Steam News - Valve Announces $25 Mil Left 4 Dead 2 Ad Campaign

[TNR-RSS Poster]

Zombie Blockbuster On Track To Top Valve's All Time Sales

Oct 5, 2009 - Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Half-Life and Counter-Strike) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced a $25 Mil consumer advertising plan for its upcoming action thriller, Left 4 Dead 2 (L4D2).

"Based on the strength of pre-orders, Left 4 Dead 2 will be the fastest-selling product in Valve's history," said Gabe Newell, president of Valve. "Left 4 Dead 2 has consistently run at 300% of Left 4 Dead's numbers."

Last year, Left 4 Dead was the top selling new property for both the Xbox 360 and PC. Sales were driven by strong word of mouth, top reviews, and a $10 million advertising campaign.

"We'll be supporting Left 4 Dead 2's launch with a $25 million campaign," said Doug Lombardi, Valve's vice-president of Marketing. "Left 4 Dead 2 has already set the record for greatest number of pre-orders in our company's history, and we're still over a month out from shipping."

In the USA, the campaign will include Monday Night Football and UFC television broadcasts, roadside billboards, and popular lifestyle and gaming sites.

This year's European plan is also more aggressive than last year's, with television advertising in all the major markets appearing during sports and lifestyle programming, plus strong outdoor investments in more cities, as well as online and print advertising.

"Left 4 Dead 2 is expected to once again exceed everyone's expectations and be an industry best title on PC and Xbox 360 for the year," said David DeMartini, General Manager of EA Partners. "With Left 4 Dead and now Left 4 Dead 2, Valve has created one of today's most compelling video game experiences and leading entertainment franchises."

Coming exclusively to Xbox 360 and PC, L4D2 promises to set a new benchmark for co-operative action games and become one of 2009's marquee titles. Set for release on November 17, the title adds melee combat to enable deeper co-operative gameplay, with items such as a chainsaws, frying pans, axes, baseball bats, and more.

Introducing the AI Director 2.0, L4D's dynamic gameplay is taken to the next level by giving the Director the ability to procedurally change weather effects, world objects, and pathways in addition to tailoring the enemy population, effects, and sounds to match the players' performance. The result is a unique game session custom fitted to provide a satisfying and uniquely challenging experience each time the game is played.

Finally, with new Survivors, boss zombies, weapons, and items, Left 4 Dead 2 offers a much larger game than the original, featuring more co-operative campaigns, more Versus campaigns, new Survival maps, and a brand new competitive mode all available at launch.

For more information, please visit www.l4d.com

Source

[The Killing Joke]

"Based on the strength of pre-orders, Left 4 Dead 2 will be the fastest-selling product in Valve's history," said Gabe Newell, president of Valve. "Left 4 Dead 2 has consistently run at 300% of Left 4 Dead's numbers."

Take that, nay-sayers.

[MoeB]

$25 million? They're making a big mistake. This game won't sell as much the second time around. It's releasing exactly one year later (actually 1 day short of one year) and it looks and plays (to the uninformed eye) exactly the same.

[Derfel]

If L4D2 is pre-selling 300% better than L4D... then why spend $25 million advertising it?

[lefty]

If L4D2 is pre-selling 300% better than L4D... then why spend $25 million advertising it?

coke is the number 1 cola brand in the world, why advertise it?

windows is the most widely used operating system in the world, why advertise?

[The Killing Joke]

I see wut you did thar.

[SpiderTroll]

25mil bones and I will still not buy it.

thanks for coming out though.

that 25 mil is definitely not all coming out of valve's pocket though

[spleen]

I thought when I read 'Ad Campaign'.... that it was a new playable campaign; where Bill, Francis, Louis and Zoey go around to stuffy board meetings presenting new ideas to fat guys in business suits.
/slow day

[MoeB]

I thought when I read 'Ad Campaign'.... that it was a new playable campaign; where Bill, Francis, Louis and Zoey go around to stuffy board meetings presenting new ideas to fat guys in business suits.
/slow day

OMGMGG GLOOOLOLOL

[Gorbachev22]

coke is the number 1 cola brand in the world, why advertise it?

windows is the most widely used operating system in the world, why advertise?

Analogy fail. It's the growth rate (in both quantity and likely market share) here that makes the increased spending on advertising a little odd. Coca-cola and Microsoft are both companies that are in a very different economic situation (ie. a monopolistic marketplace with well defined market leaders). Both Coca-cola and Microsoft are likely in a simple prisoner's dilemma advertising game with their largest competitors. This doesn't apply to Valve.