The Playstation panty sniffer. Lol

PS3 did some wierd shit, too.

And PSVita... The PSVita had this:

What the fuck were the PS2 marketing team smoking?!

This is probably going to seem wildly low-effort compared to my usual posts here

My man, you just compiled tons of obscure posters from the corners of the Internet. I admire your dedication, and this does take an effort.

I'm surprised you didn't include this one:

Edit: Link to creator:

https://xcancel.com/notshysmith/status/1407072918945812481

Those PS2 underwear ones are fucking wild

We need to go back. Everything now is too sterile. Publishers do not take any risks on games anymore. We don't get games like Illbleed or Burnout from AAA funding anymore. Games that look at a genre and really ask what actually belongs in that genre.

Nowadays its all unoptimized Unreal Engine copy-paste Over the Shoulder perspective slop.

Indie is being more experimental these days simply because of how easy it is to develop video games now, but still lacks the necessary funding to create experiences on par with what AAA can offer.

I'm surprised you didn't post that PSP ad with the white lady beating the shit out of the black lady....to promote the sale of a white PSP.

Those PS2 ones are fucking awesome, thanks!

The over-the-top edgy/"how do you do, fellow kids?" vibes of the early y2k years is definitely something that I don't miss from that era.

I can somehow hear Linking Park in the distance while scrolling this post.

I remember seeing these ads as an impressionable young gamer and getting the idea that Playstations had games that were scary and weird, and Nintendo games and handhelds were for boys. Generally the ads told me "this is not for you". Because I only ever saw ads for specific PC games and never for PCs themselves, (they were aimed at adults, not in the kind of magazines and comics young me was perusing) even though I was still not the target market it clicked more with me. I think that might be a part of why I've only ever really gotten into PC games over the years. I knew there were games I'd like and games I wouldn't, and never got the same platform level messaging.

I remember seeing an ad for Thief and thought it looked cool, and I remember being super grossed out by that Quake 3 ad, but I never felt unwelcome or out of place playing PC games. In contrast, the focus on marketing to young males is really obvious in those console ads.

Examples of some PC game ads I remember working for me and led to me getting them:

https://cdn.mobygames.com/promos/18308445-thief-the-dark-project-magazine-advertisement-pc-gamer-usa-issue.jpg

https://www.retromags.com/rmg_fs/gallery_imgs/monthly_2022_06/large.1061174590_LordsofMagic02(December1997).jpg.82c9c4e56622e154a87711d93647ccc3.jpg

https://cdn.mobygames.com/promos/6568546-the-elder-scrolls-iii-morrowind-magazine-advertisement-pc-gamer-.jpg

I've seen Pokemon condoms but I don't think they were licensed, fortunately none of them said "gotta catch em all" though

Radical, as all your posts are. How the heck do you find the time?!

I wish there was an easy way to quote/reference specific images. Golden Sun literal fire was nice, but those PS2 ads were... What the fuck

It strikes me that I have no point of reference because I haven't seen any ads for 20 years. If they stopped doing y2k edgy-style ads, what are they like now?

this isn't low effort. These are freaking great!

Sony had some fucking weird ads back in the day.

The GBA SP really was a great portable. I carried my black\silver "executive" model everywhere and felt cool as shit at the time.

Those PS2 ads though, holy shit, what was Sony smoking back then?

Thank you sir, may I have another?

Nintendo advertising like this now is actually unfathomable

The nineties was the best decade.

Not low effort posting IMO, this is a part of our culture & has historical value.

Reminds me of this post on Bluesky. These ads were wild at the time, too; even some that predate this era. There was Fear Effect, which was basically marketed entirely on the back of the game featuring lesbians when that was taboo. There was Rayman standing at the urinals with a guy in 9-5 business attire presumably staring at Rayman's dick. The Neo Geo "You need a pair of these" steel balls "to play one of these" ad. Plus the shockingly racist European white PSP ad; that was a billboard, not a magazine ad, but it had "video game magazine ad energy", in this case with "(negative)" at the end of it.

Love the PS2 ones. They almost have a Goth vibe in their aesthetics.

Thanks for this one, a really valuable find:

It's wild how crazy ads. The Mouse one for the GBA Micro still pops up into my head every once and a while. And my friend group still debates whether Mario is hiding a Tribal Tattoo somewhere

Might not be exactly vintage but it is getting close to 20 years old (ouch my age).

The Halo 3 advertising campaign.

And specifically this "Believe" video.

I cannot describe the emotions of excitement I felt for this game to be released. Waiting for the midnight release for this game is still one of my favorite memories haha. And once we got the game, the hours and hours of fun with friends..... really was something looking back on it.

The foot for your distraught friend/partner in prison is cold, damn I like these old ad campaigns.

Thanks for sharing!

The Swedish GBA ad campaign is very unique!