News: Fun with press releases!

October 10, 2006, 04:50 PM

by brandon, via Vivendi Games -
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Here are some quotes from the press release for Scarface: The World is Yours, which just shipped. Here's the first thing you see in the release: "Legendary Gangster Returns to Rebuild His Fallen Empire and Seek Vengeance In Highly Anticipated Video Game Featuring Hollywood Production Values" - nice, right? Interestingly, marketing and PR people not only feel that this is acceptable english, they think this is the proper way to communicate ideas!

"The game, which presents a sequel storyline that asks “What if Tony Montana survived the mansion shootout?” is available on the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, Xbox® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Windows PC for an estimated retail price of $49.99."

Does the game really ask that? The only way to find out is to buy it! Or I can just tell you: no! It directly illustrates what would happen. Also note that the Xbox is 'from Microsoft', while the PS2 is not 'from Sony.' Conspiracy!

"“Say hello to our little friend!” said Cindy Cook, chief strategy and marketing officer for Vivendi Games."

Granted, this is a really funny sentence, taken on its own. Indeed, by cheapening the message with a goofy catchphrase, you've alienated all of the people you're trying to appeal to, namely games press - who I'll begrudgingly admit are slightly smarter than rocks. The difficult bit is that there's absolutely no other way to write a press release in people's minds! This is a 'hook' that 'draws the reader in.' Not that it really matters, as nobody reads these, and just writes about the game, or doesn't. Or they just reprint the press release, for uh...whatever reason. It continues:

"“With its incredible celebrity cast, Hollywood production values, incredible commitment to quality and non-stop action, Scarface: The World Is Yours is poised to provide gamers with a thrilling third person action experience unprecedented in the games industry."

Important note: incredible celebrity cast may or may not include the voice of al pacino. Though he did reportedly choose his own stand-in. In conclusion, video game press releases are either written for idiots, or by them. It's difficult to tell at this stage. Here's the full release, though it's missing the header stuff that I quoted first...

In related news, I'm on a panel at the PR for games conference on thursday. I didn't plan to get all cheesed off at press releases right before that, but here we are!