@JoeCool7
If I remember correctly I think it was reported Nintendo's budget to market the Wii "(at launch) was estimated at 200 Million Dollars, and was the companies biggest ad push they had ever done.
I think you're focusing too much on the "500 MILLION DOLLARS!" number. Yeah, that's a lot of money, but that doesn't equate to units sold. Microsoft blows hundreds of Millions on ads every year for almost everything they produce.
Remember Windows Vista? It got a 300 Million Dollar Advertising budget for I think the year after it came out. This included the series of famous confusing and quickly forgotten Seinfeld ads were Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld were... actually I'm still not sure what if anything they really did, but the Vista logo popped up at the end, so, whatever. They also had commercials were they showed people their "new" Windows OS, people would be awed, guy tells them is Vista, and they're all like "Wow, I can get this right now?" Then a year or two later here comes Windows 7 and Vista is quietly swept under the rug.
Hell look at the XBOX (Both of them). The first one allegedly cost them about Four Billion Dollars once everything was said and done. It only Narrowly edged out the Gamecube in sales and wasn't anywhere near what the PS2 Sold. For the 360, every year they spend plenty of money on advertising the 360, the games they make for it, the games other companies make for it, securing exclusives games, exclusive content. They're still about 30 Million behind the Wii and their lead over the PS3 is eroding, albeit quite slowly.
