Kojima always seems to have a plan when promoting his games. As he gained success, his plans always got more elaborate and definitely wackier. While we await further details about Death Stranding following the most recent big trailer, it’s always fun to look back at the crazy marketing that introduced us to the game. Kojima has always been known to make an impact, but this new PlayStation game takes the cake with its thumbs up babies and celebrity cameos. What other extremes are companies willing to go to in order to sell games? Let’s find out. These are 10 bizarre ad campaigns that proceeded Death Stranding.
So, what have we seen so far when it comes to Death Stranding? Besides the famous stomach baby, we’ve had plenty of clothes-optional Norman Reedus along with some more clothed shots of him in the newest trailer. That trailer showed us some new looks at Guillermo del Toro in a suit as well as some mysterious faces that we will see more of in the future. The older trailers showed some sort of black goop that responds to noise and consumes people. Even though Sony isn’t going to be at this year’s E3, the publisher has already dropped hints that Death Stranding news could hit at any time.
Hopefully, we will see more gameplay in the future. So far, we’ve only seen our main character traversing some rocky terrain and pulling out a ladder, but we still have little idea of the main gameplay loop. Will you be mining resources with your robot pals? Perhaps it’s a really high budget walking simulator that just contemplates the meaning of life. The possibilities are endless, at least in this small window we still have. Games marketing often lays out every little bit of information before a release. Take advantage of the speculation and enjoy the thrill of not knowing.
Death Stranding Take 2
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Death Stranding and 10 Other Bizzare Ad Campaigns
As we await further details about Death Stranding, it's always fun to look back at the crazy marketing that introduced us to the game. Kojima has always been known to make an impact, but this new PlayStation game takes the cake. What other extremes are companies willing to go to in order to sell games? Let's find out. -
Bulletstorm
In order to promote this over the top FPS, the makers of Bulletstorm thought it was a great idea to send ground beef packages to reviewers nationwide. Supposedly the remains of a soldier in the game, most who received the care package weren't thrilled to dig through it. -
Burnout 2
Acclaim was known almost as much for its ad stunts as they were for its video games. For Burnout 2, the company vowed to pay off speeding tickets received by the game's fans. The only problem was that the U.K. government decided that promoting unsafe driving was a bad idea and got the whole thing nixed. -
Daikatana
John Romero will make you his bitch. With that simple phrase, a marketing campaign became eternal. Ridiculously earnest and foolhardy, it almost doesn't matter that Romero's oft-delayed FPS failed to live up to almost every expectation gamers had for it. The magazine ad along was enough to make Daikatana live forever. -
Dante's Inferno
EA pulled out all the nonsensical stops to promote God of War also-ran Dante's Inferno. From running contests based on the seven deadly sins to hiring fake protestors to stand outside E3 the year the game was being shown, nothing could draw gamers to this decent, but not great, character action game. -
Dead Island
What do you do when the game you're promoting lacks a lot of distinctive features? If you're the people behind Dead Island, you cut an amazing CG trailer to get the game's name out there, even if the mood of said trailer is nowhere to be found in the final product. Genius. -
Dead Space 2
From the same era as Dante's Inferno, Dead Space 2's marketing chose to forgo the signature horror elements that made the first game stand out. In their place, EA chose to let gamers know how much their mom would disapprove of such a "gross" experience. This probably didn't sell any copies of the game. -
Mercenaries 2
Another EA joint, but at least this one did some good in Los Angeles. For one glorious day in LA, gas was free courtesy of Pandemic's third-person shooter. They tried the same stunt in the U.K., only to run into pesky rules that forced them to shut the operation down. -
Mighty No. 9
There was already plenty of bad news for backers of Mighty No. 9 before the "Masterclass" trailer released, but that 90 seconds of PR really put the nail in the coffin of this once-anticipated Mega Man successor. Remember, try not to insult the people who want to purchase your game in an advertisement for said game, lest you start crying like an anime fan on prom night. -
Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain
You can't complete this list without including another of Kojima's crazy ad campaigns. For The Phantom Pain, Kojima set up a false company and took interviews as a supposedly Swedish developer with a bandaged face. Fans picked up on the ruse pretty much right away, but Kojima hung in there for months before revealing his latest creation. -
We Dare
We Dare was one of the hundreds of mini-game collections on Wii. Its tactic for standing out was daring its players to perform vaguely sexual actions with motion controllers, as demonstrated by the softcore marketing materials. If you squint, you can even find some gameplay footage in there!
