Here's something I wrote to Nintendo after reading an article about poor Mad World sales. It's kinda old.
Hello Nintendo,
Now this is a very unfortunate article on Nintendo's part. This is how you let you and your third parties market Wii software. When a game is out for an entire month and has only sold 66,000 copies, that's a problem. That means it's time to stop marketing the Wii as a casual-only console. Have you wondered why many hardcore games don't sell on the Wii? It's mainly because they are not marketed whatsoever. I mean just look at Metroid Prime 3: Corruption's sells, sure it can be considered very successful, but let's compare it something like The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. It's sales figures are not very stellar compared to Zelda. Compare Metroid Prime 3's 1M+ units to Legend of Zelda's 5M+ units, then you can clearly see the gap. The reason is because you [Nintendo] marketed Metroid Prime 3 very casually. When you have elderly people and children gathered around smiling in an airport, then there's an issue. This game is not meant for that demographic, why did you market it to them? This is the same thing Nintendo has done with Call of Duty: World at War. Remember last year at E3 Media and Business Summit 2008? Here's a heads up, when you have adults smiling and giving each other a high five in an M rated game, there's clearly an issue that needs to be resolved. World at War is not intended to be for the casual demographic, yet Nintendo marketed it as if it were suppose to be. Then when we look at the sales figures of the game (Wii: 1.09M units) and compare it to the other versions (360: 5.33M, PS3: 3.19M), someone flubbed up with the marketing of the game. Was it Activision-Blizzard? Was it Nintendo? The answer is clearly Nintendo, don't just allow your third parties to do the marketing, you should be willing to step in as well. Look at Microsoft and what they do with 360 software. And then look at how well their games sale. A marginal difference from what you see on Nintendo's home console. Maybe the reason why the Wii sales are slowing down in Japan is because the casuals aren't buying games anymore. Guarantee you, this will carry over to North America as well. In case you didn't know, casuals do not buy games very often, nor do they play them often. And when you are marketing to a group of people who do not buy, or play your games often, of course sales are going to slow down. It's clearly time to move away from them, and start showing some ads on some games that's for a different demographic, or the Wii will die out in a year or so, just like the Gamecube. Satoru Iwata is going around wondering "what's happening to the Wii in Japan?" What's said above is clearly what's happening. It's time to move on. Nintendo is forgetting all about the people that got them where they are presently. Don't you think it's time to start marketing to them now. Take a hint, start telling your third parties to actually market their hardcore games like hardcore games, and not these casual "cop-outs." It would deeply impact sales of a game, and maybe even respect of a game. I can't tell you how many people laughed at the way Call of Duty: World at War was marketed at the Nintendo Press Conference at E3 2008, and how Metroid Prime 3 was marketed by the "Wii would like to play" guys. As said many times before, it's time to move on.
Now this makes me wonder what Nintendo is going to do with marketing High Voltage Software's upcoming game The Conduit. Are you going to market the game casually, even though High Voltage has said on many occasions "this game is what hardcore Wii owners have been waiting for?" Please don't ruin the reputation of the game by putting "diddily daddily" smiling people shooting people in your ads of the game. This is especially for your E3 2009 presentation which probably will contain this game. Since Nintendo has said that this year's E3 is for the "core gamer," casuals shouldn't be mentioned whatsoever. And the on-stage demos should be of the hardcore games, not of anything for the casual demographic. It's time to get serious Nintendo, it's time to stop isolating yourselves from the rest of the competition, and start marketing properly.
Currently enjoying: Monster Hunter Tri.
