The world of trailers is fascinating. For decades, thanks to them, you can sell a video game with astonishing ease… or perhaps send it to hell.
At Softonic today we are going to remember the best commercials in the history of videogames. And yes, also the most random ones, since there is a lot to recover…
Assassin’s Creed 2
It is possibly the most representative Assassin’s Creed trailer along with the one released in Assassin’s Creed Revelations with WoodKid. In Assassin’s Creed 2, the French company relied on the group Justice to provide the song for its main ad. And for this, they chose none other than Genesis. Both the name of the band and the song fit the story of Ezio Auditore like a glove. How many games were sold with this trailer, huh?
Gears of War
When Microsoft was planning to launch one of its most important sagas today, Gears of War, the company made one of those moves that everyone remembers today. Instead of putting a groundbreaking song to the ad, perhaps more in keeping with the shots, blood and others that appeared on the screen, the company preferred to opt for a very slow rhythm with Mad World, by the British group Tears for Fears. The rest is game history.
SEGA Mega Drive
The youngest will only be able to know about this thanks to books, but the oldest in the place surely remember the hard fight between SEGA and Nintendo in the late 80s and much of the 90s. Both companies wanted their share of the pie, although Nintendo is the one with the winning horse. For this reason, from SEGA they opted for a very aggressive strategy to gain market share.
With the launch of its SEGA Genesis (or Mega Drive), the company sought to make the audience for its console more adolescent, instead of children like Nintendo. For that reason, all his ads were harsher, with one of them above all thanks to a play on words forming the negative in English: “Genesis Does What Nintendon’t” (Genesis does what Nintendo doesn’t”).
Devil May Cry
Capcom had several hits in recent years at the launch level. The Japanese knew that with Devil May Cry they had another one ahead. The hooligan, uninhibited and badass touch of its protagonist, Dante, allowed him to do many crazy things in his promotional campaign. And wow if they did.
The Japanese Devil May Cry spot is a couple breaking up their relationship. She, with a bouquet of flowers in her hand, gets pissed off after the breakup and starts chaining blows with the bouquet as if it were Dante’s sword. What was going to be Resident Evil 4 at first (before being Devil May Cry, the idea is that the base of the game was the fourth installment of Resident Evil).
PlayStation
One of the best anecdotes in the history of video games is that PlayStation arises thanks to Nintendo. Sony had signed an agreement with Mario’s parents to make a console with a CD-ROM drive; In fact, the only prototype that currently exists of this machine was put up for auction three years ago (only one of the two hundred manufactured remains). Nintendo ended up breaking the contract and Sony saw that the idea was great, that it was not going to stay in the saved drawer. Due to his refusal, Nintendo gave rise to its biggest rival: PlayStation.
Sony created a very groundbreaking marketing campaign for the mid-90s to promote its new console. The original PlayStation spot showed a girl with eyes like an alien: “The time has come to do, to experience things for yourself, and that has a name: mental wealth”.
Nintendo Wii
Although the console did not have a long life cycle, the first years of Wii were incredible. After all, it sold almost 100 million consoles. That’s nothing.
The most positive point that Wii had were its controls. The Wii Mote allowed to play in a way like never before to date. Nintendo took advantage of this in its television spot and made a pun in English, where the “We” (we) by “Wii”: Wii would like to play” (We’d like to play). Two jacketed Japanese gentlemen sneaking into users’ homes. not so bad.
The Last of Us
The video game developed by Naughty Dog, which is now on everyone’s lips again thanks to its series on HBO, had an advertising spot in 2013 that is still remembered by all gamers.
In this one, we see a person who gradually transforms, what we do not know is what. Taking into account the role that the infected play in The Last of Us, everything pointed to it, but the person ends up being Joel, the protagonist. And all this while Ellie’s voice sounds and tells you if you might be able to kill.
So much for these ads that were engraved in the retina of gamers. We have left out dozens (literally) that could appear here. Which one would you add?
