there is a difference between pop culture and success. AC and halo were desgined to be succesful games, i completely agree with you. but its nearly impossible to insure for something to become a phenomenon. can metriod become a much bigger success? definitely, if everything is done right like you suggest both me and you would agree that it could go on to maybe tripple its sales for example. but even if it did, would it become a phenomenon? i dont think it would. nintendo has a better chance with a new IP

I feel that the basic concept of Metroid is a game that can easily be reworked to be made into the type of FPS-shooter that would appeal to the brogamers of today.

Metroid Prime, however, really wasn't.

I am thoroughly impressed with Microsoft / Sony's efforts at advertisement. Whenever there's a new Halo game about to be released, I literally see it everywhere. Soda cups, random posters, random giveaways... FFS, there's an episode of a TV show I watch (Go On with Matthew Perry) that literally is centered around the fact that two of the main characters are playing the new Halo game every waking moment. There's a good forty seconds of gameplay in the episode. One of the pivotal conversations in the show happens while they're playing Halo. I mean... seriously. Even iPad had an episode in Modern Family...

Nintendo, where are you in today's culture?

tagged!!

I don't think marketing is the biggest issue in the case of Metroid Prime. The games just aren't mainstream enough. They are slow-paced, focused on exploration and about as free of testosterone as games can be. Oh, and health doesn't regenerate.

Halo really isn't the best game to compare to Metroid Prime imo. Sure, they both feature space and the hero(ine) wears a suit but that's about it. Bioshock would be a much better series to compare to, and while Bioshock is more open and adventurish than many other shooters it's still much more action-packed and linear compared to Metroid Prime.

Wow, those are some sad numbers for Prime 3, arguably the best in the series. The Wii sold a bajillion units, yet MP3 couldn't even come close to 2 mil WW, and couldn't even break 1mil here in the US.

The OP is spot on about Nintendo's marketing and advertising. Unless you were a hardcore gamer or Ninty fanboy at the time, you had no clue that Prime 3 was coming out on the Wii prior to its release because there was NO advertising of any kind until the week of its release. Nintendo was even criticized for this point blank by many gaming journalists for years, and yet they still went ahead with their policy of 1: not revealing new games until it's within months of their release date (which means no hype buildup at all), and 2: not advertising their games at all unless it has Mario, Pokemon, or Wii in the title.

For further proof, just look at the Wii U. We didn't get any concrete info on the console's price, launch date and launch titles until TWO MONTHS before launch, and heading into 2013, aside from Pikmin 3 and Bayonetta, we have absolutely NO IDEA what Nintendo or even 3rd parties have planned for the Wii U after January or February. Meanwhile if you're a PS360 gamer, you know of plenty of AAA titles coming out for your console of choice in just the first half of 2013 alone, like new Gears, God of War, The Last of Us, Metro Last Light, Bioshock 3, GTAV, etc.

What the hell is Nintendo's PR and marketing department DOING???!?!?!?

Yeah, Nintendo does seem to suck at marketing games that are aimed at the older or teen market.

Now a lot of people use Metriod Prime and its sequels as the examples, but I would like to point out a few other recent failures that were good games that could have used better promotion and could have elevated Nintendo's stock if pushed more.

Games on the Wii that with a little more push probably could have gotten over 300k in sales like Punch Out!, Fire Emblem or Monster Hunter Tri that Nintendo published. Instead you are likely to have seen more commercials for games like Style Savvy: Trendsetters or repeated commercials for the New Super Mario Bros game.

It seems Nintendo (and many 3rd parties are doing the same on all but their higher profile games) think that relying on word of mouth or the internet is enough for marketing games targeting the older audience instead of just trying to push the brand with good publicity or marketing.

If anyone looks at the sales history of all the Metroid games, they'll see that the first Metroid game and Metroid Prime are the best selling games in the series. Also, compared to most franchises, even in it's glory days, Metroid was never that popular. While I agree that Nintendo's marketing efforts for Metroid Prime 3 were not as great as Metroid Prime 1 or 2, I don't think the Metroid series has a marketing issue. I think when compared to Halo, it's not as accessible to gamers as Halo. Halo and other FPS's are easier for gamers to get into. Metroid requires patience and a certain kind of discipline that many gamers simply do not possess. It's the reason why back in the day, Mario was the big seller while Metroid was not, just like nowadays how Halo is the big selling game while Metroid is not.

To make it sound simpler, Halo has more market potential than Metroid. The same goes for Nintendo other games that appeal to older gamers, maybe with the exception of Zelda. Although, then again, Zelda can't pull in the kind of numbers that Call of Duty can. Of course, if Nintendo was like certain other developers (cough, Capcom, cough), they would cheapen some of their franchises in order make them more like some popular franchises in the West.

I think the idea is to avoid Last Guardian/Versus XIII/Dragon Quest X/Agent type debacles. You don't want to create hype for a project, and then see it fall through for whatever reason, then have to deal with backlash. Better to wait until the game is really ready to go, in their mind.

I don't agree with it either, but i do think that's the justification. The problem with that strategy is that if you don't show people that you're doing something, they'll assume that you're doing nothing.

You must've missed the memo. The cube was a hardcore console, no question about it.
 It had its share of kids games, for sure, but so did the PS2. The cube catered to a core demographic, and this is non-debatable.

The xbox sold 25m units, that's 1/6th of the sales the PS2 got. Now MS sold almost 75m units, that's triple the sales. Software-wise,it gets sillier. The 360 sold 700m pieces of SW while the xbox sold a meager 271m. So don't give me this "they already had it" spiel.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that Halo:CE was a Launch Title, no market to leech off of. They built their marketshare themselves.

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