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Vavle to pour $25 million into Left 4 Dead 2 ad campaign

It was recently made known that Valve is preparing to launch a $25 million Left 4 Dead 2 advertisement campaign in hopes of hyping up the zombie FPS. To put this into comparison, Vavle spent about $10 million on the ad campaign for the original Left 4 Dead, so you can see they are a bit more serious about its sequel.

The decision to put such a heavy chunk of change into L4D2 most likely came about after it was made known that it was pre-ordered a tremendous amount more than the original.

Expensive ad campaign or not, you’re still not going to be able to get your hands on Left 4 Dead 2 until its November 17th release date for the Xbox 360 and PC.

via joystiq

Guitar Hero 5 ad features Hugh Hefner and his Playmates

Activision has recently released the above advertisement for their forthcoming multiplatform title, Guitar Hero 5. Just like their previous slew of advertisements this one features Guitar Hero being played in nothing more than button downs and socks. However, Activision has replaced Michael Phelps and Tony Hawk with Playboy Playmates and Hugh Hefner.

Need I say more?

Xbox Super 360 Elite spotted in South African advertisement

Well that didn’t take very long — Just hours after an Amazon.de listing showcased the unannounced 250GB hard drive touting Xbox 360 a South African advertisement has appeared showing the same hardware.

This time it’s up for R4,199, or about $542 as opposed to Amazon’s €280/$379 and from the looks of the ad, it doesn’t even include Forza Motorsport 3. Looks like South African gamers are getting screwed.

via engadget

Playstation Home gets a bit of G.I. Joe

Since it’s creation, Playstation Home has been virtually nothing more than a world in which advertisements run rampant. And, with the impending release of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, the deal is the same.

What you see above is the movie’s presence in Playstation Home where you will be able to view media regarding said movie. Additionally, once this promotion goes live, you will be able to pick up a bunch of free avatar skins at the Playstation Home Threads Store.

via Kotaku

Microsoft patents 3D advertising environment

If you thought Sony’s Playstation Home was stupid, get ready for this — A recent patent filed by Microsoft details a 3D advertising environment that is somewhat similar to the abovementioned Home.

However, instead of a fully fuctional 3D environement players will instead take the form of an avatar that is determined based on the advertisment. Still don’t get it? Below is an excerpt from the patent filing that might give you a better picture:

In one example, to advertise the movie TRANSFORMERS, an advertiser may provide the robot BUMBLEBEE, which is a popular character in the movie, as the advertiser-generated avatar. The BUMBLEBEE avatar may include functionality to “transform” between the robot and the CHEVROLET CAMARO depicted in the movie. In another example, to advertise the cereal TRIX, an advertiser may provide the TRIX RABBIT as the advertiser-generated avatar. The TRIX RABBIT avatar may include functionality to say the popular catchphrase “SILLY RABBIT, TRIX ARE FOR KIDS.” In yet another example, to advertiser the ZUNE digital media player from MICROSOFT CORPORATION, an advertiser may provide an image of the ZUNE digital media player as the advertiser-generated avatar. The ZUNE digital media player avatar may include functionality to change colors, change models, and play various digital media.

But what will Microsoft give us in return for participating in these 3D advertisment environments? I’ll take Microsoft Points.

via Kotaku

Xbox 360 dashboard now with commercials

If you log on to Xbox Live right now, you will notice that there are actually video commercials playing on your dashboard, complete with sound. No longer are there little images of ads, but there are actually full-fledged Silverlight videos.

If you aren’t so happy with this, you can just chose not to watch them since no one is forcing you to. But one can’t help question why these ads are fair if players are already paying for their subscription to Xbox Live. I can understand the need for them if it was a free service, but clearly it isn’t.. Anyways, the ads claim to be non-intrusive, so we can only hope for the best.

via Kotaku

Silverlight enhanced Xbox 360 ads probably won’t be annoying

Yesterday we told you that Microsoft would be bringing a new kind of ads to their Xbox 360 console thanks to their Silverlight technology. Well, a bunch of you probably rolled your eyes at the thought of more ads but according to Major Nelson, they probably won’t be as annoying as you think:

I need to let you know that you don’t need to worry about a huge influx of ads across the dashboard. One of our core principles is to enhance, not interfere with the gaming experience, and we work directly with our partners to only deliver experiences that are relevant to the LIVE community. Silverlight will help make those ads a more organic part of the dashboard, like we’ve done with some of the NXE slots in the past.

So, while the ads will be there, there is a good chance that the advertised products will actually be stuff you care about.

Microsoft bringing HD ads to Xbox Live

Have you ever been looking at advertisements and gawked at their poor quality, wishing they would be portrayed in HD? No? Me neither. But for those of you who have your days of gawking are numbered.

Microsoft advertising exec Sean Alexander was recently caught speaking about Microsoft’s Flash alternative, Silverlight, and it’s amazing features. Of course, he took the time to tell everyone that Silverlight will give advertisers to ability to display full HD ads pretty much anywhere they want, including Xbox Live.

Now, the feature won’t be added to the Xbox 360 for some time now with Joystiq predicting it will be included with the next major Dashboard update reportedly hitting this fall.

EA to advertise Dr Pepper, vice versa

It seems that EA and Dr. Pepper have signed a multimillion dollar advertising deal that will have the two companies cross advertising eachothers products.

The first project announced involves EA advertising Dr Pepper products in The Sims 3 early next year while Dr Pepper will include codes for unlockable Sims 3 content in their products.

This sounds great considering Dr Pepper is one of my favorite sodas, but I still think I like Mountain Dew’s introduction of Game Fuel as an advertisement for Halo 3 and reintrduced it for World of Warcraft. Anyone agree?

Read (IndustryGamers)

The Conduit gets its first television spot

I don’t know about you guys but I think I’ll have to side with Shia LaBeuof on this one, despite a few good titles nothing on the Wii has really caught my eye, that’s why I’m so excited for The Conduit. It looks to push the graphical capabilities of the Wii along with providing top notch first person gameplay.

Well, it seems Sega has found it fitting to provide The Conduit with a television ad as its June 23rd release date draws ever closer. Wait, that’s tomorrow!

Please excuse us for the poor quality video, we will provide you with a better one as it becomes available.

Bethesda’s Morrowind and Oblivion coming to Steam?

If the above image is anything to go by the guys over at Steam seem to have uploaded said image clearly displaying Bethesda’s Morrowind and Oblivion before they were announced to hit the service.

The ad was displayed on the homepage for a brief period of time before it was taken down. However, you can still view the ad to verify its legitimacy here, which is clearly located on the Steam’s servers.

I think its safe to say that both of these games will in fact be hitting the service at some point in the very near future. I mean, Bethesda’s Fallout 3 is available from Steam, why not some of their back catalog too?

Read (Gamerlimit)

Samsung ad shows off real life Street Fighter II bonus level

If you’ve ever played Street Fighter II you’ll undoubtedly remember the car-smashing bonus level in which the player was tasked to beat-the-living-crap out of a helpless car as fast as possible.

Well, it looks like a man (obviously contracted by Samsung) decided to get all decked out as Ryu and beat the crap out of a car himself. While he has some cool moves, which definitly look like they hurt, my favorite would have to be the drop kick to the side door.

Other than advertising one of Samsung’s cameras I think this advertisement proves just how cool the bonus stage was. So what gives Capcom? Why wasn’t it in Street Figther IV?

New Anti-Drug Ads Focus On Gaming Skills

If you’ve watched American television for more than five minutes in the last few years you’ve probably seen one of the ‘Above the Influence’ advertisements. The Office of National Drug Control Policy finally learned that cartoon mascots aren’t generally good at turning kids off drugs and started a new campaign. A large portion of their efforts seem directed at stamping out marijuana use. They’ve tried many approaches to convince kids of the evils of this popular drug, but it seems they’re running out of ideas.

Their newest advertisement doesn’t warn about alienating friends, failing out of school or even going to jail. Instead it warns kids that the deleterious effects of marijuana on your perception, hand-to-eye coordination, reflex time and memory will negatively affect your gaming skills. The website even has ‘interviews’ with two computer generated characters (one a generic female ninja and the other a pointy-eared Link look-alike) discussing how a gamer getting high affected them.

Killzone 2 European TV advert

The European TV ad for Killzone 2, which has been airing since Monday, has recently hit the web. 

While it doesn’t really show what the game is about, the explosions, guns, and general chaos is sure to garner some interest.

Killzone 2 is currently in the final stages of development by Guerilla Games and will hit North American shelves on February 27th.

Activision PS3 Titles With 100% More Ads Now

Making sure gamers don’t get PS3 versions of their titles, Activision has announced that it has signed a deal with IGA Worldwide, the in-game advertisement experts, to serve advertisements inside future Activision PS3 titles. The first game to fall victim will be Guitar Hero: World Tour, which is due out October 26.

"By incorporating dynamic in-game advertising in our titles where it is appropriate, we can increase the realism of our games by presenting consumers with authentic environments in genuine settings, while also expanding a key growth opportunity for the company,” said Dave Anderson of Activision Publishing.

I’m not sure about advertising on other platforms, but the situation just went from being bad to worse.