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Topic: How Is Nintendo Marketing Wii U In 2014?

Posts 41 to 60 of 91

Nintenjoe64

Nintendo isn't marketing the Wii U in UK. I've seen less than ten adverts since it was revealed. It's not anything new, I've barely seen any non-handheld marketing from them in the UK since I got bought a NES in 1989. The only home console I have known them to ever advertise was the Wii which they were still advertising for last year during the Wii U's darkest days(the MKW advert with the Redknapps). I never once saw a Gamecube advert, or an N64 advert that wasn't in a gaming magazine. I don't ever recall any SNES adverts but I remember at least one Super Mario Bros 3 advert. In comparison I remember loads of Sega ads. Sony have huge campaigns for every console and MS are pretty much the same. It's no surprise Wii U sales fell off a cliff. Nintendo invested nothing in hyping the console and have offered no explanation as to why they just let retailers sit on huge piles of stock while not announcing new games or advertising the ones that were out there. They got most big games of late 2012 and not a single other big game til September 2013 and didn't see it as a problem. Sony and MS advertised the same games almost constantly. Most people believe that Black Ops 2, FIFA 13 and AC3 weren't on Wii U. If Sony and MS were shafted as badly as Nintendo have been by their partners they would still advertised the product and its 3rd party services. ZombiU got a sniff of a decent marketing campaign but if Nintendo had taken it seriously, lots of people would have been interested. Sony and MS don't give a doggeyoopsie about Ryse and Knack getting bad scores. They just drop marketing bombs and bribe enough reviewers/websites/retailers so every affluent parent or bored technophile knows they've got a new piece of hardware out.

Profanity is not necessary here -Lz

Edited on by LzWinky

I only posted this to get my avatar as the forum's thumbnail.

skywake

Artwark wrote:

Well then if people know the Wii U by know, how is it that 3D world was outsold by Knack at the time which was mediocre at best? How is it that people aren't able to get the point that most of the games on the Wii U are the definitive versions for the system? How is it that third party devs aren't able to realize the potential the Wii U has yet? How is it that people are still lukewarm with the Wii U?

Knack was a bundled title in a lot of territories at launch. It did well in the same way that Nintendo Land did well except that it was on the back of a record breaking console launch. As of right now I believe 3D World has sold 2mill units and Knack is at about 1mill. As for third party devs I explained that, third party support fell back because of sales.

Not long after launch it became very clear very quickly that the Wii U probably wasn't going to be another Wii in terms of sales. Them making excuses about why is pure PR. The real reason is a concern about putting millions into a port and not getting a big enough return.

Artwark wrote:

You think that even without proper marketing last year that they can still sell the Wii U well. No. If 3D World was bundled with the Wii U and if the marketing was good enough, the Wii U would've sold around 10 million by now. But the fact is, it isn't.

Very specific with the numbers there. It surprises me how many people think that just because the Wii U isn't doing fantastically that they know all the answers. The fact is that people do know what the Wii U is, they are generally interested and Nintendo did change up the bundles well before 3D World was even out.

If there was a problem with the Wii U launch it without a question would be that they weren't aggressive enough with pricing and content as quick as they needed to be. Not that they necessarily did a bad job but more that they were under the shadow of the 360's tail at launch. Then the PS4 came along and stole everyone's thunder. Don't forget that Microsoft is also losing this game. Was their problem marketing? Or were they just outdone?

Artwark wrote:

PS4 and ONE didn't have a great library of games and most of them are better bought on PC cause its cheaper and yet they sold well. Why is that? Marketing. Simple as that. PS4 and ONE don't have what the Wii U has and that's backwards compatibility and that's a shame cause both are quite expensive.

The average end user doesn't care about backwards compatibility nearly as much as you'd think. I barely care about it and I'm all over Nintendo. Also the average gamer doesn't really want to bother with PC gaming even if it might make more sense. PC gaming has been in decline for quite a long time. Anyways, compared to PC gaming right now the PS4 in particular is reasonably cost competitive. All of these options are pricey, that's why the average end user is going to land on one option and sit there. Unless you're particularly into an exclusive franchise that option is likely to be the PS4.

Edited on by skywake

Some playlists: Top All Time Songs, Top Last Year
"Don't stir the pot" is a nice way of saying "they're too dumb to reason with"

Chomposaur

They aren't... I haven't seen a Wii U ad in months here in the UK. Its like it doesn't exist

Whereas i have seen multiple XB1 and PS4 ads on TV,radio,newspapers and even on huge billboards. Nintendo has never been that strong here in the UK anyway. hasn't the Wii U sold like 250k here or something ?

Edited on by Chomposaur

Disclaimer: "All opinions are my own, please do not get offended by what i have to say"

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jariw

Artwark wrote:

PS4 and ONE didn't have a great library of games and most of them are better bought on PC cause its cheaper and yet they sold well. Why is that? Marketing. Simple as that. PS4 and ONE don't have what the Wii U has and that's backwards compatibility and that's a shame cause both are quite expensive and now Sony and Microsoft are planning to make up to it by using cloud storage which already has a lot of devs hating it.

Here's the thing, even if Nintendo made a game that's gamepad exclusive, that won't matter because Nintendo isn't in good terms with majority of third party devs. And with Bayonetta 2 and X on the way, the Wii U will have something worth mentioning.

The 3rd party dev situation is kind of linked to the PS4/One not being backwards compatible: Since PS4/XBOne moved to CISC/Intel, they lost backwards compatibility with the RISC/PPC. But OTOH, 3rd party developers gained the luxury of having PC/PS4/XBOne/Mac all being on Intel.

jariw

Shy_Guy

I haven't seen a single Wii U ad since Christmas time,and a Donkey Kong ad yet. The last I saw was on Cartoon Network and ABC Family.

Shy_Guy

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Ryno

Nintendo should market their games by releasing them for the PlayStation 4.

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Hy8ogen

Ryno wrote:

Nintendo should market their games by releasing them for the PlayStation 4.

That's like saying in order to get attention from my Parents, I need to shot my left leg with an 8 gauge.

Edited on by Hy8ogen

Nintendo fan since 6 years of age.
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Zanark

Probably no different than 2013.......sadly.

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Bolt_Strike

skywake wrote:

I think you missed my point. I was saying that "new" is more of an also-and than it is an essential feature. That the games will speak for themselves. A game doesn't need to use every single feature of the console in a way that can't be done on any other console for it to be a system seller. It just needs to have a broad appeal, good branding and nail the implementation. If it happens to also do something that couldn't possibly done elsewhere then that's just icing on the cake.

This idea that they should suddenly throw out the rulebook on what makes a system seller is nonsense. As I pointed out the Wii's system sellers was one or two titles as you're describing in a sea of stuff that would have worked fine on any other platform.

If all that were true, the Wii U would be selling much better than it is now. The Wii U has plenty of games that do those things. And guess what? It's not enough. People just aren't excited for the console. Most of the people that are excited for new Mario Kart and Smash Bros and whatnot have probably already bought one by now, we could've guessed those games were coming the moment the console was announced. They quite obviously need more than just the usual predictable first party games, and third party games will probably not be enough (unless they're exclusives) because PS4 and One have the advantage of better third party support and better online. So that only really leaves two possibilities:

1. Do some more moneyhatting and buy more third party exclusives.
2. Make more unique games themselves.

And given Nintendo's relationship with third parties, the second option stands to be the most viable.

Bolt_Strike

Switch Friend Code: SW-5621-4055-5722 | 3DS Friend Code: 4725-8075-8961 | Nintendo Network ID: Bolt_Strike

LzWinky

Wii U had marketing, but it wasn't very effective. This somehow became "Wii U had no marketing at all" among the internet. Nintendo actually did a lot of suggestions that were made, but they didn't work.

Current games: Everything on Switch

Switch Friend Code: SW-5075-7879-0008 | My Nintendo: LzWinky | Nintendo Network ID: LzWinky

DudeSean

I never see commercials for Wii U on tv. Granted, I don't watch much tv, but whenever I do, I always see commercials for ps4 / titanfall. I know there are people who like to pretend like commercials on tv aren't effective, but they really are. I still think the n64 era had some of the best marketing for Nintendo. There was the Conker's Bad Fur Day commercials on comedy central (and other channels, I'm sure) and the "get N or get out" commercials. That's another thing. Wii U's slogan is, "how will you play next?" That's not very suggestive. It's very passive. "Get N or get out," that was a good slogan. Americans (at least) have that feeling of not wanting to be left behind.

So, basically, I think Nintendo needs more commercials. Aggressive ones. Have the commercials for the kids showing off the kid-friendly games aired during kid shows and have the commercials for adults showing them that they can play their grown up games on the system, too airing during prime time. Which brings up the point that... Nintendo needs exclusive adult oriented games to advertise to the adults... I mean, adults are the ones that buy these systems in the first place. Kids can't afford them. So kids can ask their parents for a Wii U (if Nintendo is even able to convince kids that they want a Wii U) and the parents would be more likely to buy the Wii U if they felt like there would be games available on the system for them, too. Where are the adult oriented games on Wii U that they can't get on playstation or xbox? There are none. I think that's a big problem.

Edit: There is one! ZombiU. But that's it. I just went down the list of exclusive Wii U games and that's the only one. And Bayonetta 2, I guess, but who knows when that's going to get released.

Edited on by DudeSean

DudeSean

Nintendo Network ID: DudeSean

skywake

Bolt_Strike wrote:

skywake wrote:

I think you missed my point. I was saying that "new" is more of an also-and than it is an essential feature. That the games will speak for themselves. A game doesn't need to use every single feature of the console in a way that can't be done on any other console for it to be a system seller. It just needs to have a broad appeal, good branding and nail the implementation. If it happens to also do something that couldn't possibly done elsewhere then that's just icing on the cake.

This idea that they should suddenly throw out the rulebook on what makes a system seller is nonsense. As I pointed out the Wii's system sellers was one or two titles as you're describing in a sea of stuff that would have worked fine on any other platform.

If all that were true, the Wii U would be selling much better than it is now. The Wii U has plenty of games that do those things. And guess what? It's not enough. People just aren't excited for the console. [...]

Consider this possibility which I explained in detail to another person in this very thread one post bellow the post of mine you quoted. Maybe Nintendo didn't do anything particularly wrong here. Not with marketing, not with the console itself. Maybe it was just a case of them starting third behind 360/PS3 and the idea of next-gen. That after starting low in the consumers minds they then failed to come out of the gates aggressively enough.

You think marketing was the problem, I don't. I think there was no problem other than the fact that they started the race in last and didn't do anything to elevate themselves. I'd argue that if they had dropped Nintendo Land and New SMB and instead bundled with Wii Sports Club and launched alongside Mario Kart 8 they would have been out of the gates much faster. Because those titles would smash the perception that people had of Nintendo. That they're games are low res and they hate online. What they did wasn't a bad move and it was probably all they had to go with anyways. In hindsight though I think they'd say they could have done a better launch.

But that's ancient history now. What they need to do is get these games out and let them sing. Guess what video was the most viewed on IGN in the last week?

.... followed by Titanfall, The Last of Us, Smash Bros, Smash Bros, Smash Bros....

Edited on by skywake

Some playlists: Top All Time Songs, Top Last Year
"Don't stir the pot" is a nice way of saying "they're too dumb to reason with"

SCRAPPER392

@skywake
I agree. Perceptions were mixed between what Xbox 360 and PS3 were currently doing, while simultaneously being passed off in favor of the upcoming Xbox and PS. These are the same people who thought Nintendo was "doomed" for not having GTA V, but say it's ok for Xbox One or PS4 to not have it.

Qwest

3DS Friend Code: 4253-3737-8064 | Nintendo Network ID: Children

Bolt_Strike

skywake wrote:

Consider this possibility which I explained in detail to another person in this very thread one post bellow the post of mine you quoted. Maybe Nintendo didn't do anything particularly wrong here. Not with marketing, not with the console itself. Maybe it was just a case of them starting third behind 360/PS3 and the idea of next-gen. That after starting low in the consumers minds they then failed to come out of the gates aggressively enough.

You think marketing was the problem, I don't. I think there was no problem other than the fact that they started the race in last and didn't do anything to elevate themselves. I'd argue that if they had dropped Nintendo Land and New SMB and instead bundled with Wii Sports Club and launched alongside Mario Kart 8 they would have been out of the gates much faster. Because those titles would smash the perception that people had of Nintendo. That they're games are low res and they hate online. What they did wasn't a bad move and it was probably all they had to go with anyways. In hindsight though I think they'd say they could have done a better launch.

That is Nintendo's fault, though, they need to be aggressive if they want sales. The Wii U should've addressed gamers' complaints about low powered graphics and online, and to a degree it did, but Nintendo didn't have the foresight to expect that those things would inevitably be improved by their competition and they were simply playing catch up. And sure, maybe having Mario Kart 8 at launch might've helped things a bit, but I don't think it would've helped as much as you think, they should've paired it with even better games than we've seen over the last year and a half. If they started out in their first few months with Mario Kart 8, Super Mario 3D World, and Pikmin 3, and then moved on to Metroid Prime 4, a new 3D Mario game, Zelda U, and Smash Bros in 2013, then maybe the Wii U would be in a significantly better spot.

skywake wrote:

But that's ancient history now. What they need to do is get these games out and let them sing. Guess what video was the most viewed on IGN in the last week?

.... followed by Titanfall, The Last of Us, Smash Bros, Smash Bros, Smash Bros....

Views =/= sales.

Bolt_Strike

Switch Friend Code: SW-5621-4055-5722 | 3DS Friend Code: 4725-8075-8961 | Nintendo Network ID: Bolt_Strike

LzWinky

But views could = sales. The game is getting a lot of attention, which is great for Nintendo and the Wii U and 3DS. How is this NOT a good thing?

Current games: Everything on Switch

Switch Friend Code: SW-5075-7879-0008 | My Nintendo: LzWinky | Nintendo Network ID: LzWinky

Dreamz

I don't think it's limited to just Nintendo. I haven't seen any advertisement by 3rd party developers either. There were so many games I had never even heard of until I actually decided to buy a Wii U.

My 3rd Party Games List: Click here
U-Wishlist: Splatoon, Zelda U

skywake

Bolt_Strike wrote:

That is Nintendo's fault, though, they need to be aggressive if they want sales. The Wii U should've addressed gamers' complaints about low powered graphics and online, and to a degree it did, but Nintendo didn't have the foresight to expect that those things would inevitably be improved by their competition and they were simply playing catch up. And sure, maybe having Mario Kart 8 at launch might've helped things a bit, but I don't think it would've helped as much as you think, they should've paired it with even better games than we've seen over the last year and a half. If they started out in their first few months with Mario Kart 8, Super Mario 3D World, and Pikmin 3, and then moved on to Metroid Prime 4, a new 3D Mario game, Zelda U, and Smash Bros in 2013, then maybe the Wii U would be in a significantly better spot.

Way to agree with my post in a tone that makes it sound like you're arguing with me. As I pointed out they were starting this race third. They didn't fail but they didn't excel either. Also their competition didn't fail that much either. So the end result was third or at best second in a race of three where the PS4 became the new king.

Bolt_Strike wrote:

skywake wrote:

But that's ancient history now. What they need to do is get these games out and let them sing. Guess what video was the most viewed on IGN in the last week? .... followed by Titanfall, The Last of Us, Smash Bros, Smash Bros, Smash Bros....

Views =/= sales.

I didn't say it did. I was merely pointing out that the Wii U and its games are already in the spotlight and people are interested in them. At this point the most obvious strategy is to get Kart and Smash out. Then they can splash ads all over the TV telling the mass market "hey, Smash and Kart, we have them now". Now? Last year? I don't think advertising could have done much at all to improve sales. People do know what the Wii U is about now, the Wii U is the Smash Bros and Kart machine. Why advertise before it can be those things?

Edited on by skywake

Some playlists: Top All Time Songs, Top Last Year
"Don't stir the pot" is a nice way of saying "they're too dumb to reason with"

SCRAPPER392

I'd rather see how Nintendo improves Wii U. Considering they're only using a fraction of the RAM, it would be pretty hard to think that the Wii U has its final set of features and such.

They added the SD card menu to Wii, and Miiverse to the 3DS, around 2 years after initial launch. Those are just a couple examples of how they added a major feature, later on.

Edited on by SCRAPPER392

Qwest

3DS Friend Code: 4253-3737-8064 | Nintendo Network ID: Children

jariw

skywake wrote:

I'd argue that if they had dropped Nintendo Land and New SMB and instead bundled with Wii Sports Club and launched alongside Mario Kart 8 they would have been out of the gates much faster. Because those titles would smash the perception that people had of Nintendo. That they're games are low res and they hate online. What they did wasn't a bad move and it was probably all they had to go with anyways. In hindsight though I think they'd say they could have done a better launch.

I don't think that MK8 could have been a release title, being as visually good as it looks now (1080p at 60fps). As I see it, MK8 starts the "3rd generation" of games for the Wii U, where the "2nd generation" was started around SM3DW. (And there will probably be Wii U titles later on that will make MK8 look "average".)

Also, regarding the Wii U launch, let's not forget about Rayman Legends, which was first supposed to be an exclusive release title.

jariw

Socar

skywake wrote:

Knack was a bundled title in a lot of territories at launch. It did well in the same way that Nintendo Land did well except that it was on the back of a record breaking console launch. As of right now I believe 3D World has sold 2mill units and Knack is at about 1mill. As for third party devs I explained that, third party support fell back because of sales.

As I said earlier, Nintendo really isn't in good terms with third party devs. Look at the 3DS library at the moment. very few third party devs are only making games for the 3ds where as the ones in west are not much. Same goes for the DS as well. Instead of having games from these devs, we get shovelware most of the time. So even if Nintendo had some fair third party support, majority will still stick to either Sony, Microsoft or Steam because they either don't want to make games on Nintendo systems due to them being underpowered or that they are just lazy to be innovative enough that they rather just use one screen only.

skywake wrote:

Not long after launch it became very clear very quickly that the Wii U probably wasn't going to be another Wii in terms of sales. Them making excuses about why is pure PR. The real reason is a concern about putting millions into a port and not getting a big enough return.

Funny that Super Mario 64 DS sold more than the original did, yet it really doesn't do much for the actual game aside some extras. Same can be said for Wind Waker.

skywake wrote:

Very specific with the numbers there. It surprises me how many people think that just because the Wii U isn't doing fantastically that they know all the answers. The fact is that people do know what the Wii U is, they are generally interested and Nintendo did change up the bundles well before 3D World was even out.

3D land was a game that saved the 3DS and also because that it sold huge compared to 3D World because it was bundled. So If Nintendo used the same logic with the Wii U, it would've sold pancakes by now.

Again people who know the system will not buy it because it doesn't have the games that they want. But people will buy a 3DS because the library is way huge compared to vita and that it has some of the finest quality games.

When the Wii U has that quality like the 3DS has(Its already having btw) it would outsell the PS4 and ONE.

skywake wrote:

If there was a problem with the Wii U launch it without a question would be that they weren't aggressive enough with pricing and content as quick as they needed to be. Not that they necessarily did a bad job but more that they were under the shadow of the 360's tail at launch. Then the PS4 came along and stole everyone's thunder. Don't forget that Microsoft is also losing this game. Was their problem marketing? Or were they just outdone?

Again, its marketing. A lot of people at the time and even now still don't know what the Wii U is. Even if the Wii U were just as powerful as the PS4 and ONE, that still won't change the marketing issue fact. unless people know the existence of the Wii U, the Wii U is going to suffer from even more sales than it is now.

skywake wrote:

The average end user doesn't care about backwards compatibility nearly as much as you'd think. I barely care about it and I'm all over Nintendo. Also the average gamer doesn't really want to bother with PC gaming even if it might make more sense. PC gaming has been in decline for quite a long time. Anyways, compared to PC gaming right now the PS4 in particular is reasonably cost competitive. All of these options are pricey, that's why the average end user is going to land on one option and sit there. Unless you're particularly into an exclusive franchise that option is likely to be the PS4.

You know, these days a console has to have basic stuff like netflix and many other apps to cope up with the cost of the system. Since the PS4 and ONE are still expensive, the other features won't be enough. Backwards compatibility is just as important as the other features. that's why the PSONE sold well so as the PS2, DS, GBA and every other console that has backwards compatibility.

Edited on by Socar

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