As you guys already know, we’re super-pumped about Heavy Rain here at Games Thirst – it’s almost like we have a vested interest in the game’s success, so, we’d like to see it succeed.
Thing is, Sony has a bad reputation for not advertising its games. It’s really perturbing to be honest, they spend millions on the game’s development but for some unknown reason, the giant almost always fall short of waging a proper advertising campaign for its titles.
Many examples are not too hard to find, think Killzone 2, it was a stellar effort forged by Guerrilla Games, but it barely sold two million copies, and that’s after a full year and some after it was released. The lackluster sales had a lot to do with lack of advertising. Gamers all over were complaining about seeing little to no ads for the title before release.
Also LittleBigPlanet and MAG just to name a few, but the giant cannot afford the same mistakes with Heavy Rain, like I said, they spent over $20 million on said title, one it called a “gamble”.
Adverts should be up and circulating as I write this piece, they should be on television stations all across the US, and EU and not just any spot, but it should be seen on the commercial breaks of major sporting events and should not cease until the title makes it to store shelves in two weeks.
Two weeks is all Sony has left for advertising hard before Heavy Rain comes out on the 23rd and 26th of February and yet we see nothing. The general consensus is, in the first two weeks of a game’s release, an outlook can be assumed on how well or bad a game will perform over its lifetime. That’s when everyone is pumped – in the first two weeks, after that everything settles down and sales slowly calm to a halt overtime.
So don’t sell me that theory of it selling well overtime because I won’t buy, it must sell well early and if Quantic Dream’s hard work is to be successful at retail, something must be done now.
And this concludes my humble urge, we here at Games Thirst will be giving our stories about Heavy Rain long after it’s released, we’re excited and at the same time concerned; so please Sony, advertise the darn thing already!
Well said sir. I couldn’t agree more. The advertisements should have begun as early as a couple months before the release. Not major commercial productions, but short teasers barely hinting to what the game is about – if you know what I mean? – just to keep you guessing. And now, with only 2 weeks left the commercials would be movie trailer style to really hype it up. I think they did an excellent job of advertising it online. It seems most who read about gaming online and watch game trailers online are aware of the hype for this game, but they need to do the same but for the advertisements on television – especially during major sporting events. I’m still buying this game on day 1 and telling others to do the same.
Day one? That makes the both of us 7.
EA is advertising Dante’s Inferno during the Super Bowl.
Heavy Rain? I don’t know if there’s been anything on it yet.
Yeah no Heavy Rain, this game can do so well if Sony would just get it together…
This game is going to be amazing, wouldn’t have even heard of it if not been looking for info/details on Xbox’s Alan Wake..
This generation of consoles and videogames is amazing, thinking back to even 10 years ago games have come so far..it’s amazing.
Hey Welcome Rob! Make yourself at home!
I just played the Heavy Rain demo and let me tell you I am pumped to see the whole game now the style and pace of the game takes a little to get used to at first but the way they have you use the joysticks and hit buttons in a fight or climbing up a muddy hill in demo really make you work at it after the fight was over in demo I was like man that was intense and there are so many possibilities to choose from when investigating someone I played it three times and got three different situations and responses. This game is so different and in such a good way I can not wait for the rain to fall. And Sony come on get some money out and advertise this game because after playing through the demo let me tell you millions of casual gamers will eat this right up but if they don’t know about it how will they buy it.
I lol’ed hard on this:
“I can not wait for the rain to fall”
Me neither..haha
lol. There’s stormclouds on the horizon I can hear the thunder now the rain will come and fall very heavily upon the gaming industry.