By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
TheMisterManGuy said:

- cut to make post more readable - 

I gave you concrete examples of Labo's marketing push but you still continue to dismiss it because you personally didn't see too many TV commercials and it wasn't as heavily advertised as Pokémon and Smash, two established 10m+ selling franchises. In case you missed it, Labo was also advertised by Jimmy Fallon and Ariana Grande. I mean, what exactly constitutes a big marketing push to you? Should Nintendo have persuaded Trump to build that wall to Mexico with a Labo Construction Kit? 

Pre-release hype has never been part of Nintendo's marketing strategy for mass market games since the Wii and DS days (because casual gamers can't be hyped up for games pre-launch and they don't watch e3, which is why it wasn't there) and the fact that they pushed Labo to more and broader review outlets than usual and gave it hands-on events before (!) release in the US and Europe somehow signifies low expectations by Nintendo to you. You then take a PR statement by Reggie for fact but dismiss the Japanese charts and literally just took a game that sold 11k units during launch week in Japan as proof that Labo is a success. And the Nintendo president glossing over Labo and not calling it a system seller somehow also proves that point according to you.

Also, your fourth point is pure spin in which you try to make it look like Nintendo still somehow decides the shipment numbers - they don't. Retailers decide. And retailers certainly did not want the initial Labo shipment to last throughout the year. You also, in your very reply, admit that the Vehicle Kit and the Robot Kit both have low market appeal and the Robot Kit is still struggling with its first shipment. So we have one in three kits being moderately successful after, yes, a big marketing push and yet even the most popular kit couldn't make it into the Japanese charts, despite the charts being dominated by months or even year-old Switch games.

You then move the goalposts to "the game wasn't on clearance" which is a completely different point. Even so, a quick Google search shows that the Multiset Kit can be bought on Amazon Germany for 49.99 and 41.60 on another website which is around half the price it released for I think. I can't speak Japanese but the Japanese Amazon website also indicates price drops for most of the kits. Of course, some of this is because of holiday sales but I can't jump forward in time to late January unfortunately. But again, this is you moving the goalposts because by now "the only way we know" if something is a bomb according to you is if the price gets slashed "ASAP" which means Labo would only be a flop if retailers had given the game massive clearance sales right after launch even though we all know Nintendo's strategy is to keep the prices of their games as high as possible for as long as possible and we even had a thread about this just a few days ago.