The Most Controversial Gaming Commercials of All Time

Outrageous ideas that pushed boundaries and crossed lines

Watching a video game commercial that only shows gameplay doesn’t come close to capturing the joy of actually playing the game. Even with recent AAA titles, there’s something hollow about watching an “actual game footage” ad. People are more likely to rely on reviews from trusted publications than 30-second TV spots.

Video game publishers know this. And they know they need to get creative. That might mean bending or even breaking the rules when it comes to marketing. Over the years, video game commercials emerged as a new field for advertising in general. There are countless examples where boundaries were pushed to almost unbelievable limits. And there are tons of weird ideas that never saw the light of day at all, having been left on the cutting room floor.

Things were different in the early days, though.

Advertisers seemed unsure how to be translate the charms of this new medium into a thirty-second advert. More often than not, they decided to go weird. Sometimes deeply, bafflingly weird. It made these commercials all the more interesting to watch. The subject fascinated me so much that I decided to hunt through and explore all the video game TV…