Jesus, did Nintendo ever push 2D Mario THIS hard?
http://www.gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=166214&sid=c229fc367476eb57618cec72803c8f2b
I think NCL ordered its marketers to absolutely go bonkers with this game. Of course, we already know why. Now, I of course like both 2D and 3D Mario, but the disparate treatment is just insane.
They never pushed either NSMB or Super Mario Brothers 5 hard at all. They did make a couple of commercials for Mario 5. In a televised interview in late 2009, Reggie Fils-Aime was asked if Wii would have any shortages like the years before. Fils-Aime said no because the life cycle of a console had peaked and now it was time to ‘manage the decline’. Nintendo had to be shocked at the Wii selling out and Super Mario Brothers 5 selling out. Iwata rushed to the microphone on January 1st, 2010 to mock everyone who said the Wii was dead. At the time, Nintendo was too overjoyed with the sales momentum to grok what this meant for the Big Picture (2d Mario sales have nothing to do with ‘integrated hardware or software’ or with ‘surprise’ or ‘creativity’).
Anyway, I must stop myself before this post becomes an essay. Allow me to make one point.
Every form of video game marketing today involves using viral marketers. Game companies hire marketing companies that use these viral marketers (Microsoft uses them the most blatantly). Nintendo uses them as well.
Don’t believe everything you hear people say on the Gaming Message Forums. Not everyone there is an actual customer. Instead, watch the sales numbers, watch the phenomenon (or lack thereof), and trust your gut.
I don’t see any phenomenon occurring like with the release of 2d Mario. In Japan, Mario 3d Land is opening at the same level of sales as Super Mario Galaxy 2 (ouch!). Whether or not this is sustained or not, we will have to see. But I can tell you that Nintendo cannot be happy with these initial sales numbers. Remember, the first week to first month are the ‘easy customers’ to get. Also remember that NSMB sold five million in Japan. 3d Land will definitely surpass one million which isn’t tough since both Galaxy games sold a million. But will it surpass N64’s Super Mario 64’s numbers?
Speaking of marketing pushes, how much of a push did the Super Mario 25th Anniversary get? It got virtually none. Yet, it immediately sold out and there was so much demand that Nintendo had to print more.
And here is a great question. How much marketing did the original Super Mario Brothers get? “I remember Mario everywhere! There was even cartoon shows.” Yes, but all of that came out after the phenomenon hatched.
How much marketing did Legend of Zelda get?
How much marketing did Metroid get?
“Clearly, the amount of marketing doesn’t translate to the game being a phenomenon or not,” says the polite and courteous reader.
Marketing always plays a part, but none of Nintendo’s marketing early on was ‘big money marketing’. There was big money in the commercials which had to be high quality with real actors (instead of Nintendo employees who can’t act). But the marketing today compared to then is downright obscene.
If you look at the 3DS Iwata Asks interview, Miyamoto says the actual reason why the Virtual Boy failed was due to marketing. Talk about someone not living in reality! So this may be the reason why we are seeing Nintendo’s marketing machine acting the way it is at this point.
I find the idea that Miyamoto is a ‘game design’ genius is questionable. However, the notion that Miyamoto is somehow an expert at marketing I find downright laughable. This old man has never had a real job outside Nintendo. This is ‘Game God’ worship run a muck.
What’s next? Is Miyamoto going to be declared an expert at the ‘finance department’ now? Perhaps we should fire the lawyers as Miyamoto is also an expert on the law. Where does this end?