LordTheNightKnight said:
Where did he, or even I, state that was what the marketing should be? |
Implication. He said that the ads focused on the style of monster hunter and not the substance. The substance of monster hunter are the aspects that make it a time-sink. The giant monsters are the style. But the substance could be heavily construed as a negative thing if portrayed as an integral part of the experience.
Monster Hunter: pissing me off since 2010.
Mr Khan said:
Implication. He said that the ads focused on the style of monster hunter and not the substance. The substance of monster hunter are the aspects that make it a time-sink. The giant monsters are the style. But the substance could be heavily construed as a negative thing if portrayed as an integral part of the experience. |
He mentioned the social aspects. Did you miss that part of his comments, or decide it had to be what he meant?
A flashy-first game is awesome when it comes out. A great-first game is awesome forever.
Plus, just for the hell of it: Kelly Brook at the 2008 BAFTAs
LordTheNightKnight said:
He mentioned the social aspects. Did you miss that part of his comments, or decide it had to be what he meant? |
Ah, i did miss that, and suppose it was under-emphasized in their campaign. Certainly didn't help Freedom Unite, though. Their ads emphasized the co-op.
Monster Hunter: pissing me off since 2010.
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After a long sleep, the Music posts are coming back. As the Titanic of the Game Industry sinks (“It can’t sink!” *bubble* *bubble*), I have summoned the band out again to play the tunes of the classics on the sinking deck to ease panic and calm nerves. Number 39? Starfox!
If Nintendo is going to make a new Starfox, it better be sure to get the music right. This stuff is epic! |
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Hello Sean Do you think this book offers the analysis of Nintendo as it should? http://www.vertical-inc.com/books/nintendo.html The way how these books are written is that the author is given ‘content’ in the form of anecdotes or personal stories from people inside Nintendo in order to make the book. It would be like writing a book about Apple and Steve Jobs giving you quotes and telling you some stories of what happened. The book will not be seen from the eyes of the consumer, however. Also, since the writer is Japanese and is about NCL, it will be unable to explain the American phenomenon that occurred with the Wii. Most Japanese writers on video games do not understand the Atari days or even the NES days in America. Video games are born in America, not in Japan which is how the Japanese writer will try to write it. There is no way to look at the Nintendo business strategy for the seventh generation without acknowledging the Blue Ocean Strategy or Clayton Christenson’s “disruption”. I doubt either of these will be elaborated on within those short two hundred pages. I bet most of the two hundred pages will be about a bad dramatization of ‘inside stories’ inside Nintendo. To be perfectly honest, what occurred within NCL or in the heads of Iwata and Miyamoto is irrelevant. What matters is what was occurring in the heads of the consumers. Consumer behavior has massively changed lately. The question behind the Seventh Generation is not how but why. WHY did the Wii succeed? How it succeeded is not interesting. Answering the how is nothing more than letting marketing flap their gums about how their tactics or how Nintendo developers made their games. The WHY is a far more interesting question. I reject the view that what we are seeing with the Wii is something we have never seen before. It occurred with the NES. It occurred in the Atari Era. Heck, it occurred with the arcades. In many ways, the Wii was restoring what was lost from video games. The most dramatic portrayal of that is Mario 5 which illustrated how many 2d Mario fans there were out there and how Nintendo abandoned them for decades. The Wii Fit phenomenon is the only thing I would truly call ‘new’. Do customers have any part in ‘Nintendo Magic’? I bet the content of the book will be about NCL ‘stories’ and personal hijinks while not exploring the consumer reactions to gaming both before and after the DS and Wii. |
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Ultima Underworld Introduction
Wanderer
Maps and Legends
Dark Abyss
Gameplay
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Looks like 1up didn’t get the memo to report that Nintendo is the cause of all decline and is going to go third party soon. |
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Lazy Jones Commodore 64 |
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It would probably have looked something like this. This is awful! Sacrilege! But it is a good illustration as to why 2d Mario people reject 3d Mario. 3d Mario is not Mario in 3d. It is an entirely different game. Super Mario Brothers still hasn’t been made in 3d yet. |
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Dune For the PC. I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I miss FMV. I hate the overabundance of CGI in movies, and games using CGI to be ‘movie like’ isn’t interesting either. Another thing I noticed when looking at this video was that video games used to deliver much more of a content punch. It was common for games to use science fiction or fantasy novels to build up their imaginary game world. We do not see this content richness in games today because of the Industry Machine for one but also I suspect game developers no longer know how to make games from original sources. All they know is to imitate a video game that has already been made. Video games are boring today because they are no longer about worlds. They are only about franchises. Dull, boring, stale, predictable… soulless. |
I finished reading Nintendo Magic today. Disruption isn't mentioned but it does have a large chunk about User Generated Content. Malstrom was right about Iwata and Miyamoto believing UGC is the next big thing.
Nov 2016 - NES outsells PS1 (JP)
Don't Play Stationary 4 ever. Switch!
Switch Code: SW-7377-9189-3397 -- Nintendo Network ID: theRepublic -- Steam ID: theRepublic
Now Playing
Switch - Super Mario Maker 2 (2019)
Switch - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (2019)
Switch - Bastion (2011/2018)
3DS - Star Fox 64 3D (2011)
3DS - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Trilogy) (2005/2014)
Wii U - Darksiders: Warmastered Edition (2010/2017)
Mobile - The Simpson's Tapped Out and Yugioh Duel Links
PC - Deep Rock Galactic (2020)
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The entertainment business all revolves around content, content, and content. A main reason why gamers are losing interest in new games is because there is no new content. It has been said that good video games have been primarily said to be focused on ‘gameplay over graphics’. While gameplay is important, it does not provide the punch to the consumer experience. Gameplay is the skeleton in the background that makes the game ‘work’. But gameplay is not why people play video games. Our lives are boring. We wake up, we go to work, and we return home or hang out, then we go to sleep and repeat the process anew. Our lives do not resemble what is going on in video games. We do not get magical swords and slay dragons. We do not eat mushrooms, turn big, and bounce on giant turtles.We do not get plasma rifles and shoot aliens. We do not drive cool cars at breakneck speed in intense races. (Keep in mind I am referring to fictional entertainment, not the nonfictional like Wii Fit which is designed to improve your real life.) When a consumer plays a game, in the consumer’s mind, he is not thinking about gameplay at all (unless the game is not fun in which case the game is ‘broken’). The consumer thinks he is the hero. The consumer BECOMES Link. He BECOMES Mario. He is exploring the Mushroom Kingdom. He is exploring Hyrule. No consumer thinks he is fulfilling gameplay level R with variable 32 to completion. The consumer experience feels like he is in an adventure. This is why all video games have the players do things he does not do in real life. In fact, all entertainment is this way. Movies are about the extraordinary events. Novels are about the extraordinary events. People view entertainment as a tonic to their boring lifestyle. It is their escape. It is their way to relax. And this is what I refer to as ‘content’. And it is taking place in the consumer’s mind. It varies depending on the entertainment medium, but in video games interesting choices are what makes a game fun. The original Super Mario Brothers, unlike other games during its time, offered interesting choices to the player. Do you jump over the goomba or do you hop on it? Do you go through the secret pipe or do you go on? Do you go under or over the blocks? Even as far back as Donkey Kong, Mario was presented with interesting choices from jumping to get a hammer or ignoring it to jump over barrels. The hammer was not necessary to the gameplay. But without it, the game is less fun. The milieu is to video games as a stage is to a play. It can make things more interesting. Decades ago, video games were made in a content focused way. So you want to make a game about being a hero with a sword to fight monsters. There are many ways this gameplay can be done. It can be turn based. It can be real time. It can be a side scroller. But the initial draw is that the consumer will be attracted to being a hero with a sword. Content is the WHY people play games. Gameplay is the HOW people play games. In the same way, a book’s plot and ‘page turning’ is similar to gameplay. But the book has to be about something. You can’t have random characters running around. When the reader closes the book, they will still be thinking about the content. One of the reasons why the book industry is in decline is because writers are so obsessed over the process of the book’s prose, over its characters and plot, and do not realize that the content of the book flat out sucks. If you compare some of the early science fiction books to the later science fiction books, while the later books are written “better”, they aren’t half as good as the early science fiction books who introduced and explored brand new concepts. In other words, Lord of the Rings is constantly panned by critics for its ‘horrible writing’. And the writing might, indeed, be horrible. But it is the content that is the definitive experience. And all fantasy books borrowed and ripped from it. Compare the two games of Civilization 2 and Alpha Centauri. Alpha Centauri, no doubt, had superior gameplay and far better ‘flow’. But Civilization 2 was just more fun (Alpha Centauri never became remotely near as popular as Civilization did). Why? It is because of the content. Civilization was about history, about elements that people found recognizable and familiar such as gunpowder or chariots. Alpha Centauri was more about elements people did not find recognizable or familiar. Red fungi attacking you does not make much sense. Biodomes and nano-technology is not familiar to people so people become uncomfortable with it. This is why I say content, not gameplay, is the driving experience. And this is why I kept pointing to Alice in Wonderland as the reason why Super Mario Brothers resonated and created a massive phenomenon. I am not saying Miyamoto copied Alice. I am saying that Super Mario Brothers, while may appear bizarre and strange, actually has a similar entertainment phenomenon when Lewis Carrol’s books were released. The Legend of Zelda resonates, for example, because everyone can relate to the celtic wonderland of young boy turning into a hero to rid the ‘dark prince’. Video games differ from movies and novels since control is in the player’s hands. In a novel, much of the content is defined by the character’s choices. In a video game, the content revolves around the player’s choices. This is why video games based on a character, in fashion of a movie or novel, will never work for the video game medium. No one plays video games to passively watch characters make choices. The player expects to make the choices or, at least, to be under the illusion they are making these choices. And all these choices must be something they cannot do in real life or else they will not be ‘interesting’. The design schools for video game makers tend to revolve around the gameplay mechanisms. And then they wonder why their games do not sell. There is nothing in video games talking about how to create new content. It is no wonder every game mimics a previous game. It is no wonder people feel there is nothing new going on in the world of video games. It may take an engineer’s head to program a video game, but it takes a poet’s heart to make it magical. So with that, let us look at the latest Iwata Asks where Miyamoto and Iwata laugh it up over Super Mario Galaxy: The Lost Levels. Iwata
Because it’s not resonating.
Miyamoto Right. It isn’t resonating, so you can’t get into it. It is because pyrotechnics, which are special effects, are not the content of the movie. Miyamoto
Right. It isn’t resonating, so you can’t get into it. As for Super Mario Galaxy 2, we wanted a suitable amount of story and movies, so we made lots of new enemies, but we wanted this game to be fully elaborated in keeping with the essence of this particular game. If we hadn’t, some players would think things like “Why is this enemy here?” and be jarred out of the experience.
Iwata The game wouldn’t resonate with them.
Miyamoto I came to notice that my way of making games may have been to seek for resonance. I didn’t necessarily want to include story or not include story. Rather, I have been making games that I hope will resonate with players, I now think.
What I find dismaying is the first page they talk that 2d Mario gamers do not play 3d Mario because ’3d Mario is too difficult because it lacks a single plane’. However, then they spend time talking about resonance. Mario 64 resonated on some level because Peach’s castle made sense and jumping through paintings to enter a magical realm made sense. But Galaxy makes no sense whatsoever. Nothing is coherent in the game world. Super Mario Brothers was a coherent game. It was not random things thrown together, at least the consumer didn’t see it that way. When you were swimming in water, that made sense. When you were dodging fire bars in a castle, that made sense. Later Mario games made it even more coherent by adding the map. Now the game world had a better feel of structure in the mind’s eye. But the Galaxy games have absolutely no structure. Nothing makes sense. Iwata
I suppose that has a great deal to do with why New
 Super Mario Bros. Wii14 found such a large following around the world.Miyamoto I think it’s because we were able to give people something that they felt a connection to.
Iwata It resonated.
Miyamoto
I think so. When enemies resonate with you, you willingly engage with them. You notice things like how a certain enemy wasn’t scary, but the next time a similar one appears, its color is a little different and it spits out two rocks instead of one, so you think it must be tougher. You reason things out for yourself and put them to the test. This kind of interaction is interesting. The more of it there is, the more a game will resonate. And I think you can sense certain inevitability of your being there in that.
This is not why Super Mario Brothers 5 resonated. It resonated because the game literally borrowed content from the previous Mario games. The game world always made sense. I understand what Desert World means. I understand what Water World means. I do not understand ‘Fruit Loop Galaxy’ or whatever where I surf a manatee on a river in the middle of space. It makes no sense whatsoever. It feels disconnected and disjointed. It does not fit with the big picture of the game. Mario 5 relied on content of the past. It was a very traditional Mario game. People felt comfortable with Mario 5 for the same reasons they felt comfortable with Mario decades ago. Mario 5, as much as I like the game, can not be considered a content victory as there was very little new ‘content’ presented. It only feels new because we haven’t seen a game like this in 18 years. When people complain about Twilight Princess, note how their complaints are almost always content centric. People are tired of every first dungeon being the Forest Temple, that they must go through the Lost Woods puzzles to get the Master Sword, tired of Lake Hyrule, tired of Kariko Village. Playing new gameplay with old content is like reading a novel with new words but the same old story. The readers revolt and claim the author is ripping them off. Video game players make the same complaint. Miyamoto
You can apply it to figuring out the difference between interesting TV shows and uninteresting ones. Rather than wondering whether the general scenario is interesting or not, what’s important is whether the characters that appear in it are realistic.
Iwata What kinds of characters appear in what kinds of situations.
Miyamoto So even though a television drama may feature a general milieu that would usually be of no interest to you, if the characters that appear in it look like real people in your own life, the show will resonate, and you’ll be able to get into it. I think video games are the same way.
Character decisions and behavior is what makes passive entertainment entertaining to watch be it television or novels. But who is making the decisions in a video game? That would be the true character. And it has to be the player. As I’ve said before, video game content is interesting choices. The milieu makes these choices more interesting. What Miyamoto is saying is the same garbage that ignorant TV producers say. Let me give an example that everyone can relate to. You are watching your favorite science fiction TV show. You watch each new episode with great anticipation. However, suddenly, a story arc develops which revolves around the ‘romance’ between two characters. Next thing you know your Sci-Fi TV Show has become Melrose Place in space. You become furious. Ratings for the show plummet. Every TV producer meddles with the sci-fi show and this is always the result. Always. It is because they adopt what Miyamoto just said. The TV producer thinks, “Hey, we can get the female demographic if we have some soap opera stuff going on.” In an opposite way, a TV producer thinks, “Say, we can get the male demographic to watch our show if we put in hot chicks and occasionally strip them nude.” Metroid does not sell to women (unlike Mario and Zelda). This is because women do not really warm up to the science fiction setting. Nintendo is thinking like that hated TV producer. They think that if Metroid is about Samus’s feelings AS A GIRL and all those ‘maternal instincts’ are featured, then girls will like Metroid even if they do not like the science fiction environment. The result will be, guaranteed, that women will not only fail to buy Metroid but the male members who do buy it will be enraged or disappointed. Focusing on the ‘strong woman’ aspect will also get the same result. Nintendo is currently making the most common mistakes in the entertainment business. Now I have wondered why they keep repeating these mistakes with sci-fi shows. The answer is because the TV producers and all have no respect for the sci-fi in the first place which means they do not respect their audience. Like Miyamoto, the TV producer thinks he or she has thought of something no one else has ever thought of. Such is the thinking that leads to the most common mistakes.  Miyamoto
I had Tezuka-san play it and tell me what he thought. Right away, he said the tempo had improved.
Iwata
Is that because the excess elements had been trimmed away?
Miyamoto
Simply put, I think it was because he was able to enter into the world of the game naturally.
Iwata
I see. The world resonated with him. Enter the world ‘naturally’? This smacks of the ‘organic’ experience TV producers often talked about. But I don’t think Iwata knows what the hell Miyamoto is talking about, and I don’t think Miyamoto does either. It just sounds good to say ‘resonate’. It is like they are trying to convince one another that Galaxy 2 is a different game than Galaxy 1 but, no, it is very much a similar game experience. Galaxy 2 will fail for the same reasons Galaxy 1 did (except this time, Galaxy 2 won’t have the sold-out Wii momentum to bolster its numbers). Miyamoto
Well, we named it Super Mario Galaxy 2, so we aimed at creating a game that would be enjoyable for people who had played its predecessor.
And then, one of the challenges of 3D games at the moment is that there are lots of things you have to learn at the start of the game, so there are lots of tutorials at the beginning. Tutorials are nice for helping people to remember the controls for the first time, but they’re a pain for people who already know the controls. Iwata They want to say, “I already know all that, so just let me go on ahead!”
Miyamoto Yeah. But you have to make them.Iwata That’s an ever-present dilemma.
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How did we play Super Mario Brothers or Legend of Zelda or Metroid or any game decades ago without a tutorial? How can Miyamoto say you have to make them when the biggest Nintendo games, including Wii Sports, had no tutorial whatsoever. This is why I am thinking it is time for Miyamoto to retire. This guy is not making coherent sense anymore. -
Miyamoto
Right. When making the first Super Mario Galaxy, I had said Mario games didn’t need a story or movies, but before I knew it, there were quite a few movies and a substantial amount of story. When it comes to movies, you can pretty much stick them in at the end of development.
Iwata That’s when all the separate elements come together.
 Miyamoto
So at the end of development, I was like, “Huh? It’s getting more and more like The Legend of Zelda!” (laughs)
Iwata After you had said there didn’t need to be a story! (laughs)
Reader, since when have people played Legend of Zelda for its story? The story is almost always the same for every Zelda game. Zelda is captured by Ganon, in some capacity, and Link, the young boy, must become a hero and save her. Seeing how Zelda sales are swirling around the toilet, I’m alarmed Miyamoto can make such a definitive statement on something like Zelda “story”. I thought Zelda was being carefully re-examined. Or perhaps I am making too much of a single comment. One thing even Zelda fans agree on is that the quality level of Zelda games has really deteriorated lately. My prediction is that Nintendo developers will imagine the problem to be something else and the Iwata Asks about Zelda Wii will be talking about how they removed this imaginary problem. The true problem is not something they want to face. They love stories so much they cannot imagine making a Zelda without one. They will not make a non-linear Zelda as many people want because that would mean they can’t make their crappy story. This entire Iwata Asks interview is exactly that: the idea that Galaxy 2 is solving some imaginary problem of why 2d Mario won’t play 3d Mario. The real reason why 2d Mario customers do not like 3d Mario is because the content of 3d Mario is lame and often doesn’t make sense and because the gameplay is so radically different (you hunt stars where in 2d Mario you reach a flagpole and do not revisit that level again). However, this reason depresses Nintendo developers too much. It is much easier making a Mario game where they can re-use the same exact level four or five times by placing a star in a different place. And it is much easier to make a game where the game world has no cohesion. Mario Galaxy 1 was designed to make 3d Mario more accessible so it sells like 2d Mario. It failed. So instead, they waste 2 and a half years making a game with the same exact mission. What is so different this time? That the game uses one plane more often? That a DVD full of video tutorials comes with the game? If Iwata had any integrity he’d have said, “All that stuff I said in my ‘Heart of the Gamer’ speech about how game developers shouldn’t make games for themselves was all a bunch of crock. Here, at Nintendo, we only desire to make games for ourselves. This means Metroid will be about exploring the maternal instincts of Samus Aran, Zelda will continue to be puzzle-based and be designed about entertaining Aonuma’s son, and we will keep pumping out more and more 3d Marios even though the 2d Mario crowd has been rejecting them for fourteen years. “ |
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Arkanoid Commodore 64 |
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I’ve noticed that you have mentioned games like Final Fantasy to be phenomenons with the disclaimer that Final Fantasy was a phenomenon only in Japan. Of course this is a reference to older generations of consoles, such as the Nintendo and the Super Nintendo, where the Final Fantasy series thrived in Japan, but was still under performing in the west. Then Final Fantasy 7 was released and was a huge hit globally. It was never a “huge hit” in the scale which Nintendo has been able to achieve, but none the less, it is one of the best selling games. Then sequels were made of the game, while they were never as successful as Final Fantasy 7, they were still performing well. There were people who were repulsed by Final Fantasy 7 after playing it, which would end up never playing Final Fantasy 8, 9 and so on. Even after Final Fantasy 7, Japanese developed RPGs were becoming popular. Many people believe that Final Fantasy 7 was successful because of Graphics. I think this is horseshit. At the time of buying Final Fantasy 7, people looked like they had magically jointed limbs, their clothing were plain, and their faces only had eyes, and more powerful machines have been made that could put out better graphics. One could say the music was the compelling point but the same composer has been working on the series, even before the series was popular. The same writer has been with the series, with the exception of Final Fantasy 12. Yet, I felt driven to continue playing Final Fantasy 7. So I suppose the greater question is, why was Final Fantasy 7 able to make the series popular in the west? You can blame Nintendo of America who continues the proud tradition of not localizing Japanese games to this very day. Final Fantasy I sold very well in the United States. In fact, I think it sold better in America than it did in Japan. But when Final Fantasy I came out in America was when Final Fantasy III came out in Japan. Nintendo of America passed on localizing either Final Fantasy II and III because they felt it was too similar to Final Fantasy I to sell. (There was also the Japanese belief that American gamers were too ‘unsophisticated’ to know how to play ‘complicated’ Japanese RPGs and could only play simple platformers and fighting games. This betrays the fact that it was Americans who invented the RPG, popularized it, and it was Americans who introduced Japan to RPG gaming.) When Final Fantasy IV came out on the Super Nintendo, people were wowed by the graphics and the improved sound. It was released in America only three months later. However, since American gamers are seen as ‘retarded’ and ‘unable to play sophisticated Japanese RPG games’, Final Fantasy IV had many items taken out as well as locations and abilities with the game difficulty being made much easier. The game was also heavily censored by Nintendo of America so talks of death or sex or the strippers were removed or altered. Final Fantasy IV was also renamed to Final Fantasy II which started some confusion. The game was successful in America but not as successful as it was in Japan. Squaresoft also believed American gamers were retarded so they made Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest to help ‘tutor’ American gamers on learning how to play this ‘sophisticated’ Japanese RPG. Mystic Quest bombed and the American Final Fantasy customers were furious at such a condescending game. To add to the insult, Mystic Quest was released in Japan as “Final Fantasy USA”. Final Fantasy V came out in 1992 in Japan. It almost made its way to America as ‘Final Fantasy III’ but for some reason this didn’t occur. It could have been disagreements with Nintendo of America over the cartridge size or it could have been that ‘Final Fantasy V is too complex for retarded Americans.’ In 1995, Squaresoft announced the release of FFV in America and Eidos announced the release of FFV in America in 1997. It never came until the Anthology Pack. Final Fantasy VI was released in 1994 in Japan and released as Final Fantasy III in America. It sold well in America but never became ‘mainstream’. Part of the reason could be attributed that the SNES lifecycle was aging. And there was this…
Horrible marketing. Such a commercial doesn’t at all represent the value of a game like Final Fantasy VI. But this was common during the ’16-bit’ War where marketing was loud, annoying, and all aimed at teenagers. You dismiss graphics as a reason why VII sold so well, but I disagree. RPGs traditionally were not seen as graphic powerhouses. For Final Fantasy VII, Squaresoft spent $45 million to develop the game which was, and still is, a massive amount of money for a video game. It was a Hollywood sized budget. Final Fantasy VII wowed because RPGs traditionally did not focus on graphics. And it was time for sustaining innovations and people were all hungry for better graphics and transitioning to longer type of games (such as RPGs). Final Fantasy VII, unlike the previous games, was the first Final Fantasy to use Western developers. This likely made the game feel less ‘Japanese’ centric and made the game more acceptable to Western tastes. One issue with earlier RPGs is that there was much ‘abstraction’ involved which likely also limited the audience. The artist for previous Final Fantasy games was not used. A new artist was used for Final Fantasy VII. Instead of having characters that were two heads tall, they were ‘less abstract’ and looked more like real people. The removal of abstraction is a reason why I think the first 3d game in a series gets a sales bump. A 3d world in Zelda is far less abstract than the 2d world in Zelda. It is an experience being able to look up at the Hyrule sky. So removing abstraction seems to help boost sales in games. Sony planned to modify Final Fantasy VII to be ‘censored’ because, as we know, American gamers are retarded and need nerfed versions of a game’s content, but strong user feedback (I remember the petitions) convinced Sony to release Final Fantasy VII uncut. After Final Fantasy gamers in America being treated like idiots, retards, or fragile to being shielded from vulgar words, the move was much appreciated and likely boosted sales. The US release of Final Fantasy VII also had additional content that was not in the Japanese version. Certainly, that might have made an impression. Back then, Sony was run by competent people. They threw the entire weight of Sony behind the marketing campaign for Final Fantasy 7. The marketing budget (not development budget, the MARKETING budget) for Final Fantasy VII in the US was $100 million. Major print campaigns were made in the Rolling Stone, Spin, Playboy, and the gaming magazines. Sony teamed up with Pepsi for a holiday promotion featuring the game. A demo disc of Final Fantasy VII was included in brand new PlayStation systems as well. Before Final Fantasy VII was released, there were already hundreds of thousands who had pre-ordered the game.
Above: the commercials actually do a good job of representing the game (unlike the horrible FF3 commercials). And they are also somewhat witty. So, in conclusion, the answer why Final Fantasy VII was so successful while previous FF games were not was because… 1) HUGE development budget. $45 million is a ton of money for a game even today. 2) MASSIVE marketing budget. $100 million is insane. FF7′s marketing budget was the same as GTA 4′s development budget. Sony also was a very shrewd company back then. And they really wanted to twist the knife at Nintendo. 3) Not treating your customers like retards. People wonder why I get angry when game companies or Industry people talk about ‘casual gamers’ as if they were idiots and morons. Fools! Do you not remember? The Japanese Game Industry treated American gamers as idiots and morons which is why so many Japanese games were never localized in America or were neutered in content or difficulty. This is also why I get angry when Nintendo thinks their precious 3d Mario doesn’t sell like 2d Mario because 2d Mario gamers are ‘retarded’ and ‘can’t handle’ the ‘sophistication’ of 3d Mario. It is arrogance and condescension which dodges the real reason why disinterest exists. |
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It is actually a very good idea. To get content that works, you steal it from other works. For example, the Zerg and Terrans are very much ‘Starship Troopers’. Protoss are very much predators. With Starcraft 2, it is fun to see the content Blizzard ripped.
Look! The Star Wars Episode 1 Droid is the Protoss Immortal!
Look! It is War of the Worlds! I think the movie wants their Protoss Colossi back.
Look! It is the Warhammer 40k Assault Marine! But Blizzard wants it as the Reaper. The Hellion and the Banshee resembling units from Command and Conquer is too obvious especially as the lead designer for Starcraft 2 designed Command and Conquer games. A creative director in Blizzard was a creative director for Warhammer.
Look! It is the Robotech Alpha (ahem, Third Generation). Is that the Viking?
Look! It is the M.A.C. II Monster from Robotech! Is that where the Thor came from? Thor is likely too generic to be pinned down to anything. But after the Starcraft 1 “Battleship Reporting…” battleship mimicking Captain Gloval, I demand there be some Robotech in my Starcraft 2. Twenty years ago, in an interview to Nintendo Power, Shigeru Miyamoto gave advice to game makers to look at what is current in popular culture. Being nerds, game makers probably do not like popular culture. But Miyamoto was right. Mimicking pop culture at least has your game material to start off in the trend of being popular.
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Miyamoto just doesn't get why 3d mario doesn't sell. I feel like instead of calling it 3d mario vs. 2d mario, we should call it "puzzle mario" vs. "action mario".
2d mario has always been about constant progression, precise jumping, and knee-jerk reactions. It is "action" Mario. It is fun and fast.
3d mario is considerably slower. It is more about exploration, puzzle-solving, and scavenger hunts rather than reactions and precision.
Mario galaxy is suppose to be the big 3d mario band-aid. Since they think 3d mario is simply a problem because of accessibility, they thought 3d planets would prevent people from getting lost. Now, instead of people getting lost, they get disoriented.
Plus Galaxy is still about solving puzzles. The only way to progress through the game and leave a planetoid is to solve a puzzle to unlock a launch pad. For those that get stuck at places like this, progression is halted, and boredom ensues. When people say "they are lost" in a 3d mario game, it is not because they can't figure out where to go, it's because they can't solve a crappy puzzle that is the only way to progress through the game.
Miyamoto is right about one thing, 3d Mario is Zelda. It sells like Zelda. It is basically Zelda with jumping and Mario replacing link.
True mario games will always be 2d, or "action" mario as I'd like to call it. So then, when is Nintendo going to make New Super Mario Bros 2 or even New Donkey Kong Country?
Love the movie of the people talking about Move. That whole conversation basically sums up what I read from gaming message boards.
The Robotech reference gets a few points from me (and it doesn't matter if he knows, or cares, it's actually three separate series).
A flashy-first game is awesome when it comes out. A great-first game is awesome forever.
Plus, just for the hell of it: Kelly Brook at the 2008 BAFTAs
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