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Forums - Nintendo - Is Activision going to give up on the WiiU?

S.T.A.G.E. on 27 December 2013
Viper1 said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:
Viper1 said:

Indeed the demand for the series is finally receeding.   However, the series has always been very poorly marketed on Nintendo consoles.  Often times not even being revealed until just a few months prior to release and then missing in the majority of TV, print and online advertising.

As a journalist, I've been to Activisions' press parties, received their press kits and seen how they internally push each SKU.  Nintendo was never given any attention at the press parties, was barely mentioned in their press packages and kits and practically didn't even acknowledge a Wii U SKU even existed until longer after development began on other consoles.

And don't forget that Infinity Ward never touched those consoles.  Even now Treyarch still handles the Wii U iterations.

Wouldn't you say Microsoft invests a lot into their relationship with Activision, creating commercials for COD with the Xbox banner showing at the end? I've seen more MS backed COD commercials than any other brand. If its truly Microsofts dollars that are behind those commercials in tandem with Activision wouldn't you say Sony and Nintendo should do the same?

That's a separate factor.  There is internal marketing and then external partner marketing.  MS does indeed do more external partner marketing for Activisions' CoD than do either Sony and Nintendo.  However, that doesn't alter the fact that Nintendo gets far less internal marketing than do Sony and MS.  And by a very long shot.  I can attest to this from my experiences going to Activion press events and being told they would nto talk ro answer any questions regarding anything to do with the Nintendo SKU.  Would it benefit Nintendo some to extend a marketing olive branch to Activision for CoD?  Probably not.  That ship sailed many years ago.  But we know Nintendo is willing to do it as evidenced by the Skylanders bundle and marketing.  But that goes back to target audience and having not fucked up the brand development and growth of the IP for the console to begin with as was done with CoD.


What are good examples of internal marketing from Activision that they show for Sony opposed to Nintendo?



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oniyide on 27 December 2013
curl-6 said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:
curl-6 said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:
Once the PS3 and Xbox 360 stop getting support the doors to the Wii U will also be closed. Activision will be apart of that and the COD sales on the Wii u as they said was inexcusable.

COD's current sales on Wii U are the result of how badly he series has been handled on Wii/Wii U.


Wrong crowd. Plain and simple. Enough with the excuses.

Not excuses, reasons. COD once sold better on Wii than PS3. Then COD4 skipped the Wii. Then, when Nintendo gamers finally thought they'd get equal treatment on Wii U, they didn't, and were lied to about DLC. Nintendo gamers have had enough of Activision jerking them around.


do you honestly believe if it got "equal" treatment it would have sold much better? I gaurantee it wouldnt it would still have been slaughtered by PS3/4 and both xbox versions, because the audience is so different



curl-6 on 27 December 2013
oniyide said:
curl-6 said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:
curl-6 said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:
Once the PS3 and Xbox 360 stop getting support the doors to the Wii U will also be closed. Activision will be apart of that and the COD sales on the Wii u as they said was inexcusable.

COD's current sales on Wii U are the result of how badly he series has been handled on Wii/Wii U.


Wrong crowd. Plain and simple. Enough with the excuses.

Not excuses, reasons. COD once sold better on Wii than PS3. Then COD4 skipped the Wii. Then, when Nintendo gamers finally thought they'd get equal treatment on Wii U, they didn't, and were lied to about DLC. Nintendo gamers have had enough of Activision jerking them around.


do you honestly believe if it got "equal" treatment it would have sold much better? I gaurantee it wouldnt it would still have been slaughtered by PS3/4 and both xbox versions, because the audience is so different

Yes, I absolutely believe that had Black Ops 2 and Ghosts on Wii U been top-notch ports (graphically superior, not glitch-riddled) with equal treatment as far as content goes and no broken promises, they would have sold considerably better than they did.



S.T.A.G.E. on 27 December 2013
curl-6 said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:
curl-6 said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:
Once the PS3 and Xbox 360 stop getting support the doors to the Wii U will also be closed. Activision will be apart of that and the COD sales on the Wii u as they said was inexcusable.

COD's current sales on Wii U are the result of how badly he series has been handled on Wii/Wii U.


Wrong crowd. Plain and simple. Enough with the excuses.

Not excuses, reasons. COD once sold better on Wii than PS3. Then COD4 skipped the Wii. Then, when Nintendo gamers finally thought they'd get equal treatment on Wii U, they didn't, and were lied to about DLC. Nintendo gamers have had enough of Activision jerking them around.

No COD after Modern Warfare sold below 5 million on the PS3. You're grasping at straws.



curl-6 on 27 December 2013
S.T.A.G.E. said:

No COD after Modern Warfare sold below 5 million on the PS3. You're grasping at straws.

COD 3

Wii: 2.2m

PS3 1.42m

Wii missed out on the series explosion with COD4 cos Activision screwed Nintendo gamers.



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FrancisNobleman on 27 December 2013

They should develop and exclusive CoD game in collaboration with Nintendo.

Can you imagine headshooting other Miis on Luigi's Mansion ? Nintendo should be all over this, like they did for goldeneye on the Wii and DS.



Viper1 on 27 December 2013
S.T.A.G.E. said:
Viper1 said:

That's a separate factor.  There is internal marketing and then external partner marketing.  MS does indeed do more external partner marketing for Activisions' CoD than do either Sony and Nintendo.  However, that doesn't alter the fact that Nintendo gets far less internal marketing than do Sony and MS.  And by a very long shot.  I can attest to this from my experiences going to Activion press events and being told they would nto talk ro answer any questions regarding anything to do with the Nintendo SKU.  Would it benefit Nintendo some to extend a marketing olive branch to Activision for CoD?  Probably not.  That ship sailed many years ago.  But we know Nintendo is willing to do it as evidenced by the Skylanders bundle and marketing.  But that goes back to target audience and having not fucked up the brand development and growth of the IP for the console to begin with as was done with CoD.


What are good examples of internal marketing from Activision that they show for Sony opposed to Nintendo?

1. Game reveals.  Nintendo consoles are almost always absent from them whereas Sony consoles are right there.
2. Follow up press materials.  Sony consoles are noted, Nintendo consoles are not.
3. Preess kits.  I'd get press kits on Sony and MS consoles long before I received one, if at all, for Nintendo consoles.
4. Press events.  Events would cover Sony and MS consoles and openly refuse to discus Nintendo consoles.
5. General PR.  Not even acknowledging a Nintendo console version even exists until just prior to game launch.
6. Bulk marketing.  TV, print and online ads would many times not even include the Nintendo console or would do so only minimally.

The combination of the above since the beginning and the difference in target audience has mean that CoD was never going to do as well on Nintendo consoles as Sony and MS.    Even if the target audiences were equal across all 3 console makers, Nintendo consoles would have fallen behind and stayed behind because the effort to establish the brand on Nintendo consoles was absolutely atrociaous by comparison.  

The sales we see today are a result of the failed brand development and indifferent target audience.   Anyone claiming it was solely just one of those factors and not both is either ignoring somethign to push an agenda or was simply unware of how badly Activision handled the brand on Nintendo consoles.



The rEVOLution is not being televised

S.T.A.G.E. on 27 December 2013
curl-6 said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:

No COD after Modern Warfare sold below 5 million on the PS3. You're grasping at straws.

COD 3

Wii: 2.2m

PS3 1.42m

Wii missed out on the series explosion with COD4 cos Activision screwed Nintendo gamers.

If thats true it makes sense why the sales were higher. 2006 was a high period for Nintendo and a low period for Sony.



oniyide on 27 December 2013
curl-6 said:
oniyide said:
curl-6 said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:
curl-6 said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:
Once the PS3 and Xbox 360 stop getting support the doors to the Wii U will also be closed. Activision will be apart of that and the COD sales on the Wii u as they said was inexcusable.

COD's current sales on Wii U are the result of how badly he series has been handled on Wii/Wii U.


Wrong crowd. Plain and simple. Enough with the excuses.

Not excuses, reasons. COD once sold better on Wii than PS3. Then COD4 skipped the Wii. Then, when Nintendo gamers finally thought they'd get equal treatment on Wii U, they didn't, and were lied to about DLC. Nintendo gamers have had enough of Activision jerking them around.


do you honestly believe if it got "equal" treatment it would have sold much better? I gaurantee it wouldnt it would still have been slaughtered by PS3/4 and both xbox versions, because the audience is so different

Yes, I absolutely believe that had Black Ops 2 and Ghosts on Wii U been top-notch ports (graphically superior, not glitch-riddled) with equal treatment as far as content goes and no broken promises, they would have sold considerably better than they did.

and you would have been wrong cause half of those issues dont even exist. Graphically superior you telling now it was the worst selling version? glitch ridden? compared to what version i assure the PS3 version doesnt exactly run silky smooth. DLC? you are really overhyping DLC by that logic the PS/PC versions shouldnt do as well as they do. Whats considerale? Because im sure even with those factors Wii U version wouldnt have come close to any version even if they doubled the sales that means that it still wouldnt come close to the others.



S.T.A.G.E. on 27 December 2013
Viper1 said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:
Viper1 said:

That's a separate factor.  There is internal marketing and then external partner marketing.  MS does indeed do more external partner marketing for Activisions' CoD than do either Sony and Nintendo.  However, that doesn't alter the fact that Nintendo gets far less internal marketing than do Sony and MS.  And by a very long shot.  I can attest to this from my experiences going to Activion press events and being told they would nto talk ro answer any questions regarding anything to do with the Nintendo SKU.  Would it benefit Nintendo some to extend a marketing olive branch to Activision for CoD?  Probably not.  That ship sailed many years ago.  But we know Nintendo is willing to do it as evidenced by the Skylanders bundle and marketing.  But that goes back to target audience and having not fucked up the brand development and growth of the IP for the console to begin with as was done with CoD.


What are good examples of internal marketing from Activision that they show for Sony opposed to Nintendo?

1. Game reveals.  Nintendo consoles are almost always absent from them whereas Sony consoles are right there.
2. Follow up press materials.  Sony consoles are noted, Nintendo consoles are not.
3. Preess kits.  I'd get press kits on Sony and MS consoles long before I received one, if at all, for Nintendo consoles.
4. Press events.  Events would cover Sony and MS consoles and openly refuse to discus Nintendo consoles.
5. General PR.  Not even acknowledging a Nintendo console version even exists until just prior to game launch.
6. Bulk marketing.  TV, print and online ads would many times not even include the Nintendo console or would do so only minimally.

The combination of the above since the beginning and the difference in target audience has mean that CoD was never going to do as well on Nintendo consoles as Sony and MS.    Even if the target audiences were equal across all 3 console makers, Nintendo consoles would have fallen behind and stayed behind because the effort to establish the brand on Nintendo consoles was absolutely atrociaous by comparison.  

The sales we see today are a result of the failed brand development and indifferent target audience.   Anyone claiming it was solely just one of those factors and not both is either ignoring somethign to push an agenda or was simply unware of how badly Activision handled the brand on Nintendo consoles.


I think thats because of timing issues. I think Nintendo's Wii U's sales are a result of an audience that refuses to form on their console so Activision isn't even willing to budge. The Wii U isn't even an option to them because I think most are going to cut the Wii U out of the equation once last gen console development is phased out. The Wii U failed to impress before that time so I think they are judging based on that. EA hasn't even appeared with Battlefield 3 on the Wii U even though they promised and I think thats from an internal disagreement with EA.