Decoding the Metal Gear Solid 4 Marketing Machine
May 31st, 2008
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is a very important game or the Sony and their stable of Playstation 3 games. Not only will MGS4 showcase the capabilities of two of Sony’s finest assets (Blue-Ray and the Cell Processor) but it should also be the killer app that this console needs. Because of the imminent release date and importance of this title Konami have stepped up their MGS4 marketing into overdrive.
Despite my enthusiasm for this game there are numerous cracks starting to show in Sony’s grand plan. Cracks that are giving plenty of eager fans, like myself a sore headache. I’m talking about the in game advertising, limited shipments and awful pre-order communication (within Australia). I did a lot of on field research into what is under the “A Little Bit of Communication Please” heading so please take a read.
In-game Product Placement
A few weeks ago Konami didn’t just announce they showcased some of the new in game product placement to be featured in MGS4. To summarize; Snake can use an iPod while on the mission, in game characters sport new Japanese mobile phones and Snake has his eye of some sort of energy drink.
Read the rest of this entry »
Critiquing the News Readers As Requested by You
May 28th, 2008
Two weeks ago I posed the question to you readers: where should I be getting my gaming news and reviews from? Most of the responses that I received were quite good so I want to talk about some of those and share my thoughts on how I feel about the sites that I looked at.
Kombo – http://kombo.com
I’ve had a bit of a history with the sites that preceded Kombo, going all the way back to Gamecube Advanced, 5 years ago. I was a fan of the old Advanced Media Network that they had going until I eventually grew dissatisfied with the lack of evolution and like a lot of people I packed up and went else where.
Returning to this site, I came in with a fresh mindset. When this site was re-launched (from the Advanced Media Network to Kombo) one of the most significant changes was meant to be the new editorial stance that everyone was undertaking with their writing. Fair enough I say, we need more editorial based content. 🙂 Read the rest of this entry »
Some Explanations + Answering the Killer Instincts 3 Rumour
May 27th, 2008
Some Explanations
First and foremost, I really ought to explain myself over the recent kafuffle of why I haven’t been posting as frequently as usual in the past two weeks or so.
In the time that I have been studying at University (about a year and a half) I have formulated my own plan of attack on how to deal with the business end of each semester (in which I am currently in). My goal for this time has always been to complete my work as early as possible to ensure that I get plenty of free time at the end of the semester to revise for exams and just simply relax. This works well as many of my courses have major assignments instead of exams which means that this gives me the opportunity to finish the semester as early as I decide.
Over the past 2 weeks I have been busting my guts so that I can finish the lion’s share my work early and as of today I am at that stage which means no more blog neglection! All I have left with work is essentially one essay and two exams which I have roughly a month to prepare for. Pretty sweet eh?
Answering the Killer Instincts 3 Rumour
I’ve been aware of this little story for a few weeks now but it was only yesterday that I realized just how legit it was. You may be familiar with the barrage of rumors circulating the internet about the revival of Rare’s Killer Instinct franchise, well it turns out that Rare themselves have been adding to the fire and with a little help for yours truly. ^_^
A few weeks back at Microsoft’s Gamers Day, NeoGAF poster NeXuSDK took the following picture at one of Rare’s booths.
It is of a fake poster alluring to a new KI game, only problem is that the screenshots are old renders that were posted on this blog a few months ago and the accompanying text is highly suspect.
This posters appears to have started a rumour in American video game publication; Electronic Gaming Monthy in which Xbox 360 Fanboy later dismissed with reference to this article posted on my site.
I’m not really sure what to make of this. I am under the assumption that some eager KI fan could have just quickly created this and stuck it up at the Rare booth. One the other hand, Rare have been known to pull stunts like this before. What do you think?
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