Kate Upton in Game of War: Fire Age ad.
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The DeanBeat: A tale of two celebrity mobile gaming ads

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 4 min

The celebrities have descended upon mobile games. Supermodel Kate Upton starred in a TV ad campaign for Machine Zone’s Game of War: Fire Age. That ad has helped Game of War move from the No. 3 top-grossing game to No. 2, passing up Candy Crush Saga and below only Supercell’s Clash of Clans. Apple has also tapped Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon to advertise its iPhone 6 and the Vainglory action game.

Was it worth it? I don’t have any inside knowledge of how much the ad campaign cost, but it was surely in the millions. That’s crazy, isn’t it? A sure sign that we’ve hit the peak?

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.