awesome

I am a fan of the female form, so while I don't object to said close-up, I can understand why advertising in this way is misleading and pandering to a young male demographic.

That being said, when did it become wrong to find women sexy? It seems like there is some movement to mask women's sexuality in games, and hell we don't even do that in real life, so why should we in games? I mean it's not like we are talking about stereotyping these women as helpless tarts who have nothing to offer except their bodies...it's soul calibur - they'll kick your ass (and can look hot doing it!).

It's Japan. This is the country where you can buy pornography in the same section as the comics... in the convenience store

I was looking for the comics. I swear

I have yet to see this, however. I'll have to try looking harder.

There's nothing wrong with finding women sexy. What is wrong is the attempt to one-dimensionally sexualize the entire gender.

Late in my response, sorry.  Sex sells though, it's been proven throughout history.  Videogames are not the first to use sex appeal in ads, and won't be the last. 

Please don't misunderstand, I'm not arguing that women ARE one dimensional, I'm arguing that the backlash by gamers when something like this happens strikes me as a misplaced "white knight" attitude, which is IMO, just as bad.  "Let us gamers stick up for those poor women and show them how we don't appreciate that!"

When I see an ad like this, I don't think to myself, wow, look at Namco trying to one-dimensionally sexualize an entire gender.  In fact, I see a rather transparent attempt at trying to appeal to a young male demographic.

That being said, have any women responded in this thread?  Would probably be an interesting perspective.

Oh, I agree that they're trying to manipulate young male gamers. I don't think that's right, either. What I find offensive is that the best way to manipulate young male gamers is to over-sexualize women in a derogatory way. Everyone should be disgusted by this kind of manipulation, really. It's insulting to pretty much everyone involved.

Sex sells. We all know that. That's fine. Everybody loves sex (or at least, they should). But there are plenty of ways to go sexy without reverting to a close-up of a video game character's ass in a thong. It's uncreative and lame. "Sexy" does not necessarily equal "objectification". There are plenty of sexy things that aren't insulting to either women or the target demographic. I don't think it's too much to ask for game companies, comic books, and the rest of geek culture to learn the difference. It's the 21st century. We should embrace "sexy" and let companies know objectification is not acceptable any more. It's no wonder why women avoid geek culture like the plague. Would you want to join a clique where all the dudes ran around with their cocks flopping around?