While Until Dawn might be one of Sony’s new IPs this generation, it didn’t seem to get the marketing push as some of the publisher’s other first-party games.

At this year’s Tokyo Game Show, PlayStation LifeStyle’s Heath Hindman asked this very question to Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida who confirmed that nope, it’s not some deep seated conspiracy, but rather, it’s about regional marketing and budget.

PlayStation LifeStyle: How do you determine the level of marketing and promotion that a game gets before launch? It seems like some critical darlings and good-sellers (recent example: Until Dawn) get little push compared to some others. What are the deciding factors? Yoshida: Each region has its own marketing department with its own goals for a year and its own budget for the year. Of course there are lots of relations among the regions and Worldwide Studios, but differences could be based on the popularity, like of the genres or titles. Each marketing department makes the final decision how much a particular product gets pushed. That said, sometimes games like Until Dawn find great reception from reviews and consumers after launch. In that case, some additional marketing push can be created to sustain the momentum post-launch. I hear great support continuing in all regions [for Until Dawn]. It’s not like Uncharted, but still, our marketing departments are responsive to the reactions from consumers.

Fortunately for Supermassive Games, Until Dawn did quite well for itself even without Sony’s hefty marketing muscle to push it along. And due to the nature of its gameplay, even managed to be YouTube’s top trending game for the month.

Let’s hope Sony markets Until Dawn this Halloween for an added sales push, no? Unless, y’know, you don’t want to see a sequel.

Shuhei Yoshida Explains Lack of Until Dawn Marketing Push - PlayStation LifeStyle WATCH GALLERY

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