The video game market has changed a lot over the years. 

These days, the term “gamer” could be applied to anybody. Guys, girls, couples, kids, adults, and whoever else in between. But if we’re being honest, if someone has time to play a ton of video games, it’s a little more likely that they’re alone. And when gaming wasn’t as popular, that was definitely the case. The first generation of gamers were dudes who needed to get laid and the marketing teams knew that.

The result is a bunch of ad campaigns for games, some vintage and some from today, that appeal to the loneliest (and horniest) parts of a customer’s brain. They weren’t even trying to be subtle or smart about it. Sega would just straight-up put a woman in lingerie next to a screenshot of the console, or a lady in shorts bending over an arcade game. Nintendo, the most family-friendly name in the game, put a picture of a woman tied up in a bed and then slapped a Gameboy Color in front of it.