7 slogans that appear in absolutely every gaming ad

Publishers put a lot of money and effort into marketing their games. The gaming trailers should be impressive and the advertising should be compelling. But with some buzzwords and phrases they exaggerate excessively. Here are 7 of them.

Marketing is a very important business that can cost huge sums of money. Activision pumped about a whopping 200 million dollars into the marketing of CoD: Modern Warfare 2 (2009) with a development budget of only about 40 to 50 million.

Publishers try to present their games as attractive, cool, exciting and extraordinary as possible. And… exaggerating a bit every now and then. Gamers are now rather skeptical about big promises of photorealistic graphics, completely innovative features and gaming fun for over 700 hours.

So here are 7 phrases that appear in almost all trailers and gaming commercials and that in some cases you really can’t hear anymore.

“Content for the next 10 years”

Many gamers have to think carefully about how and where they invest their limited time and money. Games that offer long-term gameplay or high replay value therefore sound very tempting. It’s also a good deal if you invest your money and can spend hundreds of hours in the game.

Multiplayer games and MMOs are usually at the forefront. They are (ideally) continuously supplied with updates that deliver new content. But sometimes the games overturn themselves with promises.

Huge roadmaps with content plans for the next 10 years sound rather implausible in our time, in which games are postponed, canceled and taken offline every month. And experience has shown that such games do not survive 10 years to deliver all the content.

“The biggest open world yet!”

Open world games aren’t inherently bad. They have their merits and their target audience who enjoy playing them. However, in recent years there has been a slightly megalomaniacal trend in this game of making them bigger and bigger.

Maps like those from older games like GTA San Andreas or Skyrim, which are actually considered huge, are estimated at around “floppy” 38 km². In comparison, games like Ghost Recon Wildlands with 440 km² and Death Stranding with 596 km² are absolutely gigantic.

But the huge areas also have to be filled with content, and that’s exactly where the problem lies with some gigantic open-world games. Repetitive quests, icon floods, and tedious side quests don’t get any more fun when spread across a larger map. Bigger is therefore not always better.

“Dynamic and Living World”

This phrase is usually always used in connection with the open world. Because in addition to the largest of all maps, advertising also advertises how “dynamic” and “alive” the world is. It almost feels like the real thing.

Unfortunately, that is almost never the case. The dynamic is often limited to a day-night cycle and opponents that are only active in certain situations. In some cases, NPCs will respond to certain scripted storyline changes. But it is rarely as dynamic and lively as advertised in trailers.

Therefore, the promises of “dynamic and living worlds” have evolved over time into PR talk, from which one does not actually expect much. But hey, maybe that will change in the future.

“Captivating Story”

One of the by far most common advertising phrases is without a doubt “enthralling story”, which is also due to the fact that it is used in many other media. Films and books also use the concise saying that promises fun and excitement.

This saying is often accompanied by others who support it. The characters “embark on an exciting journey full of adventure and danger!” or they “uncover a conspiracy that will lead all countries to a world war!” and so on.

With this phrase, the promise is kept more often than with many others, also because the tension is in the eye of the beholder. Nevertheless, the slogan is used so often in advertising that it only sounds empty.

“Brand new experience”

The “brand new experience” has a strong tendency to limitless exaggeration, especially in our time. Because somehow everything was already there, you have seen and experienced everything before. Nothing really feels new.

The AAA area in particular often moves in very safe waters of genres and gameplay elements that have already been tested and found safe. To call your next shooter, open-world game, or action RPG a “brand new experience” is… bold.

Except, of course, if the spell only refers to a new game. In that case, however, every game would automatically be such an experience and the phrase would have no meaning whatsoever about the content of the game.

“Endless Possibilities”

The advertising slogan of “endless possibilities” can appear in several different versions. There is, for example, “More freedom than ever before” or the “Infinite build variety”.

Most often they refer to the gameplay elements related to the creation of one’s character. And while the idea behind it is certainly meant to be nice, as with the open world, the rule here is that more is not always better.

And let’s be honest: In the end there will only be one meta that everyone uses. You won’t be able to save yourself from it. With that, all the great freedom and the infinite skill combinations go away.

“Pre-order now to…”

And last but not least, at the end of many trailers, there is a call to pre-order now. There’s nothing wrong with that in and of itself, after all the publishers want you to buy and play their game. Only there is always a long rat tail attached.

Because the “Pre-order now…” slogan usually continues with “… and now secure exclusive skins, avatars, weapons, bonus characters, packages with rare resources or currencies” and so on. Often there is not just one pre-order bonus, but a whole range, depending on which store or in which country you pre-order.

When publishers escalate completely with their preorders, there is also a shitstorm from the community, as was the case with Deus Ex: Mankind Devided (via polygon). So it’s better for everyone involved to keep it down to earth.

And how about you? Which phrase, buzzword or promise from gaming advertising can you no longer hear? Tell us in the comments.

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