When Video Game Ads Were Art

The 90s and the 00s truly were the Wild West of marketing for games

Every so often I’ll be scrolling around and run into a game ad I remember seeing in GamePro or Electronic Gaming Monthly. The account posting it usually a.) my age and reflecting on the sadness that is the unobtainable recapturing of one’s childhood or b.) a person half my age who thinks gaming in the 90s and 00s is cool because it’s RETRO. Both of these scenarios cause a sudden twinge within me as I realize I am 35 and my childhood is considered both retro and nostalgic.

Once I get over the emotional hurdle, I think of how great game ads used to be. Obviously, media has changed since then - we are not reading game magazines every month and have shifted our eyes online or to social media apps. Now, publishers can provide a sizzle reel of the game and have it autoplay for consumers but back in the day, in print media, you had to be creative to catch the eyes of the reader. In fact, most of the ads you see here have little to do with the game they are advertising. You can’t tell how it plays but you certainly get plenty of personality.

As you can see, there really isn’t anything quite like this anymore. No need for likes or engaging in the algorithm, it just was WEIRD for weirdnesses(?) sake. Unlike ads today, some of these are burned into my brain to this day. I can’t recall a recent video game ad that has stuck with me for how unique it was. I remember ads now as reminders that such-and-such game is out of development hell now and will launch as half the game we want until we get 2 years of patches/fixes.

Incredible

One of the things I noticed while compiling these images was how concerned many of these ads were with the body. Lots of body-horror and games becoming one with our existence. It’s funny now how we are heading to the VR landscape and it’s more shiny and positive. I want the dark future we were promised!

These ads were violent, weird, over-the-top, and just LOUD. We gave this up for what?

Times have changed and now we get months-long lead ups to release with detailed videos on how the game performs or what new cosmetics we can buy on Day 1. It’s a different beast now and a larger market.

Am I sad? Sure. But do I also like seeing how a game plays before I buy it? Of course! I just wish it could still be both. But like I said, this existed in print media for gaming which is now very, very dead.

At least we can still have these memories.