I will say this:
I was recently playing Tomb Raider: Underworld (which I got for free from a Gamestop deal) and I felt ripped-off. I remember the commercials for the title and reviews were at least decent. However, what I experienced when I played was terrible.

I don't think I ever played a game that was so poorly produced in my entire life. Gaming is meant to be exciting and at least somewhat passive/entertaining. TR:U was possibly the worst thing I ever played in my life and I don't even exaggerate. I was literally stunned- it was one of several titles I have played this gen that have just flat out disappointed me (The Conduit included)

Then I realized I had 5 Wii demos, one of which I did not play, and that was Beat Trip Beat. In one simple premise I actually found myself smiling and enjoying a game in its most basic nature. No hype, no PR bravado, but just simpler gaming.

Before the new year began, I wanted to end 2009 with a great game being my last of the year.I had some heavy games in my possession (Smash Brawl, Gears 2, etc,.) but I plugged in my SNES and played Super Mario. Almost 20 years after release, I still find myself going back to such games to "deride" pleasure.

Finally, I remembered one PS1 game I own that was scratched beyond all repair- Azure Dreams. I couldn't play it so I downloaded the ROM (I'm not encouraging piracy, but my game doesn't work any longer). The graphics were even poor when I first played it (released 98', played 2002) and it took 3 minutes to adjust to them now. Somehow in the last 2 days, I have spent 10 hours playing it, well into the night (3AM) and the addicting qualities I found in it when I was 10 suddenly returned, and I can barely put it down.

In summary lol, I find myself returning to simpler gaming, and shying away from what the industry is forcing on us as the next big thing. Gaming is still alive behind the mega-millions and PR stunts.I just thank God I can find ways of still enjoying it.

Good thread zucas and what you pointed out here ^^ was what I was gonna say.

It's has a lot to do with the developing cost of HD games. You create a games engine and you then get out a version of the game as often as you can.

Halo is a good example. That franchise is being milked - and why not? COD:MW is another.

The problem with Prototype and similar games is that they loose their value very quickly. This can be a good thing in a way I guess, but seeing a recently released game at half price doesn't transmit to a potential buyer that it is a good game, it usually does the opposite.

A COD:MW game can hold it's value well up to the next release and sometimes even after. I picked up Prototype - and gave it away - not long after it's release for half the price...maybe less.

Which brings me to this point: Hyping a game usually gives it good week1/week2 sales but after that it drops like a stone. This then quickly forces the price of the game down. The last Call of Jurez is a good example, I saw it around launch for £39.99. Almost a month after it is at £25.00 (brand new) in the same store.

The long stay in the charts for most Nintendo games makes them retain their value for a much longer time while still selling far more than the 1 and 2 week wonders.

No, the over riding factor is that Nintendo continue to market their games past the tradition 'one month' launch period most companies stick too. I saw an advert for Mario Kart DS a few days ago on TV - mental.

 Quality helps too but it's Nintendo's marketing strategy which gives their games strong legs at full price.

That doesn't make what I said incorrect. Regardless of the reason the "long stay in the charts" keep their games at full price for ages.

I will also argue that nintendo marketing is the over riding factor for this. It is weird that you pick the one game that Nintendo kept adverts on for a very long time, MKWii. Even so I found that the DS is where long running ad campaigns are abundant with Brain Training and Professor D etc., going on forever. Not the wii.

I didn't see Nintendo doing a longer ad campaign than usual for SMG, WSR or NSMBW (so far).

WSR is still high in the charts after almost a year,  so is Wii Fit +.  Where are the ads?

This shows that WSR isn't where it is because - as you suggest, a marketing campaign.

Remember, the industry briefing in November said that advertising sells games.

So developing games for the ad campaign makes sense.
Unless you want to play games.

Mike from Morgantown

Well I agree but it's not just because they are simpler, but because they were good in their own right.  They didn't rely on something that were just good during the time or a gimmick that was fun for a couple of playthroughs.  They relied on a solid gaming experience that you could play then or 20 years from now and still find it fun.  I mean shock value has its place and time, but it has to be incorporated for the sake of makign the game better, not for the sake of making it easier to sell to a group of people.  If that's the case then it usually won't sell much past it's release timeframe. 

Not every game needs to be made to be a timeless classic, but if you want a game to sell for a long time, it needs to have more time than 2 weeks haha. 

The thing is though, each of those games I mentioned had at least one thing executed very well.

Too many times have I seen titles try becoming jack-of-all-trades and not doing one thig exceptionally right. Every game is repetitive at one point, but some titles do not have the good kind of repitition.

I think that's a good point.  A lot of times with these action games or ones that incorporate it, is they try to do more than they need to do.  As I was saying, tacking them on for the sake of the advertising rather than the sake of the game.  And it comes from everyone trying to be the next big thing. What it causes is the core aspects of the game to be average and the overall game suffer because of it.  Every now and then you will get a Half Life or Ocarina of Time, but not everyone can do that.  There were quite a few games I've played in the last couple of years that try and do so much yet fail at the things that it needed to get right in the first place.

Well I think one of the reasons Wii doesn't get a lot of this is simply it would be technically harder for them to show it off.  A lot of it on the PS360 comes from being able to show off these cinematic moments and crazy things you can do due to the expanded hardware capabilities.  Maybe one of the reasons they refuse to bring them over to the Wii because they can't advertise it the same way haha.  But of course they have found other ways to do things like this such as The Conduit I pointed out for the sympathy "vote" per se.  I thought about putting Madworld in here, but I think it is just the style they chose that separates it from the rest.  Mainly the punk style the game chooses, shock value kinda comes with it as it uses it as its punching bag... kinda like No More Heroes.  But also could be my personal bias for "punk" style games.  But yes Madworld does rely a lot on shock value. 

But yea, as shown with the "shovelware" scenario, it just isn't sustainable because you either have big flops or big successes.  No middle ground is bad for a majority of publishers.  Such as the case with Ubisoft.  Even though Just Dance is doing wonderful, the bulk of their releases just tanked.  This is something that could start happening in the AAA budget titles which would be devastating to the industry as they generally make up most of the sales.  I see EA, though, in th emost danger as they are really taking on this idea of "games for advertising" more seriously than anyone else. 

 Here in the UK I still see add's for all those games, especially Wii Fit+ and NSMB. SMG they cut off the adds early, but that didn't exhibit the chart-strength length of the other games, not a coincidence. Same with Smash Bros, Wii Music, Animal Crossing etc.

It makes sense for Nintendo to run adds for games all year long - as they've got two consoles to sell which need to be selling week in week out. For a publisher releasing a new games, it's typically a better investment to spend that marketing budget on a 1 month blitz for the best selling launch possible at full price then have to continuously market a game for a prolonged period (When you're selling to the HD console audience anyway).