Topic: impressions of Marcus PSP ad campaign?

Can someone sell me on these as being a good idea?

Sony did a great job with the Kevin Butler ads. I know that not everyone likes them, but overall they are light-hearted and fun enough to catch attention while still making games look enjoyable. Perhaps more importantly, they helped fix what I perceive to be an image problem for Sony by not having their collective heads stuck in places they didn't belong. But the newly announced Marcus PSP ads? Well... Let me be kind and say I'm not a fan.

FUUUUUUuuUUUUnnNyY

I think they are funny as all get out myself! Marcus is the perfect kid for it and him and Kevin Butler are opposites and it just makes it so much better. Not to mention there is actually truth in the commercials, as the PSP is a powerhouse portable system.

.... Basically (not saying you are ejamer) if your a fanboy of Nintendo/Microsoft and get all upset about everything, then the commercials are aimed dead at you, and to anyone with a sense of humor and doesnt get all worked up about all the nitpicky crap in the gaming industry (as I dont) its just flat out funny.

Im a big stand up comedy fan, and anyone who is knows that its nothing but making fun of Everything. Nintendo is a family system and of course they line thereself up for it, and by not taking shots back at Sony it shows they are good sports about it, and true to there word about being a great company and family system.

Nobody in Sony/Microsoft is ever going to come flat out and say how much they love and respect Nintendo, as that is buisness. I Garuantee you though that everyone one of them were stoked over Nintendo at this past conference and will all be buying 3DS at launch, etc. Everyone in gaming has mad respect for Nintendo, seriously how couldnt you?

Add to this a bit as well, but Im sure your talking about Move. Sony made major innovations with the PS3, and Sony has always been about power and the PS3 is jsut crazy powerful. The PSP is a really powerful handheld still today and its been out for what I think 5 years now.

Move is somewhat of a copy, but there isnt much more of a way create a motion/pointer controller without it looking similar. Not to mention the entire basis of the controller works completely differnent than the Wii does and expanded on hardware that has been on Sonys Playstation 2 for 7 years now, that created motion contol through a camera for home consoles. (EyeToy)

Sony is doing what they do best, and they are makin motion/pointer controls head to the next limit in hardware power with the PS3. In my opinion its the ultimate showing of just how great Nintendos innovation was with Wii, that Sony has done this and even Reggie said so hiself.

Actually, not at all. I'm not that impressed with Move yet - it's cool, but the real potential is still waiting to be unlocked. For that matter, I think PS3 is good enough at what it already does (nearly everything) that it simply doesn't need move... but I'm still totally thrilled to see Tiger Woods PS3 because that is going to rock my world.

What I did mean was that seeing the Kevin Butler ads poke fun at gaming in general and not taking Sony so seriously really struck me as cool. Instead of trying to sell an image about "we're more hardcore than everyone else" or come off as very arrogant, they were just silly fun showcasing some great games. The whole ad campaign was a breath of fresh air after the disaster that previous PS3 ads had been.

My distaste with the Marcus PSP ads stem from a couple of facts: (1) to me, they seemed to fall right back into the arrogant and cocky attitudes that I disliked from previous ads; (2) I don't understand why they are targeting kids with the "gotta be hardcore" rhetoric after all the negative statements they make about Nintendo being a system for kids. It's just feels so wrong and unnecessary when they could sell PSP without the misplaced attitude - I mean, it's a great system and probably still as powerful as the 3DS that Nintendo hasn't even released yet!

However, it's entirely possible that I just don't get the joke. Maybe the sarcasm just flew over my head - it honestly wouldn't be the first time. I am glad to hear that others get more from the ads than I do.

I like it

Marcus brings the same funny and flare that Butler did and he no doubt helped the PS3.

These ads will definitely help the PSP, and they're more entertaining than the usual * this console does this you should buy it * standard for video game commercials.

I thought the joke was that marcus was a kid version of kevin butler someone who always thinks their right.

I think the Marcus/Kevin Butler dynamics are really funny, myself. They're not going to convince me to buy a PSP, because I don't have time for it. I'd say it's time for PSP2, but it doesn't look like the 3DS is going to be much, if any more powerful than the PSP is now. Why bother when the level of tech is obviously still selling?

I'd probably like it if I wasn't sick of him from Cartoon Network.

Eh. I watched that ad earlier tonight, and I'm not that fond of the kid. The whole dynamic didn't work for me, and I didn't find it all that funny either. I think Butler does it better all by himself.

Like how this site is running the PSP ads. lol

I've noticed it at several Nintendo-related sites too, which always makes me chuckle. (Seeing the placement is funnier than the actual ad campaign, quite frankly.)

Not sure if PSP is just being pushed heavily to all gaming outlets or if Sony thinks that aggressive, targeted marketing can win over some of the existing DS install base before 3DS is released... but if I received a PSP Go for Christmas instead of getting a 3DS, that would be one of the most disappointing trade-downs ever.

It's funny, but I'm not sold on it.

Besides, I dubbed the ad campaign as the "PSP Life Support Campaign."

I think Marcus is effective as he plays off Kevin very well. The kid type laughter mixed with some modern days version of Fat Albert type neighborhood kid comedy works great. I just have seen one of the ads, I never hit youtube for stuff on my own, and it was on Modnation Racers and it was a hoot, I think it was that intro ad where they both meet each other. I've owned Sony systems and handhelds since 2001, Nintendo since 1985, did Sega briefly but used others for a time, and I could get into NEC, etc but why bother. If you can't allow this kind of humor today, you're just lost in fanboy land. This is the good kinds of ads as they're running with the funny and the truth, these aren't the smear campaigns against the N64 being kiddie, or the SNES being slower/uglier than Genesis games earlier which turned me off buying from either of those companies for many years (and it's not games I do it to gross liar products whatever it is.)

I'm just happy to know they're going to use this Marcus angle, but also they said in the rest of this year to expect 70+ more PSP games. So far I've seen Arcana, a few shooters on PSN, Patapon 3, and various others (maybe 10 games so far) and it seems like they're trying. Sure the battery on the device sucks, but it does a lot of fun things, and when someone truly puts the effort in you get stuff like God of War, MGS Peace Maker, and Gran Turismo that goes right up there along with a standard PS2 title and that's nuts.

yup
nintendo has their fanboys
microsoft has their farmers
Sony has their commercials
i have a wii and nazi zombies

Marcus reminds me of why I don't bother wearing a headset on Xbox Live. Just a kid that keeps blabbing and doesn't know that nobody wants to hear what he has to say except without the swearing and hate speech. Sony finally did itself a favor with the Kevin Butler ads, Marcus is a step in the wrong direction. I can at least appreciate the fact that they're not badmouthing Nintendo although they've taken a shot at Apple, the PSP line can't compete with the DS and Nintendo's portable experience. I don't know what age demographic Marcus is supposed to appeal to, but if this is PSP's life support campaign, its time pull the plug, its all over.

While I thought the Kevin Butler ads were successful, I personally didn't like them. I think the same will be true for the Marcus PSP ads. I think they'll be successful, I'll just dislike them. But replace "Dislike" with "Hate". The kid reminds me of everything wrong with online games. He reminds me of the person who won't shut-up, stop spawn-camping, and stop waving his virtual willy around.

I still love the Marcus kid. He was histerical in the movie Role Models and continues to be hilarious in the ads. Im a comedy fan so I think they are just entertaining and funny. PSP is a great system, but I do think Sony still misses the big picture. The majority of all PSP owners I know use the system as a portable PSone. Its great to see that a VC is now coming to PSP with TurboGrafix16 and PCEngine games. Im really looking forward to that update.

Well, first off, I think Kevin Butler is hilarious. The fact he was in that commercial shown off at E3 was great. I really don't think Marcus is as funny as Kevin Butler, but I think Marcus will attract a younger audience. When I think about it, most of the PSP owners I know are younger/teenagers, so that is probably the perfect audience for Marcus. I am just not sure if any of the Marcus commercials have the potential to be as funny as the plain, old, Kevin Butler ones. I still can't get over how funny the PS Move commercial was with Butler talking about how important buttons are on a controller, and how only 3rd graders use their hands as guns (Kinect jab) haha.