midorigreenwood
Newcomer
I remember my first gaming experience. It was a game & watch clone which consisted of moving a commando side by side to shoot enemy soldiers. It would be equivalent to an el cheapo mobile phone game nowadays.
Then I gradually graduated to consoles and the pc with platformers like Mario and Commander Keen. The rest is history.
There is no secret genetic trait that bestows special powers of button mashing ability to modern day gamers. It is built through experience and unhindered by a fear of technology.
Thats why it can be kinda snotty and elitist to look at the customers of games like Brain Training and Wiifit with disdain as some sort of inferior species of gamer. In many instances, this is their "game & watch", ie: their entry into the world of gaming and should be targeted by videogame developers as such.
Nintendo is having some success in converting new customers to more complicated games like Mario Galaxy and Mario Kart but a quick look at the Wii back catalogue will reveal
a) Top tier Nintendo games which receive the most marketing effort including Wiifit, Mario games, Zelda etc
b) Lesser known Nintendo games which are usually sent out to die without advertising including Battalion Wars 2, Wario Land: Shake it, Disaster: Day of Crisis, Excite Truck, Fire Emblem etc
c) Shovelware: companies trying make a quick buck by targeting casual gamers with el cheapo games
d) Shovelware mark 2: companies trying to make a quick buck with a cheap port of games from other formats.
e) Top and medium quality 3rd party games lost in the miasma of shovelware: eg: Zack and Wiki, No More Heroes, Boom Blox, Blastworks, De Blob etc.
The average consumer doesn't read game blogs or trawl around message boards arguing with fanboys about which console has the bigger penis. When making a purchasing decision they rely on traditional forms of advertising like television, word of mouth, the cover art and the display presence at the store.
For this reason, its no surprise that the big sellers are the Nintendo games that receive the most marketing....by an overwhelming margin.
A feature the Wii has to its advantage is its lower development costs, so even a 3rd party game like No More Heroes which sold 500 000 copies can earn a tidy profit and justify a sequel. However at face value it wouldn't seem as lucrative as a big success on the X360.
How can Nintendo change this status quo?
It is pretty simple imo..... 5 words
Heart
Foundation
Tick
Of
Approval
I am Australian....so I don't know the international equivalent but the tick of approval is a sticker that is stuck onto healthy products like lean beef.
Companies have to follow rigorous (supposedly) health guidelines to get their products approved.
If you think the average consumer has it tough making informed decisions at the videogame aisle, try shopping in a supermarket and gaze at the tens of thousands of different products.
It can be very time consuming buying the right foods that will keep you nourished and not give you cancer or heart diease in 20 years.
Thats why the branding of the Tick of Approval can have such a powerful effect. Customers trust that someone has done the tests to work out which foods are healthy and they can make a quick buying decision when they see the label.
In this way, Nintendo could use the power of their brand to help out and showcase third party developers who try their best to make top quality games.
Now I know what some of you are thinking...
"WTF, Nintendo already tried that with their ironic NES Seal of Quality and there were full of shitty games with this label"
What you probably didn't know was that back then, Nintendo was battling license infringers like Atari and pirates who were making games for the console by bypassing the traditional paid model. The Seal of Quality was not to advertise that the game was any good to play but that the consumer was receiving a genuine Nintendo product which would work properly on the game system.
By bringing back a proper Nintendo Tick of Approval to showcase good games, this would give 3rd party developers the incentive to actually put the effort to make top quality games. It is more likely that retail stores would give these games a better display presence at the store in the belief that they would sell better. This free advertising would lessen the risk of failure and create competition to release the best games.
In fact..... kill two birds with one stone: have meaning interactions with the hardcore videogame community.
Neogaf, Beyond3d, Kotaku, Gamespot, 1up etc are bastions of hardcore intelligentsia and are full of consumers who will only buy quality games that are fun to play.
By giving gamers an avenue to voice their opinions on games they like, you get a twin pronged effect: free product testing and the likelihood that some gamers will feel engaged enough to be evangelists who will spread positive word of mouth to help the game and make the system successful.
Maybe call the brand the Gamer's Choice to show that the product has some sort of street cred.
Then I gradually graduated to consoles and the pc with platformers like Mario and Commander Keen. The rest is history.
There is no secret genetic trait that bestows special powers of button mashing ability to modern day gamers. It is built through experience and unhindered by a fear of technology.
Thats why it can be kinda snotty and elitist to look at the customers of games like Brain Training and Wiifit with disdain as some sort of inferior species of gamer. In many instances, this is their "game & watch", ie: their entry into the world of gaming and should be targeted by videogame developers as such.
Nintendo is having some success in converting new customers to more complicated games like Mario Galaxy and Mario Kart but a quick look at the Wii back catalogue will reveal
a) Top tier Nintendo games which receive the most marketing effort including Wiifit, Mario games, Zelda etc
b) Lesser known Nintendo games which are usually sent out to die without advertising including Battalion Wars 2, Wario Land: Shake it, Disaster: Day of Crisis, Excite Truck, Fire Emblem etc
c) Shovelware: companies trying make a quick buck by targeting casual gamers with el cheapo games
d) Shovelware mark 2: companies trying to make a quick buck with a cheap port of games from other formats.
e) Top and medium quality 3rd party games lost in the miasma of shovelware: eg: Zack and Wiki, No More Heroes, Boom Blox, Blastworks, De Blob etc.
The average consumer doesn't read game blogs or trawl around message boards arguing with fanboys about which console has the bigger penis. When making a purchasing decision they rely on traditional forms of advertising like television, word of mouth, the cover art and the display presence at the store.
For this reason, its no surprise that the big sellers are the Nintendo games that receive the most marketing....by an overwhelming margin.
A feature the Wii has to its advantage is its lower development costs, so even a 3rd party game like No More Heroes which sold 500 000 copies can earn a tidy profit and justify a sequel. However at face value it wouldn't seem as lucrative as a big success on the X360.
How can Nintendo change this status quo?
It is pretty simple imo..... 5 words
Heart
Foundation
Tick
Of
Approval
I am Australian....so I don't know the international equivalent but the tick of approval is a sticker that is stuck onto healthy products like lean beef.
Companies have to follow rigorous (supposedly) health guidelines to get their products approved.
If you think the average consumer has it tough making informed decisions at the videogame aisle, try shopping in a supermarket and gaze at the tens of thousands of different products.
It can be very time consuming buying the right foods that will keep you nourished and not give you cancer or heart diease in 20 years.
Thats why the branding of the Tick of Approval can have such a powerful effect. Customers trust that someone has done the tests to work out which foods are healthy and they can make a quick buying decision when they see the label.
In this way, Nintendo could use the power of their brand to help out and showcase third party developers who try their best to make top quality games.
Now I know what some of you are thinking...
"WTF, Nintendo already tried that with their ironic NES Seal of Quality and there were full of shitty games with this label"
What you probably didn't know was that back then, Nintendo was battling license infringers like Atari and pirates who were making games for the console by bypassing the traditional paid model. The Seal of Quality was not to advertise that the game was any good to play but that the consumer was receiving a genuine Nintendo product which would work properly on the game system.
By bringing back a proper Nintendo Tick of Approval to showcase good games, this would give 3rd party developers the incentive to actually put the effort to make top quality games. It is more likely that retail stores would give these games a better display presence at the store in the belief that they would sell better. This free advertising would lessen the risk of failure and create competition to release the best games.
In fact..... kill two birds with one stone: have meaning interactions with the hardcore videogame community.
Neogaf, Beyond3d, Kotaku, Gamespot, 1up etc are bastions of hardcore intelligentsia and are full of consumers who will only buy quality games that are fun to play.
By giving gamers an avenue to voice their opinions on games they like, you get a twin pronged effect: free product testing and the likelihood that some gamers will feel engaged enough to be evangelists who will spread positive word of mouth to help the game and make the system successful.
Maybe call the brand the Gamer's Choice to show that the product has some sort of street cred.
