Support for LAist comes from
Audience-funded nonprofit news
Stay Connected
Audience-funded nonprofit news
Listen
Podcasts Take Two
The Wheel Thing: Car makers find marketing tool in video games
solid orange rectangular banner
()
Jun 18, 2015
Listen 7:06
The Wheel Thing: Car makers find marketing tool in video games
Race 'em. Crash 'em. Steal 'em. Cars are a staple of video games. Now car makers see the games as a powerful marketing tool.
The new Ford GT won't be out until next year, but gamers can drive it in the latest version of the racing game, Forza Motorsport
The new Ford GT won't be out until next year, but gamers can drive it in the latest version of the racing game, Forza Motorsport
(
Microsoft
)

Race 'em. Crash 'em. Steal 'em. Cars are a staple of video games. Now car makers see the games as a powerful marketing tool.

Think E3, the big video game conference, and think masses of quasi-nerdy gamers drooling over ultra-high def screens.  

They're ecstatic over shoot-em ups, wild about battling demons in fantasy worlds, and aching to explore the edges of space.

And they're nuts about racing cars.

As the OC Register's Susan Carpenter tells us, car companies now see video games as an important arrow in their marketing quiver, and they're hustling to make deals with video game producers.

Read Susan's OC Register story.