Ad critic: Superman made by super people
Ad critic returns with this ad for (the now delayed) Superman Returns: The Videogame, featured prematurely in the June 2006 issue of Game Informer (click on the thumbnail for a high-res scan). It doesn't look like much at first glance; however, upon closer inspection, you'll notice those three rather substantial chunks of (gulp) text. After busting out your reading glasses you realize that EA -- the giant game maker whose employees make a famously Faustian arrangement: their soul (and/or free time) for the chance to make video games -- is running ads talking up their developers!
As MTV News reminds us, this isn't the first time EA has highlighted developers in an ad. In 1983, one of the then-upstart Electronic Arts' earliest ads posed a handful of game designers alongside the question, "Can a Computer Make You Cry?" EA Vice President of Advertising Shawn Conly told MTV, "In some ways, that was a partial inspiration for where we're taking this right now."
Indeed, the Superman ad isn't alone! Additional ads will include NFL Head Coach, Madden 07, and NCAA Football 07 (as seen in the July issue of EGM). All the titles are made by EA's Tiburon Studios ("a quirk of scheduling," says Conly) but now your average mag-reading gamer can know that also. Right there, in the upper right hand corner, the ads read, "Creative Close-Up: EA Tiburon Studio Orlando, FL."
What say you, ad critics? Is EA's ad a super-success or a krypyonite-klunker? Sure, we might care about developers, but does your average, non-Joystiq reading gamer? Is it too text-heavy? What, if anything, would you like to see them change? Is this another sign that EA has turned over a new leaf?
See also: Ad Critic: Auto Assault, Ad Critic: Oblivion , Ad Critic: Tomb Raider, Ad Critic: Hitman.
