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[oti]

I don't know OP. I think this photo is much more telling:

They look much happier and seem to have much more fun with the Switch than your football players. The football players all look like they put on some fake smiles for the camera, whereas the photo I have on hand shows some genuine smiles.

"They aren't even playing Halo those fake gamers lol" - Mom in the background

 

[The_Lump]

Even if it was for some marketing deal (there is no evidence that it is); the fact that Barcelona - who curate their sponsors more than most - would let their biggest stars publicly associate with Switch as a brand still tells you that Nintendo is successfully penetrating the mainstream.

 

[MatrixMan.EXE]

Whether Nintendo hit a home run with Switch remains to be seen, but that picture is definitely a great case for the idea that they could see big success with the Switch. Despite some extremely annoying issues, I'm loving mine overall so I'm praying that it doesn't end up like the Wii U (unlikely, but still).

As for the salt in this thread...yikes.

 

[Milly Osworth]

Whether Nintendo hit a home run with Switch remains to be seen, but that picture is definitely a great case for the idea that they could see big success with the Switch. Despite some extremely annoying issues, I'm loving mine overall so I'm praying that it doesn't end up like the Wii U (unlikely, but still).

As for the salt in this thread...yikes.

I can picture them posting in this thread with a frowny face.

 

[DAHGAMING]

There is a huge market for the switch, obviously the normal gamers and home users but the portability opens it up to a new audience. Im ex Military and when we used to go away loads of us would bring gameboy's, 3DS ect and play Pokemon, even some of the officers got involved. I know a few that jumped on the switch right away. The likes of FIFA would sell even more as thats a big part of our social time, FIFA tournaments ect. It needs to be done right though as I remember a few of us had FIFA Vita and it just didnt hit the right note.

 

[Antiwhippy]

There is a huge market for the switch, obviously the normal gamers and home users but the portability opens it up to a new audience. Im ex Military and when we used to go away loads of us would bring gameboy's, 3DS ect and play Pokemon, even some of the officers got involved. I know a few that jumped on the switch right away. The likes of FIFA would sell even more as thats a big part of our social time, FIFA tournaments ect. It needs to be done right though as I remember a few of us had FIFA Vita and it just didnt hit the right note.

Time for Mario strikers to make a comeback.

 

[ArtHands]

I don't have specific information abpit this deal. Just common sense

So its a fantasy scenario you cook up.

 

[family_guy]

You do know parents buy kids ipads right, the ones that are really fragile and expensive. Like my parents bought my little brother a Ipad so being fragile doesn't determine whether a parent buys a thing.

Plus unlike you a lot of consumers don't view 300 dollars being expensive for what its offering. Unlike GAF most audience would view it as a 2 in 1 package that can do what a console and handheld can do.

I'm aware but at what price? $500 or those $250 last gen iPad minis being clearanced where games are mostly free or less than $5. A device with educational apps, ebooks, a browser, and media apps. A handheld console doesn't have the same worth or utility as an iPad. As an aside, I personally am tired of asking my niece and nephew, or my friend's daughter where that 3DS game I bought them is and getting the answer that they don't know. That's why spending more than $30 on a small cartridge for them is a waste of money for me and their parents.

 

[Zemm]

It's more likely that it's a real picture rather than a marketing one. I don't think it's the latter at all really.

Football players are well known to be into gaming. David James was addicted to it and says it affected his performances in goal for Liverpool for example. They're travelling all the time, staying in hotels and away from home for large parts of the year, they need something to do in their spare time and footballers have a lot of that. It wouldn't surprise me if someone like Neymar was really into Mario Kart (judging by those older photos) and wanted people to play with so just bought a handful of Switches with the game, like what's £2k in videogame consoles when you're earning £200k a week?

 

[marc^o^]

I'm aware but at what price? $500 or those $250 last gen iPad minis being clearanced where games are mostly free or less than $5. A device with educational apps, ebooks, a browser, and media apps. A handheld console doesn't have the same worth or utility as an iPad. As an aside, I personally am tired of asking my niece and nephew, or my friend's daughter where that 3DS game I bought them is and getting the answer that they don't know. That's why spending more than $30 on a small cartridge for them is a waste of money for me and their parents.

There's nothing on an iPad that can give kids the pleasure to live scenes like these:

Most kids won't have the chance toput 3 screens in the same room, but even in tabletop mode you could recreate the same set up. As far as utility I agree with you, Switch only provides entertainment. As far as worth goes though, this is worth far more than you think. Best friends I have today were kids I grew up with, playing Super Mario Kart during months. Such games create bonds.

 

[Orniletter]

I mean, this entire post is wild but dropping Halo in there makes it a party.

It's hilarious considering the state the Halo IP (Halo Wars 2 utterly bombed, 5 was outsold by Splatoon on the WiiU of all things and had generally poor sales for what the series represents for MS) is in. But yes, Nintendo is the company that supposedly didn't do anything right the last couple of decades (?) ....I guess.

 

[spekkeh]

It's more likely that it's a real picture rather than a marketing one. I don't think it's the latter at all really.

Football players are well known to be into gaming. David James was addicted to it and says it affected his performances in goal for Liverpool for example. They're travelling all the time, staying in hotels and away from home for large parts of the year, they need something to do in their spare time and footballers have a lot of that. It wouldn't surprise me if someone like Neymar was really into Mario Kart (judging by those older photos) and wanted people to play with so just bought a handful of Switches with the game, like what's £2k in videogame consoles when you're earning £200k a week?

I think he makes more like 700k a week. He could have a dozen slaves driving all over the country to buy up Switches and it would be nothing more than pocket change for him. In fact, the slaves would probably do it for free just so that Neymar senpei will notice them.

 

[notaskwid]

They couldn't even afford Messi.

 

[2+2=5]

Hone run on (European)football(=American soccer)? You are a little confused op lol.

To me it looks like advertising honestly, and no one likes grey Switch? I don't think so.

 

[D.Lo]

5 was outsold by Splatoon on the WiiU of all things

Wow I'd never even thought of that perspective.

I think Microsoft's marketing for Halo was so successful (was it Halo 2 or 3 that had the specious and unprovable 'biggest single day sales dollars in entertainment history') many fell for it, despite the series never anywhere near having industry leading sales at any point. Now some fans (and 'journalists' who bought in) believe it has influence and reach it truly never has.

As mentioned previously, the highest selling Mario Kart has sold more than triple the highest selling Halo.

 

[ArtHands]

Remember these:

Nintendo Switch selling great? Its just the initial honeymoon period/artificial scarcity
Nintendo games selling great? That's because Nintendo Switch players are starved for games
Photos of Switch owners enjoying the Switch? Must be marketing shills.

 

[Zedark]

It's hilarious considering the state the Halo IP (Halo Wars 2 utterly bombed, 5 was outsold by Splatoon on the WiiU of all things and had generally poor sales for what the series represents for MS) is in. But yes, Nintendo is the company that supposedly didn't do anything right the last couple of decades (?) ....I guess.

I agree that Halo 5 didn't live up to the series' typical expectations, but Halo 5 shipped 5 million in its first three months unless I'm mistaken, which already puts it over Splatoon LTD shipments.

 

[stargateheaven]

It bothers me they are wearing those clothes.

 

[Frodo]

It bothers me they are wearing those clothes.

A bunch of bros bounding naked with their Switches would be better, yes. I agree.

 

[ArtHands]

It bothers me they are wearing those clothes.

They are marketing shills for whoever manufacture those clothes.

 

[Orniletter]

I agree that Halo 5 didn't live up to the series' typical expectations, but Halo 5 shipped 5 million in its first three months unless I'm mistaken, which already puts it over Splatoon LTD shipments.

I stand corrected, I never saw Stinkles post in the Kotaku thread.

Still, as you said, Halo 5 trading blows with Splatoon is quite revealing in itself.

 

[Antiwhippy]

A bunch of bros bounding naked with their Switches would be better, yes. I agree.

I mean if you want me to notice your marketing, that's how to do it.

Tight briefs and knee length socks would do, too.

 

[Luq]

Brave assumption, but you can belive in whatever you like I guess.

Switch may turn out to be really, really succesful but not based on celebrities/football players photos.

 

[Despera]

Yeah, this worked so well in Spain.

whoa... hope they have insurance on the one carried by Ramos

 

[Prisoner KSC2-303]

Remember these:

Nintendo Switch selling great? Its just the initial honeymoon period/artificial scarcity
Nintendo games selling great? That's because Nintendo Switch players are starved for games
Photos of Switch owners enjoying the Switch? Must be marketing shills.

It's just two extremes at this point, and any meaningful conversation is sadly lost in the middle.

For every downplaying response you list, there's at least a few "I played Zelda on my commute and it's revolutionary / don't liken it to other handhelds, it's a totally different experience / lol Sony fanboy salt" type threads.

This picture should be a sign that Nintendo is getting better at marketing, loads of businesses do it by reaching out to so called social influencers and giving them free shit. It's good that after the debacle of the Wii U's marketing they're doing the right things.

 

[Angel Whispers]

Highest selling Halo game: 11 million sales.
Highest selling Mario Kart game (released a year after the highest selling Halo game): 37 million sales.

Hmmm... Splatoon (New IP) also performed better than Halo 5 (long-established IP) at one point on the least successful Nintendo home console. These people are making a very desperate and pathetic reach, tbqh.

 

[Little Mons†er]

In GAF bubble kids grew up with Halo and it's known GAF is in line with reality.

Agreed! Just look at the "how well will Splatoon sell?" Thread for reference

 

[Phatosaurus]

Highest selling Halo game: 11 million sales.
Highest selling Mario Kart game (released a year after the highest selling Halo game): 37 million sales.

37 million Wii owners starved for games at the time.

 

[Forkball]

New home run photo

 

[Phatosaurus]

New home run photo

Sweet Jesus how long are those toes?!

 

[Lyng]

How do we know this isn't a paid endorsement?

Also, fuck Neymar.

You misspelled Messi

 

[spekkeh]

It's just two extremes at this point, and any meaningful conversation is sadly lost in the middle.

For every downplaying response you list, there's at least a few "I played Zelda on my commute and it's revolutionary / don't liken it to other handhelds, it's a totally different experience / lol Sony fanboy salt" type threads.

This picture should be a sign that Nintendo is getting better at marketing, loads of businesses do it by reaching out to so called social influencers and giving them free shit. It's good that after the debacle of the Wii U's marketing they're doing the right things.

Nintendo has been giving away stuff to celebrity endorsers and influencers at least since the time of the GameCube, as you could see from the Paris Hilton picture posted in this thread. I'm pretty sure all of the console manufacturing companies do it. The fact that no-one posted their Wii U swag online is telling though. As is Xbox having to do this forced slightly awkward red carpet thing. You can give famous people all the free stuff you produce but that doesn't mean they will reciprocate (except YouTube celebs and Instagram influencers, but these are not those, nobody made a thread about iJustine). It's pretty telling that Barcelona players did think, you know what, let's take a picture together. This complements the coolness of our private jet.

Of course it's still a bold claim, but it's an interesting dynamic. How Switch sold better than Wii, but it wouldn't be like Wii because that had positive buzz from Ellen and Oprah. Now it gets that (well from Barcelona... which has a bigger global audience than the others), and somehow it still doesn't count because its just advertisement.

I guess this thread has kind of run its course. Can't wait for next time that GAF, the arbiter of cool, vehemently denies something being hip as being really hip. Though that next time will still be Switch, oh well.

 

[SavoyPrime]

Definitely a paid endorsement.

 

[boiled goose]

It's possible it's marketing.

But it's also possible one Player bought them all and game them to teammates to play together.

 

[panama chief]

Sweet Jesus how long are those toes?!

hahahahah. dead.

on topic: that photo looks like PR. but ill bet its effective given how even older people dick-ride sports stars/celebrities

 

[Darryl M R]

I think it's marketing and I also think the Switch is a success on its own. And I'm allowed to be wrong in this situation.

Also as someone that formally studied business and marketing I believe it is wise to always question product placement. Remember the Ellen Samsung picture that was big and she had to reveal afterwards it was a promotion? The best marketing campaigns are ones that seem so natural.

 

[Moon Presence]

I bet they all have PS4's. I mean, they can afford everything.

 

[D.Lo]

37 million Wii owners starved for games at the time.

I chuckled lol.

 

[Turrican3]

37 million Wii owners starved for games at the time.

Sarcasm?
Can't really tell anymore nowadays.

 

[AdventureRacing]

Wow I'd never even thought of that perspective.

I think Microsoft's marketing for Halo was so successful (was it Halo 2 or 3 that had the specious and unprovable 'biggest single day sales dollars in entertainment history') many fell for it, despite the series never anywhere near having industry leading sales at any point. Now some fans (and 'journalists' who bought in) believe it has influence and reach it truly never has.

As mentioned previously, the highest selling Mario Kart has sold more than triple the highest selling Halo.

I think this post is a bit misleading. When halo 3 launched it was a massive launch historically. It most likely was the biggest single launch in the history of gaming. Obviously since then that sort of opening has become more common (and easily exceeded) but that doesn't change the fact that it was huge at the time.

Also you're right that the best selling Mario kart had tripled the best selling halo. Again though prior to Mario kart wii, halo 3 would have outsold all other console Mario karts.

I think halo 2 and 3 did have a lot of reach and influence. Maybe not as much as some imply but it was certainly there. That Microsoft totally squandered that and wasted the opportunity to grow the franchise is on them. Unfortunately for them it was COD that continued to rise and become a dominant force in the industry whilst halo stagnated and went backwards.

 

[richman555]

Time for Mario strikers to make a comeback.

And Sega Soccer Slam!

 

[N.Grim]

It most likely was the biggest single launch in the history of gaming.

Calm down

 

[AdventureRacing]

Calm down

In terms of day 1 sales and revenue made it would surely be close. Other than being a silly drive by post I'm not sure exactly what your post means. Did you actually have something to add to the discussion besides a useless troll post?

 

[Prisoner KSC2-303]

Nintendo has been giving away stuff to celebrity endorsers and influencers at least since the time of the GameCube, as you could see from the Paris Hilton picture posted in this thread. I'm pretty sure all of the console manufacturing companies do it. The fact that no-one posted their Wii U swag online is telling though. As is Xbox having to do this forced slightly awkward red carpet thing. You can give famous people all the free stuff you produce but that doesn't mean they will reciprocate (except YouTube celebs and Instagram influencers, but these are not those, nobody made a thread about iJustine). It's pretty telling that Barcelona players did think, you know what, let's take a picture together. This complements the coolness of our private jet.

Of course it's still a bold claim, but it's an interesting dynamic. How Switch sold better than Wii, but it wouldn't be like Wii because that had positive buzz from Ellen and Oprah. Now it gets that (well from Barcelona... which has a bigger global audience than the others), and somehow it still doesn't count because its just advertisement.

I guess this thread has kind of run its course. Can't wait for next time that GAF, the arbiter of cool, vehemently denies something being hip as being really hip. Though that next time will still be Switch, oh well.

I think the nature of using celebrities has changed though in the past five or six years. Most companies used to put on events, invite celebrities, and give away free swag afterwards (like the shots of Ramos and Fabregas posing with an Xbox One, or the various people who turned up to the similar Wii U event). The images would tend to be from the event itself.

Now, there's far more of a preference not to rely on a star studded grand unveiling where it's assumed people are payed to turn up, and instead send out the items in a more targeted way to those who'll post on social media, blurring the lines between PR and personal endorsement. It works far better, as evidenced by this thread.

 

[Hero]

This thread is embarrassing a lot of people. Apparently this is the hill many are choosing to die on.

That one guy put in a crazy amount of CS hours though.

 

[redcrayon]

New home run photo

Nintendo VR is looking good.

 

[D.Lo]

I think this post is a bit misleading. When halo 3 launched it was a massive launch historically. It most likely was the biggest single launch in the history of gaming. Obviously since then that sort of opening has become more common (and easily exceeded) but that doesn't change the fact that it was huge at the time.

Also you're right that the best selling Mario kart had tripled the best selling halo. Again though prior to Mario kart wii, halo 3 would have outsold all other console Mario karts.

I think halo 2 and 3 did have a lot of reach and influence. Maybe not as much as some imply but it was certainly there. That Microsoft totally squandered that and wasted the opportunity to grow the franchise is on them. Unfortunately for them it was COD that continued to rise and become a dominant force in the industry whilst halo stagnated and went backwards.

What? Halo 3 hadn't sold its total 11 million by the time MK Wii launched, that's the lifetime total. I am extremely confident that at the time of MK Wii's launch, Halo 3 would not yet have passed Mario Kart 64's total (just shy of 10 million I believe). You're also conveniently skipping Mario Kart DS, which also more than doubled Halo 3. I'm not sure why handhelds don't count all of a sudden when the conversation was about how 'kids grew up with Halo not Nintendo'.

In fact the second most recent Mario Kart (MK7) has also outsold every single Halo game. Double Dash even outsold the Original Halo. And here's the craziest one of all to me, from what I can tell, Mario Kart 8 (on the fecking Wii U!) has sold more than any game on Xbox One.

Halo's success is and always was just vastly overstated, it's series that has had only a single game crack 10 million. For all the manufactured hype about Halo 1 'making shooters sell on consoles' it sold significantly less than Goldeneye already had years earlier. And Microsoft's PR about 'biggest launch in history' is and was a specious unprovable claim.

 

[Skittzo0413]

Nintendo is paying people to play Switches in public now? Where's my damn check?!

Of course it's still a bold claim, but it's an interesting dynamic. How Switch sold better than Wii, but it wouldn't be like Wii because that had positive buzz from Ellen and Oprah. Now it gets that (well from Barcelona... which has a bigger global audience than the others), and somehow it still doesn't count because its just advertisement.

Yeah this is exactly what I was thinking reading through this thread. Although to be fair when the Wii had that buzz from Ellen and Oprah there were probably plenty of people on here calling them shills and saying it meant nothing.

 

[Oersted]

Nintendo has been giving away stuff to celebrity endorsers and influencers at least since the time of the GameCube, as you could see from the Paris Hilton picture posted in this thread.

Paris Hilton was simply at the Gamecube launch event and thus posed with a Gamecube. There is no hint she actually got the console.

There is also no hint the Barcelona players got it as free swag.

 

[AdventureRacing]

What? Halo 3 hadn't sold its total 11 million by the time MK Wii launched, that's the lifetime total. I am extremely confident that at the time of MK Wii's launch, Halo 3 would not yet have passed Mario Kart 64's total (just shy of 10 million I believe). You're also conveniently skipping Mario Kart DS, which also more than doubled Halo 3. I'm not sure why handhelds don't count all of a sudden when the conversation was about how 'kids grew up with Halo not Nintendo'.

In fact the second most recent Mario Kart (MK7) has also outsold every single Halo game. Double Dash even outsold the Original Halo. And here's the craziest one of all to me, from what I can tell, Mario Kart 8 (on the fecking Wii U!) has sold more than any game on Xbox One.

Halo's success is and always was just vastly overstated, it's series that has had only a single game crack 10 million. Microsoft's PR about 'biggest launch in history' is and was a specious unprovable claim.

You're conflating opening day sales with lifetime sales. I don't see how the life time sales has anything to do with how big halo 3 was at launch. Mario kart wii dwarfed halo 3 sales wise but at launch it wasn't even a comparison.

In general your post is a little all over the place. I disagree with that other poster and that bullshit about kids growing up playing halo. I'm only saying that at the time halo 3 launched it was a pretty massive series that had a fair bit of influence in the industry. I think halo in general had a fairly significant influence on the direction of gaming on home consoles (obviously Nintendo took a different path).

How much any game sold on the xbone or wii U is totally irrelevant to that really. MS did massively over hype how successful halo was at time but I think you're going the opposite way in response.

Also Microsofts claim like many they make was a highly dubious one. I still think that opening day revenue wise halo 3 would have been close to if not the biggest of all time when it released.