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Train wreck on 07 December 2012
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kitler53 said:
superchunk said:
kitler53 said:
superchunk said:
ok, so now get that info out to the masses. PUT OUT COMMERCIALS, OPRAH, TALK SHOWS, RETAIL WEEKLY ADS, etc. I don't see any of that right now as compared to how much Wii received.


the talk shows, the news casts, and to a certain extent the retail weekly ads were free advertising because the wii was a product people wanted to talk about.  nothing much nintendo can do about that if the masses don't view the wiiU as worth mentioning.

You really think Nintendo has no push in getting it on media like talk shows? All they need to do is send free units to the people in these shows and even do in person visits. Reggie was on a late night show just before launch as an example. They don't show products just because... there is money or free shit exchanging behind the scenes.

Retail ads are part of the ad space for promotions that are agreed too. Sometimes solely from the retailer but much of the time based on manufacturer involvement.


nintendo can push with the full weight the the marketing resources they have available to them. but marketing resources are finite.

the difference is the wii, much like apple's products in general, was a pull. "word of mouth" is what i believe people like to call it here.  i 100% guarantee that the 20 minute apple ad story i saw on rock center last night didn't cost apple a thing.  wii had that too.  everyone was talking.  nintendo didn't have to do a thing.

The problem is that the media that kinda made the wii successful is what is undoing the Wii U  Like this piece from last week on ps3 black friday from Reuters:

(Reuters) - Sony Corp sold over 525,000 PlayStation3 consoles in the United States during the week of Black Friday that kicks off the holiday shopping season, surpassing sales of Nintendo's new Wii U.

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc said on Thursday that sales of its six-year-old PlayStation3 jumped 9 percent over the same period last year. The sales compared with over 400,000 units sold of Nintendo's Wii U, the new console on which the Japanese company is staking much of its future.

Microsoft Corp sold over 750,000 units of its Xbox 360 console during the week of Black Friday, one of the heaviest U.S. consumer-spending periods of the year.

The results could deal a blow to Nintendo, which is hoping that the Wii U, which comes with a touchscreen "GamePad" controller, will revive growth and pull it out of the red in coming years. Since its November 18 U.S. launch, the Wii U has been marred by technical glitches, including longsoftware download times.

Analysts have said the initial sales numbers may have been curbed by insufficient supply, common during the launch of new products.

On Monday, Nintendo said Wii U consoles were "effectively sold out" in U.S. retail stores.

Sales of consoles and portable handheld game devices like the Nintendo 3DS are crumbling as gamers migrate to offerings on smartphones and tablets. According to research firm NPD Group, video game hardware sales slid 37 percent in October from a year ago.

The battle between the three game makers is expected to intensify when Sony and Microsoft launch their own next-generation PlayStation and Xbox consoles, expected in 2013.

(Reporting By Malathi Nayak; Editing by Leslie Adler)

The media is already defining the Wii U as an unrealable system.  Also Nintendo did no favors by lying sayin the system was "effectively sold out" when that was far from the truth.  If nintendo wants to turn its fortunes around they need to get ahead of news stories like this, and have the word of mouth be positive instead of "my Wii U hard locks on me".