The major players are starting their summer seasons with style this year, branding and re-branding themselves in an attempt to create a broader consumer base. PlayStation are hitting the festivals and other outdoor venues with their "Freedom" campaign while Nintendo is forcing that horrible bear from Bo Selecta upon us at the V, T in the Park and Download events, in search of comedy talent worthy of television. Not a peep yet from the Microsoft camp, who may be laying low in preparation for their 2005 release of the Xbox 360. But is this really the best way to advertise computer game entertainment? Apart from the brand-recognition implications, I think not. After all, who wants to squint at a video monitor or a handheld with the "blazing" British summer sun reflecting off the screen?
In fact, whither the games in these promotional campaigns? Enter the age of "entertainment machines", with a little bit of gaming thrown in.
Sure, PlayStation's history of lifestyle campaigns has often featured little actual gameplay (to great effect), and the others have tried, but this heralds a contemporary, non-game-centred approach to publicising gaming, necessitated by the saturation of lifestyle electronic appliances in the public sphere, and the inroads the interactive entertainment format holders hope to gain by entering into this market. After all, which non-gamer in their right mind is going to forego a whopping £40-£50 of other entertainment on something that only gives them a little bit of mostly-solitary fun?
Nah, they'd rather be at the park/mall/races with their mates. So to these places the publishers will go, followed by the usual suspects (i.e., the hardcore, competitive gamers) who'll hog the machines and turn off the potential non-gaming clientele.
So are gamers and their gaming needs being shoved to the wayside, or is this just marketing's answer to those dry dry summer months of few to no interesting interactive releases?
