Topic: Bill Trinen is Director of Product Marketing

[tendoboy1984]

And look what happened to Sega, and Sony is in deep red.

That's mostly due to systems not selling or being overpriced and not because of having more western devs.
Nintendo won't ever let NOA or NOE have more autonym in fear of exactly what's happening at sony where the leader system Architect is a Western and scee and sceaa having way more pull than scej has at this point.

Good point. So why doesn't the head Japanese branch (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.) make more games to balance out that situation? They let Sony Computer Entertainment America and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe take all the credit, it seems. Amd now Mark Cerny is the lead system architect for the PS4.

[RarityGamer]

I don't think marketing is the problem with the Wii u. It simply just doesn't have what people want at the moment. They released it with very little and developers simply weren't ready.

[pokepal148]

I don't think marketing is the problem with the Wii u. It simply just doesn't have what people want at the moment. They released it when they've and developers simply weren't ready.

they can't even get across the fact that it's a new system, come on...

[RarityGamer]

I don't think marketing is the problem with the Wii u. It simply just doesn't have what people want at the moment. They released it when they've and developers simply weren't ready.

they can't even get across the fact that it's a new system, come on...

But again, who's fault is that? Instead of calling it something new or even just the Wii 2, they called it the Wii U. Which sounds more like an attachment like the Wii Balance board and so on...


Here in the UK another shop (ASDA) have just cut the price again and still, no-one is interested.

[pokepal148]

I don't think marketing is the problem with the Wii u. It simply just doesn't have what people want at the moment. They released it when they've and developers simply weren't ready.

they can't even get across the fact that it's a new system, come on...

But again, who's fault is that? Instead of calling it something new or even just the Wii 2, they called it the Wii U. Which sounds more like an attachment like the Wii Balance board and so on...

isn't that part of the point of marketing? To dispel those previous ideas... the 3DS had a very similar problem that it managed to overcome.

[Louieturkey]

Sounds like they pushed a message to internet connected Wii's letting their owners know about the Wii U and how it is a new system and not an add on and how they should buy it.  Is this a result of Bill's influence?

[TJ Spyke]

I got that message a few days ago, I think it would have been better to send it out a few months ago.

[RarityGamer]

I don't think marketing is the problem with the Wii u. It simply just doesn't have what people want at the moment. They released it when they've and developers simply weren't ready.

they can't even get across the fact that it's a new system, come on...

But again, who's fault is that? Instead of calling it something new or even just the Wii 2, they called it the Wii U. Which sounds more like an attachment like the Wii Balance board and so on...

isn't that part of the point of marketing? To dispel those previous ideas... the 3DS had a very similar problem that it managed to overcome.

That's different though. The DS and 3DS are one unit. A console isn't. A lot of people thought the Wii U was just a touch screen pad for a while.


Didn't Nintendo also cut the marketing budget?


And to be completely honest, if a friend of mine came up to me and asked should he buy a Wii U. I'd probably struggle to give him a reason to. Yes, the games will come, but it was a bit daft of Nintendo to release a console with such a drought of 1st and third party games...

[ShyGuy]

Is there a threshold for how many games it takes to make a system worth it? I probably won't have enough time to play all the games I want on the Wii U in 2013 already.

Resident Evil Revelations
Watch Dogs
Wonderful 101
Pikmin 3
Deus Ex Director's Cut
Wind Waker HD
Maybe Splinter Cell

[pokepal148]

I don't think marketing is the problem with the Wii u. It simply just doesn't have what people want at the moment. They released it when they've and developers simply weren't ready.

they can't even get across the fact that it's a new system, come on...

But again, who's fault is that? Instead of calling it something new or even just the Wii 2, they called it the Wii U. Which sounds more like an attachment like the Wii Balance board and so on...

isn't that part of the point of marketing? To dispel those previous ideas... the 3DS had a very similar problem that it managed to overcome.

That's different though. The DS and 3DS are one unit. A console isn't. A lot of people thought the Wii U was just a touch screen pad for a while.

And alot of people thought the 3DS was another revision for the DS... your point?

[RarityGamer]

I never knew or heard of anyone who thought the 3DS was a new DS. My point is, Nintendo did themselves no favours calling it the Wii U.

Gotta love forums. I get a minus for stating the obvious. Ah well, fanboys clearly.

[pokepal148]

I never knew or heard of anyone who thought the 3DS was a new DS.

then you weren't looking hard enough... here is a nice start www.google.com/search?q=can+you+play+3ds+games+on+ds&btnG=&client=ms-opera-mini-android&channel=new

My point is, Nintendo did themselves no favours calling it the Wii U.

and a good marketing campaign should remove any confusion over the name... and all I have seen is a stupid cubicle commercial

Gotta love forums. I get a minus for stating the obvious.

You get a minus for looking at somebody funny, but disregard the entire karma system it is pointless

Ah well, fanboys clearly.

Yeah... not really...

[tendoboy1984]

I never knew or heard of anyone who thought the 3DS was a new DS. My point is, Nintendo did themselves no favours calling it the Wii U.

Gotta love forums. I get a minus for stating the obvious. Ah well, fanboys clearly.

But the 3DS is a new DS, just like the PS4 is a new PlayStation, and the Game Boy Advance was a new Game Boy.

[nickmitch]

In that sense, you're right. But you're over-generalizing it. The GBA SP was another type of GBA, and the DS Lite, i, and XL were other types of DSes. The 3DS wouldn't fall in to that category.

[BlackNMild2k1]

I never knew or heard of anyone who thought the 3DS was a new DS. My point is, Nintendo did themselves no favours calling it the Wii U.

Gotta love forums. I get a minus for stating the obvious. Ah well, fanboys clearly.

I regularly hear it referred to as the 3D DS as in the next version of the DS.

Most people I know had no idea that the Wii U wasn't an upgraded version of the Wii, so I agree with you.

[pokepal148]

i agree as well but i'm saying the marketing team should be able to overcome that

[Sarail]

I've had several people at work (who know I'm a rather serious gamer) ask me about the Wii U, and what kind of game it is. People seriously don't understand that it's a new console.

Nintendo really should have just called it the Wii 2 or the Nintendo U. Or a new name altogether.

A friend of mine just bought a 3DS, and he had no clue it was a brand new handheld console. He thought it was just another extension of the DS line. Luckily, he bought a bundle that came with Mario Kart 7, so he actually has a new game to play and test out the new features on. He has several DS games from owning a DS Lite previously.

[pokepal148]

I've had several people at work (who know I'm a rather serious gamer) ask me about the Wii U, and what kind of game it is. People seriously don't understand that it's a new console.

Nintendo really should have just called it the Wii 2 or the Nintendo U. Or a new name altogether.

A friend of mine just bought a 3DS, and he had no clue it was a brand new handheld console. He thought it was just another extension of the DS line. Luckily, he bought a bundle that came with Mario Kart 7, so he actually has a new game to play and test out the new features on. He has several DS games from owning a DS Lite previously.

Again marketing should be able to overcome these things...

[TJ Spyke]

Marketing sometimes can't overcome stupidity.

[pokepal148]

Marketing sometimes can't overcome stupidity.

then why do people buy so many iphones JK
no seriously it can make some effort to though

[nickmitch]

Nintendo clearly has a marketing problem. That can't be denied. I think they just didn't know what to do after all the free press the Wii got. They barely had to do anything. It seemed like every local news station had a story on the thing. With the Wii U (in the US, at least), there were other things going on, little interest was made by the press, and the name made it easily dismissible as "the new thing for Wii."

Nintendo can still turn this ship around though.

[AnGer]

I believe what Nintendo should do is just keep up a constant flow of high-grade (1st party) games. It seems to have worked for the 3DS, which is picking up speed (although the outlook for 2014 seems pretty grim), so it should work for the WiiU. Of course an official price drop might also do the trick.

[ShyGuy]

I think a library of Gamecube VC would do wonders for the console.

Nintendo should pay for the conversion of some cult favorite 3rd party games

Skies of Arcadia, PN03, Killer 7...

[AnGer]

VC will most likely not boost the WiiU sales for two reasons:

1. "The market" does not care for old games, it cares for new games.

2. Those who are interested in these games are most likely people who already own a WiiU anyway.

While VC is a nice gesture, and I for one do like it to some extent (mainly because unlike with Sony, we Europeans get to see some stuff we did not before), it is not a selling point for the general public.

[RarityGamer]

VC will most likely not boost the WiiU sales for two reasons:

1. "The market" does not care for old games, it cares for new games.

2. Those who are interested in these games are most likely people who already own a WiiU anyway.

While VC is a nice gesture, and I for one do like it to some extent (mainly because unlike with Sony, we Europeans get to see some stuff we did not before), it is not a selling point for the general public.

I agree. VC can be great, but it's not enough to make it a huge selling point.