Filed under: Motorsports, Sports/GTs, Marketing/Advertising, Ford
Ford Bold Moves hits the virtual realm with video game
Ford's Bold Moves campaign just got a little bolder with the introduction of Ford Bold Moves Street Racing, a video game developed in cooperation with Eidos Interactive. Scheduled to hit a North American PlayStation 2, XBOX or PC near you this fall, the game comes packing 18 Ford vehicles and the option to switch among three of them at a time during a race, thanks to a function known as "Maximum Team Control." The game also allows the ability to crash and boom 'til your heart's content via the "progressive damage system" function, which, like most video games on the market, shows the damage done to your vehicle as you play.
Among the vehicles to choose from in the game are the 1968 Mustang GT, 1969 Mustang Boss 302, 1985 RS200, 1987 Sierra RS500, 1995 GT90 Concept, 2000 Ford SVT Cobra R, 2004 SVT F-150 Lightning, 2006 Ford GT, and 2007 Shelby GT500.
Our friends over at Joystiq aren't exactly enamored by the fact that the promotional-type game will be sold retail, unlike a game put out last fall by Volvo that was free to prospective buyers and showcased the safety features championed by the brand. We say that if other car manufacturers can spend millions of dollars ensuring that their vehicles end up in Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition and Gran Turismo 4, Ford can spend millions of dollars playing in their own sandbox -- it's the quality of the game that counts.
[Source: Ford Motor Company via Joystiq]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
GhostDoggy 8:47AM (8/13/2006)
I wonder if they are vitually out of debt, too. Its good to play fantasy when your future looks full of dispair.
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JGN 10:41AM (8/13/2006)
Here's a bold move for you Ford, build better cars.
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ed 11:41AM (8/13/2006)
I'm waiting for the "Ford Managers Hide Your Pensions" video game. Sure to be a hit.
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Brian 11:44AM (8/13/2006)
Thank goodness the current designs of the Ranger, Crown Vic, Focus, Explorer, Expedition and all of Lincoln are fresh and class leading, which gives money to Ford to do stuff like this.
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That One Person 11:50AM (8/13/2006)
If its gonna be anything like the other Ford Racing games out there, its gonna blow ass. Such a waste...
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iQuack 1:19PM (8/13/2006)
It's all just a game--except for Ford's real problems.
Maybe this moribund company should stop playing games and build better cars.
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Infinihertz 2:34PM (8/13/2006)
It's amazing how all 5 comments thus far are so sarcastic or pessimistic. It takes any car company - not just Ford - a couple years to get something to market. To address #2 and #5, perhaps you didn't see the Autoblog post from last week where Ford was essentially on par with Toyota in the JD Power quality survey, with Mercury ranked #2 over Toyota (albeit Lexus was #1)?
It's not like Ford's making this game instead of making cars. Eidos is doing it and licensing Ford's trademarks, etc. Why not release something like this? Compared to manufacturing it's a very small investment, and I doubt Ford is actually doing any game development themselves.
Complain about Ford vehicles in articles about Ford vehicles. Posts here should be about the game itself. Only #4 seemed relevant to that.
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Kurt B 8:21PM (8/13/2006)
Even though it's not free, I'm sure we'll be seeing it in the 99c bin soon enough.
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Carlton 7:33AM (8/14/2006)
Great. A video game in which the ugly, poorly designed cars break down before they win anything. Maybe it's a race to see which one will break down first?
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sansname 12:50PM (8/14/2006)
Actually, a game about crashing fords sounds like a worthwhile endeavor
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Will 3:34PM (8/15/2006)
Was there a game like this already made? I could've sworn i've played a game exactly like this before.
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Mike 2:17PM (8/16/2006)
Hopefully it isn't as bad as that horrible flash game they put out last year on their website. I tried getting that thing to work on three different computer and not one would play that bug ridden game.
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CaptainConvergence 1:49PM (8/24/2006)
Just to set the record straight, this game is the result of a licensing arrangement between Ford and Eidos and not built “in house” or an “Advergame” underwritten by FMC; that is why it’s being sold in retail and not distributed like the past Volvo game, which was funded by that division as a marketing and sales tool.
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