Bungie: The New Masters of Hype

Sony has had the trait for years – the invaluable ability to hype products so well that people are clawing at each other to buy their stuff. Frankly, I think the PS3 has lived off the Playstation name so far, but they might have contributed a bit with that Killzone trailer from a year and a half ago and the always impressive MGS4 footage. People have loved the Playstation brand from about 1997, and Sony has always been able to take advantage of it with ridiculously good advertising. They’ve pushed their product into the collective mind of the world youth and made sure it was synonymous with gaming, displayed by the ability of the PS2 to kill the Sega Dreamcast before it was even released.

Sony is still attempting to hype up their new machine, led by the insane statements of Ken Kutaragi, the chairman and mind behind the Playstation brand. A few choice statements from Kutaragi include:

“The PS3 will instill discipline in our children and adults alike. Everyone will know discipline.”

“If processors of high performance and wide bandwidth like the Cell were linked together without sufficient security, a worldwide system crash could occur with one attack.”

and possibly the best:

Bernie Stolar, a former Sony executive, remembers Kutaragi, CEO of SCEJ, asking him as early as 1994 where he thought the nascent PlayStation console’s main competition would come from. Nintendo, Stolar guessed. Maybe Intel. Kutaragi looked him squarely in the eyes. “No, Bernie, you are wrong,” he said. “It is Microsoft. And I will kill them.”

But this is not about Sony, it’s about Bungie. They’ve probably been helped and prodded by Microsoft to start the hype train so early, as with the PS3 out this holiday season, Microsoft wants people to hold off potential PS3 buyers by making sure they know of Halo 3 on the horizon. The commercial during Monday Night Football was seen by college kids and young adults across America. For months, you have not been able to walk into a Gamestop or Electronics Boutique without seeing at least 5 flyers telling you to pre-order Halo 3. The game is a year away. Is it really going to be that tough to find the game? Or maybe people just want the LEGENDARY EDITION that comes with a mini helmet for $99.99. I think this motivational poster sums up that situation pretty well:

It’s true and you know it. Even though Halo 2 was a pretty big disappointment to the people that bought into the hype, you know in your heart that Halo 3 will not do the same. Right? But remember that mindblowing city level shown in that first Halo 2 demo? It was nowhere to be found in the final, seemingly unfinished game. And Halo fans know this. I really don’t need to say this. I just don’t want people to buy into the hype again. I’ll admit that the commercial shown a handful of days ago during MNF was pretty damn awesome, but at least Bungie has made it known that it was CG. (Not like Sony and their bullshit of a Killzone trailer.)

I think Halo 3 has real potential with the shield grenades, the energy walls I’ve heard about, and just the massive power of the Xbox 360. The A.I. will hopefully blow away even the first two games. The environments will be more expansive and the vehicle physics more realistic. The game still has a year of tweaking and upgrading in front of it and I hope it is everything gamers across the world (except Japan) want it to be. I just have to keep telling myself not to get excited whenever I watch that amazing commercial. You should too.

P.S. I have one request to Bungie for Halo 3 online. If you want to keep the matchmaking service, fine – BUT I WANT A CHOICE FOR ALL ROCKETS. There’s snipers, SWAT, but no rockets. Maybe there was a choice during the months when I never played Halo 2 online (I don’t have an Xbox myself, just my friend does – it just so happens that at the present time it resides in my house), but why would it be taken off? Surely everyone across the world loves rockets. There’s not much in gaming that is more frantic than 16-player rockets in Prisoner in the original Halo. So awesome. You hear me Bungie? TEAM ROCKETS. ROCKET FREE FOR ALL. I want them. I really just want more choice, period. Ranked games you can keep the matchmaking system, but there should be much more freedom when it comes to non-ranked games.

Here’s a gif of that Halo 3 commercial to get you hyped again. I’m sorry.

Courtesy of Tieno over at NeoGAF.

Related posts:

1. Halo 3 Leaked Alpha Screens: Underwhelming
2. Proof Halo 3 Hype is Ridiculous
3. Inception Review-Fueled Hype Begins