Halo: Reach marketing buzz takes a bald new step (this is about hair clippers)

by Christopher Grant on Apr 29th 2010 11:48AM

The Halo Reach clippers, guaranteed to take you from Brute to Spartan™

Paired to go along with the beginning of the early access "friends and family" beta for Halo: Reach came the above tool, some seemingly military-grade Oster hair clippers, bundled in a heavy duty Pelican case that probably cost more than the clippers themselves. Inscribed with the WelcomeToNobleTeam.com URL – haven't you seen the short yet? – and delivered at the oh-so-welcome hour of 7am, the package contained another treat: a copy of Halo 3: ODST.

Of course, that ODST disc won't gain you access to the beta until May 3rd, but luckily this morning's announcement of a partnership between Halo Reach developer Bungie and Activision – solidifying the dev's departure from Microsoft, Halo, and platform-exclusivity – will give you plenty to think about over the next four days. Check out the entire kit in the gallery below while we figure out the best way to give it to a reader.

Halo Reach ... hair clippers?

Tags: 343-Industries, Bungie, Halo, Halo-Reach, Microsoft, Oster, swag, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (58)

No way in hell would I shave my head for a game. Clemente might but not me!

It's kind of funny how a Beta is being hyped this much. Don't get me wrong I have nothing against the game but this has to be one hell of a franchise to require PR for just the Beta.

Oh man, I so want those!

Now we can all live like bald space marines!

Too bad I just bought some expensive clipper =\

*Clippers

so want!

For the love of Cortana, Joyswag this!

Out of all the awesome novelty Halo accouterments you can have, Halo clippers never occurred to me.

I've been shaving my head for about 16 years. I could certainly use a military grade clipper.

My brother is a barber and big Halo fan. I could send it his way :)

What are the odds..

Well on the bright side, you're officially a SPARTAN! As is Crecente from Kotaku...

...You guys should have an epic fight.

Maybe together they could . . .

*puts on sunglasses*

finish the fight.

OR, as this is a prequel, maybe they would be starting the fight.

YEA----wait, what?

http://instantsfun.es/csi

I'd shave myself bald just to use those clippers.

Sounds like that would be good idea for a contest..... wink wink joystiq. Best bald guy wins. Haha, thinking about it that would be awesome.

Halo swag = awesome.

heck, i just want that bomb shelter of a case

How much cheaper would games be if companies didn't waste money on stupid advertising like this?

I mean is this really helping sell more games. It's kind of ridiculous in my opinion.

None. Games aren't more expensive because of trivial marketing like this (at least not directly).

I think your wrong there. Companies spend millions on marketing, its not free! That cost is passed on to the consumer, when they buy the product. Its the same with ANY product you buy.

You do realize that advertising is ultimately meant to increase sales, right? Not all advertising campaigns are successful, but that is the goal of most. And something like this doesn't cost millions. It's trivial compared to the cost of a TV campaign, but it gets posted on all the big gaming sites where you can reach much of core audience for relatively cheap.

Vidikron,
I totally agree marketing is used to sell games. Im just saying that i believe millions of $'s are over used on advertising games that are already going to sell VERY well. The only people who are going to see this type of advertising are people that were already going to buy the game or journalist's who will get the game for free!

Im saying if Halo and other games of its stature cut there advertising budgets in half, i bet they'd sell the same amount of games. Why cant that savings be passed on to us? Or maybe im the only one who wants cheaper games.

Yeah, maybe something like this isn't necessary for a game like Halo, but I also agree with Trey that this isn't contributing to the cost of the game. These are probably $50 clippers with some cheap metal name plate attached and were likely sent out to a handful of news outlets. It's just a cheap way of keeping Reach in the minds of gamers and generating buzz. Small things like this have a cumulative affect over time.

yes its just one marketing thing. But its one of a 100's of different marketing things! The cost adds up.

I am so excited for this game that I wouldn't stop with just shaving my head . . .

Oh Obi-wan, you spoony old pervert.

It's as if a million pubes cried out and were suddenly shaved...

This brings a whole new meaning to "marketing buzz".

YYEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

wow you WIN!

Oh wait that was in the title of the article. You FAIL!

I'll tell you what, I've been growing my hair out for nine years. Joystiq, if you send me that, I'll shave it off and record it for you.

I think it would have been much cooler if instead of putting Halo: Reach and the website on the clippers they had put UNSC branding on them to make them look like the real deal that Spartans would have been shaved with. They could have still put property of noble team or something on there too.

I'm in the market for some new clippers! Can't find my old ones for the life of me, and my hair is getting long :P

So we get to see the beta of Halo : Reach around May 3rd?

LOL

To tell you the truth, no one knows how to cut African American hair around where I live other than my dad and this Ethiopian barber that lives far away from me.
1. My dad doesn't know how to really clean up the look.
2. The Ethiopian barber, who is really great, has to jack up the price because here shop is in a dying mall center.

Soo... if I'm gonna save money and learn to cut my own hair, might as well start with Reach clippers.

Where do you live? Canada?

Lol, if that were the case Toronto wouldn't be a problem... but no, I live just outside of Minneapolis.

I would shave my head for sure, I need a hair cut anyways. I would youtube it if I had these clippers.

damn, im already bald.

You can check out people playing Reach Beta here:
http://www.justin.tv/tashi23#r=1kgH660~

damn, and i wanted to get a haircut today BEFORE i saw this

Anyone else find it funny that of all the people on the Joystiq staff they could send this to, they send it to Baldy McBaldbald? (I'm kidding, Chris... what little hair you have is actually quite nice. Plz don't ban me.)

It's perfect, I have so little hair left I need to buzz it with clippers.

Unfortunately, we don't keep this stuff so this will go off to someone else while I'll continue buzzing my head with the $19.99 target special I use.

Way cooler than my night vision goggles!

Heh. Clever.

"Check out the entire kit in the gallery below while we figure out the best way to give it to a reader."

Good on you! I heard Kotaku's "editor" is going to burn his in his backyard fire pit.

This is the clipper http://www.amazon.com/Oster-Limited-Silver-Detachable-Clipper/dp/B002VJ50PI/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=hpc&qid=1272562095&sr=8-9

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Halo: Reach marketing buzz takes a bald new step (this is about hair clippers)

Halo Reach ... hair clippers?

Reader Comments (58)

Posted: Apr 29th 2010 11:49AM One Stomy Night go watch it said

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