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[Tom Nook Sawyer]

So Game Theory recently published a video that ties Nintendo's lack of YouTube support with why the Wii U isn't selling, based on the idea of Flappy Bird's success, which took off only when PewDiePie made a video about it.

It's an interesting idea, and while I'm Nintendo's backward policy undoubtedly is part of the issue, I personally don't think it's the main issue. The Wii U sold poorly from basically the start, predating Nintendo's YouTube stance. And while their YT stance certainly hasn't helped (relaxing those policies certainly wouldn't hurt their chances of regaining momentum) it doesn't change the fact that the Wii U appeared to be an undesirable product to the masses from the start.

But if anything, I think the video is further argument that Nintendo really needs to rethink some of its policies--and well, almost everything in terms of what their next move should be.

Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyXcr6sDRtw

 

[DigitalOp]

PewDiePie made Flappy Bird hype?

Dammit, I want nothing to do with that man.... I fell for the juice..

But yeah Wii U has way more issues than Nintendo adopting Youtube promotion..

 

[NotLiquid]

So basically Nintendo should pay money to PewDiePie?

 

[Linkhero1]

On one hand, Flappy Bird is free, on the other, the Wii U costs money.

Also, Nintendo is suffering from more than lack of Youtube promoting.

 

[TyrantGuardian]

So basically Nintendo should pay money to PewDiePie?

How in the world did you come to this conclusion?

 

[Tom Nook Sawyer]

On one hand, Flappy Bird is free, on the other, the Wii U costs money.

Indeed.

Also, Nintendo is suffering from more than lack of Youtube promoting.

For sure, but YouTube is becoming an increasingly important avenue for exposure, and turning your back on it is extremely short-sighted, and will only become increasingly damaging.

 

[darkside31337]

The problem with the theory is that the reason nobody was talking about the Wii U is because it wasn't an exciting item that was worth talking about. They initially introduced the Wii U in the most confusing way possible, their branding sucked and there was basically zero excitement around the launch of the system because most people didn't know what the hell it was to begin with. And then you stack on top of that a pretty bad launch lineup and the fact that Nintendo was already out of the hearts and minds of consumers for years when it came to consoles.

Sony nailed absolutely ever note correctly going into launch. From their initial reveal through E3 and right through launch they made sure the initial word of mouth and buzz was positive - even though honestly their launch lineup wasn't exactly that spectacular. They weren't paying folks to talk about their system, it happened organically.

I guess Nintendo could have paid famous folks to talk about their system but when you're doing that then you are already fucked.

 

[Portugeezer]

PewDiePie made Flappy Bird hype?

Dammit, I want nothing to do with that man.... I fell for the juice..

But yeah Wii U has way more issues than Nintendo adopting Youtube promotion..

Well judging from the graph in the video, it seems Flappy Bird was already on the rise, then rose even more after PewDiePie's video.

 

[geordiemp]

How in the world did you come to this conclusion?

You need batteries in your sarcasm detector my friend...

 

[Sami+]

Game Theory is a joke, and this argument is silly. Wii U failed because it was a badly designed product.

 

[jabuseika]

You try making Nintendo understand that, go ahead.

They're so backwards, they would rather have no publicity than free publicity with monetization for youtube content creators.

 

[Tom Nook Sawyer]

Well judging from the graph in the video, it seems Flappy Bird was already on the rise, then rose even more after PewDiePie's video.

I could be mistaken, but I think the graph only portray it that way because the line was riding to the next one, being the data-point for the day that PewDiePie made that video. So if I'm right, it seems he is entirely responsible for jump-starting its popularity.

Edit: Rewatched the scene; the charts too vague for me to tell, so nevermind

 

[Ultravi0lence]

Pewdiepie made Zombiu videos that got millions of views. I don't think those helped the sales.

 

[Randdalf]

Game Theory is a joke, and this argument is silly. Wii U failed because it was a badly designed product.

It's not a badly designed product, it's a very well designed product with poor branding and marketing.

 

[Derpcrawler]

The problem is not with Nintendo promoting Wii U and its games through YouTube, but that they go out of their way to stop others doing that. They claim copyright on all videos that have footage from game itself or trailers. So most people won't bother covering Nintendo games, some even boycott them (TotalBiscuit) .

 

[Aquamarine]

So basically the argument is:

1) PewDiePie is an innovator, as the catalyst that sparks demand for games

2) Others look at PewDiePie and follow him as Early Adopters, building social momentum and starting trends

3) Early Majority / Late Majority / Laggards follow suit...so people who never even heard of PewDiePie play the game through word of mouth

4) Nintendo is anti-YouTube

5) ???

 

[213372bu]

Can we stop making threads on this guy, everything he does is for pure clickbait. He even flat-out lies in some of his videos, (Portal and Virtual Boy/Wii U,) just so he can produce a wow-factor that will "blow people's minds." I saw this video and the points he raises are completely mute. Btw, PewDiePie did NOT make Flappy Bird popular, tons of people were playing it way before his video at my school.

The video goes off by making this absurd connection where there isn't one, and then goes off on another tangent in which he completely goes off-topic about Nintendo's prehistoric policies. I mean if he were to expand on his original topic more what would he suggest Nintendo even do? Nintendo has a Youtube presence, as evidenced by their viewcounts and ND livestreams, and that really is the only thing he brings up.

So basically the argument is:

1) PewDiePie is an innovator, as the catalyst that sparks demand for games

2) Others look at PewDiePie and follow him as Early Adopters, building social momentum and starts trends

3) Early Majority / Late Majority / Laggards follow suit...so people who never even heard of PewDiePie have heard of the game through word of mouth

So Nintendo should pay YouTubers to have positive reactions for marketing, lol. He argues really abstract/weird things that only imply that Nintendo do even absurder things , such as moneyhatting YouTubers for good PR.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

The Wii U is not a compelling product. All the Youtube videos in the world aren't going to change that. It's NOT marketing. It's that it's not appealing to the mass market at all.

 

[Black Door]

Nobody wanted a WiiU because the PS4 and Xbone were right around the corner with better lineups in the first quarter, 3rd parties couldn't be arsed to figure out how to work gamepad integration into otherwise simple ports (that wouldn't sell anyway,) and virtually everything that is interesting on it has been done in some form on the Wii and Gamecube. The bad marketing didn't help either-people treat it like that HD-DVD add-on the 360 had years ago. They should have redesigned it and called it the Super Wii or Revolution or something

 

[Tom Nook Sawyer]

So basically the argument is:

1) PewDiePie is an innovator, as the catalyst that sparks demand for games

2) Others look at PewDiePie and follow him as Early Adopters, building social momentum and starts trends

3) Early Majority / Late Majority / Laggards follow suit...so people who never even heard of PewDiePie play the game through word of mouth

4) Nintendo is anti-YouTube

5) ???

That #4 prevents #1 and subsequent.

I disagree that was the Wii U's initial problem, because it literally wasn't at the time of the Wii U's release. But it is something interesting to consider on a grander scope, moving forward

 

[NotLiquid]

The problem with the theory is that the reason nobody was talking about the Wii U is because it wasn't an exciting item that was worth talking about. They initially introduced the Wii U in the most confusing way possible, their branding sucked and there was basically zero excitement around the launch of the system because most people didn't know what the hell it was to begin with. And then you stack on top of that a pretty bad launch lineup and the fact that Nintendo was already out of the hearts and minds of consumers for years when it came to consoles.

Sony nailed absolutely ever note correctly going into launch. From their initial reveal through E3 and right through launch they made sure the initial word of mouth and buzz was positive - even though honestly their launch lineup wasn't exactly that spectacular. They weren't paying folks to talk about their system, it happened organically.

I guess Nintendo could have paid famous folks to talk about their system but when you're doing that then you are already fucked.

I much prefer the Wii U right now over the PS4, and I agree with this.

The Wii U isn't going downhill on account of isolated issues. YouTube celebrities not pushing their games? Hardly the biggest chief offender, even if it can cause some considerable buzz. Nintendo's marketing of the Wii U assumed too much of the audience - that the console can ride itself on the Wii brand name, that the tablet alone without any clear incentive is a sell, that the power race wouldn't be important etc.

Meanwhile, Sony went from one showing to the other having bigger word of mouth than ever. It had a solid reveal, it brought the goodwill of multiple publishers and went above and beyond during E3 with the whole "no block on used games" showing. It had an expensive advertising campaign, and it overall told the consumer exactly what they wanted to hear. It wasn't just the PS4 doing one thing right, it's that it did multiple things right in succession. Even when considering the droughts, the hype alone and public goodwill was enough to elevate it into a relevant status, not because it has a share button on the controller.

Really, all this video is to me is another Game Theory episode where they find one small implication about something and manage to spin out a mountain out of a molehill.

 

[Kusagari]

It's not a badly designed product, it's a very well designed product with poor branding and marketing.

Nintendo's utter ignoring of the Wii U's own selling point, the GamePad, shows what a poorly designed product it is.

 

[ronito]

LOL Game theory.

 

[TheBaronOfNA]

"Is a popularity contest!"

Is so difficult to admit that the gamepad was not so hot?

 

[Coolwhip]

Ugh. No, that fool doesnt play a role here. Even if he did, his target audience is snotty 14 year olds. Those feel too cool for Nintendo.

 

[jabuseika]

The problem is not with Nintendo promoting Wii U and its games through YouTube, but that they go out of their way to stop others doing that. They claim copyright on all videos that have footage from game itself or trailers. So most people won't bother covering Nintendo games, some even boycott them (TotalBiscuit) .

Say what you want about TotalBiscuit, but I've found some great games, and stayed away from total rip-offs because of his videos.

But let's take him just on numbers alone, he recently released that he gets 500k daily views on youtube. That's 500k opportunities for exposure Nintendo is giving up from just one youtube content creator.

 

[XenodudeX]

We don't need an explanation why the Wii U isn't selling.

 

[frankie_baby]

maybe Nintendo need to moneyhat flappy bird for Wii u

 

[213372bu]

Nintendo's utter ignoring of the Wii U's own selling point, the GamePad, shows what a poorly designed product it is.

The Wii U is not a compelling product. All the Youtube videos in the world aren't going to change that. It's NOT marketing. It's that it's not appealing to the mass market at all.

.

Well judging from the graph in the video, it seems Flappy Bird was already on the rise, then rose even more after PewDiePie's video.

But what would Nintendo do? Nintendo already has great games, so should they moneyhat YouTubers such as GameTheory himself? I know it's hard to believe but these things are morally wrong and can even lead to bad PR in of itself.

Spoiler

#XMB13

 

[Kade]

Game Theory: The Anunnaki, Obamacare & Their Connection To The Wii U's Failure

 

[Tripon]

Except Nintendo does advertise on youtube and uses youtube personalities.

And I'm glad that Nintendo doesn't work with PewDiePie. Even if it makes less exposure for their products.

 

[Aces&Eights]

You try making Nintendo understand that, go ahead.

They're so backwards, they would rather have no publicity than free publicity with monetization for youtube content creators.

It's not entirely fair to call Nintendo backwards. Nintendo is over 100 years old and steeped in Japanese tradition. They simply don't care what the flappy birds of the world think. They do things their way and their way only. They would fall on their sword before bowing to outside influence and going against their core principles, obtuse as they might seem.

 

[VariantX]

The Wii U just sells to people who love Nintendo games and no one else. Everyone else who doesn't put Nintendo games first on their must have lists can be better served somewhere else. Even if you dont care for Sony or Microsoft's 1st party output you can at least buy multiplatform games. You don't even have that option with a Nintendo console right now.

 

[Sophia]

Essentially, he's saying that the Wii U failed to gain traction among those early adopters. No doubt because of a poor performance from Nintendo themselves. Which is pretty sound reasoning, really. Look at all the people on NeoGAF who were confused as to what the Wii U was after the reveal. Look at the people in the game industry who were confused.

Or, to put it another way:

The problem with the theory is that the reason nobody was talking about the Wii U is because it wasn't an exciting item that was worth talking about.

 

[outunderthestars]

That is one of the dumbest arguments for the failure of the Wii U that I have ever heard

 

[Delstius]

Sure, I ate an apple today and that completely explain why I'm out of chocolate. Nobody can argue about that perfect display of logic.

The problem with the theory is that the reason nobody was talking about the Wii U is because it wasn't an exciting item that was worth talking about. They initially introduced the Wii U in the most confusing way possible, their branding sucked and there was basically zero excitement around the launch of the system because most people didn't know what the hell it was to begin with. And then you stack on top of that a pretty bad launch lineup and the fact that Nintendo was already out of the hearts and minds of consumers for years when it came to consoles.

Sony nailed absolutely ever note correctly going into launch. From their initial reveal through E3 and right through launch they made sure the initial word of mouth and buzz was positive - even though honestly their launch lineup wasn't exactly that spectacular. They weren't paying folks to talk about their system, it happened organically.

I guess Nintendo could have paid famous folks to talk about their system but when you're doing that then you are already fucked.

Pretty much.
Still, Nintendo have their Direct that get a lot of attention so they're not as out of touch as people tend to say.

 

[comedy bomb]

I read a Rolling Stine interview with the Flappy Bird dev. The article claimed the game started to get popular after a "Fuck Flappy Bird" tweet went out.

IDK how accurate that is, but the interview was interesting.

 

[213372bu]

It's not entirely fair to call Nintendo backwards. Nintendo is over 100 years old and steeped in Japanese tradition. They simply don't care what the flappy birds of the world think. They do things their way and their way only. They would fall on their sword before bowing to outside influence and going against their core principles, obtuse as they might seem.

It's fair to call Nintendo backwards if they don't know how to efficiently produce HD games, believe they will capture the blue ocean with QoL, and don't even know how their competitor's systems even function on a minimal level.

That said, the video goes about it all the wrong ways. As per usual with Game Theory.

 

[The12thGripper]

This channel is dead.

 

[TS-08]

It's not a badly designed product, it's a very well designed product with poor branding and marketing.

It's a product with little mass appeal because of its specs, no third party support, and unappealing tablet controller. Blaming its position on branding and marketing is simply an attempt to distract from these issues.

 

[Tom Nook Sawyer]

It's not entirely fair to call Nintendo backwards. Nintendo is over 100 years old and steeped in Japanese tradition. They simply don't care what the flappy birds of the world think. They do things their way and their way only. They would fall on their sword before bowing to outside influence and going against their core principles, obtuse as they might seem.

You just explained why they are backwards. It's the reason, not an excuse.

 

[Stumpokapow]

Totally unrelated to the video presented:
I think Flappy Bird is pretty instructive as to how Nintendo has lost their edge. Flappy Bird became popular largely due to word of mouth and the incredibly low barrier to access. People heard about it from a friend, downloaded it during the conversation where they heard about it from their friend, and played it. They used social services to point out they were playing it, and it frustrated them, or they hated it, or they loved it, which further spread word of mouth. The game cost $0.00 and was a small download size, so no trouble to just download it right then and there.

The Wii was popular because people became instant converts. It was easy. The controller was easier than any other controller. The remote metaphor was understood instantly. The pack-in game was of obvious interest to a broad group of people, and the rules of each sport explained themselves obviously. The barriers to using the Wii were far lower than the barriers to using conventional consoles.

Now there are easier options. Even if Nintendo had great software today, their method of delivery puts up barriers. Barriers get in the way of casual or low-investment users checking out their product. People can debate to high heavens whether mobile sucks or whatever, whether Mario is genius and <insert mobile game here> is terrible. But if someone said "What's the absolutely easiest way for me to play a game in the next few minutes", you'd point to their mobile phone. And that can't be underestimated as a market that Nintendo once had and now doesn't and won't.

 

[Oersted]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arzJwipWvfQ&sns=em

Pew failed. Also this is nonsensical. You are still allowed to make WiiU videos.Point in case above and beneath

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUFhJ1V50gs&sns=em

That is one of the dumbest arguments for the failure of the Wii U that I have ever heard

I have never seen a dumber one. Its laughable.

 

[The Boat]

This is the flip side of everyone getting some air time with the internet and this newfound interest in Internet "celebrities": idiotic ideas like this get passed around and gain traction.

 

[ocean]

As Wii U's failure becomes more evident, explanations for it will be increasingly obtuse. This, however, takes the cake as particularly stupid.

I mean, Youtube? Really?

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

While the video might be right or wrong, youtube is huge as far as gaming goes and Nintendo being anal about it is not helping them.

 

[jabuseika]

It's not entirely fair to call Nintendo backwards. Nintendo is over 100 years old and steeped in Japanese tradition. They simply don't care what the flappy birds of the world think. They do things their way and their way only. They would fall on their sword before bowing to outside influence and going against their core principles, obtuse as they might seem.

They fell on that sword pretty hard, with the WiiU.

Ok, maybe backwards is too much, but they do seem naive to the possibilities on youtube.

Or maybe they just don't care.

 

[Oersted]

While the video might be right or wrong, youtube is huge as far as gaming goes and Nintendo being anal about it is not helping them.

Completely wrong. And anal?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhgSgWGek30&sns=em

 

[Tidus_Great]

if Wii U was 199.99 i'd probably get one. I just feel wii u is pretty similar to ps3 in powr yet has far less games so paying over 200 just isn't worth it. Hopefully by the time X (xenoblade 2) comes out the price will be at 200 or less

 

[Schnozberry]

They fell on that sword pretty hard, with the WiiU.

Ok, maybe backwards is too much, but they do seem naive to the possibilities on youtube.

Or maybe they just don't care.

Their largest problems haven't been addressed yet, and they'll continue to struggle until they taken them on. If they are going to keep on being generally obstinate with third parties, they have to recognize that they can only support one platform as a company. They also have to come to terms with the gaming population skewing older, and they need to find a way to appeal to that crowd. That doesn't mean abandoning their core competencies, it just means taking more risks with new and existing IP.