High Five: The Best Gaming Ads to Ever Come Out of Japan
Japan doesn’t just make video games, it makes culture – compressed into cartridges, discs and digital downloads. From the button-mashing arcades of the '80s to today’s billion-dollar mobile gaming industry, Japan’s gaming legacy is part technological revolution, part global obsession. And where there are games, there are ads.
Japan’s approach to game advertising embraces a unique blend of unhinged humour, cultural insight and visual experimentation. Sometimes that means a martial arts master drop-kicking people into playing the Sega Saturn, and sometimes it means making a historically accurate byobu screen of battle-ready cartoon cats.
Here are five of the greatest gaming ads to come out of Japan...
PlayStation - 'Playface'
Agency: Wieden+Kennedy Tokyo
Director: Timothy Saccenti
The first rule of video game marketing? Show the game. The second rule? Ignore the first rule if you’re PlayStation. 'Playface' was pure chaos marketing: a series of slow-motion close-ups of gamers, faces twisted in joy, horror and slack-jawed focus. No gameplay, no dialogue. Just pure, visceral reaction. It wasn’t about what they were playing; it was about what playing felt like. It was bold, simple and provocative, and it was also banned in Japan, which naturally made PlayStation even cooler.
Sega Saturn - 'Segata Sanshiro'
Agency: Dentsu
Some brands ask nicely. Some use martial arts to force compliance. The 'Segata Sanshiro' campaign is a masterclass in absurdist advertising. It follows a stoic judo master (played by Hiroshi Fujioka) who violently punishes anyone not playing the Sega Saturn. A couple tries to dance? Segata pile-drives them. Kids playing baseball? Segata hurls a Sega at the batter. The message is clear: play Sega Saturn... or suffer.
The campaign is a great case study for what celebrity, humour and an incredible theme song can achieve. It even concluded with a tragic finale -- the judo master sacrificing himself in an explosion to protect Sega, a fittingly dramatic end to one of gaming’s greatest campaigns.
All Nippon Airways - 'Game Chronicle'
Agency: Enjin Tokyo
Gaming history isn’t just about pixels and polygons, it’s about moments in time. And ANA, of all brands, decided to commemorate 40 years of Japanese gaming history with a browser game. This campaign brought together Nintendo, Sony, Bandai Namco, SEGA and other gaming titans in a collaboration. Think about that. That’s like getting Coke and Pepsi to share a vending machine. The result was an interactive timeline, where players could explore four decades of gaming history while soaring through a virtual airline cabin. It was beautifully executed, a dream for any gaming nostalgist, collected global attention, and somehow, it made an airline ad...fun.
Konami - 'Life Is Football'
Agency: Hakuhodo Tokyo x Konami
Football isn’t just a sport, it’s a way of seeing the world. Konami’s 'Life is Football' campaign captured that idea in 15-second bursts of cultural satire, using everyday moments to show how football’s rhythm bleeds into life. The best spot involves three Japanese salarymen. It’s football. It’s bureaucracy. It’s Japan’s love of meticulous process, mirrored through the beautiful game. In 15 seconds, it didn’t just sell a football game. It sold a worldview.
The Battle Cats - 'The Way of the Cat'
Agency: R/GA Tokyo x PONOS
Instead of relying on paid ads, we used earned media and organic community momentum to turn the anniversary into a cultural event. Samurai-themed films. Metro station takeovers that looked more like historical relics than game marketing. We didn’t just advertise, we gave fans something to rally around.
If The Battle Cats are the new samurai, this campaign set out to prove they don’t just fight with claws, they fight with craft.
The best game ads don’t just sell you a game -- they pull you into its world. They blur the line between an ad and an experience, turning gaming into a cultural moment: Whether that’s a slow-motion embodiment of digital ecstasy, a judo disciple of corporate warfare, or a football match disguised as office bureaucracy. In Japan, the most unforgettable game ads don’t just show you the game, they make you feel like you're already playing. And that’s why they last.
