I think they are catering to the mass market. Take a look at a Nintendo Wii game insert. They're aimed squarely at 'casuals' and anyone buying a game will receive the insert with no effort on their part. The website and newsletter are also heavily aimed at 'casuals'.

I saw them when I was babysitting for my nephews who were watching children's TV. They both enjoy Wii games and play regularly but they didn't seem that impressed. Neither was I, I tried the internet demo and didn't like the game at all. I think the internet hyped a mediocre game up to be something amazing, which it wasn't imo.

I remember Gears of War 1 had loads of TV ads. Sonic games also have plenty of ads.

Are you saying that if a commercial was done for Brothers In Arms: Double Time or Chicken Shoot that they would have been million sellers? Is that what you're saying Rol? Are you also saying that if there were advertisements for Boom Blox, that it would have sold 25 million copies like many people believe that it deserved to?

Interesting, but one thing I've noticed is games still do well in january and into Febuary. People buy after Christmas due to getting money/gift cards and rain checks on gifts (especially if they were sold out before hand). I think that may be one theory.

It's well written though. I'd like to see some more examples if you could.

I agree fully 100%. Some of the first posts made were just silly.

CoD was a bad example for the trolls to bring up. I'm pretty sure that game sold as good as it has because it has the CoD name. In fact I bet it would have sold about half as much with a different name,

great marketing can make smoking look cool and fun. basically im saying if your game is not overly hyped where its watched by everyone you can get away with medicore reviews, and with great marketing, sell your game nicely.

so if thats what you were hinting at rol then i agree

Do you mean examples of multi-plats that did better after getting a Wii-specific ad introduced, or games that were initially flops but that blossomed after they were advertised?

If it's the latter, Brain Training in North America is one example: horrendous first month, NoA was forced by NCL to advertise it, sales skyrocket. I'll let you know if I can recall any others.

Namely any example that would prove the argument. Things like games that flopped becuase of lack of advertising, games that did well, and what you mentioned (The CoD example).

"Copies" may be just a TAD too strong of a word.  I believe "More of the Same" would be more appropriate way of saying it.  The games you mention are LIKE what Nintendo put out, but offer different types of experiences.   They are the same Wii controller waggle stuff, just applied to games that are different than what Nintendo put out.

Alrighty, I'll take a stab at it. Let me say from the get-go that some of my examples may be flawed, for one reason or another, but they're the best I can come up with while juggling Remedies homework, so let me know if you see any problems, and I'll try to come up with better ones.

Grand Theft Auto III is another example in the vein of CoD. If memory serves, it actually started out quite small (interviews with the publisher say that they weren't expecting it to be huge, since previous installments saw only modest sales). When the publisher realized that the game was selling at a slow but steady rate, it began marketing the game in earnest. Sales climbed steadily from there, and T=that's about when the series became GTA.

Cooking Mama followed a similar pattern: it wasn't expected to be a hit, and it wasn't for the first few months, until its publisher started to advertise it in places beyond gaming magazines. Several million sales later, we know they chose well.

As for games that did well BECAUSE of advertising, I'd say Final Fantasy VII is the poster child. It had one hell of an ad campaign here in the West. Not coincidentally, it was also the first JRPG to hit big over here.