| MarcellusMighty said: I don't agree with any of this. In fact, I would argue that the big reason for PS4 and Xbox One's success is pure, manipulative marketing. Xbox COMPELS you because you see it everywhere around you. It sponsors sodas, fast food, football, soccer.... it's literally everywhere. It's so saturated that I'm sick of seeing it. PS4 is not so spread out, but the message is very compelling. Both had great, powerful marketing campaigns. What about the Wii U? It failed on all levels in terms of marketing. Spend the money, take out a few ads during football games or at least on main broadcast channels that focus on young adults having fun, not children with families. That's what they did with Wii back in 2006 (anyone remember?) and it took off, bolstered by the curiosity surrounding the Remote and motion controls. I was in Target today, and saw three big marketing fails. First, the signs above the Wii AND Wii U software say Wii U, with no distinguishing marks. A casual person, having not been exposed to the marketing I mentioned above, would ask what the difference was (lo and behold, the man in the aisle asked what the difference was between the Wii and Wii U version of a game). Second, the Wii and Wii U consoles are bunched together on the shelves, close together. There is no identifier making it clear that one is newer and shinier. And the freaking Wii Mini is sitting right above the Mario/Luigi Deluxe set. Finally, the demo station set-up is hard to navigate and by attempting to give passers-by options instead of catering a focused, awesome experience, looks confusing and uninteresting. So, on topic, NO. It has nothing to do with the fad or casuals moving on. Casuals have NO AWARENESS WHATSOEVER of the Wii U or what it is, and as much as I love Nintendo, they utterly have failed to react properly to this. The software library is there, and growing. Now, make people aware of it! Jeez. You would think it is common sense. |
Ok fine...let Nintendo make the non-gamers "aware". They'll wonder where the Wii-mote is by virtue of the name itself. Non-gamers don't want a thirteen button contrller with a tablet in it. Its too sophisticated of a product, which makes it more attractive to the core gamer. Non-gamers can do the extent of what they like with their Ipads, alternative tablets, and cellphones.
Microsoft is a very manipulative company, but then again they are the richest of the big three. Expect them to have superior marketing to the competition. If they didn't i'd be quite surprised and so should you. Their main turf is that of the most rabid consumer base in the world and they understand sales and marketing techniques for America better than anyone else. Regardless of all of the noise, Nintendo had the stable third party following, then they flocked to Sony and grew two fold, then Microsoft came and segmented that expanded marketshare. When you look at it Sony caused the marketshare of gaming to expand and grow to be more stable. What manipulation could cause such loyalty? It's called having a demographic that has value in A or B's product (IE: Market A: Videogame fanatics/ B: Multimedia/tech fanatics). Nintendo created a new market that without the simplicity would not care for gaming. Look it up in any analyst resource...they created a new market in which the focus was the non-gamer. Because of this they deserve their success but on the other side of the coin they also deserve the fact that they don't have their loyalty and the people decided not to return.
