Before getting down to the nitty gritty of Ivy Valentine's mutant breasts, I wanted to take a quick moment to introduce myself. I'm Dan, a Writer/Editor, filmmaker and Captain America fanboy, and the new Editor-in-Chief of Eye of the Vortex, and I'll be mostly behind the scenes here at EOV. If you're interested in learning more about me, you can you can take a look at my bio page. And now, here's a bit of commentary on the subject of Soul Calibur V and marketing sexuality.




It's no surprise that Soul Calibur V is a hotly anticipated title. Namco-Bandai released a Facebook poll early in 2010, asking consumers if they would be interested in another installment of the franchise. When an overwhelming response was given to request a new game, Namco-Bandai promptly replied, and what a response they have gotten so far. Despite not being released in the US until the end of January, Soul Calibur V has already gained gold status just on the pre-orders. Now that's a game that's hotly anticipated.

While sales figures are all well and good, I couldn't help but stumble across the above image marketing the game in Japan. The Japanese text, aptly scrawled across Ivy's mutant proportioned breasts, which have apparently not aged a day since Soul Calibur IV, translates roughly into “This spring, your chest swells in anticipation.” For the Japanese, this type of objectification of women isn't exactly new, anyone who has visited some of the darker recesses of the Internet can attest to that. But what is concerning, or more interesting as a sort of faux sociological study, is the connection between this advertisement and the gold status of Soul Calibur V.

Sex sells. We all know that. But just how well?

I remember when I was around sixteen, I was in a Gamestop in New York City, browsing through games that were evidently too bad to be rejected from the game floor and were exiled to the bargain bin. Now logically I knew these games were there for a reason, but the penis that resides in most men's heads took the better of me after a woman with similar mutant proportions caught my eye on the cover of a Nintendo DS title. I gingerly tucked the game under my arm, and rang it up at the counter. That was probably one of the worse game purchases of my life, so bad, in fact, that I only played the title once and then chucked it into regions unknown of my room.

Five years later, I'd like to think that a character like Ivy, or rather, breasts like Ivy's, would not solely influence my decision to purchase a game. I'd like to think I'm slightly more mature now. But still, it seems that there must be a connection between sexual marketing and Soul Calibur V's pre-launch gold status. What that connection is, we may never know, but it is certainty something to think about.

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