Episode 4 – Chaos Theory

Yes. Chaos theory is the name of a Splinter Cell game. No. This is not about that game.

We live in a world that cannot exist with out advertising. I’m not sure if you are aware of this. The entire infrastructure of our economy is based on it. Television would not exist with out the ads to pay for it. That is the reason why most television shows get pulled, because the advertising companies don’t want to pay for their product to be shown during that show. It either doesn’t fit the demographic for companies products or they feel that nobody is watching so why put ads up. The same goes for magazines. Magazines used to exist to convey information; TIME and LIFE were created for this purpose. But now they only exist to sell you things. Not even just the ads, the articles as well. It’s no surprise that the cover of this past months Electronic Gaming Monthly is showing off Gears of War. Sure it comes out this month, but the fourteen page article serves only to sell you the game even more.

I’m not trying to degrade EGM, not at all. You buy a magazine because you are interested in the subject, and for the most part you want to be sold on the item. I want Gears of War to be awesome because I want it on launch so I eat that stuff up.

Yesterday I talked about the Wii and the crazy long line at the Nintendo World store and the madness that ensued inside. Ok, well it wasn’t madness but there were a lot of people… including the guy on the line in front of me who smelled. What has created this chaos? Why did so many people turn out for this event? The console launches in two weeks did you really have to stand in line for 5 hours to play it now? What does all this have to do with advertising?

I have seen loads of commercials for the 360 and its accompanying games. The reason for this is that you can actually go to the store and buy one. Fine. Good job Microsoft.

On the other hand for the Nintendo side of things I have not seen a single commercial on TV for the Wii. None. The only ad’s I have seen for it were Japanese ads on Google Video, and they really weren’t that good. Since television is where most of the general public gets its information, and they aren’t aware of this product then I guess the people at the Nintendo store were all our people. They all looked like gamers, though the guy ahead of me didn’t smell like one, he smelled like a homeless man… maybe a homeless man that has a DS Lite…

I have also seen quite a few PS3 ads. That baby one freaks me out. And I don’t understand the Rubik’s Cube one, though I think they are trying to say “the PS3 is smarter than the Rubik’s Cube,” but I didn’t know one inanimate object could be smarter than another inanimate object. Then again, the PS3 can float, so there’s always that.

I have a problem with both Nintendo’s and Sony’s strategies for advertising at this current moment in time and space. Nintendo is going to have about 4 million consoles available by the end of the year in this country. They need to advertise to get people excited. The entire goal of this product is to get people who are not gamers, interested in this device. Non-gamers will skip over an article about a video game system. But get them in a commercial break during Lost, and they might get interested. Especially if these things are going to be on shelves.

Sony, on the other hand, (damn it I already used that phrase… to late must move on) is advertising on TV and has billboards like whoa. Thing is, they have no product to sell anyone. Preorders went in seconds at EB, Toys R Us and Amazon.com. Advertising for something that people will not be able to buy is a tease. And actually might drive up sales of the Xbox 360. People will see these ads and go to the store to find that there are no PS3’s. Are they going to leave empty handed? Not if they got excited about video games… and not if the sales guy is any good. Usually if someone has decided to spend a few hundred dollars on an item they don’t want to leave empty handed. Seeing a 360 and a lot of games may entice them to buy that console instead.

But I’m not an advertising company. I’m sure Sony and Nintendo are paying heavily to marketing and advertising people who have years of experience… that or some guy with a dartboard.

While we are on the topic of advertising, has anyone else noticed the abundance of in game advertisements these days? More on this tomorrow.