Gyakuten Saiban Blog Entry 15: Advertising Campaign (2001)

Title: Advertising Campaign / 「宣伝活動」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban official site (down)

Summary: In the fifteenth column for the official website of the Game Boy Advance version of Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney GBA), director Takumi talks about another 'contradiction' in his project. To sell the game, he needs people to know about it. But as it's a mystery game, he doesn't want people to know about it, so they can be genuinely surprised by what the game has to offer. The pros and cons of the advertising campaign is always a problem for this series, as many years later, the director and producer for Gyakuten Saiban 6 (Ace Attorney 6 - Spirit of Justice) would also have frequent fights about what they could say and could not say as part of the marketing.

Advertising Campaign

Because we’re making a game, we want as many people as possible to play it. That’s a wish that comes right from the souls of us creators. And to accomplish that, we need as many people as possible to know about the game. The way to do that is “advertising.”

Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney GBA) has also started on its advertising campaign, using all the media as much as we can. We’ve been advertising in magazines and had them write articles on the game for example. The demo on the official site—and idea of our producer—was especially very well received. The whole team read the feedback we got on that and were touch by it.

However! There is always a dilemma when it comes to advertising. That is: “the contents of the story are made public.”

Gyakuten Saiban is a game with the mystery genre as its theme. To the mystery genre, “surprise” is the most important element. Freshness is its life. Personally, I’d like people to play the game without knowing anything at all..

If you have been patiently reading this column until now and still haven’t played Gyakuten Saiban: please give in and go to the game shop. And close your eyes and ears for all information about the game, including this official website, until you have completed the game. That’s a wish directly from my heart.

…But everyone is probably reading the “Episode Introduction” page first before they come here to this column…

Anyway. Starting with the next columns, I will write about the development of the four episodes in the game. They are much more fun if you read them after playing Gyakuten Saiban. And that was also a bit of “advertising” here in the column.