marketing
December 16th, 2009 at 01:45pm
Under PSP
After a strong 2009, Sony plans to focus its efforts in the coming year on some new initiatives — notably the still unnamed and, with a “Spring 2010 release,” curiously under-promoted PlayStation Motion Controller, 3D games, and the PlayStation Network. In a recent GamePro interview, Sony marketing head John Koller said the company will be focusing on these “three big pillars” going forward, and detailed its plans to expand on each. “I think the areas that are going to be really critical to our success will be family games, as well as shooters and sports games … they’re areas that quite honestly, I think Project Natal and the Wii are going to have trouble matching,” he said of the company’s motion controller plans.
Without getting too specific, the PlayStation Network will apparently be seeing the addition of “a number of very critically demanded features” in the coming year, while the company strives to reach day-and-date release parity between UMD-based PSP games and their digital counterparts from third-party devs on PSN. He even teased the concept of “placing you as a consumer into the game physically” — an idea he called “the Holy Grail of gaming.” We get the feeling 2010 is going to be kind of a weird year, folks.
Sony’s Koller calls ‘motion control, 3D gaming, PSN’ focal points of 2010 originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: 2010, 3d, 3d-games, business, john-koller, marketing, playstation-motion-controller, playstation-network, psn, psp-go, sony
By Mister-X
Continue Reading Sony’s Koller calls ‘motion control, 3D gaming, PSN’ focal points of 2010
December 11th, 2009 at 01:15pm
Under Wii / Nintendo
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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Tags: ea, john-riccitiello, marketing, nintendo, support, Wii / Nintendo
By Mister-X
Continue Reading EA’s Riccitiello: Nintendo ‘learning’ how to support third parties
December 9th, 2009 at 08:40pm
Under Wii / Nintendo
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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Tags: business, cammie-dunaway, chinatown-wars, grand-theft-auto, gta, gta-chinatown-wars, interview, marketing, sales, Wii / Nintendo
By Mister-X
Continue Reading Nintendo: GTA Chinatown Wars sales ‘frustrating’
December 8th, 2009 at 08:00pm
Under Xbox 360
Lost Planet 2 may be produced in Japan by Japanese developers at a Japanese company, but it’s rooted in Western design philosophies — namely, the art of shooting. In a Capcom published developer interview, producer Jun Takeuchi explained the company’s marketing strategies in and outside of Japan.
“In foreign countries that account for a large share of sales,” Takeuchi said, “we are going to rely on the brand recognition of Lost Planet and emphasize the new features in the game, as well as four player co-op mode.” To emphasize the parts of the game that Japanese gamers might be more interested in, Takeuchi suggested, “we’re going to focus on pushing the concept of ‘enjoying four player co-op mode’ instead of the fact that this game is an action shooter.” In other words, Capcom’s hoping to make Lost Planet 2 sound as much like Monster Hunter as possible.
Additionally, as part of its “Single Content Multiple Usage” multimedia initiative, Takeuchi said that Capcom may extend Lost Planet to manga as a promotional tool in Japan.
Takeuchi on marketing Lost Planet 2 across our planet originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: capcom, jun-takeuchi, lost-planet, lost-planet-2, manga, marketing
By Mister-X
Continue Reading Takeuchi on marketing Lost Planet 2 across our planet
December 8th, 2009 at 04:20pm
Under Xbox 360
From the initial talk of a lower price to a renaming, Bungie’s ever-changing plans for Halo 3: ODST left a lot of people confused as to what the final product would be. “I’m no PR expert, but it’s pretty obvious the game had a series of stumbles; from the naming, to the initial E3 2008 countdown reveal failure, and finally pricing … it would definitely be nice to have a do-over for the game introduction,” senior designer Lars Bakken told G4TV in a recent interview. “The big takeaway for us is just to never comment on matters that are outside of our control,” added community manager Brian Jarrard.
The subject of ODST becoming an “expansion pack,” however, was never an arguable point to executive producer Curtis Creamer. “Though ODST was built from the Halo 3 engine, there were enough changes made to the engine that we could not have released it as an expansion in the way that you might equate with a PC game expansion pack … the ODST executable is not compatible with Halo 3.”
The crew of Bungie devs also reconfirmed that “there are currently no plans for any ODST DLC,” with all of the studio’s resources tied up with Halo: Reach. Hopefully, our thirst for more Firefight maps will be quenched by the inclusion of the mode in future Halo games — a prospect to which the developers responded, “Only time will tell.” Do it for us, Bungie! Please?
Bungie explains ’series of stumbles’ in ODST marketing originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: brian-jarrard, bungie, curtis-creamer, dlc, expansion-pack, halo, halo-3, halo-3-odst, halo-3-recon, halo-reach, lars-bakken, marketing, odst, reach
By Mister-X
Continue Reading Bungie explains ’series of stumbles’ in ODST marketing
November 17th, 2009 at 09:15pm
Under DS
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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Tags: advertising, eedar, jesse-divnich, marketing, reviews, sales
By Mister-X
Continue Reading Commercial success dependent on ‘more than just quality,’ Divnich suggests
November 17th, 2009 at 01:30pm
Under Wii / Nintendo
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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Tags: assassins-creed-2, boom-blox, business, dead-space-extraction, grand-theft-auto-iv, gta-iv, house-of-the-dead-overkill, little-kings-story, marketing, no-more-heroes, reggie-fils-aime, the-conduit, third-party, Wii / Nintendo, zack-and-wiki
By Mister-X
Continue Reading Nintendo’s Fils-Aime: ‘effectively marketed’ third-party titles can sell on Wii
October 28th, 2009 at 04:15pm
Under PSP
Just when you thought those Q1 delays were over, SCEA comes in with a surprise. The upcoming SOCOM Fireteam Bravo 3 for PSP will miss its original late November release, and will instead come out on January 12th, 2010, two weeks before Zipper deploys MAG on PS3.
SCEA Senior Producer Mark Rogers says that developer Slant Six is not responsible for the delay and “development is on schedule.” Instead, Rogers blames marketing, saying “some high value visual assets (screens and video) have only recently been made available to global marketing and we have decided to move the release and allow time to get the word out to everyone.” So, although assets have been available since April, marketing hasn’t received them until “recently.” We’re not entirely sure how this makes sense, but the end result is clear: you’ll be waiting longer for this game, as someone gets their act together.
SOCOM Fireteam Bravo 3 also joins the Q1 party originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: delay, fireteam-bravo-3, marketing, SCEA, slant-six, socom, socom-fireteam-bravo-3
By Mister-X
Continue Reading SOCOM Fireteam Bravo 3 also joins the Q1 party
October 27th, 2009 at 11:27am
Under Xbox 360
We weren’t surprised when the first of three episodes in the Assassin’s Creed: Lineage miniseries, created by Hybride Studios, exceeded our expectations. These folks did the effects for 300 and Sin City — so of course we knew it would look great. Our surprise simply came from the fact that Lineage is a promotional, game-based short film; and nearly all of the words in that phrase seem contrary to high quality. Share in our surprise by watching the first Lineage installment after the jump.
If you’d like a bit of behind-the-scenes info into how the film was created, check out this GamesIndustry.biz interview with Ubisoft UK marketing director Murray Pannel. He does a good job of clearly explaining the game and movie industry synergy — you know, what James Cameron alluded to during his fateful, four-week-long E3 2009 speech.
Continue reading First Assassin’s Creed: Lineage episode is surprisingly great
First Assassin’s Creed: Lineage episode is surprisingly great originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: assassins-creed, assassins-creed-2, assassins-creed-lineage, film, hybride-studios, marketing, movie, short-film, ubisoft
By Mister-X
Continue Reading First Assassin’s Creed: Lineage episode is surprisingly great
September 22nd, 2009 at 04:29pm
Under Xbox 360
For some, Halo 3: ODST’s $60 price point has become a point of contention (though not for us, we should note). And not for Bethesda production director Ashley Cheng either, who says on his blog that, “reviewers are now mentioning that Halo 3: ODST may not be worth the price point, that it should’ve been cheaper, etc. … give me a break.”
According to him, these complaints wouldn’t be arising if it weren’t for the game’s “totally bungled” marketing campaign. “First saying it was a standalone expansion pack, then coming out and saying wait, no, we’re charging full price because – surprise! – we put ‘more’ stuff in it and it’s called Halo 3: ODST now, vs its original title, Halo 3: Recon.” Bungie has since justified the new price point to us, though apparently for some that just wasn’t enough.
Bethesda production director says MS ‘totally bungled’ ODST marketing originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Continue Reading Bethesda production director says MS ‘totally bungled’ ODST marketing
Tags: ashley-cheng, bethesda, bungie, expansion, halo, halo-3, halo-3-odst, marketing, microsoft, odst
By Mister-X
Continue Reading Bethesda production director says MS ‘totally bungled’ ODST marketing
