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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Nintendo should advertise 3rd Party Switch Games More

I think Nintendo has done quite a bit of advertising for third party games. We’ve got demos for upcoming games like MH Rise, Bravely Default II, etc. DQXIS was pushed hard by Nintendo in the West. Hero in Smash, a beefy demo, a big focus in 2-3 Directs, what more could you have asked for? Some of their big third party games got big focuses in their directs and direct minis. In the end, Nintendo can only invest so much in marketing third party games while trying to balance marketing their own content. Third parties have to make it a two way street and do their part as well.



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Maybe with next Switch Pro



I think that Nintendo has pushed advertising on 3rd party games, the ones that mattered.  However, as others have mentioned, it isn't Nintendo's responsibility to blow their advertising budget pushing games that aren't their own...unless those games really cast a spotlight on Nintendo's image.

The main problem with AAA 3rd party games, is that they are often either: late releases or ports, ports and late, ports, late and higher price while other versions are on discount....or ports, late, higher price and half the game on too small a cartridge.

I don't see how Switch could sell that many more units by Nintendo pushing 3rd party.  Nintendo's own games are whats pushing sales.  Especially for people that are on the casual blue ocean side, which is a larger market to reach than the gaming crowd...which already know about the 3rd party games available and are happy to purchase those games on the other systems available, due to the above mentioned factors.



This is a really idealistic complaint that I think misses the mark and comes across as more silly than anything.

The reason why you haven't seen even more pushing of third parties by Nintendo isn't a failing of Nintendo; it's a failing of third parties.

When companies like Marvelous, Capcom, and Square stepped up to the plate, the result was Nintendo advertising them constantly. In fact Nintendo literally opened up their E3 2018 on a niche new mech IP that would have only sold at best hundreds of thousands of copies even with the best game quality possible. That's good advertising.

When Dragon Quest XI, a series which only would have moved a significant number of Switch units in Japan, was ported to the Switch ... Nintendo took the route of advertising it in every direct for a year, adding the character to Smash, and treating the release like it was one of Nintendo's own babies. Practically adopting a game as your own, because the publisher isn't that interested in pushing it in the West despite it being one of the biggest. That's good advertising.

Nintendo advertised things like No More Heroes and Bayonetta outside of just their own audiences, too, which is a very smart move as I feel these niche titles can appeal to gamers typically outside of Nintendo's ecosystem, and with the Switch being such an appealing console that just draws more people in rather than locking larger audiences out (like the Wii U did). That's good advertising.

I know it's a little different for titles like Astral Chain where Nintendo own the IP but, it's also worth mentioning that in that regard I feel Nintendo does a better job of advertising the niche titles they help to fund than someone like Sony. Astral Chain was given the same treatment as any Nintendo-made game would be, whereas something like Gravity Rush 2 was hardly advertised despite actually being created by a Sony studio.

Skyrim's port got a lot of marketing from Nintendo. So much in fact, that if you'll remember Nintendo was marketing the game for Switch before Bethesda even wanted to admit the port was real, despite the fact that Nintendo would probably get legal repercussions from pretending like a game which is not actually on their platform would be on their platform. THAT'S how much Nintnendo marketed Skyrim on Switch. It was paired up with Zelda in TV adverts, too, if I recall correctly. That's good marketing.

Mortal Kombat, DOOM, and Wolfenstein 2 were marketed similarly. I guess you could say DOOM and Mortal Kombat are the ones where aside from one trailer and maybe a sizzle reel Nintendo didn't market them a lot, but that's still marketing them and alongside that Mortal Kombat and Doom Eternal got a lot of Switch-related ads on Reddit from their publishers.

If it seems like the Switch doesn't market third parties a lot, it's just because there's not a plethora of them to market. In reality Octopath Traveler, Bravely Default II, Monster Hunter Rise, DOOM 2016, Wolfenstein 2, Daemon X Machina and Wolfenstein 2 all got extensive marketing. If they just don't seem that popular that might just be because some of those multi-platform games released later so their marketing push from the publishers themselves was smaller. But that's not a Nintendo problem, that's an issue of a platform holder holding up their end of the bargain and the publisher doing so limitedly.



I am not really sure why people think Nintendo isn't advertising third parties. I literally just turned on my Switch and I'm hit with an article advertising something like 26 games in the EShop.

The Nintendo news page that pops up whenever you wake the device has dozens of articles primarily advertising third party games. Is this not a thing for Japanese and American Switch owners?

Their youtube channel often features third party games in their videos. They literally just posted a 20 minute video for Monster Hunter Rise demo release. This was posted all over social media.

They often spotlight indie games on their youtube channel, and spit that out across social media.



I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.

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They have more this gen than any previous-gen I can remember and by a massive margin.

Last edited by Leynos - on 10 January 2021

Bite my shiny metal cockpit!