If that was true Sony would never have finally purchased Suckerpunch.

You really are speaking the truth. The ads are on all the time and there's even a lot of HMV ads promoting the Vita. I've seen a handful for Nintendo and the same for xbox

In Tennessee I have seen a fair amount of PS3/Vita ads but not nearly as much as Xbox.

And Sony is flooding Europe with Playstation advertisement but ignore those posts in this thread and use only the posts about USA/Canada as evidence that Microsoft is using much more money for console ads...(we talk about ads for gaming and not other stuff like windows right?)

So, Microsoft and Sony flood the market where it counts to flood if you want to call it like that. Microsoft in NA and Sony in Europe, both the markets where they are stronger. Not sure about Japan but i can imagine Sony using some money there.

About Wii U, saw only very few ads for it on tv but i see a lot of ads on Spotify

Here in Ireland there is a fair amount of ads for both the Ps3/vita and the Wii-u on tv all the time, there almost isn't an ad break between 6-10pm which doesn't have an absolutely terrible looking ad for COD:Blops-Declassified if you've seen the same one in other countries I swear whoever decided the choice of gun fire sound effects should have been put to sleep, makes it seem like the game has 1 gun.

Funniest thing I seen the other day with advertising budgets tho... turned on my 360, gonna play some SF4 online... lil add in the bottom right corner of the screen, THE SONY XPERIA PLAY BOND PHONE, wtf? we were talking about it here and it's clear that sony use an outside group to decide where to advertise, but really it just seemed so silly for sony to be handing money over (via 3rd party group) to microsoft. I mean, they equally have ps3's in just as many homes they just need to sort out a way to pop an advert in the top corner where we currently have the "whats new" scrolling bar and they'd save that advertising money and reach people who'd be more interested in a Sony gaming phone off the bat.

Not seen much in the lines of ads for the xbox on tv tho, just a few for Halo but rare out. Here in Ireland that is.

Edit - @classicgamingwhizz that signiture gif is fucking awesome.

Sony would need to put more money into marketing games than developing games. As a gamer (not a stockholder), I prefer they make variety, even if the sales and profits aren't as good. Sales / profits are secondary to me. Sometimes I feel on this site, people care more about the profits and sales than the games even when they don't see a cut of that personally.

I think Sony should do what it has done here and get out offical playstation license to retailers to redecorate stores with a playstation look.

They did. No more Marcus PSP.

Does "Console Quality on the Go", "Never Stop Playing", and the discontinuing of the PSP Go ring a bell?

CoD Black Ops Declassified?? Its all there.

For Sony to fix its marketing it must first address the root cause of its problem. I think it has been made painfully clear over the past five years that Sony hasn't practiced due diligence when it comes to market research. Microsoft was successful with its advertising, because it was willing to spend the time. Getting to know their audience. This might come as news to some, but Microsoft paid members of their staff to be dedicated trolls on gaming forums, and this is a straight up fact. A number of former employees have confessed to doing this years before the 360 had actually launched.

This not only gave Microsoft invaluable data, but it gave them actual experts about this demographic. Which is why Microsoft's marketing resonates with gamers. Go to any gaming forum, and ask the members what they want to see in advertising. The first response you will get is real game play footage. What do Microsoft commercials have a lot of. You guessed it game play footage. The second response you would likely get is that gamers want to know the story. What do Microsoft commercials have a lot of. You guessed it a story. The third response would probably be good music, and you guessed it Microsoft puts a lot of emphasis on the sound track.

Compare that to Sony's efforts. Which are largely live action, abstract, and poorly orchestrated. Which is about as far from what gamers want as you can get, and we could explain to them why if they just asked. Why do any of us want to see the game play. Sure we want to see what we are buying, but if we don't see it where do our minds go first. We assume the game sucks, because they are refusing to show it to us. The same holds true for story, and as far as music is concerned. That is what is supposed to touch you emotionally.

Sony isn't doing itself any favors if it is pawning the job off on advertising agencies, because they are going to just offer up the same generic advertising. That they use for all of their other products. Gamers are not generic at all. You can't just create awareness with us. You need to get us fucking psyched about something. Happy go lucky is never going to turn us on like stroking our passions will. A hundred generic commercials aren't going to be half as effective as one well aimed shot.

The real irony is that Sony can spend less, and get more if they spend the time learning about what makes their audience tick. Thinking they know isn't the same as actually knowing. Hell it would go a long way to making their games more attractive, because they would have a better idea of what we want. Why we are turned off isn't some kind of deep mystery. We aren't that complex, and the fact that they haven't figured us out. Is proof that they just haven't even bothered to try. I guess they don't want to get their hands dirty.

By the way those Kevin Butler commercials were like the worst. I can understand why fans of the platform might have thought they were cool, because they were like a echo chamber of their sentiments. However speaking as a outside observer I found them rather disconnected from the product. Which is why the character ended up being used to mock the platform. By the way a character that can be construed as a pompous ass talking down to other people. While funny at times. Could also come across as a literal representation of the company and its product.

I think they should open up Playstation stores (like apple stores).  Line them with characters from Playstation exclusives from PSone to PS3.  Have kiosks up for Vita and PS3.  Have exclusives at the front and not have Playstation games pushed to the back like at Gamestops I've seen.  This could skyrocket the brandname and get way more people to check out their products.  Although it far more likely that  a Sony store would open with Playstation as a small part but still a thought.