This character had a major role in the Devolver Digital Cinematic Universe. While testing a marketing theory on the excitement generated by celebrity countdowns, Devolver Digital CEO Hazel Sajecka ordered the development of a robot equipped with a digital screen for displaying a celebrity host during their 2022 press conference. When the mecha was unveiled, the screen emerged from its chest, revealing the likeness of SUDA51. Mecha SUDA51 began the countdown but trailed off after 21 seconds. Devolver junior executive Nina Struthers noticed this and offered it some reprieve, turning its attention onto broadcasting the trailers for several Devolver titles instead. Seeing the trailer for Cult of the Lamb, Mecha SUDA51 mistook Devolver for the game’s developer, to which Struthers clarified they were actually providing the “humanitarian service” of publishing the title.
After rolling the first trailer, low-level middle manager Zane Stults, “the brains” Caleb Hickey, lateral executive Melissa De La Torre and junior legal counsel Margaret Ludlow immediately noticed a large spike in consumer engagement numbers. Mecha SUDA51 ran these numbers for “fifty-one and a half” seconds and confirmed that the trailers were responsible for the engagement spikes. After a third trailer, the engagement levels began to alarm the Devolver crew. Mecha SUDA51 announced what was now taking place was a symptom of Video Game Singularity, a phenomenon caused by years of gaming history, company acquisitions and evolving industry practices that were now beginning to merge together all at once, with Devolver Digital at its center.
Margaret and Caleb assumed Mecha SUDA51 was responsible for the Video Game Singularity, but it protested that the design firm’s instructions for assembling it were very specific and would not have caused this. Zane interjected, implying they didn’t adhere to all of the instructions when putting together Mecha SUDA51. Nina informed Hazel of the impending Video Game Singularity, however Hazel was unfazed. Nina argued that Devolver should be concerned with being in control of the entire gaming industry because it “barely functions as a marginally successful video game publisher.” With 30 seconds remaining on the countdown and nothing being counted down to, the Devolver crew morphed into various video game characters before everything disappeared.
Mecha SUDA51 awakened with Nina, who offered it a single LootBoxCoin, the only remnant of video gaming. Mecha SUDA51 grieved over the loss of video games, however Nina encouraged it that video games could return again if it wished for them, and each wish would only make them better. Mecha SUDA51 made its wish, returning to the moment it was unveiled to the Devolver crew. Instead of beginning the marketing countdown, it began a self-destruct countdown from a device on its wrist, causing a detonation visible from outer space.
Mecha SUDA51 had a development cost of “eighty-nine and three-quarter billion dollars” and was capable of accessing any broadcast feed on Earth as well as those “deep into trans-local space.” It was also able to access “game trailers, number station feeds, launch codes, replicant incept dates, satellite destruct instructions [and] suggestive TikTok dances.” Mecha SUDA51 was even equipped with a tri-cordal thermonuclear central mass displacement cannon and a self-destruct device. It also had a drink dispenser which produced a liquid with a taste resembling baby food.
Mecha SUDA51 had a philosophical side, often pondering stories for games, and even recognizing life itself as a story. It also initially doubted Struthers’ ambitions of having consumers literally throw money at their screens, unaware that Devolver previously demonstrated this feature onstage at their Big Fancy Press Conference 2017. Notably, the actual SUDA51 previously appeared via broadcast at the same presentation, when Devolver mistook him for a partner in their Earliest Access program.
Behind the scenes
Mecha SUDA51 was designed by Len Nicholas. Dave Snyder portrayed it on-set, while pre-recorded footage of SUDA51 shot in Tokyo, Japan was edited onto a green screen on the costume’s torso. The scene it shares with Nina after video games disappear is almost identical to a conversation between Bastian Bux and Moon Child in the film The Neverending Story. The credits for Devolver Marketing Countdown to Marketing also mention the fictional novel Tuesday’s with Suda written by Devolver co-founder Nigel Lowrie, and the lyrics to the theme song for the presentation, “Singularity,” also mention SUDA51‘s name.
Appearances
- Devolver Marketing Countdown to Marketing
References
- Job titles for all Devolver Digital Cinematic Universe characters were derived from the annual presentation preceding Devolver Marketing Countdown to Marketing, as their job titles were not listed in the 2022 presentation.