Are We Really the Idiots They Say We Are?
I just suffered through one of the worst movies I have seen in a long time. I wasn’t planning on writing anything about it; I was just going to let it pass and hide my shame for even having voluntarily seen the film because I should have known better. However the filmmakers appear to have a huge marketing budget that they’re using to push the damn movie relentlessly through posters at every bus stop and an ad during every commercial break. The movie is “Gamer,” and being one myself, it got me thinking about what the film says about this very unique and diverse classification of people.
Before “Gamer” I had never seen any other films by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor who’d both written and directed it and I had no idea that they already had a reputation, of sorts. Their previous movies are Crank, and Crank: High Voltage which I’ve heard many describe simply as “hectic.” (They are also currently working on Crank 3, said to be in 3D, and finishing up Jonah Hex, which IMDb has explained like this: “In the Wild West, a scarred bounty hunter tracks a voodoo practitioner bent on liberating the South by raising an army of the undead.”)
In the special features of the “Gamer” DVD they themselves said, “Watching [our movies] is like audience torture. We were talking about this the other day, like, not only do we torture our characters [...] but we torture our audience. It’s like hitting them over the head with a ball pein hammer for 90 minutes.”
It sounds like they are both very committed artists of the cinema. Intellectually, I am guessing they must be real geniuses too. Taylor and Neveldine, again from the “Gamer” DVD’s special features:
“I think, at times, they wanted us to pull a lot of the creepy, weird, wild stuff that we do out of that -”
“- and we battled and we kept as much as we could in.”
“And that, at the end of the day, is the big difference between making a cheap movie and an expensive movie. …Is the kind of, like, how far can you push it? How far can you go? You want it to be more accessible, for a bigger audience.”
Of course while they say this the “making of” featurette editor cuts to some behind-the-scenes footage from one of the film’s sets. In the footage you see an actor asking the camera and production crew for some direction, all while he’s wearing skin-tight white spandex from head to toe and doing pelvic thrusts into another guy suspended from the ceiling in a harness.
So just to make sure I have this straight you two – you’re saying the difference between a cheap movie and an expensive one is how much money you spend on it, and on how great of a job you do in making it creepy, weird, and wild? And further, loading it up with that kind of stuff and pushing cultural boundaries also just happens to be how you make a film more accessible and appeal to a bigger audience?
Golly, that’s so difficult to wrap my mind around that it just has to be smart!
Crucial Super Monkey Ball banana market changes hands
Ever since the series’ inception, the bananas in Super Monkey Ball have been adorned with tiny Dole stickers. But now the balance of power has shifted, like a floating checkerboard platform, as Sega announces a partnership with rival banana company Chiquita for the latest Monkey Ball game, Super Monkey Ball: Step and Roll.
This changes everything. Well, it changes a few things, at least: in addition to the labels on the in-game bananas (we assume), real Chiquita Bananas will have Super Monkey Ball: Step and Roll branding on their stickers. It also changes the number of “Family Gaming Room Makeovers” being given away by Chiquita to one.
Crucial Super Monkey Ball banana market changes hands originally appeared on Joystiq Nintendo on Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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WiiWare devs speak out on lacking support from Nintendo
Speaking with a handful of indie WiiWare game devs, GamesIndustry.biz (warning: login required) uncovered the not-so-startling truth behind Nintendo’s support for third party devs on its digital distribution platform: there is none. “We feel that Nintendo is not doing enough to promote the service at all,” said JV Games VP Jag Jaeger of the publisher’s support.
Jaeger added that it’s not just a question of underpromotion, it’s also a measure of not having access to the same tools that The Big N does. “Help create a more even playing field by allowing developers to use Nintendo resources … even a more fair use of the Nintendo Channel would help — Pokémon will be advertised for months while third party titles get a week usually.” He also argued the subject of localization/marketing support in foreign markets and Nintendo’s general “fend for yourself” attitude towards WiiWare development. “Nintendo, in my opinion, could do more to keep the WiiWare and DSiWare stores in customer’s minds,” agreed Nnooo’s CEO and creative director Nic Watt. We’ve asked Nintendo for a response to the various allegations and will update this post if we hear more.
Source - Developers call on Nintendo for more WiiWare support (requires login)
WiiWare devs speak out on lacking support from Nintendo originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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EA’s Riccitiello: Nintendo ‘learning’ how to support third parties
More than twenty years and five home consoles later, you’d think Nintendo would get this “third-party support” thing by now. However, EA CEO John Riccitiello says the console manufacturer is still learning how to reach out and offer a hand to games other than their own. “They’ve always been first-party-centric, and they’re learning how to be third-party supportive,” Riccitiello told Gamasutra. Looking at November’s NPD figures, it’s clear that Nintendo has been very good to itself. But is there hope for EA on the Wii? “Third-parties can do a lot better on the platform with the right support from Nintendo.”
What kind of “support” are third parties like EA looking for? Most likely, third parties are looking for co-opted marketing opportunities provided by other first-party platforms, like Sony’s PlayStation.Blog or Microsoft’s MW2-branded hardware. Unfortunately, Nintendo appears content with its hands-off approach to third-party marketing, offsetting all the blame for the failures of GTA: Chinatown Wars and countless other games at the hands of their respective publishers.
EA’s Riccitiello: Nintendo ‘learning’ how to support third parties originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Nintendo: GTA Chinatown Wars sales ‘frustrating’
Nintendo’s focus on “evergreen” titles has been a staple of the publisher for years now, with marketing support lasting longer than ever with this generation’s major releases. So it surprised us last April when the company said it hoped “word of mouth” would help push GTA: Chinatown Wars‘ lackluster initial sales higher as the months progressed. However, when executive vice president Cammie Dunaway recently spoke with MTV Multiplayer, Nintendo’s traditional message quickly returned. “Part of what’s needed is you have to continue to put marketing support behind these titles.”
She also called sales “frustrating, quite frankly,” but declined to comment on Rockstar’s marketing surrounding the release of the game. Dunaway remained diplomatic through the conversation though, only offering, “The old dynamic of ‘throw it on television for a few weeks and then move on and forget it’ just doesn’t work,” giving us little more than a taste of her real feelings behind the release’s marketing push. Check out the whole clip after the break.
Continue reading Nintendo: GTA Chinatown Wars sales ‘frustrating’
Nintendo: GTA Chinatown Wars sales ‘frustrating’ originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Commercial success dependent on ‘more than just quality,’ Divnich suggests
Pictured: A successful commercial
Speaking during a presentation at the recent Montreal International Game Summit (as covered by Edge), EEDAR Director of Analyst Services Jesse Divnich highlighted a tenuous connection between game review scores and commercial success. In the case of Nintendo’s DS, Divnich is quoted as saying “scores don’t matter.” But do they matter among a more dedicated gaming audience?
“When we did compare Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 only games, we did, to no surprise, find that review scores highly correlated to sales,” Divnich told Joystiq. “However, marketing correlation was still just a tad bit more.” According to EEDAR’s research, marketing has played the “more crucial role” with DS games and, to some degree, Wii games (a point Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime seems to agree on).
While emphasizing that his aim was not to dismiss the value of critical evaluation, Divnich suggested that marketing plays a more persuasive role in what has become a burgeoning industry. “Video games are now a mass marketed product, it is a product that targets all major demographics, very similar to television or movies or any other sector within the entertainment division.” While Joystiq readers may lock out the din of marketing as they tap the F5 key and anxiously wait for review embargoes to lift, the industry has grown to encompass people who aren’t as exposed to the likes of Metacritic.
It seems that being informed takes precedence over being entertained — at least until you start playing the game. “Quality does matter,” concluded Divnich, “but marketing matters just a little bit more.”
Commercial success dependent on ‘more than just quality,’ Divnich suggests originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Nintendo’s Fils-Aime: ‘effectively marketed’ third-party titles can sell on Wii
Despite slow to non-existent sales for several high-profile third-party Nintendo Wii titles, the company’s US head, Reggie Fils-Aime, still believes that third-party publishers on Nintendo’s console can be successful. Speaking with Kotaku, Fils-Aime says he’s “extremely disappointed” with the lack of major third party games on the Wii. He even goes so far as to say he’s spoken (presumably quite sternly) with “every publisher who makes content that is not available on my platform” about the subject.
When questioned as to why major titles like Grand Theft Auto IV and Assassin’s Creed 2 aren’t headed to his company’s console, he explains it as a measure of long lead times rather than technological inability. “Typically decisions are being made two years prior … and so the decisions two years ago were that those types of games would not be effective on the platform.” And though the subject isn’t directly broached, Fils-Aime remains steadfast that third-party titles can be successful on the Wii … with the right marketing. “High-quality, effectively marketed against our installed base, will sell. Period. End of story.”
It would appear then that Boom Blox, The Conduit, No More Heroes, and a mess of other third-party titles, had some truly ineffective marketing by Reggie’s standards.
Nintendo’s Fils-Aime: ‘effectively marketed’ third-party titles can sell on Wii originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Little Burger King’s promotion for Little King’s Story
Marvelous is taking an extra step in Japan to market the upcoming release of Little King’s Story, and it’s one that makes a lot of sense: the company is partnering with Burger King to promote the strategy game. Burger King restaurants in Japan are displaying the poster depicted to the right, and will also have LKS placemats. According to Andriasang, Burger King’s mail magazine will also include Little King’s Story information. In addition, a small army of Burger King employees, led by a real little king, will lead an assault on a nearby McDonalds in an attempt to take down Ronald. We may have made that up.
It’s pretty amazing that Little King’s Story is a big enough game to get this kind of promotion, which is reserved in the US for huge franchises. Either that, or Burger King is a small enough operation.
Little Burger King’s promotion for Little King’s Story originally appeared on Joystiq Nintendo on Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Super heroes duke it out in Punch-Out!!
It’s tough being a super hero. If you’re Dr. Doom and you’re feeling down, you can just blow something up. If you’re The Thing, well, all you can really do is look in a mirror and cry to yourself.
That was before Punch-Out!!, though, with a new ad (courtesy of Gamervision) popping up in comics showing two beefy brawlers finding a proper outlet for their stress. Oh, we really wouldn’t suggest playing with the Wiimote and Nunchuk, super guys. The game is way better with the classic controls.
Gallery: Punch-Out!!
[Via Kotaku]
Super heroes duke it out in Punch-Out!! originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Nintendo also wins at advertising
Nintendo has made a business of manufacturing money printing machines, but how has it done in marketing those machines to people? Well, as you can guess from the title of this post, the company hasn’t done too badly.
Phoenix Marketing International’s Travel and Leisure Division conducted its Video Game Advertising Performance Index (AdPi) Audit and found Nintendo was the only gaming company in Q4 of 2008 to earn above average AdPi scores. The score, which determines effectiveness and impact in all three media categories (print, television and digital), shows that Nintendo has done a pretty good job of pushing its wares on the populace.
The highest-rated ads were:
- TV: Nintendo’s Wii Music; and Activision’s Call of Duty: World at War
- Print: Nintendo’s Wii Fit; Disney Interactive’s Disney Think Fast; and MTV Games’ Rock Band 2
- Digital: Nintendo’s Wii Music; Activision’s Call of Duty: World at War; and Ubisoft’s The Price is Right
In order to gauge the effectiveness of an ad, consumers were asked if they would buy the game, if the ad was worth watching again, and if the ad was inspiring or worth talking about. Well, we know of at least one ad that definitely fits the bill.
Nintendo also wins at advertising originally appeared on Joystiq Nintendo on Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Top 10 Best Selling Games
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