Marketing can be Fun

Marketing is a huge staple in the success of a product. It is amazing how popular Portal became when it was just a game that was included in the Orange Box yet it amassed a huge fan base upon its release. Portal is hard not to love with GLaDOS, the Companion Cube, the cute little turrets, and, of course, the puzzle solving. Seeing all of these make a return in Portal 2 was wonderful and the new characters that are introduced are just as much fun. Due to the success of the first, Portal 2 actually recieved marketing and was promoted by several Indie games developers. Valve and these game developers worked together to help build hype for the upcoming launch of Portal 2 by placing unlockable "potatoes" in their games. They initiated this on April 1 and called it "#PotatoFoolsDay." I thought it was pretty cool to read about the collaborative effort in which these producers participated. The fact Valve allowed such free access of their licensed property to several different Indie developers showed their dedication to promoting and enhancing the "Portal experience."

I would like to give special thanks to Chris Bennett for sending this article my way. For those of you interested in actually reading the article here's the link: www.gamesutra.com/view/feature/6371/the_portal_two_arg_the_whole_story.php