Injustice Arcade and Halo: Fireteam Raven Advertising Kits are now available from Raw Thrills

As reported by Arcade Heroes, “Throughout the ages of arcade production, manufacturers have all had their own ways in going about promoting the content they make. Generally speaking, video games have seen a lot more efforts in this regard than other pillars of amusement, with producers offering promo materials like posters, standees or unique marquees as ways for locations to better promote a particular game that they have on hand.

“One of the first instances I recall seeing something like that in my own arcade career was when the FEC I worked at received Rush 2049 and it came with some really nice posters. Much later on when at my own arcade, the Blazing Angels game I got came with a little “New Game” sign. Later, an operator I work with bought a Transformers: Human Alliance, which came with a nice double-sided standee that we could put out in front of the store every day as well as foam-backed “new game” signs. Same for the foam board on Skycurser, which was a nice little way to help draw a little more attention to that game.

“But overall it’s been more “miss” than “hit” on this sort of thing. Most games, despite costing you many thousands of dollars come with nothing, just relying on the cabinet themselves to self-promote. I’ve printed out my own “arcade exclusive” signs to put on games as ways to help users know that the game in question isn’t available on their phone or game console. But not much else.

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Yesterday, Raw Thrills sent out their quarterly (not monthly, I had had erroneously written before) newsletter, which included a couple of links to some new “Advertising Kits” that they have produced. These are specifically intended for locations to use as methods for helping promote the games, both in their venues with printed materials as well as with high-rez social media images. While they aren’t coming with the games themselves, this does allow you to spend what you want on creating such promo materials with a local print shop (If you aren’t in on this newsletter, send a request to [email protected] to get on the list).

The two games that enjoy this at first are Injustice Arcade and Halo: Fireteam Raven. Click on the hyperlink for each there to download the PDF with all of the details. The assets themselves are located on links within the PDFs, which you’ll need a Microsoft account to access, by the looks of it.

I checked with Raw Thrills and they do plan on making these kits for other games; the next two will likely be for Nerf Arcade and Super Bikes 3. I wouldn’t mind seeing them for some of the older titles too, but it makes sense that they are focusing on the current big items first.

What this could mean? First off, a great job of reporting by Arcade Heroes. Yes, it is good that manufacturers like Raw Thrills see that making it easy for operators to self-promote their games do generate additional revenue. This is much better than looking at the tops of the games for the ‘New Game’ sign that changes location when a new game arrives.  Many times, I have complemented D&B for advertising the new games that it has exclusive rights to for a period that is usually 90 days. Same goes for the great job Gary Stern does introduce his new pinballs to the public at large shows and his knack for getting TV coverage. This brings game recognition to the general public so when we finally get the game, it enjoys an initial revenue spike.  Our industry lags far behind the auto industry where the manufacturers are in charge of marketing their products. So, thank you Raw Thrills. Perhaps other manufacturers will follow.