Game Trucks, snowballs, and marketing for games.

Last week I went to a pre-E3 panel on marketing for games, hosted by Digital LA at the Beverly Hills Porche (of all places, I didn't expect a car dealership to be so cool). The whole thing was fun, starting with Breezy Freeze flavored snowballs and everything from Call of Duty to Mario in the Game Truck.

This isn't related to gaming, but I gotta say: Breezy Freeze is delicious. I stalk them on Twitter now. Must have more yummy snowballs!

Most of you probably haven't experienced the Game Truck. Until now, most of their business has been in making kids' birthday parties more epic. I spoke to Mark of Game Truck's LA franchise, who set up Little Big Planet 2 for me. Not having a PS3 of my own, this was a delightful surprise. Mark was at the panel because they're looking to branch out into promotions for new releases.

Picture this: you're hanging out downtown with your buddies, when suddenly a truck pulls up, containing four TVs and sixteen controllers, all loaded with a demo of the new multiplayer game you're dying to get your hands on. Sound's awesome, right? This might actually happen soon.

As for the panel itself, I soon learned that game marketers pretty much think about the same things gamers do. Does bundled day one DLC sell enough special editions to counteract the people who won't buy the game at all now on principle? (Hi ME3! Turns out, yes, it does.) How can we make this partnership with a popular gamer actress even more awesome? (DA2's answer was: Make game content about her! I bought DA2 just for the Felicia Day...)

I'd like to provide a list of all the panelists, but silly me did not write them all down. I'll update once I can get the names from Digital LA.