The gaming industry has developed at a rapid pace to become one of the most dominant and valuable sectors around, with the volume of titles releasing every month becoming somewhat overwhelming to handle. It's hard to keep track of all these new games, which is why publishers go above and beyond the call of duty by employing multi-million dollar marketing campaigns in a bid to ensure that the awareness for their game is high...or as high enough as can be, at least.
However, it's no secret that there's a huge dissonance between certain gaming companies and their fanbases. While the majority of such cases lead to ineffective marketing campaigns, a small proportion of these initiatives have led to hilarious and completely out-of-touch campaigns that have elicited more chuckles than awareness.
To shed some light on this topic, here are 10 of the most hilarious ways in which companies tried to attract gamers with their initiatives.
10 The Infamous John Romero Advertisement For Daikatana
What better way to kickstart this list than to talk about one of the most infamous adverts in gaming history? After the rampant success of DOOM and Quake, John Romero had established his image as a "rockstar" game developer. For his next game, Daikatana, the publishers decided to cash in on this image in the worst way possible.
The poster that originated from this initiative was widely ridiculed as one of the most ridiculous marketing campaigns of all time. This — coupled with the internal problems the studio faced — led to a horrendous launch that saw Daikatana often being mentioned among the worst video games of all time.
9 The God Of War Party That Involved A Goat Sacrifice
God Of War was one of the biggest franchises on the PS2. It was also one of the goriest games on the platform, and Sony decided to celebrate the launch of the second game by throwing a God Of War-themed party.
This sounds great and all...but the part where Sony messed up was when they decided to sacrifice a goat and coerce the party guests to pull out its entrails. While the details of this party might be up for debate, the part about the dead goat is still true, and Sony obviously had to apologize for pulling off such a tasteless stunt.
8 Promoting Resident Evil 6 With A Human Meat Market
Resident Evil has finally come back to its roots as a genuine survival horror experience, a term that was lost on the franchise with the launch of Resident Evil 5 and 6. The latter's release was accompanied by a marketing campaign that was just the absolute worst.
In a tasteless way to generate hype for the title, Capcom decided to open a Human Meat Market in East London that sold meat in the shape of human body parts. Obviously, this cannibalistic initiative ended up causing more harm than good, and Capcom quickly closed these stores.
7 Acclaim Entertainment Offering To Pay For People's Speeding Tickets To Promote Burnout 2
Talk about absolute recklessness.
The Burnout franchise is genuinely one of the best racing series out there, and it's a shame that the franchise is pretty much defunct at this point.
However, during its heyday, the series was something to behold. In fact, Acclaim Entertainment decided to hype the launch of Burnout 2:Â Point of Impact by offering to pay for speeding tickets on the day of its release. Obviously, this initiative was frowned upon by the public, and the offer was rolled back.
6 Bethesda Asking Something Ridiculous Before The Launch Of Skyrim
Bethesda's no stranger to short-sighted marketing campaigns, and this was on full display in 2011 before the launch of what is arguably one of the most influential video games of all time. The hype for Skyrim was through the roof, and Bethesda decided to cash in by asking something positively ridiculous from its fans before release.
The once-beloved developer decided to challenge fans to have a baby on the game's release date — 11th November 2011 — and name him or her Dovahkiin. What's even more ridiculous is that one person actually managed to accomplish the task!
5 Fallout 76's Marketing
However, while this challenge might've been met with a warm reception — for the most part — the same can't be said about the absolute travesty that is Fallout 76.
The manner in which Fallout 76 was hyped to the public by Todd Howard completely hid the absolute travesty that fans would be privy to upon launch. Fallout 76 quickly gained a reputation as one of the worst video games of recent years and the worst Fallout game in the franchise.
4 The Hype Of No Man's Sky
However, when it comes to talking about promises to promote a video game, nothing comes close to the disappointment that was the launch of No Man's Sky. While it's easy to blame Sean Murray for promising things that just weren't there, the entire scenario surrounding this title should be taken into account for the same.
To the credit of Hello Games, they didn't stop working on the game even after getting the short end of the stick from every possible avenue. No Man's Sky has now transformed from an unfinished product into a brilliant exploration title that actually delivers on its promises — albeit with some significant delays.
3 The Disastrous 2006 E3 Presentation By Sony
When it comes to generating hype for gaming products, E3 has always been the biggest platform. However, E3 fails are still pretty commonplace, and Sony's launch of the PS3 was one such glaring example.
From releasing an overpriced console to hyping up launch titles in the worst way possible, it goes without saying that the slow beginning of the PS3's sales is largely due to this horrible E3 presentation.
2 The Ever More Disastrous 2010 E3 Presentation By Konami
However, if you thought that the PS3's E3 launch was bad, then the 2010 presentation by Konami was downright laughable. It's a conference that has etched its name in the Gaming Wall Of Shame, and for good reason.
Everything about the conference was cringeworthy. From the horrible launch of Ninety-Nine Nights 2 where the producer of the game decided to chastize gamers in broken English, to the creepiness of Silent Hill Downpour's presentation where one presenter decided to stare at his partner in the scariest way possible — literally nothing worked in this particular E3 presentation.
To top it all off, there's an awkward bit with luchadors as well because of course there is.
1 Microsoft's Xbox One E3 Reveal
However, while Konami's E3 outing might've been horrible, the impact it had on the company is nothing compared to the disaster that was Microsoft's reveal of the Xbox One.
The company was hell-bent on making a gaming console seem less about playing games and more about "home entertainment." This, coupled with a high price tag and some undesirable features, turned Microsoft into the villain of E3 2013.
While Microsoft did learn its lesson and rolled back some of these updates, the damage was already done. The Xbox One has consistently been on the back foot during the eighth gaming generation, with the PS4 being the undisputed winner of this console war.