Preview Piggybacking

What does God of War have to do with Total Recall?^note It's just cross-promotion because Sony owns both.

Lark: Alright! Pre-ordered my copy of Final Fantasy Type-0!
Summer: First of all, don't pre-order. Second, since when did you want that game?
Lark: I don't. But it comes with a demo of Final Fantasy XV.
Summer: Are you serious? You're going to pay sixty dollars for a three-hour demo?
Lark: Well, I already paid thirty dollars for a one-hour demo when I purchased Ground Zeroes.
Summer: That's true.

— Fandumb #35

Basically this is when a work sells itself on including a preview for a much more anticipated work. This is often done with second string titles that would fizzle out on their own. This has become less prevalent (or at least less successful) with the rise of easier video sharing and video game demos on the Internet, but still there are some fandoms dedicated enough to shell out cash for a ticket to Movie You Might Have Ignored Completely if it means they get a chance to see just an ad for Everything You Ever Liked: The Movie.

This is also done on TV shows. You get a trailer (more often called a "sneak peek") packed somewhere in the commercials (although usually at the end) for an anticipated blockbuster.

Sometimes this works. A person willing to sit through the actual feature may indeed find something they like about it and become a fan. Other times, they just get the preview they wanted and ignore/throw away the rest.

The inverse is standard procedure, where an anticipated work includes a preview for a less-hyped title, in the hope that attention will rub off on it.

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Examples:

Films — Animation

• The teaser trailer for The Lion King (1994), which consisted of the entire "Circle of Life" opening, was shown in theaters with The Three Musketeers and Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit. Because of the positive response, Disney released extended teasers for Pocahontas (with a re-release of The Lion King) and Dinosaur (with Toy Story 2). The latter movie's extended teaser, which was a sneak peek of a scene from the movie, was also on the VHS release of Tarzan.
• The teaser trailer for Ice Age: The Meltdown was shown during screenings of Robots.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
  • On the day of May 28, 2011, many bronies went to their TV sets and watched The Hub's airing of Garfield: The Movie just to see the "Equestria Girls" commercial, which was airing for the first time.
  • An August 2015 showing of Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks on Discovery Family was followed by a "Friendship Games Special", which screened all of the YouTube shorts promoting the upcoming Friendship Games, capped with a sneak peek.
• 20th Century Fox put a behind-the-scenes preview for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie on the VHS release of The Pagemaster.
• Sing: As another network cross-promotional example, some ads for the season 11 finale of The Voice (which airs on NBC, part of the NBC Universal conglomerate that also owns Sing studio Illumination Entertainment) boasted that a sneak preview of Sing would air during said finale. The preview mostly consisted of clips that had appeared in previous trailers, but with some alterations that were closer to the movie. For example, they had the rabbits singing "Anaconda", but the clip of Rosita falling down was replaced with one of Buster telling the rabbits to stop singing.
• One airing of Toy Story of Terror showed the first two and a half minutes of Penguins of Madagascar during the second ad break.
• Freeform (then still using the ABC Family name) once premiered a new trailer for Inside Out during a new episode of The Fosters. (The trailer in question was notable for being the first one to show Bing Bong.)
• A trailer for Shrek 2 premiered during an NBC airing of the original Shrek.
• A trailer of Shark Tale was attached to screenings of Shrek 2.
• Repeating history, one of the trailers for Despicable Me 2 was first shown on an ABC airing of the first film.
• Many fans of Teen Titans Go! saw Paddington 2 in order to view the trailer for Teen Titans Go! To the Movies.
• Trailers for The Simpsons Movie premiered during debut episodes of the TV show. ^note (Namely, "Million Dollar Abie", "G.I. (Annoyed Grunt)" and "Springfield Up") The first teaser was also shown theatrically with Ice Age: The Meltdown.
  • The mobile phone game based on the show, The Simpsons: Tapped Out, spoofed this trope during their 2014 Christmas update. One part of the update has Martin tell Lisa that 60% of viewers only watch the show for the couch gag (the couch gag that they were discussing was a spoof of Frozen (2013)).
• Ralph Breaks the Internet
  • A Wrinkle in Time (2018) was where many people saw the movie's first trailer - or at least those who didn't already catch it on the actual Internet beforehand. (This is the same teaser that spawned the "bunny gets the pancakes" meme, which got so much steam that it was incorporated into the mid-credits scene once the actual movie released.)
  • The actual movie spoofs this in its stinger. A sneak peek of the Frozen 2 is promised, but instead turns out to be Ralph doing a Rickroll.
• To get fans of the franchises in question to see Frozen II, the trailers for Sonic the Hedgehog, SCOOB!, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run and Trolls World Tour all premiered on prints of the film before anywhere else.
  • For some odd reason, the Sponge on the Run trailer was also attached to many prints of Greta Gerwig's Little Women, of all films, to the point where it became a meme to note how odd the trailer's placement was.^note It could be argued that as Little Women catered to families, it's reasonable.
  • The Sonic trailer was also mysteriously attached to another straight-faced PG-rated Sony drama, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.^note The abovementioned reason could be used here as well.
• An inverse of the Sponge on the Run/Little Women and Sonic/Beautiful Day examples later happened when the trailer for Lightyear showed up on prints of The King's Man and Nightmare Alley (2021) - both of which are owned by Disney through their ownership of 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures respectively.
• The original DVD release for Hey Arnold! The Movie contains a preview for the direct-to-video sequel Charlotte's Web 2: Wilbur's Great Adventure and the "Meet the Animals" interactive game from said sequel's own DVD (which, aside from Hey Arnold! 's theatrical trailer, is the only bonus feature included on the Hey Arnold! DVD release).
• The first teaser for The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie was shown with showings of Brother Bear. A second was shown with Shrek 2.
  • The first trailer for its sequel, The Sponge Bob Movie Sponge Out Of Water, was shown with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), and the second one was shown with Big Hero 6.
• The first trailer for Despicable Me was shown before many prints of the 2009 adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are.
• Before they were released online, the teaser trailers for Abominable, Rumble and Space Jam: A New Legacy played with Dumbo, Sonic the Hedgehog and a few prints of Godzilla vs. Kong, respectively. This also happened with the American trailer for Playmobil: The Movie on a few prints of The Lion King (2019).
• The 2021 Kids' Choice Awards contained an exclusive sneak preview of PAW Patrol: The Movie.
  • In Japan, an exclusive commercial was shown at the end of the premiere of the episode "Pups Bearly Save Danny; Pups Save The Mayor's Tulips".
  • In the United Kingdom, the trailer for the movie was shown before Maya The Bee: The Golden Orb before surfacing online.
  • The trailer for the film was attached to many prints of Spirit Untamed. Coincidentally, Marsai Martin was in both movies.
• The trailer for Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank premiered at the 2022 Kids' Choice Awards. In addition, the trailer played before select prints of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022).
• A sneak peek at the upcoming Disney film Wish (2023) was shown during the television premiere of Encanto on ABC.
• The first look at Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World was shown during the Wonderful World Of Disney premiere of the original Pocahontas.
• A sneak preview of The Land Before Time IV: Journey Through the Mists (the entire "It Takes All Sorts" sequence) was played before the VHS release of The Land Before Time III: The Time of the Great Giving.
• Two examples from Disney Sing-Along Songs videos, "We Are One" from The Lion King II: Simba's Pride was on "Honor To Us All" 3 months before the movie was released on video, and "Diggah Tunnah" from The Lion King 1 ½ was on "On My Way" 4 months before the movie's release.
• This seems to be the reason why VeggieTales: Jonah Sing-Along Songs And More! was created. The video contained clips of songs from Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie and ended with a 12-minute behind the scenes look at the film.
• The teaser trailer for Coraline debuted in front of screenings of Beowulf. Both movies had the involvement of Neil Gaiman (Gaiman was one of the screenwriters of Beowulf and wrote the book Coraline was based off of).
• Some Animaniacs fans saw Thumbelina because an exclusive short (which would later air as part of the series), "I'm Mad", played before the film.

Films — Live-Action

• The teaser to Tim Burton's Batman (1989) appeared before prints of Tequila Sunrise, and was comprised of nothing but early footage and alternate takes that were never used in the film itself. It was so exciting that, according to most anecdotal accounts, people bought tickets just to watch the trailer, then left afterwards.
• Star Wars: In the months leading up to releases in the prequel trilogy, many Star Wars fans reportedly bought tickets just to see the trailers being shown before certain movies and then left the theater en masse after they saw it.
  • The teaser for The Phantom Menace was shown with Meet Joe Black, The Waterboy, The Siege and A Bug's Life (in the case of the former, the trailer was shown again after the credits). Later, the second trailer was shown before Wing Commander, and the final trailer was shown before The Mod Squad.
  • According to IMDB, the first trailer for Attack of the Clones was shown before Monsters, Inc. Another trailer was shown in front of Ice Age.
  • Finally, the teaser for Revenge of the Sith was shown before The Incredibles, while another trailer played in front of Robots (which, coincidentally, also starred Ewan McGregor).
• Pokémon 3 had many theaters deny refunds in case people just came to watch the Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone trailer, while Scooby-Doo (2002) attracted fans because of a preview for Chamber of Secrets.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was a variation of this. It was already a hit when a trailer for The Two Towers was put into the film. So many people saw it again for the trailer, even though we were anticipating the previewed film because of the piggybacking film.
  • Same thing happened with Back to the Future Part II, as it had the trailer for Part III before the credits.
• The trailer for the first Pirates of the Caribbean was first attached to The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (which also starred Orlando Bloom). The second film's first trailer was attached to The Chronicles of Narnia.
• The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) was advertised as being the only place to see the trailer for X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Similarly, there were huge billboards in the UK advertising a three-part trailer during 24: Redemption.
• Fans of Kevin Smith were known to have purchased tickets to Scary Movie 2 in order to see the exclusive Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back trailer.
• Screenings of Looney Tunes: Back in Action came with the Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed trailer.
• The adaptation of Stephen King's Dreamcatcher had a two-birds-with-one-stone piggybacking in that it was front-loaded with Final Flight of the Osiris, a short film from The Animatrix (released 4 months after Dreamcatcher) that led directly into (and served as a teaser for) The Matrix Reloaded.
• Bandslam, starring Vanessa Hudgens, was the launchpad for the first trailer of The Twilight Saga: New Moon.
• The Twilight Saga: Eclipse: In North America, Summit used Remember Me to launch the Eclipse trailer (both star Robert Pattinson), while in Sweden, Kick-Ass was actually advertised in papers with "Don't miss the Eclipse trailer!".
• J. J. Abrams has been known to do this for announcing new projects. The first trailer for Cloverfield was shown before Transformers before production even started. Same thing with Super 8 being shown before Iron Man 2 and within Portal 2.
  • When Cloverfield was released, it had the first trailer for Star Trek (2009).
• The Jet Li film Hero (2002) was delayed for two years in North America so Harvey Weinstein could release the trailer before prints of Kill Bill.
• Some films are even reissued solely because of this trope. Examples include: The Empire Strikes Back before A New Hope, Return of the Jedi before A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, Pulp Fiction before Reservoir Dogs and Pocahontas before The Lion King (1994).
• Anything starring Adam Sandler went through a spell of this around 2010-11. Just Go with It had Zookeeper (with Sandler voicing a monkey) attached to it and that movie had Jack and Jill attached. Both times, the trailer didn't really fit with the movie.
• The trailer for Machete was attached to prints of Predators due to Robert Rodriguez and Danny Trejo working on both films. Audiences were probably in for a shock when after seeing Trejo mow down Border Patrol and Hungarian bodyguards in the trailer, he became the first person killed in the movie.
• The trailer for Die Another Day was attached to prints of Austin Powers in Goldmember as the result of a settlement between Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and New Line Cinema over using the name "Goldmember" (which MGM felt sounded too similar to Goldfinger).
• The Stingers for Marvel movies are a variation of this; many people see movies they wouldn't otherwise be interested in for the scenes within the credits, which often build up towards the events of upcoming entries. Dropping any subtlety, the post-credits scene for Captain America: The First Avenger was a complete mini-trailer for The Avengers (2012).
  • Taken even further with the second trailer for Spider-Man: Far From Home, which was released partway into the theatrical run of Avengers: Endgame and shown after the credits. Justified in that this specific trailer includes major spoilers for Endgame, so adding it to the pre-film trailers wasn't an option. The trailer even starts with Tom Holland telling the viewer to watch Endgame first for those who found the trailer elsewhere!
  • Similarly to the Captain America/Avengers example, the first trailer for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness first premiered as the post-credits scene for Spider-Man: No Way Home.
• An odd example with Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (by Warner Bros.) and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (by Paramount). While the first full theatrical trailer for The Dark Knight Rises (also by WB) was attached to Sherlock Holmes, Ghost Protocol got the opportunity to show the six-minute prologue of TDKR, causing many a headache for execs at WB.
  • And only select prints of Sherlock Holmes got the trailer. Most prints had either Rock of Ages and Jack the Giant Slayer attached (and the latter film underwent Trailer Delay afterward, not opening until 2013), or the first teaser trailer of TDKR.
• Gravity is an inversion (the "highly-anticipated work promotes a lesser-known one" version) that is actually woven into the narrative. The radio conversation that Stone holds while aboard the Soyuz is actually connected to co-writer Jonás Cuarón's Aningaaq, a short film about a Greenlandic Inuit fisherman out with his huskies, his wife, and his newborn, unable to understand, let alone comfort, the dying astronaut in space. However, this short was written deliberately to work as a companion piece to Gravity: not only does it show the other end of the poignant conversation, the seven-minute short encapsulates the same broad themes of life and death of its larger sibling — just as Stone goes over the brink of despair, Aningaaq himself isn't playing with his dogs as she believes in her film; he's actually devastated over the prospect of sacrificing his beloved, elderly husky.
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug included the first teasers for Interstellar and Godzilla. The latter teaser helped convince some fans displeased with The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey to give Smaug a chance, if only to see the skydiving sequence from Godzilla on the big screen. An odd case in that, despite the piggybacking, Smaug outgrossed both Godzilla and Interstellar.
• Screenings for Godzilla (2014) also included the second trailer for Christopher Nolan's Interstellar.
• The following Blu-Rays of Sony films were packaged with demos of the following Sony games:
  • District 9 and God of War III.
  • Zookeeper and Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One
  • Battle: Los Angeles and Resistance 3
  • Total Recall (2012) and God of War: Ascension
  • Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children COMPLETE and Final Fantasy XIII
• The 2004 Star Wars Trilogy DVD set contained a demo of the Xbox version of Star Wars: Battlefront, and the sequel had the same treatment in the Revenge of the Sith DVD one year later.
  • The 2006 individual DVD releases of the original trilogy containing the pre-Special Edition versions of each film also included a demo of LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, which came out on the exact same day as the DVDs.
• The Indiana Jones rereleases prior to the fourth movie in 2008 had a demo for LEGO Indiana Jones.
• The 2-DVD set of the Spider-Man movie contained a demo for the PC movie game on its second disk.
• The Wizard, the Nintendo commercial disguised as a movie, is one of the more famous examples of this. On top of promoting many other NES games, it also had the first ever gameplay preview of Super Mario Bros. 3, and even includes some helpful tips for good measure.
• Commercials for Elektra aired with promises of the first trailer for Fantastic Four (2005).
  • The teaser trailer for Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer debuted in front of screenings of Night at the Museum.
  • Ironically, about ten years later, the reboot for the latter film pulled the same thing by advertising that the movie would feature a trailer for Deadpool.
• Lady Gaga and The Muppets Holiday Spectacular promised a sneak peek of Muppets Most Wanted would air during the broadcast. Like the Sing/The Voice example listed earlier on, said preview was literally just the entire theatrical trailer that had debuted in theaters and on the Internet earlier that month, but with a clip added of Ricky Gervais' character insisting that "Kermit's" deeper-than-normal voice is just him having a cold (when he's actually a criminal mastermind trying to pass himself off as Kermit while the real Kermit is in a gulag).
• The initial red-band trailer for The Happytime Murders was attached to select prints of Deadpool 2 in the United States.
• Many people went to see IMAX 3D screenings of The House With a Clock in Its Walls just to see the 3D Thriller music video.
• Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, a biopic depicting Dr. William Moulton Marston and his creation of Wonder Woman, had its teaser trailer attached to the character's big-screen solo debut.
• Tenet had two theater-exclusive previews: a teaser trailer initially attached to Hobbs & Shaw, and a 6 1/2 minute prologue attached to select IMAX screenings of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. The film was also advertised in Fortnite.
• The first trailer for Denis Villeneuve's Dune (2021) was attached to American screenings of the above-mentioned Tenet.
• Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) had an exclusive teaser trailer attached to It: Chapter Two.
• In a similar case to the already-mentioned Sony PG-rated dramas having trailers for Paramount family movies before them, the trailer for Downton Abbey was attached to Cinemark's prints of, oddly enough, Toy Story 4.
• Just as interestingly, the second trailer for Space Jam: A New Legacy was attached to prints of fellow Warner film In the Heights, in some cases sandwiched between trailers for Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins and Reminiscence.
  • A sneak peek at the making of Olivia Rodrigo's SOUR album was attached to a Mother's Day IMAX screening event of the film.
• An extended preview for the "96,000" musical number, from the above-mentioned In the Heights, kicks off the opening previews that were attached to Cruella.
• NBC attached exclusive footage of F9 to a promotional airing of its predecessor The Fate of the Furious, a few months prior to the former's release.
• In June 2021, a trailer for Halloween Kills premiered in front of showings of F9; the trailer was quickly leaked and was subsequently released online.
  • Also for F9, the first five minutes of Jurassic World: Dominion premiered in front of IMAX screenings of that film, with posters for Dominion specifically advertising how to watch the preview rather than the eventual release date for the film itself. Unlike Halloween Kills, this footage has not been released online.
• A "first look" at Cinderella (2021), starring Camila Cabello, was promoted heavily alongside The Tomorrow War during the latter's first weeks of Prime Video availability; a rare instance of this trope occurring for a streaming release.
• A trailer for The Lost World: Jurassic Park was attached to theatrical screenings of Liar Liar.
• The 2021 UK theatrical reissue of Scream (1996) featured the first ever trailer for Scream (2022).
• The first teaser for the long awaited Avatar sequel, The Way of Water, was featured worldwide before screenings of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
• The teaser trailer for Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer debuted exclusively in front of screenings of Nope.
• The original Japanese VHS copy of the Doraemon short films The Doraemons: Doki Doki Wildcat Engine and Doraemon: A Grandmother's Recollections contained a rare trailer for Thomas and the Magic Railroad at the end.
• The teaser trailer for Barbie and the second trailer for Oppenheimer screened before Avatar: The Way of Water, with some people admitting they bought a ticket solely to see the trailers in theaters and then leaving after the previews were over.
• Another unique case came when a trailer for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was attached to prints of the straight-faced Oscar Bait drama Empire Of Light. Both are owned by Disney through Marvel Studios and Searchlight Pictures respectively.

Literature

• The Warrior Cats and Seeker Bears book often have preview pages for the next book, being written by the same author. In fact, one of the main selling points of the summer 2012 release Enter The Clans ^note a re-release of the books Secrets of the Clans and Code of the Clans in paperback is that it contains a teaser for Survivor Dogs, the new (not really) Erin Hunter series, and the fifth Super Edition, Yellowfang's Secret.
• The Tolkien Reader was originally conceived by publishers as a way of broadening interest in Tokien's non-fiction essays by mixing abridged versions of them with some of his shorter fiction.
• In fact, this is extremely common with books; often the paperback release of a book will contain a preview of the sequel or another book by the same author as a way of building hype for the upcoming book (and possibly in the hopes of getting people who bought the hardcover to buy the paperback as well). This is parodied in The Princess Bride, which has a preview of a sequel that was never supposed to be written.

Live-Action TV

• The first preview of Revenge of the Sith was shown at the end of an episode of The O.C. ...even though it was advertised as being shown during the show, which meant that TIVO recordings didn't record the whole trailer because it ran past the hour.
• Preview piggybacking in the Super Bowl is an extremely common tactic. For example, Warner Bros. promoted the exclusive "first look" of Poseidon during the 2006 Bowl, though it was pretty easy to tell from that ad that the movie wasn't going to be making the $160 million that it would need to break even. The Cloverfield Paradox was notably advertised by its new distributor Netflix during the 2018 Bowl as "coming very soon" - as in, it was premiering literally after the game ended.
  • This trope doesn't just involve to highly anticipated trailers, either - Fox has used it as a means to premiere new TV series. Both Family Guy and Futurama premiered in this manner (and both premiere episodes even Lampshaded this).
• Disney premiered the final full trailers for all three of the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy films during commercial breaks for Monday Night Football games on ESPN. Unsurprisingly, the ratings for the games in question become significantly higher thanks to the influx of eager Star Wars fans.
• Lost buried promos for upcoming episodes in commercial breaks for V (2009). This was inverted when the latter show ran a pop up ad during the former that blocked relevant onscreen content.
• Pokémon Sunday has brief bits of news about the upcoming games.
• The first teaser trailer of the special Doctor Who episode "The Day of the Doctor" was sandwiched between Strictly Come Dancing and the Atlantis episode "Twist of Fate".
• Throughout its initial run, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was a natural place to show previews for Marvel Cinematic Universe films, as they're all part of the same franchise.
  • The series premiere of Agent Carter debuted the first teaser trailer for Ant-Man.
• New specials produced for the 2015 revival of The Wonderful World of Disney have served as launchpads for anticipated Disney releases:
  • Disneyland 60 featured a first look at Pete's Dragon (2016), presented during the show by its costar Bryce Dallas Howard, as well as a clip from Zootopia.
  • The first Magical Holiday Celebration was actually advertised as having an exclusive preview of Rogue One. The second one likewise did the same for The Last Jedi.
• Andi Mack: The premiere of "We're On Cloud Ten" was accompanied by sneak peeks of Ralph Breaks the Internet and The Nutcracker and the Four Realms.
• The Paley Center Salutes This Is Us had the trailer for Life Itself 2018 air during the first commercial break. Perhaps not coincidentally, Dan Fogelman was in charge of both productions.
• Good Morning America often shows trailers and clips for Disney properties before their online release, among them Toy Story 4, Finding Dory, Aladdin and Raya and the Last Dragon. On at least one occasion, they've even done this for a short, namely, the Inside Out companion Riley's First Date?. On April 30th, 2019, they premiered the trailer for non-Disney property Sonic the Hedgehog.
• The penultimate episode of Pose on FX carried a special feature for Cruella discussing the movie's fashion and costume design.

Music

• One Direction's first North American gig was as an opening act for Big Time Rush. Although they had a hit TV show, the real-life BTR didn't really have a huge following. Meanwhile, 1D was rapidly starting to gain momentum across the world through social media. Thus, many fans bought tickets only for One Direction, and left the arena after they finished playing, leaving BTR performing to arenas that were more than half empty.
• The VHS release of A Goofy Movie contained a music video for the Parachute Express song "Dr. Looney's Remedy" to promote the direct-to-video music special Parachute Express: Come Sing with Us. Sadly, it wasn't included in the Canadian version of the tape.

Video Games

• Zone of the Enders was at the time of its release widely known as the free game that came with the demo for Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. How many bought just the demo and ignored the game is hard to tell. But it got a sequel, a portable spinoff, an OVA and a TV series, so evidently some people liked the game.
  • Similarly, the ZOE HD Collection includes a demo for Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Lampshade Hanging or Mythology Gag? You decide.
• Crackdown didn't have a demo for Halo 3 (since demos can just be downloaded from Xbox Live), but it had access to the multiplayer beta. Crackdown was expected to get loads of returns after the beta closed, but that was not the case. In fact, Microsoft reported that the Crackdown multiplayer got more play time than the beta (although the actual release of Halo 3 got even more, predictably). Combined with the critical acclaim the game received, Microsoft stated they want a sequel, which they got at E3 2009. It didn't have access to the Halo: Reach multiplayer beta (Halo 3: ODST filled in the spot this time).
• Square Enix made a habit of this:
  • Tobal No. 1 had a Final Fantasy VII demo disc that also included previews of Final Fantasy Tactics, Bushido Blade, and Sa Ga Frontier. It's highly likely that two thirds of the (subpar) sales were just for it, and even today Tobal is a heatedly sought collector's item for Final Fantasy fans, just for the demo that came with it.
  • Parasite Eve had a demo for Xenogears and movies for Bushido Blade II, Brave Fencer Musashi, and Final Fantasy VIII.
  • Brave Fencer Musashi had a Final Fantasy VIII demo. This is not dissimilar to the above Crackdown and Zone of the Enders examples, as Musashi has gained quite a reputation and cult following in the years following its release.
  • They've even done this with music releases. The soundtrack for Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within includes a movie for Final Fantasy X.
  • Vagrant Story had a disc with demos for Threads of Fate, Chocobo Racing and Front Mission 3, and movies of Chocobo's Dungeon 2, Legend of Mana and Chrono Cross.
  • In Europe, the PlayStation port of Final Fantasy VI came bundled not with Final Fantasy V as in America (that came with Final Fantasy IV. Chrono Trigger was left unreleased. Again.), but with a demo of Final Fantasy X, which wouldn't even work on the console the piggybacked game was made for, though both discs were playable on a PS2.
    • Spanish magazine Hobby Consolas said the demo and the FMV were the best thing about the game. Fans were not pleased. Then again, they made a lot of factual mistakes about the same...
  • Dragon Quest VIII included a demo of Final Fantasy XII in North America (neither series would need such a thing in Japan). This did help the game achieve gold sales in the continent, probably a best for the series at the time (at least until Nintendo localized Dragon Quest IX and gave it a successful marketing campaign)
  • Unlimited Saga. More work was actually put into the Final Fantasy X demo than the game itself. People vaguely remember some not very good RPG that came with A PLAYABLE DEMO FOR FFX!
  • Even in 2015 when downloadable demos are commonplace, Square-Enix still sold Final Fantasy Type-0 HD with a demo of the long-awaited Final Fantasy XV.
• A short demo for first-person shooter Area 51 was available in Mortal Kombat: Deception.
  • Also, the PS2 and Xbox versions of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon included a trailer for Stranglehold.
• The PlayStation 2 version of Mega Man X: Command Mission included the intro stage of Mega Man X8 as a demo.
  • Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X, in turn, included a demo for Mega Man Powered Up.
• The God of War Collection (GoW I and II remastered for the PS3) includes a voucher for the God of War III demo.
• inFAMOUS came with access to the Uncharted 2: Among Thieves multiplayer beta. They did it again with inFAMOUS 2, which came with access to the Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception multiplayer beta.
• Fighting Force was rereleased with a demo of Tomb Raider III.
• Borderlands got a "Game of the Year" edition rerelease with all currently available Downloadable Content and a code that allows access to the Duke Nukem Forever First Access Club, so they could be among the first to play the demo.
• Much like Crackdown and Halo 3, the Epic Edition release of Bulletstorm on the Xbox 360 shipped with a voucher for the Gears of War 3 beta.
• Resident Evil-related examples:
  • Resident Evil: Director's Cut included a demo for Resident Evil 2.
  • Certain copies of Dino Crisis came with a demo for Resident Evil 3: Nemesis and vice-versa.
  • The Japanese Dreamcast port of Resident Evil 2 came with a demo for Resident Evil – Code: Veronica.
  • The PS2 version of Resident Evil – Code: Veronica X came with a demo for Devil May Cry.
  • In Japan, Capcom reissued the GameCube versions of the first Resident Evil and Resident Evil 0 in a collection set that also included a demo for Resident Evil 4.
  • New copies of Dragon's Dogma included a code for early access to the Resident Evil 6 demo.
  • Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D acted as a Tech-Demo Game for Resident Evil: Revelations on the 3DS. Appropriately, the demo to Revelations is included.
• Sonic Mega Collection Plus had a pair of trailers for Sonic Heroes in it. Later, a few people preordered Mario Kart: Double Dash!! for the Sonic Heroes demo included on the preorder bonus disc (among other demos and trailers, as well as bonus items to add for Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade).
• Phantasy Star Online came with a bonus disk which included the first stage of Sonic Adventure 2 (The Trial). This showcases several differences compared to the final product, including with the cutscene preceding the stage which had its dialogue slightly altered for the final. The most noticeable change, however, is that Sonic was not wearing Soap shoes in this trial.
• The main screen for Brain Dead 13 comes with playable demos for Dragon's Lair 1 and 2 and for Space Ace.
• The 2010 reboot of Medal of Honor came with early beta access to Battlefield 3. Likewise, Medal of Honor: Warfighter comes with beta access to Battlefield 4.
• Crash Bandicoot games for the PlayStation often contained demos to upcoming Spyro the Dragon games and vice versa. This is even true with Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, which includes a hidden trailer for Spyro Reignited Trilogy.
• The Steam version of Portal 2 contains an interactive sneak peek at Super 8.
• Early Xbox titles, such as Project Gotham Racing and Halo: Combat Evolved, often included at least one demo to other concurrent Xbox titles, such as Fuzion Frenzy and Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee.
• The video game adaptation of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines included a demo to another video game adaptation of the same film: Terminator 3: Redemption, which is arguably the only good part about this game. For the record, Redemption is a huge improvement over this one.
• Both Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U include timed demos (dubbed "Masterpieces") for some of the games that the playable characters came from, and then some more. These games could be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel or the Nintendo eShop, though Wii U includes some Game Boy games otherwise unavailable on the console. The games included can be seen here.
• The Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed (or Porsche 2000 in some territories) CD featured a trailer for the film Gone in 60 Seconds (2000). Very odd given that the later 90s Need For Speed games really dropped the bomb on car chases in films. Why watch when you can do?
• Fortnite had an in-game event for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker that debuted a clip from the movie at the Risky Reels theater. A few months later, Fortnite would also debut the second trailer for Tenet.
• Luigi's Mansion included a preview video for Pikmin.

Web Animation

• The first ever teaser trailer for Meta Runner was attached to the end of the Supermarioglitchy4's Super Mario 64 Bloopers episode "War of the Fat Italians 2018", while the teaser for the second season was attached to the beginning of "A Totally Normal SMG4 Episode".

Western Animation

• Done In-Universe and made fun of in South Park episode "The New Terrance and Phillip Movie Trailer". The boys were attempting to watch through Russell Crowe: Fightin' Around the World, a show which none of them cared about and had others around them give deriding comments about, just so they could see a commercial preview of Terrance and Philip: Asses of Fire 2.
• Season 1 of Star Wars: Clone Wars has an Xbox demo of Star Wars: Republic Commando.
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • The SpongeBob B.C. DVD had a demo for the PC version of SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom on it.
  • Many people have come early to movies at Screenvision theaters in North America for an exclusive "No Talking or Phones" Warning starring the characters.^note A modified version also preceded the televised proshot of The SpongeBob Musical.
  • The premiere of SpongeBob's Big Birthday Blowout had an exclusive trailer for the Henry Danger special "Henry Danger: The Musical" and a promo for new episodes of The Loud House during its ad breaks.
  • The TV premiere of The SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage! aired an exclusive sneak peek of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run during one of its ad breaks.
    • Similarly, the 2020 Kids' Choice Awards played an ad for Sponge on the Run during one of the ad breaks featuring new footage.
  • During an airing of an NFL game on January 10th, 2021, a sneak peek of Kamp Koral, the show's Spin-Off, was shown.
• The first teaser promo for Bob's Burgers was shown during the network premiere of The Simpsons Movie.
• The first ad break during the premiere of The Loud House episode "A Grave Mistake; Leader Of The Rack" began with the first promo for The Casagrandes. The second Casagrandes promo debuted during the premiere of LEGO Jurassic World: Legend of Isla Nublar.
  • The second ad break of the episode "Camped!" contained the first promo for The Patrick Star Show, posted online a couple hours earlier.
• The pilot episode of Phineas and Ferb, “Rollercoaster”, aired right after the premiere of High School Musical 2. Fittingly, both are Disney productions co-starring Ashley Tisdale.

Other

• Throughout 1996-1997, some Microsoft software was bundled with an interactive preview of the then-new MSN 2.0.

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