Headline RePLAY – 2.13.12

Today on Headline RePLAY: Sony’s marketing bill for the PS Vita, Online Passes are creeping into handhelds and Blizzard has a lot of employees.


Sony really wants you to get a PlayStation Vita. So much, in fact, they spent $50 million in marketing it!

Even John Koller, senior director for PlayStation handhelds, observed it’s “the largest platform launch in terms of marketing investment we’ve ever had.”

According to a report by the New York Times, Sony’s grand marketing campaign includes television commercials, billboards, retail partnerships, digital banner ads and social media. “Never Stop Playing” is going to be the campaign’s theme, and it’ll featured on many of the ads in addition to the Twitter-influenced hashtag: #gamechanger

Sony is targeting “men in their 20s who play video games eight hours a week or more and own a PlayStation 3 console.”



In what may be the start of an invasion we’re now seeing online passes in handheld games. Joystiq received word last month that the Japanese version of Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational for the PS Vita included an online pass. With the North American PS Vita embargo lifted, Joystiq has now confirmed that online passes exist in the American version as well.

Out of all the other launch titles, Wipeout 2048 is the only one to join the ranks of the online pass invasion force.

*Source: Joystiq


Blizzard Entertainment is a massive company, so massive that it employs 4,700 workers, across 11 cities, Gamasutra reports.

Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce revealed the amazing statistic at a panel during the DICE executive summit in Las Vegas. A majority of the employees are customer support-related, but there are 750 workers in product development for the major Blizzard franchises including WoW, StarCraft and Diablo.

*Source: Gamasutra

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