By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Soundwave on 12 May 2016
Edit Thread
bigtakilla said:
Soundwave said:

I think there's a misunderstanding about "hype" needing X amount of time to generate. As if you unveil longer before launch, you are guaranteed more hype. It doesn't work like this.

"Hype" comes from excitement about a product, excitement for a product only occurs if the product is worth being excited over in the first place.

If you have a great product that really impresses people, hype is the easiest part of the equation.

There was sky high hype for the N64, and really Nintendo only really formally unveiled the N64 seven months prior to its Japanese launch (November 1995 unveiling, June 1996 launch in Japan).

Hype is not the be-all, end-all, you need to have a very well thought out product that illicits a lot of value to the consumer.

Hype hasn't been Nintendo's problem. Not being able to relate to modern Western gamers that make up the bulk of the industry now, poor hardware decisions oand gambling on gimmicks to sell hardware, split development resources between home console and portables, and poor relationships with third parties are Nintendo's core problems, not hype.

But is their such a thing as something a lot of people not knowing about gaining a lot better hype and momentum over a period of time? Yes. This happens to movies all the time. Did you know the original Halloween was an absolute flop when it first hit theaters. No one was seeing it, but with word of mouth over a period of time it has become the highest grossing independant films of all time (maybe not anymore, but we are talking about 30 years and a growing movie audience, but it was for a LONG time). 

The 1970s is a different period and it's not even like Halloween was some huge budget tent pole film to begin with.

We have the internet now, social networks like Facebook and Twitter, and hundreds of TV channels, information can consumed much more rapidly, you really only need a few months of real hype for anything and word of mouth spreads much faster these days.

Case in point ... a movie like Deadpool which is a really a C-tier Marvel franchise that most of the general public had no knowledge of a huge blockbuster with minimal pre-release hype.

If you have a great product that gets people excited the word will spread quickly. And quite frankly it's the same with most modern electronics, they're only unveiled usually a few months prior to launch.

Nintendo's issues are much more related to their general lack of understanding of the modern Western market and their lack of ability to connect to modern audiences. That's more the issue than hype, there will be a decent amount of hype from game nerds just because it has a Zelda game at launch pretty with nice graphics. Hardware design philosophy, third party relationships, new breakthrough IPs that bring in new audiences are where NX will sink or swim long term though.