Video game commercials used to be pretty wild. Nintendo had mascots doing royal rumbles to The Turtles. Guys exploding into puke for Yoshi’s Island. And don’t get me started on the brand activation stunt era where Capcom served people-flavored food. Nowadays you’re lucky to get a promo reel set to The Hives. A new ad spot for the Switch 2 edition of Stellar Blade is a real throwback, featuring live action performers integrating lead character Eve into their day to day life. In isolation, it’s a pretty charming video. In isolation.
“It should have been me!” hollers dozens of comments on the YouTube page, which has already accumulated two million views.
The commercial wants to emphasize that on the Nintendo Switch, you can take Stellar Blade along with you. In its 100 seconds, we see Eve catching frisbees in the park, sharing sodas and showing off her future sword with commuters. Front and center is an indoors setting. A fully-grown fella who is being tucked in by Eve, having a beddy time story read to him, and even gets a little creature chased out from under his bed.
Released in 2024, the at-first unassuming sci-fi hack and slash Stellar Blade became a fixation of the roving culture wars. Higher profile than most available gaming erotica, those determined to manifest a return to the machismo ‘90s of games and marketing turned the game into a totem. This blade twisted around on developers Shift Up when any attempt to alter or add clothes to its characters erupted in a grievance campaign. It was pretty dumb. It’s always pretty dumb, out here.
Marketing teams are rarely as dumb. One must assume the oedipal undertones of the new ad and ensuing mesmerization of fans is intentional. And as someone who likes the unhinged Grand Theft Auto Coca-Cola ad, obliged to be consistent in my time on Earth, I’m giving this spot my blessings.
Of course, the other thing the Stellar Blade games have become associated with is an extra leery embrace of AI. The trailer to the sequel, Stellar Blade: Blood Rain, cranked each knob up, but with the kind of uncanny generative machine assistance seen throughout shovelware mobile ads. To their credit, this new commercial doesn’t set off any of those red flags, and Eve’s performer, Jade J, posted behind the scenes images to further suggest those in the commercial are flesh and blood. So that’s one less thing you’ll have to tell your therapist about.
