The Video Game ‘Death Stranding’ Arrives After an Elaborate Ad Campaign

The prolonged strategy left some people perplexed. David Jaffe, the director of the original “God of War” video game, said on YouTube that he could not understand what the “Death Stranding” marketing team was up to.

“I look at this, and this thing could be game of the year, but this is going to need word of mouth to save it,” he said.

Like many big-budget game releases these days, “Death Stranding” was marketed like a film. Chvrches performed a song from its soundtrack on “The Late Late Show.” Mr. Kojima discussed the game at the Tribeca Film Festival in April.

“Very early on, we wanted to pitch it like a movie, treating it like a great blockbuster piece of entertainment,” said Asad Qizilbash, PlayStation’s global vice president of exclusive games. “Our creators are storytellers, just like these great movie directors.”

“Death Stranding” was released on Friday to largely positive reviews that hinted at aspects of the game that made it such a marketing challenge. The website Kotaku said it was “breathtaking in scope,” “beautiful to behold” but also “a heaping pile of pretentious nonsense.” Another site, Polygon, likened it to “a long, confusing, deeply strange movie.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/09/business/media/video-game-death-stranding-advertising.html?emc=rss&partner=rss