The Future Of Marketing Is Bioengineering

Game publishers love their big goofy costumes.  Joystiq has word that Shadow the Hedgehog crashed a Japanese wrestling match as part of a promotion for the new Shadow the Hedgehog title.  Or rather, an actor/intern in a Shadow the Hedgehog suit crashed a Japanese wresting match.  It's hard to take the event "seriously" when the star character looks like a big costume.  Then there was last month's public appearance at a McDonald's where Mario appeared to flip the switch to launch the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.  Or rather, an actor/intern in a Mario suit appeared to flip the switch.

Companies are obviously fond of sending people out in big costumes to appear as gaming's most recognizable characters, and every time this happens the media kits are sent out full of photos of the event.  The people in costumes just isn't working though, and clearly they aren't just for the kiddies as back at E3 this past year I bumped into Mario, Link, and Sonic on three separate occasions.  So I'm not sure just what the companies are trying to accomplish with the costumes, but it just isn't effective.  The time has clearly come for the game publishers to implement a complex bioengineering program.  We need to breed a real six foot tall black-and-red hedgehog with the opposable thumbs necessary to handle a gun who can appear at all press events.  I don't want to see Shadow the Hedgehog at another event until he's the real Shadow the Hedgehog and not just a guy in a costume.