- Hey y'all, Scott here. I've always been a big
supporter of local business. You can catch me every week commissioning the Fire Department to
put out the fires I start. I love business so much, I am one now. Wanna know why the economy has failed ever since it was introduced? Because there's nothing to buy. Well, I'm here to change that. Introducing my new product, Scott Talks About Game Commercials. I recorded myself talking
about game commercials for 17 odd minutes, and I decided to sell it at full price. What's full price? Stay tuned. To ensure this product will
be as successful as possible, I am forcefully giving
everybody it right now. It will start playing, and at
the end you will have to pay if you don't wanna be a bum. Oh (beep), it's starting. I've been chipping away
at my bucket list lately. Now all I've got to do is
have an irrational desire. - [Announcer] PSP, it's like a nut you can play with outside. - [Scott] I want that. Video games require whatever word I decide to pull out of the hat. Oh, that works out. Marketing is crucial to a game's success, whether it's free publicity
with word of mouth spreading around or more
traditional forms of advertising. You don't see somebody
with no access to internet, TV or other people going, "God if a game called FIFA 20
existed, that would be great." I knew it. People need to
learn about a game's existence one way or another. And the method that sticks
into consumer's mind the most has and always will be
the video game commercial. You've got print
advertisements and magazines, social media campaigns,
real life publicity stunts, sponsorships. Believe me, I've seen
enough thing sponsored by Raid Shadow Legends to the
point where I truly know I never want to play it. But commercials can be some of
the most elaborate portrayals of a video game. A quick video, specifically
created to elicit feelings showing you why you should want this game. Good commercials can be
fascinating to analyze either they go for something artsy, something that stays in
your mind throughout the day and makes you think, something that's just
incredibly memorable. It just doesn't leave your
mind due to how funny it is, the music used, the product
itself being advertised. And then you have the other ones. Today we will be diving into the history of video game commercials. Now, I draw a fine line between
a commercial and a trailer. A commercial is generally 30
seconds worth of manipulations, smacked on TV, the
internet, what have you, meant to appeal to the masses and while a lot of the
same descriptions apply I see trailers as more
so showcasing the game to people more in the know, I guess. No time limit, really just
showing what the hell this is. While the trailer can be a commercial and the commercial can be a trailer, we'll be focusing on the
advertisements, broadcasted on TV or the 32nd spots shoved
in your face online. And with that, what better
place to start with then Oh God, the 1970s, the
decade that sorta kind of just happened. And this was where the video
game commercial was born. The Magnavox Odyssey was the
first home video game console. So obviously they had an uphill battle in the marketing department. Nobody knew what the term
home video game console even meant so the commercial
had to do a great job at showcasing the value
of not only the Odyssey but video games as a whole. So what did they do? They said whip out the recorder. We got a product to sell - [Announcer] Odyssey easily
attaches to any brand TV, black and white or color to create a closed circuit
electronic playground. Odyssey gives you all the
exciting action of hockey and 11 other challenging
play and learning games for the entire family. - [Scott] I wouldn't be
surprised to see cave paintings of this commercial. It is dry, raw and bare. There's no bedaz here. It's literally a product
description for half a minute. Yeah, it tells us what the product is but there's nothing memorable about it other than the budget
for the background music. Of course commercials evolved after this. And with the introduction
of the Atari 2,600 commercials definitely went from. Uh huh, Uh huh, Uh huh. To (Green Goblin laughs) (inaudible) - Try to get up there in time, Spider-Man. - What the (beep) was that? The Atari 2,600 commercials
were a nice mix of fact sheets and my worst nightmares. The typical scene, a family
who's never been to great clips. They're playing Atari 2,600 games. I mean, what else would they be doing? It's the seventies. Now, the Odyssey came out
in the early seventies. Here, we're talking late seventies and even though a good
chunk of these commercials are just bowl cuts using joysticks there's more going on here. Some little jokes. Some interesting
animations and graphics. Most of these commercials
aren't anything special but they did the job. They weren't too boring and
conveyed the appeal of Atari. On top of that, a lot of these commercials explain what the hell
these games were about. When you have games that look like this you kind of need commercials
to go from gameplay to what it's trying to represent
by going it's baseball, you (beep) drip. Did you know Breakout's
about Prison Break? - You can't keep me in here Atari. (console beeping) (alarm blaring) - I have to buy it to
see what happens next. Yar's revenge explicitly makes it clear that this is a flight. Thank God somebody clarified. But of course, we also got
some catchy commercials commercials that stick in your
mind, like the centipede one featuring a rap. And back then you couldn't
have a marketing campaign without a slogan and a
jingle to go alongside it. (electronic beeping) - [Jingle] Have you played Atari today? - No. Of course with
success comes competition. And with more consoles in the fray we get the coveted two TVs set up All to make Atari look
like a (beep) idiot. Yes. The classic smear campaigns commercial designed to
not necessarily say why you should buy an Intellivision but why you should buy one instead of the stupid, dumb Atari. Well, that's all a lot
of these commercials were Hey, here's why you
should buy our console. All right. Okay. See you later. You never heard anybody go, did you see the clinical vision commercial with the fingers? You can swap around the clips
of all these commercials and they'd all pretty much be the same. Moving on to the NES
era in the mid eighties. For some reason I thought there would be a dramatic improvement
in presentation, concept and memorability in comparison to the previous few commercials
we've talked about. See, I give these commercials
too much credit sometimes. This guy does his entire
narration in one take. You can't even hear him take in a breath. - [Announcer] R.O.B, the
Extraordinary video robot batteries not included. He helps you tackle even
the toughest challenge. - [Announcer] What's it like to play the Nintendo Entertainment System. - [Scott] To be fair, this
commercial begs to ask what it's like to play an NES. Well, you don't get an answer but your house flies into space. Now that's just talking about
hardware specific commercials. Singular game specific
commercials this is where it gets a lot better. We see a dramatic
increase in memorability. Now that may be because
comparing NES games to Atari 2,600 games now is
like comparing old people to (beep) dead people. But I think it's because
consumers just started to get smarter. The Atari era ads were very simple. Some of them had some songs
or colorful characters but most ended up being a narrator saying plug this cartridge into
your Atari home video game entertainment system
for maximum enjoyment. It's like they were
expecting the consumer to say is that product? I like
product. To the checkbook. As video games became much
more widely understood at this point, NES era
advertisements didn't have to tell consumers what a chord is,
they focused more so on what made their product special. Presenting it in an interesting way. I think we've still got a
lot of the sitting on a couch playing game commercials but they had a lot more to them this time. The eighties might as
well been set in space. These commercials pretty
much sold many kids on the fact that if they
owned a video game system, they might as well be Buzz Aldrin. Here's what I never fully understood. So space robots, right? It's supposed to zap the
power of GameBoy to a kid. Instead, he zaps a kid with
a GameBoy into existence. And the boy is the least
interesting thing going on here. - Mario, Mario! - [Scott] The Mario 3 commercial man, literally people shouting for
Mario in the shape of Mario. That's it? This and the original Zelda
commercials are the highlights of this generation for me. What better way to sell
the greatest adventure of all time then with
whatever the hell this is. - You see the latest Nintendo newsletter. - Whoa, nice graphic. I'd like
to get my hands on that game. - You mean you haven't played it yet? - [Scott] What's the matter with you? You hand them the newsletter
expecting him to not have seen Zelda before you then act surprised to hear he hasn't played
it to end up telling him you have the game. Why not just start by
showing him the game? - It's the Legend of
Zelda and it's really rad. Those creatures from Ganon are pretty bad. - [Scott] God exists right? NES era commercials where
either (A) with the power of video games, you too
can experience pleasure. (B) here's some footage of the game and then footage of us
pretending the game is real to make it more exciting or
(C) here's some white guys. But as the nineties started coming apart Sega put their big boy
pants on and released the Sega Genesis. And with that, they
introduced one of the most killer marketing campaigns to ever exist. ♪ Genesis does, ♪ - [Announcer] 16 bit arcade graphics. ♪ You can't do this on Nintendo. ♪ ♪ Genesis does ♪ - 16 bit sports action. ♪ You can't do this on Nintendo. ♪ ♪ Genesis ♪ - Does. ♪ Genesis ♪ - Does. ♪ Genesis ♪ - Does. ♪ Genesis ♪ - Does. ♪ Genesis Does. ♪ - Get rid of your
Ninten-don't, my 16 bit device. - Well, this is something
we don't see too much of these days. Full-blown advertisements with Sega saying Nintendo (beep) stinks. The nineties were ruthless. Commercials were hell bent
on making the competition look as wimpy as possible. I mean, look at this. Okay. It's just going, oh you
should buy an Intellivision if you want. We think it's a little better than Atari. Sega. Oh, they (beep) hated Nintendo. This was the golden age
of video game commercials. No longer were they simple
narrations over some kids playing a game. Each and every ad had to
have some kind of gimmick something to make them memorable. Half the times, the ads
weren't even about the games. They were like Super Metroid is so crazy. It turns dogs into nerds. It was all about doing
extreme and crazy things. It was the nineties, not a church. Unreadable fonts and
neon colors were abundant with a stick it to the
man kind of attitude. And then the Yoshi's island
commercial was just gluttony. Almost every company putting
out game basically were forced into making their
marketing smear campaigns, just constantly putting the
competition in its place whenever they could. However, I'd say one of
my favorites will always be the Super Mario World commercial. This was a lot of people's introduction to the Super Nintendo as a whole. And I think it does such a fun
job showing everything off. - [Announcer] Introducing
the next generation from Nintendo. New Super Mario World
created especially for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It's a bit more exciting a bit more challenging,
a bit more perfect. - [Scott] It's just so spot on about everything Mario World was. It didn't need to throw
a (beep) Sonic in there. It stood on its own. Plus the narrator says a bit more 16 times because the super Nintendo was 16 bit and that's just adorable. Throughout the nineties
commercials were consistently similar as years went on and
they definitely eased up on the Don't get me wrong. That was
still there, but not as much as stuff like the Play It Loud commercials by Nintendo earlier in the decade. Also the whole beating the
competition census angle wasn't as prevalent. Sure. The PlayStation
features Crash Bandicoot heckling Nintendo headquarters. But other than that, they
weren't nearly as ruthless. Instead with three
visuals becoming the norm the commercial were
either more comfortable focusing primarily on just gameplay like with the Akron of time ad featuring Conan the barbarian, music blasting against footage or just being an
enjoyable, entertaining ed hoping to stick in your mind
for days after watching it all the games were becoming
more interesting to look at than just this. So they didn't have to
try to make the games look more exciting a lot of the time. Instead they focused on
making the commercial on its own exciting and entertaining. Like the Donkey Kong ad
back in the early eighties. Yeah. It's an ape in the living
room. That's the gimmick. The Smash Brothers ad
featured Nintendo characters assaulting each other. It's everything I always wanted. The game itself already looked great. The live action segments were there to make the commercial
itself great on its own. Now moving into the 2000s. (baby cries) (screams) (explosion) (church bell rings) Yeah, commercials got weird. This was when marketers
were trying to be funny and memorable for all the wrong reasons and just put some weird
(beep) on the screen. That'll scare them into buying a PS3. see the original
PlayStation 3 commercials. The one with the baby doll crying and the PS3 levitating, you know that one. How did that one even start production? I got it. Sony was very confident
they could sell anything with the word PlayStation
and a number after it. So they just pulled words out of a hat and made a commercial about it all. That's not to say all the commercials from the 2000s were oddballs. We've got some incredible ones. To advertise the PlayStation
2, Sony made a commercial for the PlayStation 9, that worked? It didn't even say
PlayStation 2 in the ad. There were the animal crossing commercials that were parodying
reality shows at the time a guy playing Frogger Advance
during a prostate exam, really going for a
relate-ability on that one. This Ratchet and Clank commercial. But easily, one of the
greatest marketing campaigns that I still can't easily explain. - We would like to play. - [Scott] We would like
to play is so simple, yet so poignant. Two Japanese businessman, go door to door forcing families to play the Wii. It was a felony turned commercial. It kind of showcase the quirkiness yet understandability of the Wii. Like yeah, them showing up is weird, but people immediately get
the hang of how to play and we're having fun. And while the Wii's
initial marketing campaign was successful, you could
tell that it affected how most of Nintendo's future
advertisements were going to be. Just look at the Nintendo DS ads. We went from this before the Wii came out just care being a finger, loved that game to Beyonce playing rhythm heaven. That's it. It's not a bad ad. And it's weirdly stuck in my brain. I kind of immediately think about this when rhythm heaven is brought
up, but it's not a fun ad. Come on, where's the fat guy exploding? Nintendo's ads became very safe after the release of the Wii. Even after the Wii, "we
would like to play" campaign came to a close, they just kind of had bare bones advertisements. They didn't really make you think, they weren't particularly funny. They weren't bad, but they
didn't really do much more than tell you this game's coming out. Some of them looked really nice. They were really cool for fans, but I wouldn't consider them to be Titans of the game commercials. I will say, though I love
the new Super Mario Brothers commercial with Super
Mario Brothers transforming into new Super Mario Brothers. I always just found that
to be so fun and cool. At least Sony picked up their slack and launched a new campaign to
revitalize the PlayStation 3. Kevin Butler was the fictional higher up at Sony who single-handedly
put the spotlight on the system and made it
so much more attractive. The ads were funny. They conveyed how much value
was in the PS 3 at that point. And he got fired for
accidentally appearing in a commercial advertising, Mario Kart. Sony really got a knack for
advertising at this point. And that led into these
awesome huge commercial celebrating the legacy of PlayStation. You could really tell they
were trying to get a hold of the sense of community and family that Nintendo
had with Ed's characters. And I'd been lying if I say they failed and moving into the PlayStation 4 era the perfect day commercial
fellow video game players all taking place in activities that are supposed to
represent certain games without naming them at all. We have gladiator tussle,
drive, drive, crash and burn and typical video game. Just the most singing the
song perfect day together just gives me such a positive feeling. It makes you want a PlayStation 4 without telling you
why you should want it. That's really impressive. It gives off this weird
feeling of we've come this far without showing the
console or any gameplay. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what it is but this commercial is just so good. And then the X-Box 1
commercials went back to how the Magnavox Odyssey
commercials were set up. That's not a joke. This is why I like the X-Box 1. Here I am on a couch, 499. There honestly isn't really
a single X-Box 1 commercial I remember fondly, but my God is a better than what was happening
a couple of doors down. Th Wii U commercials. Now this is odd because
Nintendo did a fairly decent job with the 3DS ads, nothing
crazy most of the time but they get mega points
for having Robin Williams and his daughter Zelda appear
in the acronym time 3D ad. The Wii U originally hit the
scene with these commercials with people in boxes, playing
Wii U games to dubstep. Why did this console fail? The Wii U advertisements
that followed we're... bad. Almost none of these
ads did anything other than surface level marketing. They weren't clever or
funny or interesting. Nintendo just leaned
heavily into the Wii U is the family system for family games. I'd say one of the best ones
though was the Super Mario Maker campaign. This had fantastic visuals and grandiose music
accompanying everything, but for every Super Mario Maker ad, there were 12 Yoshi's Wooly World ones. - [Announcer] Whoa-shi. It's a double Yoshi explo-shi. - [Scott] What does that even mean? There was the commercial
that came out a solid year after the Wii U launched
with kids trying to explain to their parents what the Wii U was. I mean, at least they were self-aware. Nobody knew what this is. - So you wanna Wii U this holiday? Watch and learn. Here's mom. - We already have a Wii, sweetiekins. - Here's you. Wii U is
a total upgrade mother. Did you get younger? - Most of the 3DS and Wii U
era Nintendo advertisements were like puppet shows. They featured a kid in the Nintendo world with a goofy narration
reading off the bullet points on the back of the games
box, but it's pretty obvious Nintendo did a complete 180 with marketing the Nintendo switch. They would generally only
make new Wii U commercials when a new game came out
and during Christmas. Now they sprinkled them
throughout the year. Not necessarily anything
all too funny or memorable but commercials showcasing
the Nintendo switch and heavy lifestyle-esc commercials. And that's just how a lot of commercials are these
days, lifestyle pieces. And that works well but I will always cherish
the more unique ads the ones that just stick in your mind. And I just got back from the doctor and they
said, that's not normal. It's a disease. It's reversals timers. Well, I hope you enjoyed Scott
talks about Game Commercials. To pay, please send a check through one of the following methods. If you cannot send a single
check, a checkbook will do. What will I do with all the
money? That's tough to say. I think it might buy out the economy. You can do stuff like that. Technically speaking,
IBM owns the weather. (electronic music)
I feel like he didn't actually go through any of the REALLY strange or interesting commercials. More went over why he vaugely thought a commercial helped a company's bottom dollar
I liked watching vinesauce commentate on old game commercials, and that didn't even require any fancy editing
Scott the Woz: for when you want a Wikipedia article read to you with some visual gags every paragraph.
Here's a good Xbox commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0VOM7e5Hug
Also, I still catch myself whistling Perfect Day as a result of Sony's clearly effective ad.