10 Insane Video Game Marketing Campaigns That Actually Happened
1. Daikatana - John Romero Is About To Make You His Bitch
Former id Software co-founder John Romero was part of the team that basically invented the first-person shooter genre. After doing his part in giving the world Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake, Romero decided to strike out on his own by starting up a new game studio and announcing the incredibly ambitious (and soon to be notorious) Daikatana.
With all the good-will generated by his pioneering work at id Software and Romero's own rockstar-like image and approach in running his game studio, excitement and anticipation for Daikatana was through the roof. In fact, Time Magazine jumped in on the bandwagon and wrote "Everything that game designer John Romero touches turns to gore and gold".
With confidence bordering on arrogance, the ad team decided to utilise Romero's image, good-will, and famous online trash-talk to produce the infamous "John Romero's about to make you his bitch. Suck it down" advertisement.
Of course, the rest is history.
When Daikatana was finally released, it was Romero who was sucking it down. Romero subsequently apologised for the famous ad but the damage was already done. Not only did the game flop, but the video game advertising was changed forever. Gone were bold and aggressive statements from developers well before a game's release and in came tightly-controlled advertising strategies that slowly teases out tidbits of info before going big when the game is pretty much finished.