Game Ads

As an advertising person and as a gaming addict, I find it quite amazing to see how ads and commercials for games have progressed since the days of Asteroids and Pac-man. Yeah, a lot are still just slick CG cartoons and there are still those 'out there' spots, but quite a few ads for videogames these days are surprisingly touching or poignant, or exceptionally well-orchestrated with unusual music to evoke different emotions. Or maybe I'm just reading into all this a bit too deeply. They're game commercials, after all. Here are a few of my recent favorites...

This is a spot for the Xbox360 shooter, Gears of War, which has since become one of the most critically-acclaimed and popular games today. The ad features the game's protagonist, Batista-lookalike Marcus Fenix, in some very dangerous situations, set to unusual music.



The Launch commercial for Bioshock, an Xbox360 shooter that has since become a blockbuster acclaimed for an incredibly well-told story and highly imaginative gameplay. It's the use of the classic song Beyond the Sea (sung by Bobby Darin)that elevates this from being just lots of slick action to creepy-cool slick action. The slick CG doesn't hurt either.



An even more recent one, this ad for Halo 3 (which is pretty much guaranteed mega-blockbuster status), the third part of an epic trilogy in which humans battle an alien threat called The Covenant. After a cliffhanger Part 2, Halo 3 promises to 'finish the fight'. The ad campaign includes an earlier spot called 'Museum' where we see an aged war veteran recalling the events of the final battle. This ad, 'Believe' just features the amazing diorama created for the game's promotions, set to a stirring score.



All of the preceding spots are for the Xbox360, so let's put in some stuff from Sony. Here are a couple of movie-quality commercials/trailers for the highly cinematic slash 'em up, Heavenly Sword.