This is probably going to seem wildly low-effort compared to my usual posts here, but I’ve found a bit of a treasure trove of print media gaming ads from magazines and sites. And they’re amazing. I found it so fun to see what companies used to do to promote their games.
Things have clearly changed a lot over time, some of them are insensitive or even outright sexist, but if you just look at it through a lens of being a time capsule, it’s fun.
This one’s going to be very image-heavy. If you’re using Boost on iOS then you might struggle to scroll through this (or maybe not? It’s happened with all my other posts though, so you’ve been warned), if that happens just visit using your browser :)
Game Boy Advance/SP:
The ‘feet’ collection were from an ad company in Stockholm, in 2005. I think it is to mean you’re using hands to play the GBA, and only have feet left to use for real life:
PS2:
Nintendo Game Cube:
And that’s that! Just interesting to see a time when gaming was a little more experimental and edgy.
Sony had some fucking weird ads back in the day.
My wife and I still have all three of these systems. All three still work. They are still fun.
But do you have the Tribal Edition?
I remember seeing these ads as an impressionable young gamer and getting the idea that Playstations had games that were scary and weird, and Nintendo games and handhelds were for boys. Generally the ads told me “this is not for you”. Because I only ever saw ads for specific PC games and never for PCs themselves, (they were aimed at adults, not in the kind of magazines and comics young me was perusing) even though I was still not the target market it clicked more with me. I think that might be a part of why I’ve only ever really gotten into PC games over the years. I knew there were games I’d like and games I wouldn’t, and never got the same platform level messaging.
I remember seeing an ad for Thief and thought it looked cool, and I remember being super grossed out by that Quake 3 ad, but I never felt unwelcome or out of place playing PC games. In contrast, the focus on marketing to young males is really obvious in those console ads.
Examples of some PC game ads I remember working for me and led to me getting them:
You put your finger on it. Most of the ads say, “this is not for you,” to a young girl.
Old ads for cars, alcohol, cigarettes etc. were like that as well. They’re aimed at the hotshot guy who has a chick he’s treating poorly, or more accurately, the guy who wants to have chicks throwing themselves at him. They have nothing to offer a woman or girl, because why would she want to be ignored arm candy?
I guess the one with the woman holding a controller in the bathtub may be an exception.
I’m sure a lot of boys and men were weirded out by these ads too.
PS3 did some wierd shit, too.
And PSVita… The PSVita had this:
There is only one magazine video game advertisement I really remember from seeing in the wild in an actual magazine, and that was the Quake 3 Arena one of a computer in a crusty-as-fuck basement bathroom in front of a toilet with just a super dirty setup.
I wish there was an easy way to quote/reference specific images. Golden Sun literal fire was nice, but those PS2 ads were… What the fuck
I loved the Golden Sun ad. Literally how little me felt playing that basic ass fantasy game. Basic but still love it.
The gameboy with the tribal tats is killing me.
I like the Nintendo ones, there were ‘risky’ ads here, now they’re very conservative
They were always conservative. A few years before these ads Nintendo participated in Senate hearings where they advocated for censoring the entire medium. They just had a “fellow kids” period in the early 2000s. Luckily, judging by the sales of the GameCube, most people weren’t fooled.
Meanwhile, Nintendo in their rebellious youth:
Note: mario didn’t exist at the time, but i got this image from a news site that added it to censor the woman’s breasts.
I’m surprised you didn’t include this one:
Edit: Link to creator:
I just wanted to have actual, official ones shared!
This one is not official, it was done by a girl who goes by shy smith three years or so ago, she just tried her best to make a photo in the ‘style’ of the old Y2K era, and the days of PS2 ads and…everyone ended up believing it was real. She did such an amazing job of it, this one often gets shared as if it were done for Sony.
And…to be fair, the actual official ones got way worse than those I included:
Are you sure? That’s just a nude girl in the background. Where are they getting away with that?
France did the ‘panties’ ads, there were three of them all up.
Here is another which has explicit exposure, this one from Chile has exposed breasts, also. And far more obvious to the viewer
This is probably going to seem wildly low-effort compared to my usual posts here
My man, you just compiled tons of obscure posters from the corners of the Internet. I admire your dedication, and this does take an effort.
*Miss, not man!!!
(I’m just glad people enjoy all this weirdness as much as I do!)
My apologies, I missed that one!
Radical, as all your posts are. How the heck do you find the time?!
Oh this was nothing. My ‘news’ posts take me some time, and effort, which is why they’re kinda on pause right now (the 17th is when I see my specialist, get blood results, see what is next etc), so for now it’s this kinda thing - smaller!
But thank you so much, glad you enjoyed these :)
Thanks for this one, a really valuable find:
Ironic!
This is the purple shade of the GCN, and its one of the ‘hero’ size images available to use, on SteamGridDB. I just liked to grab one image in that size to separate each ‘section’ in this post.
But…I know, it looks like an error -___-
.jpg.82c9c4e56622e154a87711d93647ccc3.jpg){kind=link}
