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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Marketing Costs

Just thought it would be interesting to gather some of the marketing costs together in one thread to compare them. (Even if it is just for one region.)

Feel free to add any figures yourselves just add a link to your posts. 

 

Kinect Marketing Spend- $500 million

Microsoft is setting aside a whopping $500m to market Kinect according to reports. Link

 

Modern Warfare 2- $200 million.

Including marketing expenses and the cost of producing and distributing discs, the launch budget was $200 million, on par with a summer popcorn movie -- and extremely high for a video game." Link.



 

Sony Slim Ad Campaign - £82 million (EU only)

"The Guardian reports that Sony is to launch an £82 million pan-European marketing campaign for the PlayStation 3.The TV element will begin tonight in the UK and is the first major campaign for the PS3 since the console launched in March 2007"

Link.

 

Final Fantasy VII- $100 million (US only)

"The game's release in North America was preceded by a massive three-month marketing campaign, which consisted of three 30-second television commercials on major networks, a one minute long theatrical commercial, a holiday promotion with Pepsi, and printed ads in publications such as Rolling Stone, Details, Spin, Playboy and comic books published by Marvel and DC."- Wikipedia  Link. 

Edit: Figure has no truly reliable source, may have included marketing for other titles at the time.


  

Wii Fit- $40 million (US only)

"Nintendo has set aside $40 million for the marketing and launch campaign for Wii Fit, a unique video game that aims to bring physical fitness to Nintendo's home consoleLink.



 
 

 Halo 3- $40 million

"Licensed products including action figures, toys, and Halo 3-branded soda were released in anticipation of the game; the franchise utilized more than forty licensees to promote the game, and the advertising campaign ultimately cost more than $40 million." -Wiki no source.


Left4Dead2- $25 million

"When the original Left 4 Dead launched with a marketing budget of 10 million dollars, we were quite impressed.  That's chump change compared to the Benjamins being thrown behind Left 4 Dead 2, something to the tune of 25 million dollars."Link.

 

Left4Dead- $10 million

"Left 4 Dead, the advertising budget is set for abrain replacement surgery cost of $10 million dollars" Link.

 

Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception (UK only) - £5 million

Link.

Resistance 3: (UK only)- £3 million

Link.

 

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (UK only) - £2 million

Link.

Killzone 2 (UK only) -£2 million

"SCE  UK will be investing £2  million for its Killzone  2  ad campaign in the  UK."  Link.


Resistance: FOM (UK only) - £1 million

We’ve given Drake’s a similar marketing budget to Resistance: Fall of Man,” explained product manager Phil Lynch. “A million pounds goes some way to illustrating how we want as many people as possible, both lifestyle and hardcore gamers, to see and play this title. Link.


Uncharted: Drakes Fortune (UK only) £1 million

See above.


Ratchet And Clank: TOD (UK only) £1 million 

See above.

 

Bioshock 2 (biggest in 2k history)

No figures mentioned.

"The suits who hold the purse strings must agree with him too, because the marketing campaign for the Rapture sequel will be "the biggest in 2K's history".  Link.

 

Tha's all I can find right now. I'll search for more later.

Updated: Res 3,Uncharted 3, and Kinect ad spend.




 

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I don't believe FF7 is completely accurate... as that wasn't the only game advertised with that money... I believe there were other titles by squaresoft advertised with that money. though it was the main one.
I can look up a link later... but I"m studying at the moment



ff7=100mil...wtf back in the 90s? Are you sure that seems a bit much (way to much) for a psone game



Yeah the 100m figure used to get thrown around here quite a lot as fact, but only 2 sources seem to confirm it and both are blogs. So I'll edit the OP to show that the figure is very doubtful.

Although marketing  for FF7 was definitely very strong, as shown by the promotions with pepsi etc.

Also in the nineties early 2000's Sony was spending massive amounts on marketing.



 

Also if $40 million was spent on Wii Fit alone, the overall marketing costs for the Wii must be gigantic.



 

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thelifatree said:

I don't believe FF7 is completely accurate... as that wasn't the only game advertised with that money... I believe there were other titles by squaresoft advertised with that money. though it was the main one.
I can look up a link later... but I"m studying at the moment


It wasn't other titles Squaresoft advertised with that money.  It was Sony specifially.

Sony handled the advertising, and used FF7 as the spearhead of it's Playstation campaign with 2-4 other games.


THOUGH what you are probably thinking of, is that by agreeing to spend such a massive amount on FF7 (At least 20 million) they got first right to publish Final Fantasy Tactics, Bushido blade and 2 more games.

Sadly the yahoo story  I used to link to about this has been taken down.

As well as the one where they say they also spent 100 million pounds in the uk!

Which always was like... "Really?"



Sony's marketing expenditure is pitiful now. They need to step their game up. 



ǝןdɯıs ʇı dǝǝʞ oʇ ǝʞıן ı ʍouʞ noʎ 

Ask me about being an elitist jerk

Time for hype

is there a estimate on how many more games need to be sold for every advertising million to make the money back?



“It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grams a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be reduced to twenty grams a week. Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours? Yes, they swallowed it.”

- George Orwell, ‘1984’

Modern Waffare 2 $200 million includes dev costs (which probably is onl around $40 mill so no big deal).



Slimebeast said:

Modern Waffare 2 $200 million includes dev costs (which probably is onl around $40 mill so no big deal).


actually no, that 200 million is advertising only. The game's advertising was incredible and unprecedented in this industry.