jling84 said:
You're right they aren't the same thing, but advertising is a part of marketing. As far as getting huge sale numbers, you need to reach the masses, and there is unquestionably no stronger form of marketing than TV if you are trying to reach those masses.
No kidding? Again, as I mentioned earlier: Killzone 2, one of the showcase titles of the PS3, failed to set the charts afire. Why? Obviously a great deal of money was spent developing it, advertising it (hell, they owe GAF money for all the advertising the title got from the fucking army of gifs); it's one of the most graphically impressive, visceral titles in the FPS genre on consoles. So where the hell did they go wrong?
Killzone, the original, wasn't an especially good game. It wasn't the total abortion Red Steel was, but it wasn't something where people were going, "Holy shit, where is the sequel!?!"
Sony tried very hard to turn KZ2 - and the KZ series in general - into something it wasn't. It tried to make it important by spending shitloads of money on the thing and its advertising. Which is why it did as well as it did, yet still failed to be the massive draw that everyone assumed it would be.
Red Steel 2, by comparison, received a pathetic amount of advertising and development budget. [Admittedly, it's good by Wii standards.] Which is why: 50k.