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why do Nintendo's games have such long legs?
- Thread starter mr stroke
- Start date
ScrabbleDude
Member
They are excellent quality, fun games that appeal to everyone. As a result, someone might go over to a friend's house, play the game there and thing it's good enough to go buy. I think this is more likely to happen outside of the core gaming crowd.
ShockingAlberto
Member
There's no one single factor. They're good games, they're popular, they're talked about among prospective buyers, they're advertised well after release, etc.
Cerebral Assassin
Member
You see Nintendo adverts for (some of their) games months/years after they release.
beelzebozo
Jealous Bastard
JesseZao said:
yeah, i was about to mention there's good reason they haven't pumped out MARIO KART DS2 or MARIO KART DS NITRO!
Monty Mole
Member
Marketing and extremely broad appeal.
Most people should love Mass Effect 2. Clearly, it's the best game ever made. But if you've never played a game before, or you haven't in years, you wouldn't have a fucking clue what you're doing. Nor would you be able to move around and shoot stuff. Intimidating, daunting and frustrating.
None of these issues exist with Nintendo's Wii games. Anyone can, quite literally, hop on to a Wii Fit board and get playing.
It'll be interesting to see if Microsoft's Natal games have legs in the same way. Then we can guage if it really is just a Nintendo thing, or a casual thing. Will we see Rare's games dominating the Top 10 for weeks? Sounds like a parallel universe at the moment, but who knows.
Most people should love Mass Effect 2. Clearly, it's the best game ever made. But if you've never played a game before, or you haven't in years, you wouldn't have a fucking clue what you're doing. Nor would you be able to move around and shoot stuff. Intimidating, daunting and frustrating.
None of these issues exist with Nintendo's Wii games. Anyone can, quite literally, hop on to a Wii Fit board and get playing.
It'll be interesting to see if Microsoft's Natal games have legs in the same way. Then we can guage if it really is just a Nintendo thing, or a casual thing. Will we see Rare's games dominating the Top 10 for weeks? Sounds like a parallel universe at the moment, but who knows.
Every Nintendo-developed game contains a subliminal message stating that if you continue to buy their software, maybe - just maybe - they'll find a way to have Rare develop Donkey Kong Country 4. Kidnappings may be involved.
This is a good point.
JesseZao said:
This is a good point.
darksonatine
Banned
Their characters are well loved?
Hot Coldman
Banned
cacildo said:
Rollo Lawson
Banned
cw_sasuke said:
this. not so much fun factor as it is branding. metroid, mario, zelda...all tried and true brands.
John Rabbit
Banned
they're ubiquitous.
people buy them because of brand name recognition.
want to play a videogame? buy something nintendo made.
your 8-year-old nephew you hardly see is turning 9? buy him a ds.
your 9-year-old nephew is turning 10? buy him a ds game for the ds you bought him last year.
etc. etc.
nintendo is a name that carries an intrinsic value of quality. its almost a guarantee than when you invest into a nintendo game, it'll be worth the price. at least from the average consumer's perspective.
people buy them because of brand name recognition.
want to play a videogame? buy something nintendo made.
your 8-year-old nephew you hardly see is turning 9? buy him a ds.
your 9-year-old nephew is turning 10? buy him a ds game for the ds you bought him last year.
etc. etc.
nintendo is a name that carries an intrinsic value of quality. its almost a guarantee than when you invest into a nintendo game, it'll be worth the price. at least from the average consumer's perspective.
speculawyer
Member
Most of the other Wii games suck?
Count Dookkake
Member
Probably because they aren't designed with some retarded concept of 'MATURE' in mind. That shit ages pretty quickly.
Because Nintendo games tend to not be hype driven, and quality products built on well embellished series that have a timeless nature to them.
Doesn't cover all of them, but a large chunk of what they make. Plus, they have great brand recognition and games published by them are felt to be safe bets for people who aren't that well informed, rooting back to the NES when video games were played by more audiences but information was low, and Nintendo put out almost nothing but very high quality software after the first few years.
Doesn't cover all of them, but a large chunk of what they make. Plus, they have great brand recognition and games published by them are felt to be safe bets for people who aren't that well informed, rooting back to the NES when video games were played by more audiences but information was low, and Nintendo put out almost nothing but very high quality software after the first few years.
There's a lot of reasons but one of them is certainly that Nintendo's distribution is far, far beyond that of any other company. They simply try harder.
Most 3rd party publishers are satisfied to put their box on the EB shelves and then forget about it. Nintendo seems alone in attempting to really push their product and brand continuously.
Here's a picture of a Shoppers Drug Mart, which is a common generalist store in Canada. Nintendo has a kiosk here selling their expanded audience, made for everyone games. All the titles shown here are the ones you frequently see cited as evergreen titles.
It's easy for Nintendo to do this because their games appeal to everyone and have no sell by date. EA should be doing similar things, but it's a bit harder for them when so many of their games are rated M for mature or are yearly update sports titles. Companies should be moving toward having more of their titles be geared toward being accessible, E rated, evergreen titles that can be sold at any time, and then they could replicate what Nintendo is doing here.
Most 3rd party publishers are satisfied to put their box on the EB shelves and then forget about it. Nintendo seems alone in attempting to really push their product and brand continuously.
Here's a picture of a Shoppers Drug Mart, which is a common generalist store in Canada. Nintendo has a kiosk here selling their expanded audience, made for everyone games. All the titles shown here are the ones you frequently see cited as evergreen titles.
It's easy for Nintendo to do this because their games appeal to everyone and have no sell by date. EA should be doing similar things, but it's a bit harder for them when so many of their games are rated M for mature or are yearly update sports titles. Companies should be moving toward having more of their titles be geared toward being accessible, E rated, evergreen titles that can be sold at any time, and then they could replicate what Nintendo is doing here.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
They've established a brand outside of the core gamer community. In the same way that a new Blizzard or Valve game is eaten up by the core community, a new Nintendo game, especially based on a property like Mario, is eaten up by the wider community.
TheRagnCajun
Member
J-Rock said:
Not necessarily a quality specific to Nintendo games.
My only guess is that Wii & DS as a console, along with their respective games, tend to be more of a gift-able product, especially for kids. In that consumer context it doesn't matter whether a game is new or old, so long as its good. PS3 and Xbox360 and their games are more of a self-purchased product at a time when 'game x' comes out. There's no waiting for an occasion, the product is purchased at release.
Okay I'm a terrible market analyst.
ScrabbleDude
Member
Those games do not appeal to as broad an audience. And I certainly wouldn't want my children playing or watching me play any of them.mr stroke said:
phisheep
NeoGAF's Chief Barrister
Some of it is marketing, for sure. And some is not having too many sequels.
But I'd guess most of it is word of mouth, which is helped a lot by
- games that appeal to a very broad audience including women and children who, stereotypically, talk a lot more to each other than your average hardcore, or at least talk to people who don't have the game already
- local co-op gameplay, so that the games get played a lot by friends/family/people round for parties who haven't played the game before, and end up wanting it (the opposite of online gameplay where you can only play with people who already have the game, so it doesn't help sales one bit)
- easy to play, hard to master - so there's sufficient game-time that the games do get played enough/talked about enough by other people
But I'd guess most of it is word of mouth, which is helped a lot by
- games that appeal to a very broad audience including women and children who, stereotypically, talk a lot more to each other than your average hardcore, or at least talk to people who don't have the game already
- local co-op gameplay, so that the games get played a lot by friends/family/people round for parties who haven't played the game before, and end up wanting it (the opposite of online gameplay where you can only play with people who already have the game, so it doesn't help sales one bit)
- easy to play, hard to master - so there's sufficient game-time that the games do get played enough/talked about enough by other people
Night_Trekker
Member
cw_sasuke said:
Yyyyyyyyeeeepppppp.
teruterubozu
Member
Because of its mighty third leg.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
This as well. This is really important.phisheep said:
Haunted
Member
Mostly because the games selling on those consoles are aimed at the core demographic, which almost always results in very frontloaded sales and a quick dropoff afterwards.mr stroke said:
As soon as a game manages to enter another, expanded demographic (like "casual gamers", for the sake of argument), you will see games selling well over a longer period of time (additionally helped by word of mouth, supporting the usual marketing done before release). Common examples for this include the Singstar series on the PS2, or more recently Modern Warfare and its sequel on the PS360.
But even with that said, no other company comes even close to having the quality and quantity of Nintendo developed games (on Wii and DS) as far as long-lasting sales performance is concerned.
boiled goose
good with gravy
JesseZao said:
yup.
also, they have little competition in a lot of areas. few others release high budget high profile 2D platformers, 3D platformers, motion games, fun kart racers, fitness games, etc.
the high profile games on other consoles are FPS , shooters, and actions games. Much more releases in those genres. People move onto the next big thing. A new wii owner will buy mario kart wii. A new 360 owner would have bought Gears of war a while back, but will buy MW2 now.
This plus word of mouth because of quality, accessibility, fun, retail presence, continued marketing, brand popularity,etc. lead to long legs.
Dead Man Typing
Member
Word of mouth.
Every year a whole new bunch of kids start school, and they meet new people and make new friends. And only one of them has to have a Wii in the house for the whole group to slowly become infected as they go over to that kids house and play for themselves. Then they want one and the parents buy it for Christmas or birthdays and the parents have to set it up, and they play.
That's where the magic happens, because the parents have fun and they tell their friends and then the next time they have people over for dinner they all end up playing Wii Tennis and Wii bowling and then those people go out and buy their family a Wii and the Balance board!
Then someone buys Mario Kart, and that starts to infiltrate the groups slowly. The people who are buying it now are people who didn't know it existed until recently. It's crazy and it's how Nintendo consoles and games continue to sell long, long, long after their initial release.
Super Mario Galaxy lacked that, "I've played it, everyone I know should play it" appeal to the ultra casual gamer that a Wii Sports has. It's a beautiful single player game, that everyone should play, but it will never be what Mario Kart is. Which is fantastic for us, because it means that Nintendo actually wants to make another one!!!
Every year a whole new bunch of kids start school, and they meet new people and make new friends. And only one of them has to have a Wii in the house for the whole group to slowly become infected as they go over to that kids house and play for themselves. Then they want one and the parents buy it for Christmas or birthdays and the parents have to set it up, and they play.
That's where the magic happens, because the parents have fun and they tell their friends and then the next time they have people over for dinner they all end up playing Wii Tennis and Wii bowling and then those people go out and buy their family a Wii and the Balance board!
Then someone buys Mario Kart, and that starts to infiltrate the groups slowly. The people who are buying it now are people who didn't know it existed until recently. It's crazy and it's how Nintendo consoles and games continue to sell long, long, long after their initial release.
Super Mario Galaxy lacked that, "I've played it, everyone I know should play it" appeal to the ultra casual gamer that a Wii Sports has. It's a beautiful single player game, that everyone should play, but it will never be what Mario Kart is. Which is fantastic for us, because it means that Nintendo actually wants to make another one!!!
sixteen-bit
Member
At least anecdotally, word of mouth has sold my friends on a number of Nintendo games, usually after playing it themselves. Local multiplayer is great.
ScrabbleDude
Member
This is somewhat related, but I would love to see Nintendo become a software developer and drop the hardware side. Not that I dislike their hardware, but I would like to see what happens. After years of hearing about third parties saying that people buy Nintendo consoles to play Nintendo games and as a result they can't compete, I'd love to see what happens when not a single console is free from competition with Nintendo.
Continued marketing definitely plays a role, although with the likes of Mario Kart DS, which I doubt has seen an advertisement in ages, is still somehow making NPD top 20 lists, there are other factors as well. Obviously game quality has something to do with it too, but also very important is the type of game and the audience it's attracting.
Thinking about the sort of games that the "traditional" gamer typically enjoys (the things that tend to sell very well on other platforms), they follow a similar sort of archtype that those players are familiar with. But the thing is, these gamers are also fairly specific in their tastes, and it doesn't help that there is so much competition within those genres by other game developers and publishers. If, for instance, you were a gamer that had paid attention to or noticed the advertisements for Darksiders, a mature action title with mythological influences, you might go out and buy it relatively quickly. On the other hand, if you didn't keep up with that initial hype in the first month, what incentive would you have to buy it even a month or two later, by which point you're seeing marketing for God of War III, a mature action title with mythological influences?
Now instead take a look at something like Mario Kart Wii. A month later, were we seeing other top-notch online arcade-based kart racing games? If someone in, say, November had just picked up a Wii and wanted a racing game, what other alternatives are there? This doesn't even take into account the inherent popularity of the Mario name, or the fact that people may have experienced the game previously, at a friend's house. The same goes for a lot of the Wii stuff in general--a lot of these "evergreen" titles, not counting Wii Fit, are designed to be played and enjoyed in the company of other people, which is not something you can easily do with the likes of the FPS, action games, or RPGs that tend to pop up more often on other systems.
So I guess, if you combine the social aspect of Wii along with a comparative lack of competition for a lot of these games, that's a good place to start looking at least.
Thinking about the sort of games that the "traditional" gamer typically enjoys (the things that tend to sell very well on other platforms), they follow a similar sort of archtype that those players are familiar with. But the thing is, these gamers are also fairly specific in their tastes, and it doesn't help that there is so much competition within those genres by other game developers and publishers. If, for instance, you were a gamer that had paid attention to or noticed the advertisements for Darksiders, a mature action title with mythological influences, you might go out and buy it relatively quickly. On the other hand, if you didn't keep up with that initial hype in the first month, what incentive would you have to buy it even a month or two later, by which point you're seeing marketing for God of War III, a mature action title with mythological influences?
Now instead take a look at something like Mario Kart Wii. A month later, were we seeing other top-notch online arcade-based kart racing games? If someone in, say, November had just picked up a Wii and wanted a racing game, what other alternatives are there? This doesn't even take into account the inherent popularity of the Mario name, or the fact that people may have experienced the game previously, at a friend's house. The same goes for a lot of the Wii stuff in general--a lot of these "evergreen" titles, not counting Wii Fit, are designed to be played and enjoyed in the company of other people, which is not something you can easily do with the likes of the FPS, action games, or RPGs that tend to pop up more often on other systems.
So I guess, if you combine the social aspect of Wii along with a comparative lack of competition for a lot of these games, that's a good place to start looking at least.
Because family friendly titles (of any media type) have such a large demographic, even mediocre titles can do well.
Throw in the polish and the fun factor and you've got a license to print money.
It's the same reason Pixar movies make so much money. Yes it's a cartoon, which makes it safe for everyone, but they have content in them that has appeal beyond the standard cartoon audience.
Throw in the polish and the fun factor and you've got a license to print money.
It's the same reason Pixar movies make so much money. Yes it's a cartoon, which makes it safe for everyone, but they have content in them that has appeal beyond the standard cartoon audience.
I think it would be a decent idea to see how sales trend went per generation, and how much of an effect was the "changing of the guard" so to speak. Obviously it cannot be reasonably justified with Iwata in charge of one generation (Wii & DS) only, but it would still be interesting to note the differences.
TheFLYINGManga_Ka
Member
They have Miyamoto, that's why.
ScrabbleDude
Member
No. A lot of people on those consoles are also aimed at multiplayer experiences. These players tend to look for the newest fps game so that they can have all the latest features and be involved with an active multiplayer community. I don't think they generally care about going back and making sure they've got all the great games of those genres.mr stroke said:
