EA Plans to Try Good Games Instead of Good Ads

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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EA Plans to Try Good Games Instead of Good Ads

Electronic Arts [http://www.ea.com] says it's probably going to cut way back on television advertising and sink the money into making better games instead, because most gamers base their purchases on word of mouth rather than what they see on the tube.

Gather round, kids, while ol' Uncle Andy tells you of the days when the television ruled the world. There were three networks and something called PBS that nobody ever watched, and we were thankful for the opportunity to go outside in the dead of winter and crank the freezing-cold antenna pole so we could make the picture a little less fuzzy. Back then, if you had a product that you really wanted to sell and you had enough of the big bucks to make it happen, you advertised it on the tee-vee. There was radio and there was print and they were all fine and dandy, but if you were an important person with important crap to unload, you went on television. Because television, as I said, ruled the world.

My, how times change. A lot of people these days see the television as little more than something to plug the Xbox into and for that demographic at least, its relevance as an advertising medium is slipping badly. Thus it is that EA Senior Vice President Dr. Jens Uwe Intat said the company is probably going to dramatically curtail its television advertising in the future, because nobody really pays attention to it anyway.

"Unfortunately for a lot of television companies it's likely that, as we spent most of our [marketing] money on television advertising, we'll reduce that substantially going forward," Intat told the IBIB/LBS Videogames Investment Network. "Part of it will go online, but most of it will actually be invested into making good games - despite the fact that a lot of marketing money is spent on a Call of Duty or FIFA, when we look at our research, most people actually buy a game because of a referral from a friend."

"The product quality at the end of the day is still the dominant criterion," he added.

I can certainly relate to that. I can't remember the last time I saw a television ad for a game that did anything for me but a simple, "Dude, play this game" from a trusted source is enough to have me scouring the shelves at EB. With the growing influence of the internet and the many communities that have resulted, it's no wonder EA is taking a second look at its approach.


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Wolfy4226

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Sep 22, 2009
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Good. It's about time for EA to start getting it's act together.

Now if only they could stop releasing the same game with minor changes over and over again. >_>
 

Julianking93

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May 16, 2009
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Well it's good to hear that they finally realize that it doesn't matter how much you advertise a game, it's how good it actually is.
 

squid5580

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Feb 20, 2008
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Hell Yes!!!

Stop spending gazillions on advertising and use the internet to your advantage. It is cheap (or even free) adspace. Pises me off so much watching all these companies ignore thier own forums except when some major bug or controversy pops up when they could be using them for good.
 

TheDoctor455

Friendly Neighborhood Time Lord
Apr 1, 2009
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I'll believe this when I see it for myself.
EA customer support still sucks.
 

Ghostkai

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Jun 14, 2008
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You know what.... I think EA is earning a soft spot with me after the last year or so....
I like you now EA, let us skip in a meadow then kill that nasty Activision person.
 

Nimbus

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Oct 22, 2008
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Does anyone have the figure of how much was spent on marketing for COD6, VS. how much was spent making the game? I remember that figure literally made my jaw drop, and I think it would be relevant here...
 

Jory

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Dec 16, 2009
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Maybe they can use this money to make the Fifa PC ports worth two shits.
 

Deofuta

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Nov 10, 2009
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Not to mention the numerous devices these days that allow people to fast forward through tjhe commercials. Sounds like a great idea, keep up the work, right EA?
 

IamQ

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Mar 29, 2009
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I'm happy about the announcement, and at the same time, I'm a bit sadden. I always enjoyed EA's enormus marketing campaigns. Brutal Legend having Jack Black walking around with fake muscle arms, or Dante's Inferno, making us all cynical whenever something weird happend, thinking "It's probably just an ad for Dante's Inferno".

But oh well...Good games are also a plus.
 

uppitycracker

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Oct 9, 2008
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Hmm, what a strange, new strategy for EA.... I wonder if they even have it in them. Who would have thought, a publisher shifting the focus on a good product, rather than a good ad campaign....
 

reg42

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Mar 18, 2009
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No EA, don't. That's crazy talk! Give us a long and dull live-action trailer instead, that's what we want!
 

Dan Shive

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Jun 9, 2008
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TV commercials for games in general tend to suck. So many of them show gameplay in an attempted cinematic manner that, when compared to the shows being watched, just looks horrible. Commercials for Red Dead Redemption, for example, left me entirely unimpressed. I should probably praise it for not being gimmicky and showing actual in-game graphics, but it winds up looking like cheap, unimaginative advertising that fails to impress.
 

Hurr Durr Derp

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Apr 8, 2009
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That's a very sensible approach.

I've seen the TV ads for WoW a thousand times, but they didn't want to make me play it one bit.

I've bought several games for no other reason than that a friend was talking about it and made it sound awesome.
 

Dogstile

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Jan 17, 2009
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IamQ said:
I'm happy about the announcement, and at the same time, I'm a bit sadden. I always enjoyed EA's enormus marketing campaigns. Brutal Legend having Jack Black walking around with fake muscle arms, or Dante's Inferno, making us all cynical whenever something weird happend, thinking "It's probably just an ad for Dante's Inferno".

But oh well...Good games are also a plus.
I actually think they might do the Dante's Inferno one again, considering that it spread by word of mouth pretty damn fast.