Nintendo CEO Says He Should Have Marketed the Wii Differently

[jpoon]

I would say their game collection is more to blame for this. There just isn't enough to get more "core" gamers to jump ship from xbox and PS, probably exactly why the PS3 is catching up with others like it has been because they have a gob of exclusives that others just don't have.

 

[Rect Pola]

Just don't get whoever EA pulls to think of marketing for them. And seriously DON'T rubber stamp whatever they come up with. And you know what? Make a point to give the little guys in the industry a push. All the games that get marketing are games everyone knew about and have already preordered long before the first commercials hit.

 

[Jumwa]

There was nothing wrong with the marketing for the Wii. It needed no marketing because the pack in Wii Sports immediately made everyone who tried it say "I gotta get me some of that!"

A good product sells itself as opposed to something that only sells through fraud or advertising, but I repeat myself.

There were a couple of reasons why Gamecube didn't do well but the main one was Sony's excellent timing with PS2. The ps1 was the clear winner of the last gen and so people had huge game libraries. Backwards compatibility sealed the deal and when it was first launched it was a reasonably priced DVD player. However technology wise Gamecube was the best of the last gen.

And Nintendo learned their lesson. Technology doesn't trump price, utility, or accessibility.

I hope they don't go after the brown shooter crowd with the next console, that isn't their thing and doesn't need to be.

Nintendo INVENTED hardcore and to anyone who says the didn't go ahead and beat original Mario Bros, or Zelda 2nd quest or Cthulu help you Kid Icarus.

Very good post, all around.

The Gamecube was solid, dedicated gaming hardware, every piece of which was designed and optimized for gaming. It showed by having Resident Evil 4, the best looking game of that generation, and no load times. However, in the end it lost out to a processor attached to a DVD player. Nintendo learned their lesson about hardware with the Wii, to be sure.

One thing I can say for Nintendo, if nothing else: they leave me interested to see what step they'll take next.

 

[gunner1905]

Want someone to market your stuff nintendo

get valve to do it

 

[beema]

Man, the Japanese are really hard on themselves.
I mean, the Wii did insanely well, and all they think is "we could have done better, why were we so stupid?"
I'm really not sure having some outside marketing firm for the Wii would have made it do any better. It would be pretty hard to top the success it's had.

The 3DS however... yeah they totally dropped the marketing ball with that

Fund hadvo

 

[righthanded]

if by bad marketing he means that the company didn't release anything of note after 2009, then okay. Marketing isn't why I haven't touched the wii in over a year. Lack of games is.

 

[I forgot]

I would say their game collection is more to blame for this. There just isn't enough to get more "core" gamers to jump ship from xbox and PS, probably exactly why the PS3 is catching up with others like it has been because they have a gob of exclusives that others just don't have.

Not really because that didn't stop the wii from selling out the last few years. I don't disagree about the game library though, but I doubt Nintendo would risk their reputation saying that it's the industry's fault for wasting their efforts on consoles people barely bought.

 

[FogHornG36]

1st good luck getting the casual market back, they got a wii paid for it, god board of it, and now are ether went off to play face book games, or iphoney games which cost a heck of a lot less then buying a new console, and games.

Also, the twentysomethings demographic, you for the most part turned your back on them, so you are going to need to pull a rabbit out of your hat to get people to come back, but atleast you still have the group of people who will buy anything you produce.

 

[farq1414]

It's amazing how a company can go from a system that nearly kills them (Gamecube) to a system that beats out the other three in terms of sales (Wii) and still say they didn't do something right.

Why did the Gamecube do so bad anyway? I loved it, it had so many excellent games.

PS2

 

[Frontastic]

Sales are waning and they don't know why? Well, let me offer a suggestion. Because everybody already fucking has one! I remember Apple saying something about iPod sales a few years back. Come on, when something, which is one off purchase, sells that well you're customer base is bound to dry up eventually. Christ, would you like us all to buy two each Nintendo? Is that it?

 

[JediMB]

This reminds me...

I should pull myself away from my gaming PC tomorrow and play a bit of Okami on the Wii. I have so many unplayed Wii games because I keep locking myself down in front of the PC.

 

[Wolfenbarg]

It's amazing how a company can go from a system that nearly kills them (Gamecube) to a system that beats out the other three in terms of sales (Wii) and still say they didn't do something right.

The gamecube didn't almost kill them... the low price point kept them quite stable in fact. Nintendo trade show booths were always filled with smiles when talking businessy crap. It was the Nintendo 64 that almost sank them. It proved that traditionalism in hardware development won't always work, and it gave a massive market share to Sony on a silver platter. If it wasn't for the N64, there would be no Playstation. The gamecube was a success in comparison.

I don't know what they're crying about. Sales are down now, but the shitzillion dollars they made before still leaves Sony and Microsoft in total awe.

 

[For.I.Am.Mad]

By the way 360 had better software revenue(at least in 2010), that might be what they're talking about.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Lack of third party support will do that.

 

[Alexridiculous]

Just goes to prove that Nintendo still doesn't get it, at least Iwata doesn't. The Wii's sales are failing because the gimmick got old, and they tapped the market.

 

[rainbowunicorns]

I found the marketing to be cute and consistent with the types of games they were putting out; the marketing depicted something that was family-friendly and good in groups of people, and that's just the type of game it had.
I also don't think any amount of marketing could have made the console more popular with the M-rated games developers. The Wii's claim to fame was motion controls, which I can't really see being that great for first or third person shooters, where rather than sharing the remote around between a group of people you are using it alone for extended periods of time (maybe it was just me, but those controllers were bloody uncomfortable). There's also the significant technical limitations imposed by the hardware, which would require a lot of creativity to overcome, were it even possible. Of course, being creative is also risky, which isn't always desirable.

I think that if Nintendo wants games that attract the "core" gamers, it needs to do one of two things: make a console just like everyone else's, or make some successful games for that market. Making a console that is easy to port to/from with respect to the other systems is the easy way out; so long as your system is as or more powerful than the others, it becomes trivial to get the major franchises on your system. Better would be for them to show developers that a "core"-style game can be successful on their platform, so developers have something to base their own games off of. Nintendo would then be taking on the big innovation risk, and allowing third parties to start making variations on what they have shown can be successful.

 

[timeadept]

Maybe this is just me not being that savvy in business, but has it occurred to any of them that Wii sales are dropping because anyone who would be interested in one has gotten it? I mean when you're selling a product that will last for a few years, with no reason to get a new one (barring being broken/stolen/missing(?)) how can you expect your sails to do anything but level off eventually? And then after that they still might drop a significant amount before leveling off again, with sales only going for replacements or people getting them for their kids?

 

[Logic 0]

Oh nintendo your quest for perfection shall one day be fulfilled.