A game blog for grown ups (sorta).

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Market more to me dammit!

In this blog I talk a lot about core video game demographics. To bring it up again the largest group of consumers of "video games" is men aged 25 to 40. The next largest group of consumers is women of the same age range. Teenagers and children are not the largest consumer base. This being the case then why aren't more games marketed to the most people (especially seeing as though my disposable income is probably a lot higher than those of 12 year old's).

I've bitched plenty about the marketing I hate, but let me talk about the marketing I love. Valve (spoiler warning: fanboy praise incoming) has done such an amazing job marketing Portal 2. Portal already has a huge installed fan base of core nerds, but Valve is clearly trying to expand their audience without alienating said core (ie me, the male aged 25 to 40). I see the TV spot all the time, the youtube investment opportunity video's are hilarious, the robots are cute, and all of the market accurately represents the pitch black humor of Portal.



Throughout the entire campaign Valve isn't insulting my family, bringing in aging rock stars, or resorting to breaking the 4th wall of their universe. They are just accurately representing their game and it's refreshing.

Bottom line is I think Valve has successfully executed a campaign that appeals to me, would appeal to younger children, and parents who are looking for a game for said children that doesn't involved soldiers shooting stuff.

PS. One more turn......
One more turn......
One more turn......
One more turn......
One more turn......
One more turn......
One more turn......
One more turn......
One more turn......
One more turn......
One more turn......

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