Author Topic: GameCube's Appeal to the Teen Audience (Read 29999 times)

Clonester · « **Reply #50 on:** February 02, 2003, 05:13:03 PM »

No matter what Nintendo does this generation (barring something huge like Square games exclusive), they will not shed the negative images they have aquired with the Gamecube in this console generation. All they can do is make sure they are in a position where they can successfully compete with Sony in the next generation. The slate is always wiped clean with a new generation of consoles. They need to make sure they have a great launch, hype, solid marketing, and NOTHING THAT CAN BE MADE INTO SOMETHING NEGATIVE! Fanboys always pick at anything they can turn into a weakness. Whether that be a purple colour, no dvd player, "kiddy" games, less storage space, etc. All those reps were gained at launch.

I have no gripes about the Gamecube in any way. Others do, which is their loss, because I believe that the console is near perfect. When the Gameboy Advance player comes out, I can have great classics on my TV again like DKC (Hopefully they port the 3rd one also), SMW, Yoshi's Island, Mario Kart, and LOZ:LTTP! That is absolutely awesome IMO!!! I dislike SNES ports for the Gameboy Advance itself, but playing these games on TV will make it feel like the SNES days again, the peak of gaming IMO, and my most favourite console, ahead of the Gamecube. I can only pray that they port Chrono Trigger, my most favourite game ever, and possibly the best game ever. Period.

Gamecube+Snes+GBA=Console Perfection

Matt · « **Reply #51 on:** February 02, 2003, 06:48:32 PM »

Nintendo's image, however, isn't appealing to everyone.

They need to change it around. They need to learn that the SNES days are gone, and they aren't going to have such an easy time.

JSR · « **Reply #52 on:** February 02, 2003, 07:08:52 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Matt
Nintendo's image, however, isn't appealing to everyone.

They need to change it around. They need to learn that the SNES days are gone, and they aren't going to have such an easy time.

I completely agree Matt. If Nintendo plans on staying in the console business they need to start shaping up. Nintendo still feels that the public will love the GameCube because of the Nintendo name. That isn’t the case. Nintendo’s name isn’t worth as much as it was and it isn’t going to be back to what it was unless Nintendo takes some action. To the casual gamer Nintendo means “Kiddy”. As sad as that is, it’s the truth. ED and RE aren’t enough; Nintendo has to push those games! Hopefully Nintendo will be able to learn their mistakes and make Nintendo a household name again.

dogcow · « **Reply #53 on:** February 02, 2003, 08:07:53 PM »

I am pretty sure that Nintendo is not trying to sell gamecube based on the Nintendo name. On the contrary that's what xbox and playstation is doing, playstation is selling crap load of playstation because they are popular, and MS is advertising xBox as the Cool and powerful console everyday.

Nintendo is selling Gamecube with Games, and they are working on it. apparently people will forget whatever Nintendo did in the last year or so. Leasing out their franchise to Sega, Namco is a great start, they get great support fom Capcom. And still no one remembers that. it's like people will forget whatever Nintendo did right, and remembers that Nintendo sold Rare (though I wouldn't see that as a big lose at all, because all they made are essentially Mario clones anyway).

2003 should be the year where the result of Triforce and Capcom support become reality.

Lao-tzu · « **Reply #54 on:** February 02, 2003, 08:29:01 PM »

I have to say... I disagree with all of you.

Nintendo doesn't have an image problem.

Let's look at this from their perspective, not ours.

Nintendo owns the hand held market. Period. There's no competition. Everyhand held unit or game sold, Nintendo makes money.

They own the kid market. Period. Parents who know nothing about their kids games or wants get the Gamecube because it's purple.

And, like movies, this is a huge market that's getting bigger every day. And nintendo owns it. The other systems, what can the kids get? Sports games- the games every system has.

Now lets look at the NESers. They want to old franchises. They love that there's a new Metroid game. They'll buy Yoshi's Island: Cubed. Nintendo owns this market.

And which concol is a user-friendly looking system. Everything is is clear english. The quality control is better then the other systems. People who want to casualy buy a game are better off with a GameCube then an X-Box.

Hmm.. Nintendo is doing pretty well..

So let's look at what catagory most of us fit into.

Teens.

Is teens a huge market? It's pretty big. But it's only one market. And it's expensive too. You have to keep up with the trends.

Plus, every teen has a PC. They spread their market over at least two systems.

And so, yes. I know why you complain. You're a minority. You're the teens or college kids who went for Nintendo without them trying for your buisness.

And you say, 'I like Nintendo, why don't others?' That's fair enough.

But then you make up reasons. The teen market is valuable. They need to do this or they'll go under.

But that's just not true. Nintendo is doing fine, with or without you. They don't need to take away buisness from x-Box to stay in buisness.

RickPowers · « **Reply #55 on:** February 02, 2003, 08:32:54 PM »

Surprisingly well said!

Lao-tzu · « **Reply #56 on:** February 02, 2003, 08:37:47 PM »

Except "surprizingly" that was very nice.

....

Now when do I become a staffwriter?

BlkPaladin · « **Reply #57 on:** February 02, 2003, 08:48:57 PM »

Yes I have to agree to Nintendo they are basically doing nothing wrong from a business standpoint, they are making money and a lot of it They do aknowlege that their is a portion of their market that wants Mature titles and they have went on work on those. But so far they haven't been selling. They have aquired the help of the Retro and Silicon Knights to help with this. But we can't expect them to drop a very lucrative market that they basically own just because we think they should

As for Zelda they are advertising it, they did that movie theater blitz in November/Dec (They should do it again right before launch but that is my opinion.) They have to kiosks out. They even have ads in Playboy. And remember a good portion of the videogame market has a real short attention span so it would be a little bit of a waste to go all out just yet. (Oh, they also have POP in Video game stores.)

Perfect Cell · « **Reply #58 on:** February 03, 2003, 07:22:58 AM »

Nintendo is doing nothing wrong? Thats why Eternal Darkness did not sell. Thats why Metroid Prime wasnt enough to catapult Nintendo to a secure seccond place? Thats why Visual Concepts, Midway, EA Sports and Infogrames might be or will cancel Gamecube software in the future? Look im as huge of a Nintendo fanboy as anyone here, but lets be serious. Nintendo isnt doing that well. They need to do alot of changes to stay competetive. If they keep the status quo they will never beat Sony.

BlkPaladin · « **Reply #59 on:** February 03, 2003, 07:37:20 AM »

In a business sense they are doing nothing wrong. Eternal Darkness sold more than enough to make a profit off of it, and Metroid prime. The Gamecube doesn't have the userbase to have many instant million copy sellers. (Zelda is more than likely going to be the first.) And we are not going to see an enormace jump in unit sales since there is three competitors out there. There are few people willing to get more than one console even if there is one or two games exclusive to it that they want. So until there is a considerable pull these people are not going to get another console since the one they have is getting game just fine.

DItaliaO · « **Reply #60 on:** February 03, 2003, 08:25:30 AM »

Perfect Cell: What games are we expecting out of Midway and Infogrames that we are worried about them dumping support for the Cube

Ian Sane · « **Reply #61 on:** February 03, 2003, 11:50:22 AM »

"Here's the question: Judging by the total and average sales, is Nintendo offering a platform for everybody hurting them by possibly making a platform that's not quite good enough for anybody? Think broadly about the market, not personal satisfaction."

This a very interesting point and surprisingly no one has responded to it.

I don't the problem is that the Gamecube is targetted towards everybody. The PS2 is a huge success because it has something for everybody so that's not a bad strategy for Nintendo to emulate. I think the problem is that the Gamecube is for everybody but it's not marketed as such.

The Xbox is without a doubt aimed towards teens and young adults. It's games are mostly targetted to that demographic and its ads are targetted to that demographic. The Xbox IS a console for the "mature gamer". It doesn' t really have anything that's appealing to anyone else.

The PS2 is marketted towards everybody. It has mature games but it doesn't promote itself as a console only for adults. It has kids games but it doesn't just focus on them either. Though it appears to target teens it really has very neutral marketing. Whenever you see a generic PS2 commerical (ie: not for a specific game) the console doesn't focus on any one genre or demographic of games. The PS2 is shown as an electronic device like a PC or television that ALL people can enjoy. It's an entertainment machine and that's what it is advertised as. It is as "cool" or trendy as any electronic device.

The Gamecube's marketing is all over the place which is likely why people are unsure of it. Sometimes it's promoted as a toy and sometimes it's promoted as hip and cool. Like the PS2 the Gamecube has games for everyone and therefore should be marketed in a similar way. Instead the marketing is all over the place. An advertisement for something like Mario has a very "this game is a for chidren" feel to it with people dressed in goofy costumes like you would see on Barney. Is the game only for children? No, but to the average consumer it sure looks that way. Something like Metroid on the other hand is promoted as being hip and cool and for older gamers. So you've got two extremes and therefore consumers are confused. Who is the Gamecube targetted towards?

Now you're probably thinking "well the PS2 markets its games the same way with adult games targetted at adults, etc". Well that's not exactly true. A lot PS2 game ads still have a very neutral feel to them. Many of them show a lot of in game footage while Gamecube ads show very little. Why does this make a difference? By showing just the game the consumer can see firsthand whether or not that game is for them. Something like Jak & Daxter was obviously targetted more towards younger gamers but it didn't have anything particularly "kiddy" in its advertisements. Its ads were very neutral. The game was shown and the consumer is left to decide if the game is for them. They can tell for the most part that the game is more for kids but they don't get a big over-the-top "THIS GAME IS KIDDY" message from the commercial. The GTA ads are the same way. You can tell the game has guns in it and is very crime based but you don't have anyone telling you "this game is cool". Because the consumer sees mostly game footage they get to see what the game looks like and get a general idea of what it's about. Everything has a very "Here it is. Do you think this game is interesting?" feel to it. It's neutral and everyone can see the commercial and immediately understand what it's about. The commericial is targetted towards everybody just as the console is for everybody.

With Gamecube ads there isn't very much game footage so the consumer can get confused about exactly what the game is about. They therefore have to look at the rest of the ad to figure it out to the best of their abilities and they're likely to get misinformed. "The Mario ad is full of dancing losers in costumes so I guess it's a kids game. Metroid's ad has a dark sci-fi feel to it so I guess it's for adults." One commericial is targetted towards adults and the other to kids. Neither commericial is targetted to everybody which is the console's target demographic. We all love the Japanese Metroid Prime commerical yet all it shows is gameplay footage. So why do we all like it? Because it's a very neutral commercial and therefore the commericial is targetted towards everybody even if the game itself isn't. The Gamecube is for everybody so the Metroid Prime commercial is for everybody.

I don't think this is Nintendo only problem but it's one of them. The console is for everyone and that's a good strategy. They just have to make it so that the marketting appeals to everyone even if specific games don't.

thecubedcanuck · « **Reply #62 on:** February 03, 2003, 12:05:02 PM »

ian sane

possibly the best post I have read in a long time.

I agree 100%, but until now didnt realize it

Kai · « **Reply #63 on:** February 03, 2003, 05:49:37 PM »

OK, so the GameCube maybe doesn't appeal to teenage audiences the same way the PS2 does. But in one way, if Nintendo do try to appeal more to a teenage audience, I hope they do so without compromising what makes their games great. Do we need more games like BMX XXX that just sell on exploitation and controversy? Even games like Conker's bad fur day are kind of wince-inducing, to me.

The point here is I think that Nintendo make games that, whilst they often appeal to all-ages, don't insult the intelligence of any of their demographics. I hope that continues, and dumbed-down "cool" games aren't put out just to capture the teen games market.

BlkPaladin · « **Reply #64 on:** February 06, 2003, 03:53:15 PM »

The problem is by far market image, not commercials and not the games or who the console is for. In business once you get an image its hard to change it. The PS2 can do more generic commercials because their image is set. It was set by the PSX/One that it is a console for "mature/cool" teens.

Nintendo on the other hand has been labled a "kiddy" gaming company by Pokemon and its control of the handheld market which is view as a child's machine. (But the accual market demographic is rather contary to this view it is the most balenced of all game machines.) And Nintendo wants to market it self as a game machine that anyone can use and have fun with. And target market select games. But unfortunatly some view this as a reinforcement that the machine is for kids, because there is no "cool" way to effectivly market a game that has an E rating. And Nintendo wants to for very good reasons market M rated games to the age demographic they are suppose to be for. (Like it or not their is a reason why ratings were invented in the first place.)

Matt · « **Reply #65 on:** February 06, 2003, 05:42:23 PM »

Nintendo is not number 1, and they are not that far in front of the Xbox.

The problem is, Nintendo's got some good titles, but they aren't pushing those titles enough, or to the right audience.

For example, DOAX for the Xbox is heavily advertised now, but if a similar game for the GCN were made, ads might be only late at night and stuff.

Perfect Cell · « **Reply #66 on:** February 06, 2003, 05:44:47 PM »

We still havent seen Zelda the Wind Waker comercials or at least comercials for the Pre order! or worst yet, no Skies of Arcadia commercials yet theres a heck of a lot of Panzeer Dragoon ones...

BlkPaladin · « **Reply #67 on:** February 06, 2003, 05:59:53 PM »

They did start to advertise it. They were doing the theater thing. And now they are running an ad in Playboy. And if you are referring to TV I'm sure there will be some advertisment about it in the month preceeding the release. And don't worry about the presale from what I have been hearing is that is preselling faster than Vice City which remains to be seen.

RickPowers · « **Reply #68 on:** February 06, 2003, 06:11:53 PM »

That's the entire problem in a nutshell, BlkPaladin. Nintendo's marketing is best described as "scattershot". They have a very strange idea of the places it's appropriate to market certain games. It's almost like marketing has a bullet list or something.

Mature Games: Playboy, Maxim. Never on TV ... kids might see it!
Cinematic or Epic games: Movie Theaters.
Teen Games: Television, Movie Theaters.
Rated E: Television and Magazines.

Nintendo would be well served to not be so concerned with whether or not they are "marketing towards kids" if they put an ad for a mature game on TV, and in Prime Time. In fact, they should probably counter any effect that might have by launching a full scale campaign to educate parents on the ratings system and by offering incentives to retailers that refuse to sell mature rated games to kids.

BlkPaladin · « **Reply #69 on:** February 06, 2003, 06:14:01 PM »

I'm aware of that. I haven't said they have to best marketing in the world, I don't think.

nolimit19 · « **Reply #70 on:** February 06, 2003, 09:07:24 PM »

i had written a lot, but i scratched it. basically nintendo needs more variety in its types of games. primarily fighting, racing, first person shooters, and rpgs. there are a few of these for gamecube that are quite good, but most of their good games are action or adventure games. another thing it could do is to make a controller that allowed u to play fighting and fps games on it with no problem. fighting games are especially hard to play on the cube contoller. to me it will be a miricle if there will ever be a good fighting game for the cube besides smash brothers. i think thats one of the reasons the cube may not be getting a good variety, although mk

a was pretty good when i played it. actually the more i think about it, nintendo just needs its owners to buy some damn games. the reason that support is weak is because games dont sell well enough.

Matt · « **Reply #71 on:** February 07, 2003, 10:00:32 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: RickPowers
That's the entire problem in a nutshell, BlkPaladin. Nintendo's marketing is best described as "scattershot". They have a very strange idea of the places it's appropriate to market certain games. It's almost like marketing has a bullet list or something.

Mature Games: Playboy, Maxim. Never on TV ... kids might see it!
Cinematic or Epic games: Movie Theaters.
Teen Games: Television, Movie Theaters.
Rated E: Television and Magazines.

Nintendo would be well served to not be so concerned with whether or not they are "marketing towards kids" if they put an ad for a mature game on TV, and in Prime Time. In fact, they should probably counter any effect that might have by launching a full scale campaign to educate parents on the ratings system and by offering incentives to retailers that refuse to sell mature rated games to kids.

That's the problem. A lot of people who would play a mature game don't buy the monthly issue of Playboy each time it hits the newstand. They need to put these things on TV, where people can actually see them.

GaimeGuy · « **Reply #72 on:** February 07, 2003, 01:22:11 PM »

I wouldn't worry about how Zelda sells........ Zelda is pretty much Nintendo's most popular franchise in America.... and out of all the GCs that have been sold, the region with the most Gamecubes is North America. Even though there ARE people who don't like the graphics, they, knowing it's Zelda, will give it a shot. Trust me, I know. All of the GC owners at my school are either.
A: pumped up and ready to get Zelda.
B: Just getting informed about the OoT/MQ bonus disk and going out to pre-order.
C: Skeptical about the game because of its graphics, but they will rent it to try it out before deciding whether to buy or not.

Zelda will do very well... likely even better in the U.S. than SSBM did In Japan.

AlphaDragoon2002 · « **Reply #73 on:** February 07, 2003, 01:53:58 PM »

You know what the saddest thing is? Nintendo makes quality games, but gets branded for not being "cool". Tecmo churns out some processed monkey crap by the name of Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball and it sells like hotcakes. What's wrong with this picture...?

GBA>Gamecube · « **Reply #74 on:** February 07, 2003, 03:09:15 PM »

more like
"gamecubes lack of appeal to teen audiences"
which is why is it #3 in North America

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Author Topic: GameCube's Appeal to the Teen Audience (Read 29999 times)