The release of Resident Evil Village has been a seemingly massive success, holding the attention of the gaming community at large. The fixation on the latest installment of the survival-horror video game franchise comes largely in part to the antagonistic star of the title, Lady Dimitrescu, who's now found her way into a Domino's Pizza ad.
Ever since marketing began for the eighth mainline installment of Capcom's long-running horror series, gamers have been obsessed with the Resident Evil Village villain. Her towering 9'6" height, voluptuous figure and perceived sultry disposition are some of what has caused legions of players to "thirst" for the character. Upon the game's release, fans flooded the internet with new Lady Dimitrescu fan art in celebration.
It would seem Domino's Pizza is capitalizing on the popularity of Resident Evil Village's "tall vampire lady" by including her in one of its latest advertisements. The global pizza chain tweeted out a gif of Lady Dimitrescu holding up a pepperoni pizza, with a melty, cheesy slice replacing her cabriole in her right hand. The message suggests that players should take a break from getting chased by the antagonist for some Domino's pizza, and that they're good enough to forget about all the horrors going on in Castle Dimitrescu. So far the ad has only been posted by the Malaysian Domino's Twitter account, so it'll be interesting to see if other regions follow suit.
While a seemingly random cross-marketing effort, Domino's Pizza has delved into niche game-related ads before. Last year the exact same account posted a Persona 5 ad, riffing on the game's iconic turn-based battle system. In addition to tweeted ads related to Resident Evil Village and Persona 5, the Domino's Pizza Malaysia Twitter account recreated the PS5 as a pizza. Either the country has an avid base of gamers, whoever runs the account is an avid gamer themselves, or perhaps even both. Either way, the gaming-related ads are getting global attention from players.
Now that Resident Evil Village has been released, several behind the scenes facts are coming out, particularly about the creation process behind Lady Dimitrescu. While the finished product is an imposing opponent a lot of players wouldn't mind being caught by, her performance capture included a tall, grumpy stick. The voice actress for the character took to Twitter to reveal a blue foam cylinder atop a long wooden pole, complete with a less-than-happy stick figure expression.
Lady Dimitrescu showing up in an ad for Domino's Pizza is an unexpected but welcome surprise, as its always nice to see corporations dabble with the gaming industry. For tall vampire lady fans who may not be big on the pizza chain's food, energy powder G Fuel has opened preorders for its Resident Evil Village Lady Dimitrescu Energy Bundle.
Resident Evil Village is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.