I can't reveal specific cost analysis on the efficacy (or inefficacy) of media for the game industry because that is what some people do for their living and the results are, of course, under NDA.

Having said that, there is a reason we have independent firms that do this kind of analysis: the whole point of which is finding how much to spend and on which types of media. You can get all the gamers and their friends with product quality and word-of-mouth, but how do you get moms and is it worth it to go after them? This also depends on the game a lot. Who is the game's target audience? What does competition within that specific genre look like?

You also have to remember that we only ship a full product a little bit faster than once every 2 years (and we'd be slower if we didn't have 2 development teams), so some of the marketing is about the interest holders hedging their bets or losing a bit of cash in order to broaden the IP's target audience.

Great question, but a real answer would have to come from a marketing analysis professional with an old game as a use case.