Sometimes, it seems like companies in the gaming world don’t have a clue how to advertise their games. Obviously, Nintendo have done a brilliant job with marketing the Wii (and Wii Fit in particular), but in a way they have created a separate market. Gamers that play games without moving their bodies tend not to be sold on the Wii’s marketing. Many companies trying to appeal to the “hardcore” gamers will just try to use the methods that they use for any other market, which I feel doesn’t work that effectively. Sending press releases and review copies out to games writers in an attempt to get them the spread hype seems to be the fall-back method of advertising any game to the niche market, as well as just placing frankly obnoxious ads on these websites, sometimes which take over the whole site (that said, however, I know ad revenue is needed and so I don’t blame the actual websites).

While I don’t doubt for a second that placing ads and using press releases works well, there are definitely better methods of marketing to gamers. Recently Hideo Kojima has posted a huge teaser for what everyone assumes is Metal Gear Solid 5 which, needless to say, has caused a lot of speculation and hype already. We barely know anything about the game and we’re still excited for it. This, my friends, is marketing done right.

I realise this is only really selling the game to the fans of the series, but this can easily create new fans once the press pick up on it, especially when (and it is a when) more and more information trickles out and gives the game huge amounts of exposure. This method is not obnoxious advertising, it is not directly telling the press to write about the game, it is not patronising and removed from the product. Even gamers who don’t have an interest in the series will surely be able to appreciate that this is a better way to sell a game than, say, this.

Another example of advertising done right is Valve’s model. Valve have come up with a brand new idea called “appreciating their customers”. Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2 are the best examples of this. They are regularly patched with bugfixes and new content, continually evolving the game. Every time something new is released for those games, it is reported by the press. For TF2, they have an update week where a new thing is revealed every day; this of course means a slot on almost every gaming blog every day of that week. The game is then made free for one weekend, and its price is cut for that time. This means that every time Valve adds a new slew of content to the game, thousands and thousands of new players can play, and most of them are hooked (thanks to the fact that Valve’s games are brilliantly well designed, polished, and most of all fun as hell).

As you can tell, this process is rather beneficial to Valve. Their sales, they have reported, go through the roof when the update hits- not to mention that thanks to the fact that most sales will likely be through the digital distribution outlet Steam and will therefore generate a lot of revenue. The thing is, this process is also brilliant for the gamers. I’m still playing TF2 every day, and the game came out almost two years ago. The new content is always fantastic and constantly breathes life into a game that doesn’t need life breathed into it.

There is another effect of this process, as well. I have come to trust Valve as a company. I have no doubt that every product they release will be top-notch, and I will have no reservations buying anything from them, as I know it will be good value for money, very high quality, and will be continually supported as long as people play it. Alright, I’ll stop all the Valve-love now, but there are other examples.

I believe that Kojima will never produce a bad Metal Gear game. I believe that Criterion will never release a bad racing game. I believe that Bethesda will never release a bad RPG. I believe that Nintendo will never release a bad Mario or Zelda game. Thanks to the consistently brilliant and polished games that these developers have produced, they have ensured that almost every game they release in the future will be purchased by me. I’m sure everyone has at least one company that they trust, and it is these companies that I think have managed the best method of marketing of all: a good reputation.

So I hear there is a big cry fest over the price and size of the new Halo Wars DLC. From what I understand, a bunch of basement-dwelling emo kids are upset that the price of the new Halo Wars DLC is so high considering that it’s a measly 2mb download, meaning, by their expert calculations, that the “DLC” was already on the disc and you are just paying to download a code to unlock the content. Oh no! Whiny tweens!

As you may or may not have heard, all of the Xbox 360 exclusive downloadable content for Fallout 3 will be coming to the PS3 this summer, thereby making the Xbox 360 exclusive DLC not Xbox 360 exclusive at all. Timed exclusive? Whatever, that doesn’t mean anything to me.

In addition, however, two new chunks of DLC are coming to both platforms, though the 360 gets it first… again. So you might think to yourselves, dear PS3 owners, that you’ve waited long enough and want to buy that DLC right away. But not so fast! Please tell us, brother Sweetnuts!

Cookigaki is in very WTF mood. What is point of Nintendo DS game about walking? Game keep track of walking. So fucking what? Cookigaki has new game idea for Nintendo DS. It is called Nintendo DS: Shut Up. You win game by never turning it on.

Game company also claim walking is America’s favorite physical activity. America, if this true, you are stupid country. Cookigaki favorite physical activity is tie between dipping hotstick in many womens and ninja slicing douchebags with mystical hat rotation. Both involve The Hugenormous Wang of Cookigaki. Yes, that is capitalized. It is proper noun.

Walking is not physical activity to be favored. Walking is necessity. America might as well say favorite physical activity is opening fridge. It just a thing that needs doing in order to do other things. Nobody opens fridge just for fun unless they are retard.

Do people know they can walk without purchase of Nintendo DS game? How about send $50 to Cookigaki and Cookigaki say how great you walk. Cookigaki also compliment your hair. Cookigaki bet Nintendo DS game will not do that. Paypal Cookigaki your money.

That is all. Leather be with you.

Other than Dance Dance Revolution, I never see anyone playing arcade games any more. Wait, scratch that — I do see drunk people play stuff at bars, but bars are not arcades. Convenience stores are not arcades either, but the games featured there are apparently really compelling to people in the south. Oh no! Not the South!

So, the other day I get a game from Gamefly in the mail.  As usual, this is a pretty happy event for me as it means I will have something at least mildly entertaining to brighten my otherwise dreary and miserable day to day activities.  What I did not expect, however, was the sheer amount of just plain jrpg suckage that would be flying out of my television set when I started up the game.  I was not prepared for it and it nearly cost me my life.  Hopefully you will heed this warning and go into things with a firmer grasp of what things are like on the dark side of the JRPG. Oh no! Stereotyping!

This is first entry in Cookigaki Blog. Yes, Cookigaki uses Stardate. Not like Star Trek though, like Ninja Star. Disregard picture, it means nothing. Was that funny? Doesn’t matter because it was not a joke. Cookigaki slice you!

An international study group (whatever that means) reports that all of our high-tech gadgetry makes up about half of our energy bills every month. Sucking down more juice than your refrigerator, washer and dryer, air conditioning, etc., our computers and video game consoles are now considered to be ‘energy vampires’. Don't read more, it's too scary! Vampires! Aaaaahhhh!!!

Well, this is the very first post on Splosions!, and we are quite excited to get things started. Yes, quite excited. What can you expect from us? To be honest, we don’t know for sure. What we do know is that there are too many news sites on the Internet. Whether your choice is IGN or Gamespot or Kotaku or Destructoid, the point is that you already have those places to get your news — you don’t need another.

We’re trying to do something different, or at least we want to do something different. Creating stupid videos and podcasts, doing some reviews, sharing our opinions — a lot of times there’s some crazy shit going on in the world of gaming, and we will share our take on stuff if we have something to say about it. Not just games though, we’ll write about movies and burgers and machine guns too. We don’t limit ourselves.

If you are the type of person that doesn’t take games too seriously, doesn’t care about sales or fanboy wars, but you also nitpick the littlest of things and laugh at stuff that doesn’t quite make any sense, Splosions! is the place for you. Or it will be when we actually put something on here.

Grab a Capri Sun and have a look around.