SEGA of America president Tom Kalinske. On the 11th, he walked onto the stage and made a shocking announcement: The Saturn, whose release date was originally set for September 2nd of that year, was now being released this very same day, with 30,000 copies shipped to many retailers. Kalinske then revealed the price of the console, with which was included a copy of Virtua Fighter: 399$ USD.

Then, it was time for Sony’s presentation. Olaf Olafsson, the head of Sony Computer Entertainment America, handed the microphone to head of development Steve Race, who said only one word before leaving the stage, "299$”, to roaring applause. That wasn’t a burn; that was a tactical nuke.

Despite releasing four months later on September 9th in America, the PlayStation easily defeated its competitor. The Saturn’s launch was plagued by issues: Not only were many stores unprepared for the surprise, but some retailers who hadn’t been included in the surprise were angered; one of them, KB Toys, swore to never sell SEGA consoles again. There were too few launch partners and too few copies for the demand. Very few games were available on the new release date, with the selection of titles remaining bare for a long time.

Yeah, that sounds about right for a corporate Darwin Award.

7. We’ll pay your speeding ticket!

We started this part with Acclaim, we’re closing it with Acclaim. And that time, they pissed off a government.

In early October 2002, the studio was preparing for the release of Burnout 2: Point of Impact, a racing game developed by Criterion Games. The idea: What if you’re in such a hurry to acquire the game that you won’t even respect road laws, and, say, get a speeding ticket because of that reckless driving? Don’t worry, Acclaim will pay it for you! Or at least, that’s what they pretended. Also, y’know, to avoid any legal headaches of paying the speeding tickets of gamers in other countries, the offer was limited to residents of the United Kingdom.

No game is worth speeding, getting a ticket,
or risking death or an accident for.

I don’t know what’s with all these marketing stunts that encourage terrible behavior in people (see the earlier point about sexual misconduct). As you can imagine, this didn’t fly with the UK government of the time. Reckless driving can lead to much worse than just speeding tickets; property damage, accidents, deaths, to name a few. So yeah, UK officials gave the publisher a piece of their mind in the local media. Facing backlash from people far more important than the average moral guardians, Acclaim quietly ended that particular promotion. Hope you weren’t speeding in the UK in early October 2002 hoping to have that ticket paid for you, because it’s not happening.

Well, this was pretty long… well, I will have to split this list into two parts. Tune in Monday for Part 2, covering points 6 to 1. If you can believe it, they’re even more insane than the ones listed here.