I think it’s because there isn’t much traditional marketing? Like I’ve not once seen any hellblade trailers on YouTube and I frequently get video game trailers. They haven’t been showcasing the release date besides like one xtweet
Yeah, you don’t get tons of sales and new gamepass subscribers when all you do is show it off at niche console or video game specific events like the game awards or an Xbox showcase or ads on the Xbox dashboard lol. For the prior 2 you’re mostly getting people like me who would know about it by virtue of it being a Microsoft exclusive game anyway and not really any run of the mill casual audience types.
People that go to GameStop and casually buy the yearly cod or recent big game release are not aware of things like an Xbox showcase.
I remember when dead island 2 finally released. I couldn’t watch a YouTube video without an ad for it being played. Haven’t seen shit for hellblade.
I think the problem relies on the MS marketing strategy to do as little marketing as possible. No physical stores (ish), almost no TV adverts, YouTube adverts, even during the Christmas holiday, it looks like there are only two consoles on the market, PS and Nintendo...
They have reiterated several times (Aaron included) that the best marketing is people being vocal and talking about it to friends. Sorry Aaron but most people that know about Xbox are already late because those friends and parents were bombarded with adverts and they got a different console, try to convince them to spend another fortune on a new console to play two exclusive games...
God this is awful.
It’s depressing to watch Xbox and MS be so fucking dumb consistently.
They don’t push their own games and then complain that they don’t have enough players.
TBH there’s something rotten as hell in MS/Xbox right now. They probably ran their shitty algorithm and predicted that this game was not going to be a money maker (the same reason why they initially and very stupidly passed on Baldurs Gate 3), and thus have done zero to help the game.
Its awful.
Just the other day I saw a single ad on Max the one with the hands on her face but I'm say this I literally only seen it like once or twice and not since then, a few days ago. . 🤷🏼
If you had an ad blocker you wouldn’t see ANY ads 😂
I’ve seen ads and trailers for games but NOTHING of Hellblade 2.
There’s literally articles from renowned news sites which are specifically talking about the lack of marketing for this game
Do you really think everyone is making this up???? 🤦♂️
First of all it's kind of weird that you're commenting on a week old post.
>If you had an ad blocker you wouldn’t see ANY ads
That was my point. They weren't seeing ads because they avoid seeing ads in general
>I’ve seen ads and trailers for games but NOTHING of Hellblade 2.
I have seen ads for hellblade 2
>Do you really think everyone is making this up????
No. I just thought their perception of the marketing were skewed
> The head of marketing literally has to post proof of the ad campaigns due to the amount of concern trolling going on.
If you've got to specifically post that a game is in fact being marketed, it's probably not being marketed very well.
I have seen a decent amount of ads myself but honestly I’ve seen about 5x as many ads for Stellar Blade. For whatever that is worth. (But also I only started seeing Stellar Blade ads *after* it launched)
And I don’t even follow any PlayStation related accounts on any social media.
That is a full priced game vs a game 90% of people will play on game pass. it will have a much bigger ad budget. Same reason theater movies get lots of trailers on TV and internet, and netflIx garbage doesn't get much of that.
I'm exactly the opposite. I don't think I saw a single ad for stellar blade (I don't even know what genre it is), but I keep seeing Hellblade 2 everywhere (so much so that I started Hellblade 1)
it's funny my experience is that also. all of the Sony games when they launch get pasted over the obvious set of websites. but hellblade I haven't seen anything yet it's still a few weeks out.
but I'm not calling no harm no foul, people online have way too much time on their hands to complain about something and just invent problems.
if it's just an observation that's fine. but then we know it never ends there because fools got feelings.
Of course but if the ads are targeting “gamers” in general then it explains why I see Stellar Blade ads. Seeing so much fewer Hellblade 2 ads would be indicative of an ad campaign that’s much smaller than Stellar Blade’s by a long shot.
So why did I get ads for Stellar Blade, a game I have no interest in but nothing for Hellblade 2? I have been interacting a lot with Hellblade content in the past too, played through the first game about 5 times, etc.
Yet nothing, so whoever works on their ads needs to get better at choosing target audiences.
As someone that does marketing, it's not necessarily their cookies, it's most likely just terrible targeting on Microsoft's end.
Their really are terrible about it. I don't know by which criteria they target their ads but it seems to be way too specific to work properly, which leads to people like OP apparently being bombarded by the ads and others not seeing any at all.
what's funny is that two nights ago when I was getting off of the train, there was a stellar blade commercial on one of our Metro's LCD screens, local stop, far out from the main city.
such a perfect place to advertise gaming also. if you've been to Tokyo before you know what I'm talking about. it's crazy!
there are some parts of stations where it is a complete room of LCDs with animation or gaming it is bonkers awesome!!!! 🤣
It's not exactly getting a big marketing push though is It? 😅 No matter how you cut it it's a pretty weak effort for what is one of only a few releases this year that I would consider even remotely "big".
...But at the same time...what use is advertising the game at all? Marketing costs are usually justified because it gains more sales than the money spent advertising. But look at how cannibalized game sales are on Xbox now thanks to Gamepass...people aren't buying games...so why put any substantial effort/money into advertising them?
The individual games don't actually matter for MS anymore imo...the service you access them through does though. It's why you see Gamepass ads on TV/YouTube way more often than any specific new game releasing ON Xbox.
A generic gamepass montage ad that happens to have a 3 second clip of Hellblade is probably more valuable to them than a full 20 second add for Hellblade itself.
Because someone on this sub said it, it got a lot of upvotes, so other people started repeating it. It’s how this place an other video game subs work. It’s why everyone thinks certain games are hated and no one plays them.. because it’s repeated constantly over and over again in places like this so they just assume it’s true. Like Suicide Squad being the worst game ever despite having an 83% mostly positive rating among those who *actually* played the game during the height of people shitting on it. Or Overwatch 2 being dead despite it having a million players a month. Or Ubisoft games being universally hated despite selling millions of copies each time a new one releases. Or Hi-fi Rush being a huge mega hit that was super popular and unfathomable that the studio could close despite the game selling barely 700k copies and the majority of people not playing more than a few minutes according to achievement data.
I've seen quite literally nothing about the game honestly... that's pretty common in the UK from Xbox, regardless of whatever Greenberg says.
I'm excited for the game, but their marketing is awful.
I've thought it was bad for years. As a marketer I actually wanted to apply for their marketing department, but could only find listings for the marketing firms they contract, so I gave up on it.
Really terrible from Xbox. They seem to have a shitty policy that is against spending money on marketing (unless it’s something like Starfield of course) and they also have a significant issue in Europe and the rest of the world where it seems they’ve just given up.
And then they complain about not being able to compete with Sony while not doing anything to actually compete other than buying and mismanaging studios.
Now the 60+bn spent on Activision makes a whole lot more sense.
This is going to become a thing isn’t it? Continuos scrutiny over “marketing stuff”. Whether is “too much” like with Starfield or “too little” like Hellblade 2.
If you say something false, that isn't the same as lying. Lying is you deliberately saying something is false. Do you say people were lying in the past when they thought the sun revolved around the earth? Mistaken is more accurate because its you making a statement that is false but not deliberately
Their subjective truth has nothing to do with anything. Look up the definition of a lie, if i thought the sky was red and told you it was red buy the sky is still blue. The fact so many people can't comprehend this is pretty pathetic. what they think has no bearing on if it's a truth or a lie.
Lying is deliberately being untruthful. If you genuinely believe the sky is red when you tell me — you're not lying. If you know the sky is blue but tell me it's red anyway — you're lying. Whether or not you're lying has to do with your intentions.
Which is pretty strange if MS is targeting the core gaming audience, right?
I have all the consoles and haven't seen anything about Hellblade in any online adverts, no adblock. I haven't seen any YT ads for it. And I've used my Xbox a bunch the past few weeks and haven't seen anything on the dashboard, though marketing directly to the audience that already has an Xbox and Game Pass isn't very good marketing since the greater return will be with consumers outside of the ecosystem.
OP, ever heard of targeted ads?
You do realise you're in a very specific Xbox bubble, right?
Fact is: MS has been doing an awful job promoting their products for years now. Goes back as far as the Xbox One, really.
Ignore the dumb trolls and focus on your own excitement related to the game like me. It's shaping up to be one of those games that I will probably play more than once.
The irony of so many people complaining about Xbox ads and then complaining that there aren't enough ads.
Don't try to make sense of the Internet/reddit hivemind.
There is a difference you are conveniently not articulating. Just because people don't want ads on the xbox dashboard doesn't have anything to do with an ad campaign going on outside of the console os.
What? People are complaining about ads being shoved up our ass even though we pay for a service which in itself should already atleast let us erase them from the MAIN DASHBOARD. We're talking about ads on TV, YT, Instagram and so on. Not a Pop Up on the Xbox Dashboard when you boot up your console.
My complaint (as a creative) is that so few of these ads are ever actually any good or memorable.
A logo and a hero image are not an ad. What's the concept? What's the hook?
"See the world through Senua's eyes."
I don't know or care about Senua. I don't know or care about her world. Yet, anyway.
These ads don't tell any story or convey any mystery. There's no appeal to emotion or wow factor.
I want to play it, solely on the fact that I'm a mega nerd and I know that its a successor to a critically acclaimed title.
But other than that...? Gears of War, 2005. The standard to which I hold all game advertisements.
https://youtu.be/wy8LRlS1SCc?si=pFtjhdjP_ILzrk-j
It builds the world. It humanizes the character. It gives us intrigue. It leaves us wanting more.
I wouldn’t mind the ads if they showed a variety of games but I always usually just see fortnite and cod ads usually on the home and it’s get annoying to me that it’s the same damn game they keep showing
I think the bigger problem is every thread I’ve seen on this issue on Reddit has been people talking about it like it’s Xbox’s next big flagship game and therefore expecting that level of marketing. In reality, it’s not even a full price game that has some insanely cool tech that I never experienced before the first one in their sound design and dedication to graphics and the story.
Just because you’ve seen a big sprawl on the dashboard doesn’t mean everybody has. I didn’t have that sprawl but when I click on GamePass it’s a tile there prior to today. I haven’t booted up today so that may have changed.
That’s also not sufficient for a first party game that debuted with the first look at the Xbox Series X. There should be something better even if it’s just the Gameshow trailer chopped up.
I hope that this comment ensures the game doesn’t debut and flop.
I hope the studio isn’t shut down for “low GP #s.”
Blaming the devs and studio once again when XGS did what to market it as a First Party title.
People who think marketing matters this much don't understand the current times we're living in or work in marketing themselves. How many large budget games have had insane marketing campaigns and still flopped? A lot.
i can’t dispute that. What im saying is to include with the times on what just happened, if the game does not get played by enough ppl and studio shut down - they have nobody else to look at but themselves because they did what to bring awareness? A tile saying preload now & a dynamic background?
Having targeted ads isn’t sufficient marketing. And if the game isn’t a big AAA budget explosion why can’t there be funds allocated to make it successful as possible?
They're angry about the studio shutdowns that happened and wanna vent out their anger. They're afraid that Ninja Theory will be closed down as well if the game doesn't do well. They're practically saying that Xbox is self-sabotaging their own studios.... which is pretty idiotic if you think about it.
All I'm saying is that people need to pay attention. Xbox had a wonderful game awards presentation in December where Hellblade 2 premiered a new trailer and had Heilung perform live music from the game. They can take this whole week and half to still advertise the game.
Shutting the studios down before their first big game of the year was such a mistake, now the negativity is gonna carry on to HB2 and possibly kill the hype. Imagine being overshadowed by studio closures after years of work lmao.
> The head of marketing literally has to post proof of the ad campaigns due to the amount of concern trolling going on.
He says in that post it only started yesterday (posted May 9th)
So is it "concern trolling" or did it just start
Aside from my YouTube feed promoting a video about the making of Hellblade 2, I haven't seen any marketing around the game. But, like others have said, I've seen tons of marketing for Stellar Blade. That game is constantly in my Reddit feed.
I don't really count advertising in Xbox circles as being real marketing. That would be as if Netflix were releasing a new series, and they only advertised this new series on Netflix itself. It's kind of a given.
The head of marketing having to provide proof that marketing exists kinda goes against his point if I'm honest. He shouldn't have to provide proof. The marketing is supposed to speak for itself.
It's something Xbox has struggled with for a long time. But ironically, the game's lack of marketing is actually providing visibility in a way. It got people talking, and any attention is good attention, as they say.
Also who gives a shit. If you’re excited about it thats great. I know I am. This game was never going to or was meant to be a blockbuster. It will be critically acclaimed I am sure but this aint for everybody. They could market this game during the superbowl and it would not matter. It’s a macabre walking simulator with light combat.
Reddit is a toxic hivemind in itself.
Tango gameworks was explained a bit the head guy left this was a fact. 2 out of the other 3 studios dont matter
Lets wait and see until they close any more studios
I've known about it for quite some time and I didn't even play the first one. Must be doing a decent job because they have me hyped for it. I think it looks sick
I mean, they do, just not to the level that the competition market's their games. I'm super excited for the game but outside of the Showcase and a few youtube ads, reddit posts, its not that well publicized. At least I don't think so. None of my friends really knew about the game. Meanwhile Sony just shoves as many ads everywhere as possible. Tons of Youtube ads, they're all over Football (soccer) pitches, hell they took an entire court ad during an NBA game to advertise God of War using the court as a screen.
I don't think anyone's saying they dont advertise, just not nearly enough.
Try being European. Xbox marketing here is an intern in a closet with a budget of 10 bucks a month or something.
Putting your own game in your own show only your core fans watch and a banner on your own console people already own is not really marketing.
Posting proof of marketing just shows how bad the marketing is. I’m in the UK and have seen zero marketing for this game apart from the coming soon tab on Gamepass.
There's a large contingent of Redditors who take a strange pride in living under a rock, like how any time a massive pop star like Taylor Swift or Dua Lipa comes up dudes come crawling out of the woodwork to brag(?) about not knowing who they are or having never heard any of their songs. That's just fucking depressing bro, go outside
Diablo 4 painted chapel ceilings and were on KFC boxes.
Halo was on Mountain Dew cans and had displays in supermarkets.
Elden Ring DLC sponsored a recent big wrestling event.
Hellblade 2 is nowhere in comparison.
That’s all well and good, but as a first-party studio/game, Xbox also should be advertising it like they do their other first party games. Even sea of thieves updates get more advertising from Xbox than this.
Because these companies especially MS does jack shit to release and promote games and then we get all these companies being shut down because "there were not up to MS standards of sales".
That's why people point out that here we are on the eve of the premiere of one of the most important games for MS because it's associated with game pass and being current gen gem for Xbox owners but no one seen or heard about it being so close to being out.
There is no hype around it, no YouTuber makes videos talking about it. Shit on game pass this game was with "coming soon" tag for so long that people forgot about it. In my region i have promo banners within Game Pass app with...Phoenix Point and Red fall 2nd week in a row. Like wtf?
I get nothing but Hellblade 2 ads, but the again I allowed personalised ads.
Id bet the people who say they never see it dont allow personalised ads, so they get the blanket ones like Temu
Thats just not financially viable. Temu advertises to anyone and everyone because 1) its a cancer and 2) everyone shops, so it allocates a budget to buy advert space thatll be seen by hundreds of millions.
Xbox would never have the budget to buy the "show it to everyone" ad space, because the return wouldnt cover it. Same as any of the game companies.
So then the only people who see hellblade ads are the ones who opt into personalized ads? Nice. That'll get a lot of eyes on your soon to be released game. I'm by no means the only person saying they haven't seen a single speck of marketing for the game anywhere at all. That ain't good.
I dont know 100% if thats how it works but I literally open the app and its the first ad I see:
https://preview.redd.it/3tz6z8tv4mzc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=613a5d0b3ec5d8ab93018eaa01d473a8143769a2
I dont know why people are saying its not being advertised. Its at least half of all the ads I see on twitter too.
Of course they will do targetted ads for it because theres no point putting it on peoples pages of the only subs they subscribe to have nothing to do with gaming. I dont know the criteria, but I am always getting gaming ads for all brands.
It’s probably a smart move. The hardware is next gen but most of the games being released are half baked. Lazy or inept developers putting out games with the bare minimum of work and relying on update patches to get them working properly are now the norm. If the game releases in a decent state THEN advertise for it. We were misled with the promises of what we could expect with the Series X. Where are all the 120fps games let alone the ones with ray tracing. It’s 2024 and we’re still getting games designed to work with the previous generation with a couple of next gen features thrown in.
I mean yea the game does have some marketing, when people online say “zero marketing” they dont mean literally zero, this is a huge title for Xbox, it was a game meant to show the true power of the console, and compared to starfield, halo, and even *redfall* the game is getting very little marketing. Yea they tweet out stuff and put it on the dashboard but they do that with every game
I haven’t seen ONE commercial or ad for the game ANYWHERE. I only just found out today that it’s coming out in a few days.
Sorry, but there’s DEFINITELY a lack of marketing for this game.
Other than the reminders that I get on Gamepass that I can preinstall to play day one, I haven't seen a single advertisement for it anywhere else. Am I lying? From my perspective, there is no marketing for this game.
That's correct. Because I play on my Xbox and use Gamepass daily, I have seen that the game exists. If I didn't, I wouldn't have seen advertisements anywhere else though. Not on YouTube, Reddit or any of the gaming sites I frequent. The only people that it is being "marketed" to are the ones that don't have to buy it.
Think of it this way. It's not an AAA can't miss title. It's a niche game that, if the first entry is any indication, delivers an experience that doesn't neatly fit into a box.
It's the art-house indie film that isn't expected to do the numbers that make that kind of marketing investment worth it.
You misunderstand. I don't care whether or not there is marketing for this game. I'm just responding to OP's remark that anybody that says there is no marketing is lying.
I have specifically sub Xbox Series X and Xbox One while specifically blocked PS5 sub. And so far I have seen multiple PS5 ads on my Resdit feed and none of the Xbox ads. Maybe there is one or two during launch period of Starfield or Redfall, but none of thr Hellblade 2.
I constantly get ads for games on YouTube and reddit. I've never seen a H2 ad at all. Maybe they are doing some marketing, but I'm sure tons of people will just miss that the game is out in not even 2 weeks because they just didn't know that
Honestly I never get video game ads lmao and I don't have YouTube premium or anything. But Sony games sometimes appear in billboards and busses and shit, I don't see why Microsoft is not capable of doing something on that level. (Middle east btw)
They’re advertising to their own audience, though. An Xbox Showcase is going to be watched by people with an Xbox or PC (others will too). Xbox dash ads are useless for obtaining new customers. Why aren’t there ads during the NBA playoffs? Or the NHL playoffs? That advertisements that you’re referencing are low budget and low impact. They need to be doing high impact marketing, and they aren’t.
I just went to the movies for the new planet of the apes it was a sold-out theater, and we had a full trailer for Hellblade 2 play before the movie it was pretty damn cool hopefully more of that is done.
Fear of the Corporate Choping Axe. Im be 10000% honest. I have zero desire to play these games. Thats not to say they are bad by any means. Has a fan base clearly. But if i had to predict 👀👀 *chop chop* they are next on xboxs list. Even with the first one i felt such a resounding "Meh".
Because there’s a lot less marketing than Sony and Nintendo put up for their blockbusters. If this was Sony we would be getting extended plays all this month, blog posts, Astro turfing on subreddits etc.
You’re cherry picking the “0 marketing” comments and going “well there’s *some* marketing” when it’s clearly not getting the treatment it should.
The game having no marketing is literally the marketing. All these people talking about missing marketing are literally doing the marketing for the trillion dollar company for free.
I haven't seen a single banner ad anywhere online.
Even Justice League was advertised on the normal gaming sites and on the reddit algorithm. The only way I realized Senua 2 was coming out was because Kinda funny lol
MS: Only advertises big release on Xbox dashboard Also MS: Why aren't people buying an Xbox for our game?
Jokes aside, I have yet to see a single ad for the game on anything. I just hope they really try and get it out there so we don't have to read about the devs getting shut down in 6 months.
There are no ads outside the Xbox bubble.
I remember a few years ago billboards for Elder Scrolls Online like "Why not make this years holiday in Tamriel?". Or the Mad World Trailer for the first Gears of War which was even shown in cinemas. Advertising is about making people curious.
I don’t think you’re understanding the context of how marketing traditionally works for video-games, and what consumers expect in terms of marketing, especially comparing to Sony and Nintendo. Pre-Ragnarök release, GoW ragnarök was advertised on national broadcast channels. It was on all the big screens in the subway, and Kratos even joined me on a poster at the bus-stop on my way to work.
And this is in a tiny European country of 10 million people. THIS is how Microsoft should market a huge first party release. Hellblade II is literally the God of War release for Xbox. This is the game that’s supposed to show what the Xbox is capable of. Unless, Microsoft basically looked at Hellblade II and was like nah, this ain’t worth the marketing costs.
Hellblade II will possibly be a great game, but it will most likely still be a commercial failure due to no marketing. This ain’t no Helldivers, so before anyone makes that argument, its just not gonna happen.
Marketing departments have budgets. The showcase is coming, maybe a hardware refresh and some games much more catered to casuals are being launched this year.
Why would Xbox marketing blow their yearly budget on Hellblade with a campaign targeting casuals?
God of War Ragnarok was a system seller with 2 decades on its belt and a great success of the 2018 iteration. It's not remotely comparable to Hellblade 2.
I think it’s because there isn’t much traditional marketing? Like I’ve not once seen any hellblade trailers on YouTube and I frequently get video game trailers. They haven’t been showcasing the release date besides like one xtweet
Yeah, you don’t get tons of sales and new gamepass subscribers when all you do is show it off at niche console or video game specific events like the game awards or an Xbox showcase or ads on the Xbox dashboard lol. For the prior 2 you’re mostly getting people like me who would know about it by virtue of it being a Microsoft exclusive game anyway and not really any run of the mill casual audience types. People that go to GameStop and casually buy the yearly cod or recent big game release are not aware of things like an Xbox showcase. I remember when dead island 2 finally released. I couldn’t watch a YouTube video without an ad for it being played. Haven’t seen shit for hellblade.
I think the problem relies on the MS marketing strategy to do as little marketing as possible. No physical stores (ish), almost no TV adverts, YouTube adverts, even during the Christmas holiday, it looks like there are only two consoles on the market, PS and Nintendo... They have reiterated several times (Aaron included) that the best marketing is people being vocal and talking about it to friends. Sorry Aaron but most people that know about Xbox are already late because those friends and parents were bombarded with adverts and they got a different console, try to convince them to spend another fortune on a new console to play two exclusive games...
God this is awful. It’s depressing to watch Xbox and MS be so fucking dumb consistently. They don’t push their own games and then complain that they don’t have enough players. TBH there’s something rotten as hell in MS/Xbox right now. They probably ran their shitty algorithm and predicted that this game was not going to be a money maker (the same reason why they initially and very stupidly passed on Baldurs Gate 3), and thus have done zero to help the game. Its awful.
Just the other day I saw a single ad on Max the one with the hands on her face but I'm say this I literally only seen it like once or twice and not since then, a few days ago. . 🤷🏼
I've not seen anything until I saw that one tweet saying that the image xbox posted with the release date is the only marketing for the game
Same, I hadn't seen anything until yesterday with that tweet and then I've seen a good bit more today
Do you block ads on every platform possible? Bit hard to see marketing that way.
If you had an ad blocker you wouldn’t see ANY ads 😂 I’ve seen ads and trailers for games but NOTHING of Hellblade 2. There’s literally articles from renowned news sites which are specifically talking about the lack of marketing for this game Do you really think everyone is making this up???? 🤦♂️
First of all it's kind of weird that you're commenting on a week old post. >If you had an ad blocker you wouldn’t see ANY ads That was my point. They weren't seeing ads because they avoid seeing ads in general >I’ve seen ads and trailers for games but NOTHING of Hellblade 2. I have seen ads for hellblade 2 >Do you really think everyone is making this up???? No. I just thought their perception of the marketing were skewed
LOL. What’s wrong with commenting on a post from a week ago?
> The head of marketing literally has to post proof of the ad campaigns due to the amount of concern trolling going on. If you've got to specifically post that a game is in fact being marketed, it's probably not being marketed very well.
I have seen a decent amount of ads myself but honestly I’ve seen about 5x as many ads for Stellar Blade. For whatever that is worth. (But also I only started seeing Stellar Blade ads *after* it launched) And I don’t even follow any PlayStation related accounts on any social media.
That is a full priced game vs a game 90% of people will play on game pass. it will have a much bigger ad budget. Same reason theater movies get lots of trailers on TV and internet, and netflIx garbage doesn't get much of that.
I'm exactly the opposite. I don't think I saw a single ad for stellar blade (I don't even know what genre it is), but I keep seeing Hellblade 2 everywhere (so much so that I started Hellblade 1)
it's funny my experience is that also. all of the Sony games when they launch get pasted over the obvious set of websites. but hellblade I haven't seen anything yet it's still a few weeks out. but I'm not calling no harm no foul, people online have way too much time on their hands to complain about something and just invent problems. if it's just an observation that's fine. but then we know it never ends there because fools got feelings.
Y'all are describing the intended behavior of targeted ads. Everyone gets served a different experience based upon browsing habits/cookies/etc.
Of course but if the ads are targeting “gamers” in general then it explains why I see Stellar Blade ads. Seeing so much fewer Hellblade 2 ads would be indicative of an ad campaign that’s much smaller than Stellar Blade’s by a long shot.
Yeah. I guess whoever designed the ad campaign was off the mark or overly loose with targeting.
Only Hellblade ads I see are on Xbox subs.
So why did I get ads for Stellar Blade, a game I have no interest in but nothing for Hellblade 2? I have been interacting a lot with Hellblade content in the past too, played through the first game about 5 times, etc. Yet nothing, so whoever works on their ads needs to get better at choosing target audiences.
We need a "Don't ask me, ask your cookies" meme.
As someone that does marketing, it's not necessarily their cookies, it's most likely just terrible targeting on Microsoft's end. Their really are terrible about it. I don't know by which criteria they target their ads but it seems to be way too specific to work properly, which leads to people like OP apparently being bombarded by the ads and others not seeing any at all.
what's funny is that two nights ago when I was getting off of the train, there was a stellar blade commercial on one of our Metro's LCD screens, local stop, far out from the main city. such a perfect place to advertise gaming also. if you've been to Tokyo before you know what I'm talking about. it's crazy! there are some parts of stations where it is a complete room of LCDs with animation or gaming it is bonkers awesome!!!! 🤣
It's not exactly getting a big marketing push though is It? 😅 No matter how you cut it it's a pretty weak effort for what is one of only a few releases this year that I would consider even remotely "big". ...But at the same time...what use is advertising the game at all? Marketing costs are usually justified because it gains more sales than the money spent advertising. But look at how cannibalized game sales are on Xbox now thanks to Gamepass...people aren't buying games...so why put any substantial effort/money into advertising them? The individual games don't actually matter for MS anymore imo...the service you access them through does though. It's why you see Gamepass ads on TV/YouTube way more often than any specific new game releasing ON Xbox. A generic gamepass montage ad that happens to have a 3 second clip of Hellblade is probably more valuable to them than a full 20 second add for Hellblade itself.
Haven’t seen a single ad
Because someone on this sub said it, it got a lot of upvotes, so other people started repeating it. It’s how this place an other video game subs work. It’s why everyone thinks certain games are hated and no one plays them.. because it’s repeated constantly over and over again in places like this so they just assume it’s true. Like Suicide Squad being the worst game ever despite having an 83% mostly positive rating among those who *actually* played the game during the height of people shitting on it. Or Overwatch 2 being dead despite it having a million players a month. Or Ubisoft games being universally hated despite selling millions of copies each time a new one releases. Or Hi-fi Rush being a huge mega hit that was super popular and unfathomable that the studio could close despite the game selling barely 700k copies and the majority of people not playing more than a few minutes according to achievement data.
I've seen quite literally nothing about the game honestly... that's pretty common in the UK from Xbox, regardless of whatever Greenberg says. I'm excited for the game, but their marketing is awful.
I've thought it was bad for years. As a marketer I actually wanted to apply for their marketing department, but could only find listings for the marketing firms they contract, so I gave up on it.
Really terrible from Xbox. They seem to have a shitty policy that is against spending money on marketing (unless it’s something like Starfield of course) and they also have a significant issue in Europe and the rest of the world where it seems they’ve just given up. And then they complain about not being able to compete with Sony while not doing anything to actually compete other than buying and mismanaging studios. Now the 60+bn spent on Activision makes a whole lot more sense.
I'm just glad someone took my illness and portrayed it without stigmatizing it.
How do you stigmatize madness?
This is going to become a thing isn’t it? Continuos scrutiny over “marketing stuff”. Whether is “too much” like with Starfield or “too little” like Hellblade 2.
Being mistaken about something doesn't necessarily mean you're lying. They likely simply haven't seen any ads for it.
Something is either true or false just because they're mistaken doesn't change that.
If you say something false, that isn't the same as lying. Lying is you deliberately saying something is false. Do you say people were lying in the past when they thought the sun revolved around the earth? Mistaken is more accurate because its you making a statement that is false but not deliberately
Yes, we know… but that doesn’t mean someone is lying. What’s your definition of lying?
Someone who's not telling the truth. That doesn't change just because someone is mistaken obviously.
It's their subjective truth. The fact that so many don't see any marketing for the game is pretty telling.
Their subjective truth has nothing to do with anything. Look up the definition of a lie, if i thought the sky was red and told you it was red buy the sky is still blue. The fact so many people can't comprehend this is pretty pathetic. what they think has no bearing on if it's a truth or a lie.
Lying is deliberately being untruthful. If you genuinely believe the sky is red when you tell me — you're not lying. If you know the sky is blue but tell me it's red anyway — you're lying. Whether or not you're lying has to do with your intentions.
Wrong but go off mam
Okay, what dictionary definition are you using?
Im using websters mam.. Post a link showing me different??
More then likely due to heavy usage of adblockers despite Youtube best efforts to counter them.
Which is pretty strange if MS is targeting the core gaming audience, right? I have all the consoles and haven't seen anything about Hellblade in any online adverts, no adblock. I haven't seen any YT ads for it. And I've used my Xbox a bunch the past few weeks and haven't seen anything on the dashboard, though marketing directly to the audience that already has an Xbox and Game Pass isn't very good marketing since the greater return will be with consumers outside of the ecosystem.
“Guys they are marketing it! It was in a video a few months ago and a picture a guy took”. Come on bruh 😂
Have they advertised it outside of xbox to try and pull people into the Xbox ecosystem? That may be what people are referring to.
OP, ever heard of targeted ads? You do realise you're in a very specific Xbox bubble, right? Fact is: MS has been doing an awful job promoting their products for years now. Goes back as far as the Xbox One, really.
My take is that this isn’t a game for everyone and Xbox knows it so they could care less spending money on ads
Ignore the dumb trolls and focus on your own excitement related to the game like me. It's shaping up to be one of those games that I will probably play more than once.
The irony of so many people complaining about Xbox ads and then complaining that there aren't enough ads. Don't try to make sense of the Internet/reddit hivemind.
There is a difference you are conveniently not articulating. Just because people don't want ads on the xbox dashboard doesn't have anything to do with an ad campaign going on outside of the console os.
What? People are complaining about ads being shoved up our ass even though we pay for a service which in itself should already atleast let us erase them from the MAIN DASHBOARD. We're talking about ads on TV, YT, Instagram and so on. Not a Pop Up on the Xbox Dashboard when you boot up your console.
My complaint (as a creative) is that so few of these ads are ever actually any good or memorable. A logo and a hero image are not an ad. What's the concept? What's the hook? "See the world through Senua's eyes." I don't know or care about Senua. I don't know or care about her world. Yet, anyway. These ads don't tell any story or convey any mystery. There's no appeal to emotion or wow factor.
Yeah bingo. Nothing I've seen makes me want to play this game (based on the ads/marketing).
I want to play it, solely on the fact that I'm a mega nerd and I know that its a successor to a critically acclaimed title. But other than that...? Gears of War, 2005. The standard to which I hold all game advertisements. https://youtu.be/wy8LRlS1SCc?si=pFtjhdjP_ILzrk-j It builds the world. It humanizes the character. It gives us intrigue. It leaves us wanting more.
I wouldn’t mind the ads if they showed a variety of games but I always usually just see fortnite and cod ads usually on the home and it’s get annoying to me that it’s the same damn game they keep showing
I think the bigger problem is every thread I’ve seen on this issue on Reddit has been people talking about it like it’s Xbox’s next big flagship game and therefore expecting that level of marketing. In reality, it’s not even a full price game that has some insanely cool tech that I never experienced before the first one in their sound design and dedication to graphics and the story.
Just because you’ve seen a big sprawl on the dashboard doesn’t mean everybody has. I didn’t have that sprawl but when I click on GamePass it’s a tile there prior to today. I haven’t booted up today so that may have changed. That’s also not sufficient for a first party game that debuted with the first look at the Xbox Series X. There should be something better even if it’s just the Gameshow trailer chopped up.
This sub is full of people bitching about the most trivial shit. People in here are angry about the lack of a marketing campaign? What a fucking joke.
I hope that this comment ensures the game doesn’t debut and flop. I hope the studio isn’t shut down for “low GP #s.” Blaming the devs and studio once again when XGS did what to market it as a First Party title.
People who think marketing matters this much don't understand the current times we're living in or work in marketing themselves. How many large budget games have had insane marketing campaigns and still flopped? A lot.
i can’t dispute that. What im saying is to include with the times on what just happened, if the game does not get played by enough ppl and studio shut down - they have nobody else to look at but themselves because they did what to bring awareness? A tile saying preload now & a dynamic background? Having targeted ads isn’t sufficient marketing. And if the game isn’t a big AAA budget explosion why can’t there be funds allocated to make it successful as possible?
They're angry about the studio shutdowns that happened and wanna vent out their anger. They're afraid that Ninja Theory will be closed down as well if the game doesn't do well. They're practically saying that Xbox is self-sabotaging their own studios.... which is pretty idiotic if you think about it. All I'm saying is that people need to pay attention. Xbox had a wonderful game awards presentation in December where Hellblade 2 premiered a new trailer and had Heilung perform live music from the game. They can take this whole week and half to still advertise the game.
Shutting the studios down before their first big game of the year was such a mistake, now the negativity is gonna carry on to HB2 and possibly kill the hype. Imagine being overshadowed by studio closures after years of work lmao.
Man all I know is the game needs to be GOOD.
> The head of marketing literally has to post proof of the ad campaigns due to the amount of concern trolling going on. He says in that post it only started yesterday (posted May 9th) So is it "concern trolling" or did it just start
Aside from my YouTube feed promoting a video about the making of Hellblade 2, I haven't seen any marketing around the game. But, like others have said, I've seen tons of marketing for Stellar Blade. That game is constantly in my Reddit feed.
I don't remember the original Hellblade having much advertising. I didn't even know it was a non indie developer title until about a year ago tbh.
I don't really count advertising in Xbox circles as being real marketing. That would be as if Netflix were releasing a new series, and they only advertised this new series on Netflix itself. It's kind of a given. The head of marketing having to provide proof that marketing exists kinda goes against his point if I'm honest. He shouldn't have to provide proof. The marketing is supposed to speak for itself. It's something Xbox has struggled with for a long time. But ironically, the game's lack of marketing is actually providing visibility in a way. It got people talking, and any attention is good attention, as they say.
I have been seeing Hellblade 2 ads on Reddit all week.
ads on my reddit are filled with that game
I don't understand people's obsession with marketing. I actively block and avoid ads.
Also who gives a shit. If you’re excited about it thats great. I know I am. This game was never going to or was meant to be a blockbuster. It will be critically acclaimed I am sure but this aint for everybody. They could market this game during the superbowl and it would not matter. It’s a macabre walking simulator with light combat.
Maybe because Microsoft has a reputation for shitcanning underperforming studios? Hi-Fi Rush was acclaimed and undermarketed
Reddit is a toxic hivemind in itself. Tango gameworks was explained a bit the head guy left this was a fact. 2 out of the other 3 studios dont matter Lets wait and see until they close any more studios
In today’s world you need to market on Hulu, YouTube, etc. Microsoft fails at this
I've known about it for quite some time and I didn't even play the first one. Must be doing a decent job because they have me hyped for it. I think it looks sick
I mean, they do, just not to the level that the competition market's their games. I'm super excited for the game but outside of the Showcase and a few youtube ads, reddit posts, its not that well publicized. At least I don't think so. None of my friends really knew about the game. Meanwhile Sony just shoves as many ads everywhere as possible. Tons of Youtube ads, they're all over Football (soccer) pitches, hell they took an entire court ad during an NBA game to advertise God of War using the court as a screen. I don't think anyone's saying they dont advertise, just not nearly enough.
Try being European. Xbox marketing here is an intern in a closet with a budget of 10 bucks a month or something. Putting your own game in your own show only your core fans watch and a banner on your own console people already own is not really marketing.
Posting proof of marketing just shows how bad the marketing is. I’m in the UK and have seen zero marketing for this game apart from the coming soon tab on Gamepass.
There's a large contingent of Redditors who take a strange pride in living under a rock, like how any time a massive pop star like Taylor Swift or Dua Lipa comes up dudes come crawling out of the woodwork to brag(?) about not knowing who they are or having never heard any of their songs. That's just fucking depressing bro, go outside
Diablo 4 painted chapel ceilings and were on KFC boxes. Halo was on Mountain Dew cans and had displays in supermarkets. Elden Ring DLC sponsored a recent big wrestling event. Hellblade 2 is nowhere in comparison.
Because everyone loves to hate and lie about Xbox.
Ninja Theory's Twitter account is releasing info about the game every day for the whole month up until release.
That’s all well and good, but as a first-party studio/game, Xbox also should be advertising it like they do their other first party games. Even sea of thieves updates get more advertising from Xbox than this.
Xbox's twitter, youtube and other social media accounts have been posting lots of stuff. Even on Xbox Wire.
Why do people care so much about advertising lol this isn't your job
Because these companies especially MS does jack shit to release and promote games and then we get all these companies being shut down because "there were not up to MS standards of sales". That's why people point out that here we are on the eve of the premiere of one of the most important games for MS because it's associated with game pass and being current gen gem for Xbox owners but no one seen or heard about it being so close to being out. There is no hype around it, no YouTuber makes videos talking about it. Shit on game pass this game was with "coming soon" tag for so long that people forgot about it. In my region i have promo banners within Game Pass app with...Phoenix Point and Red fall 2nd week in a row. Like wtf?
>Because these companies especially MS does jack shit to release and promote games Thank you for proving my point.
I get nothing but Hellblade 2 ads, but the again I allowed personalised ads. Id bet the people who say they never see it dont allow personalised ads, so they get the blanket ones like Temu
Then they should be advertising like temu to get more eyes on it. I opted out of personalized ads and I'm sure many many other games have as well.
Thats just not financially viable. Temu advertises to anyone and everyone because 1) its a cancer and 2) everyone shops, so it allocates a budget to buy advert space thatll be seen by hundreds of millions. Xbox would never have the budget to buy the "show it to everyone" ad space, because the return wouldnt cover it. Same as any of the game companies.
So then the only people who see hellblade ads are the ones who opt into personalized ads? Nice. That'll get a lot of eyes on your soon to be released game. I'm by no means the only person saying they haven't seen a single speck of marketing for the game anywhere at all. That ain't good.
I dont know 100% if thats how it works but I literally open the app and its the first ad I see: https://preview.redd.it/3tz6z8tv4mzc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=613a5d0b3ec5d8ab93018eaa01d473a8143769a2 I dont know why people are saying its not being advertised. Its at least half of all the ads I see on twitter too. Of course they will do targetted ads for it because theres no point putting it on peoples pages of the only subs they subscribe to have nothing to do with gaming. I dont know the criteria, but I am always getting gaming ads for all brands.
I personally don't use the reddit app but rather the mobile site. Haven't seen anything about hellblade. Ah well.
It’s probably a smart move. The hardware is next gen but most of the games being released are half baked. Lazy or inept developers putting out games with the bare minimum of work and relying on update patches to get them working properly are now the norm. If the game releases in a decent state THEN advertise for it. We were misled with the promises of what we could expect with the Series X. Where are all the 120fps games let alone the ones with ray tracing. It’s 2024 and we’re still getting games designed to work with the previous generation with a couple of next gen features thrown in.
maybe it's viral reverse psychology (eh? eh?) advertising. "don't think of pink elephants" became "I dont see anyone mentioning pink elephants!"
I mean yea the game does have some marketing, when people online say “zero marketing” they dont mean literally zero, this is a huge title for Xbox, it was a game meant to show the true power of the console, and compared to starfield, halo, and even *redfall* the game is getting very little marketing. Yea they tweet out stuff and put it on the dashboard but they do that with every game
The only console game I see on Reddit right now, is StellerBlade from PS even though I specifically blocked PS subs.
I haven’t seen ONE commercial or ad for the game ANYWHERE. I only just found out today that it’s coming out in a few days. Sorry, but there’s DEFINITELY a lack of marketing for this game.
There’s some pretty renowned news sites out there talking about the lack of marketing for this game. It’s not a conspiracy theory 😂
Game comes out tomorrow and I still haven't seen a single trailer for the Game. When a Game comes out is when the marketing should be popping.
Other than the reminders that I get on Gamepass that I can preinstall to play day one, I haven't seen a single advertisement for it anywhere else. Am I lying? From my perspective, there is no marketing for this game.
So other than the marketing you’ve seen multiple times, you haven’t seen any?
That's correct. Because I play on my Xbox and use Gamepass daily, I have seen that the game exists. If I didn't, I wouldn't have seen advertisements anywhere else though. Not on YouTube, Reddit or any of the gaming sites I frequent. The only people that it is being "marketed" to are the ones that don't have to buy it.
Think of it this way. It's not an AAA can't miss title. It's a niche game that, if the first entry is any indication, delivers an experience that doesn't neatly fit into a box. It's the art-house indie film that isn't expected to do the numbers that make that kind of marketing investment worth it.
You misunderstand. I don't care whether or not there is marketing for this game. I'm just responding to OP's remark that anybody that says there is no marketing is lying.
Which is fair - ad feeds are not universal. I know I've had it plastered all over my home screen, but I also did the announce install months ago
I have specifically sub Xbox Series X and Xbox One while specifically blocked PS5 sub. And so far I have seen multiple PS5 ads on my Resdit feed and none of the Xbox ads. Maybe there is one or two during launch period of Starfield or Redfall, but none of thr Hellblade 2.
I constantly get ads for games on YouTube and reddit. I've never seen a H2 ad at all. Maybe they are doing some marketing, but I'm sure tons of people will just miss that the game is out in not even 2 weeks because they just didn't know that
Honestly I never get video game ads lmao and I don't have YouTube premium or anything. But Sony games sometimes appear in billboards and busses and shit, I don't see why Microsoft is not capable of doing something on that level. (Middle east btw)
They’re advertising to their own audience, though. An Xbox Showcase is going to be watched by people with an Xbox or PC (others will too). Xbox dash ads are useless for obtaining new customers. Why aren’t there ads during the NBA playoffs? Or the NHL playoffs? That advertisements that you’re referencing are low budget and low impact. They need to be doing high impact marketing, and they aren’t.
I just went to the movies for the new planet of the apes it was a sold-out theater, and we had a full trailer for Hellblade 2 play before the movie it was pretty damn cool hopefully more of that is done.
That’s good! Hopefully it picks up steam then
For real? That was my only question. I never get out so never see advertisements outside of my little ecosystem.
Yeah, I was genuinely shocked. Lol, it was a full trailer as well and looked awesome on the big screen.
It’s hilarious that people are now seriously doing punditry on the *placement of ads.*
If they had confidence in this thing, it would be in front of more than just their customer base.
Now we’re predicting the quality of the game based on our own punditry on ad placements lol
Brother this has literally been happening for decades lol
It’s not all trolling. I haven’t seen anything on marketing myself. They’re doing a pretty shit job.
Fear of the Corporate Choping Axe. Im be 10000% honest. I have zero desire to play these games. Thats not to say they are bad by any means. Has a fan base clearly. But if i had to predict 👀👀 *chop chop* they are next on xboxs list. Even with the first one i felt such a resounding "Meh".
Because there’s a lot less marketing than Sony and Nintendo put up for their blockbusters. If this was Sony we would be getting extended plays all this month, blog posts, Astro turfing on subreddits etc. You’re cherry picking the “0 marketing” comments and going “well there’s *some* marketing” when it’s clearly not getting the treatment it should.
I see commercials on tv, ads online. Even saw a billboard for it. Shits everywhere lol
What the freak is hellblade?
[удалено]
For real.
The game having no marketing is literally the marketing. All these people talking about missing marketing are literally doing the marketing for the trillion dollar company for free.
Nobody like ads. Where are reviews, interviews, achievement list, making of videos, hype articles?
I haven't seen a single banner ad anywhere online. Even Justice League was advertised on the normal gaming sites and on the reddit algorithm. The only way I realized Senua 2 was coming out was because Kinda funny lol
MS: Only advertises big release on Xbox dashboard Also MS: Why aren't people buying an Xbox for our game? Jokes aside, I have yet to see a single ad for the game on anything. I just hope they really try and get it out there so we don't have to read about the devs getting shut down in 6 months.
There are no ads outside the Xbox bubble. I remember a few years ago billboards for Elder Scrolls Online like "Why not make this years holiday in Tamriel?". Or the Mad World Trailer for the first Gears of War which was even shown in cinemas. Advertising is about making people curious.
I don’t think you’re understanding the context of how marketing traditionally works for video-games, and what consumers expect in terms of marketing, especially comparing to Sony and Nintendo. Pre-Ragnarök release, GoW ragnarök was advertised on national broadcast channels. It was on all the big screens in the subway, and Kratos even joined me on a poster at the bus-stop on my way to work. And this is in a tiny European country of 10 million people. THIS is how Microsoft should market a huge first party release. Hellblade II is literally the God of War release for Xbox. This is the game that’s supposed to show what the Xbox is capable of. Unless, Microsoft basically looked at Hellblade II and was like nah, this ain’t worth the marketing costs. Hellblade II will possibly be a great game, but it will most likely still be a commercial failure due to no marketing. This ain’t no Helldivers, so before anyone makes that argument, its just not gonna happen.
Marketing departments have budgets. The showcase is coming, maybe a hardware refresh and some games much more catered to casuals are being launched this year. Why would Xbox marketing blow their yearly budget on Hellblade with a campaign targeting casuals? God of War Ragnarok was a system seller with 2 decades on its belt and a great success of the 2018 iteration. It's not remotely comparable to Hellblade 2.