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Forums - Nintendo - Will the potential of Splatoon and Mario Maker be let down by marketing?

rolltide101x on 24 January 2015
curl-6 said:

These games could be crucial sleeper hits for Wii U. Could being the operative word, though.

Splatoon could establish a competitive scene and shake up their image by showing they don't just recycle old IPs. But as an unfamiliar property, it will need a push to build up a sizeable userbase; as has been suggested in the Nintendomination thread, aggressive advertising though Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, etc could go a long way.

The problem is, will Nintendo be willing to give it the necessary push? Their marketing these days tends to be, well, awful.

Same with Mario Maker; given the current popularity of DIY games like Minecraft, plus the nostalgia factor of 8-bit/16-bit Mario, it could be huge. But it will need to be appropriately priced and pitched to the mass audience, instead of just Nintendo fans who watch Directs and follow them on twitter.

Nintendo needs to really step up to the plate and plug these two hard, or they'll fumble two critical opportunities to expand their player base.

I honestly can not see either selling very well, especially Splatoon, that name sounds like a mobile game. Advertisment wouldnt help much, Nintendo just needs to keep their bills low so they can continue to profit. 



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Recycle001 on 24 January 2015
vivster said:
I don't really think they hold much potential to begin with. You can push sales for any game with marketing but I don't think it will make much difference in this case.

What they should do is crank up the marketing on XCX. That's a giant game that has multiples of the combined work hours of Splatoon and Mario Maker in it. It deserves sales according to that.

I really do think that Splatoon has a lot of potential to be popular, not COD or Halo popular, but at least a top seller. With that being said... Mario Maker doesn't have too much potential imo. Creative building games appeal to a younger audience who doesn't think Mario is cool anymore. I love the idea, I think its something that should have came out on the GNC tbh. I just don't see it selling well, reguardless of marketing.

As far as XCX goes, it will sell decent, maybe even be a top ten seller for the console, but... its a JRPG and that is a niche market. Games like Skyrim and Dragonage sold well due to lots of hype and being more western. Western audiences still grow up on tales of knights and dragons and king arthur, so basic swords, shields, a little magic, and peasant towns appeal to them more than giant mechs, fancy tech weapons, and non-traditional fantasy environments. I really do believe that Splatoon will sell better than XCX.



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rolltide101x on 24 January 2015
Recycle001 said:

I really do think that Splatoon has a lot of potential to be popular, not COD or Halo popular, but at least a top seller. With that being said... Mario Maker doesn't have too much potential imo. Creative building games appeal to a younger audience who doesn't think Mario is cool anymore. I love the idea, I think its something that should have came out on the GNC tbh. I just don't see it selling well, reguardless of marketing.

As far as XCX goes, it will sell decent, maybe even be a top ten seller for the console, but... its a JRPG and that is a niche market. Games like Skyrim and Dragonage sold well due to lots of hype and being more western. Western audiences still grow up on tales of knights and dragons and king arthur, so basic swords, shields, a little magic, and peasant towns appeal to them more than giant mechs, fancy tech weapons, and non-traditional fantasy environments. I really do believe that Splatoon will sell better than XCX.

No way would Splatoon make 1 million in sales even if it was on the PS4. Its name completely destroys any chance of that. As I said in an earlier post it sounds like a mobile game. The game does look pretty cool to me but it has 0 chance of being a "thing" on any level.



IkePoR on 24 January 2015

Of course they will, it's Nintendo.



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mine on 24 January 2015

Nintendo is doing a great job. As of the E3 2014 they've finally nailed it.

So expect cheap and effective marketing to those who matter.

If they can make a big splash there the others will put their foots into the ink too...



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Incubi on 24 January 2015

Minoru Arakawa would usually say to the disgruntled marketing team at NOA that marketing is just a big waste of money and point to the original Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong as proof of that. Two titles that didn't get any marketing, and ended up selling gangbusters.

I believe there are still people at Nintendo who share his ideas - which says that if a product holds enough quality and appeal, it will sell itself.



IkePoR on 24 January 2015
Machina said:
Limited marketing outside of Nintendo's usual sphere of influence and a small install base will do for Splatoon. Splatoon in particular looks set to pick up good critical acclaim, but sales will likely be woeful.

Mario Maker probably has a much higher base level in terms of sales thanks to adopting the Mario name, but the genre is much more niche, so it will also struggle sales-wise.

Would Mario Maker adopt the same genere as Minecraft?  Because Minecraft is the opposite of niche.



"You should be banned. Youre clearly flaming the president and even his brother who you know nothing about. Dont be such a partisan hack"

curl-6 on 24 January 2015
rolltide101x said:
curl-6 said:

These games could be crucial sleeper hits for Wii U. Could being the operative word, though.

Splatoon could establish a competitive scene and shake up their image by showing they don't just recycle old IPs. But as an unfamiliar property, it will need a push to build up a sizeable userbase; as has been suggested in the Nintendomination thread, aggressive advertising though Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, etc could go a long way.

The problem is, will Nintendo be willing to give it the necessary push? Their marketing these days tends to be, well, awful.

Same with Mario Maker; given the current popularity of DIY games like Minecraft, plus the nostalgia factor of 8-bit/16-bit Mario, it could be huge. But it will need to be appropriately priced and pitched to the mass audience, instead of just Nintendo fans who watch Directs and follow them on twitter.

Nintendo needs to really step up to the plate and plug these two hard, or they'll fumble two critical opportunities to expand their player base.

I honestly can not see either selling very well, especially Splatoon, that name sounds like a mobile game. Advertisment wouldnt help much, Nintendo just needs to keep their bills low so they can continue to profit. 

I don't think the name really has that much influence. Plenty of games with corny names have sold before.



baloofarsan on 24 January 2015

The closest comparison to Splatoon I can think of is Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare. A cartoony colorful multiplayer third-person shooter with team-based combat.
Sales on 160 million (X360 + PS3) install base: 1.25 millions.
Sales on 30 million (X1+PS4) install base: 0.75 millions.

So far Wii U have only nine games over 1million in retail, most of them relying on well-known Nintendo franchises.
I think it will be hard to get sales over one million for Splatoon.
Although it will be a good lesson in online gaming (along with MK8, Smash and upcoming Devil's Third) for Nintendo.

Mario Maker can be somewhat compared to LittleBigPlanet 3 as they both are plattformers with cartoony graphics and are reliant on user-created content. Sales on double the Wii U install base is around 1 million in retail.



AZWification on 24 January 2015

Probably.. Mario Maker will probably benefit from being a Mario gme, but not by much!



                
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