Is the industry lacking in advertising punch?

[tapedeck]

After reading a feature on Let's Yoga HERE- I was left with the uneasy realisation that, for all the industry is changing it's marketing strategies, it is still blatantly in it's infancy.

 

Go back to the 90's and DDR hit the Playstation in a big way. Not only was it promoting dance yet the exercise benefits were blatantly evident. Yet it was seeminlgy pushed at hardcore gamers with little to no advertising on exercising. Furthermore, females were frequently enamoured by the title (just visit your local arcade for proof) yet Konami (nor Sony) made no concious effort to advertise the title to female gamers.

 

The above statement seems to clarify the notion of Nintendo's 'casual gamer' strategy. The casual gamer has always been there, it's just that this "geek" industry has had its head up it's own backside all along.

 

So now that developers seem to have an understanding that a commercial success can come from a casual gamer, we should be seeing vast changes.

 

But we aren't.

 

What we should be seeing is non-games like Brain Training and Let's Yoga sitting in new areas of society. Go to Boots and you'll see health books and DVD's filling the empty shelves. What's to stop a cheap 3rd party Yoga title or Wii Fit occupying a shelf space? What's to say that it wouldn't be an impulse buy along with randomly generated celebrity workout no 101?

 

Futhermore it would quickly create new customers - customers who wouldn't buy from a traditional game store. And yes, you may need a system for these titles but the fact is that if a title is sitting in a store people are used to, it means they are more likely to become comfortable with the idea of purchasing a piece of harware.

 

If a title such as Let's Yoga sits amongst Nintendo 1st party titles or something like GTA, it will not sell as it could - mainly due to the core consumer purchase model. Not putting these titles into test arenas (like Boots or even posters in your local pharmacy) means the industry is nieve.

 

For all the hard work Nintendo have done by advertising Brain Training in Radio Times or Wii Fit in lifestyle magazines, other developers need to take note and plough into newer directions.

 

Only then will the industry be grown up. Only then will gaming become the accepted norm. But perhaps in twenty years when entire generations have grasped the concept that games are just another form of entertainment has gone - We may see games thriving like never before.

 

No longer will it be "a shock" to see a videogame outsell a box office movie, nor will it be a shock to see Let's Yoga or My Word Coach holding shelf space in your local library. It's where education and "the crap and the classics" sit afterall.

 

Thanks for listening.

 

Tapedeck.

[Tellyn]

You could have turned that into a feature, you heathen.

[tapedeck]

You could have turned that into a feature, you heathen.

 

I have to remember my roots too The forum readers got me my staff position afterall

[darksnowman]

Give the lad a break. He made his name by putting up threads like this.

 

Not sure what to say in relation to it, but it would be cool if things like WiiFit were available in places like Boots, as well as My Word Coach in Travel Agents rather than games being bought in Game, HMV and the usual places.

[system_error]

Well a transition is already in place. A lot of game developers and publishers try to reach out to a new customer. Spending money on advertising is a good step forward after all a few years ago I did not see game ads in TV or other big media events.

 

It takes a lot of time to make games accepted - our society gets older not younger and video games are pretty new compared to movies, books and stuff. So be patient and I am sure in a couple of years games will be something like going to a movie for the majority of people.

[Jamba]

Yeah, I go with System, we aren't quite there yet. To have the level of impact with the advertising that you're talking about, you would have to get to a stage where you can see everyone as a potential customer, rather than position which we have at the moment when the buying power is still in the hands of the "gamers".

 

I want to see Kuju's casual stuff hit the Wii very soon. The 3rd parties are being super slack about doing anything casual, especially when you ignore Ubisoft's shovelware. I think that it's really sad that the industry seems scared of appealing to large audiences but I'm guessing that that's because they don't understand them. They only know the gamers...

 

Wow, even the industry is a solitary geek. You are what you eat i guess :p

[tapedeck]

Yeah, I go with System, we aren't quite there yet. To have the level of impact with the advertising that you're talking about, you would have to get to a stage where you can see everyone as a potential customer, rather than position which we have at the moment when the buying power is still in the hands of the "gamers"....

 

Forgive me, I'm ranting my ideas out

 

So the general idea is that in 'X' amount of years when videogames are embedded in the human psyche as an acceptable form of entertainment, we will see titles in areas not normally associated with gaming? Fair enough. I totally understand and appreciate that sentiment. I would love to think this would be the case too yet I feel that this will happen:

 

Look back over the last 20-30 years and gaming seems to have jumped into pop culture with the NES (and perhaps moreso with the Playstation brand) yet has JUST! suddenly sprouted out of the bedroom and into the 'family' room. If we go at this pace things will take forever. So if I run with this theory things WOULD change, just ... it would...take...another...twenty....or..so...years.

 

Because there are that many titles that dwindle out after initial moments of hype I fear we may never actually see anything "classic" (apart from something akin to the VC.) Just as an old Beatles album is cherished, will we ever see a videogame as such? Or perhaps the term classic will forever just be a selling feature to get buzz going again (as it is currently.)

Classic games should perhaps be databased and widely available to all consoles. - Classic first of all needs to be a recognised arena. One mans classic is another mans crap. What irks me is that the industry almost cripples itself with it's insular "business" approach to older titles. (However, I do understand the massive problems and connotations this brings up. - Such as games and music are completely different in physical terms. Yet I'm trying to stress the viewpoint of a title and what would be deemed classic and therefore readily available forever.)

 

Finally, I feel that as we age and have families of our own, gaming will take a backseat or we will grow to perhaps view gaming as a 'waste' of our child's time. (Similar to a lot of the older generation do currently.) If we are to have our own children perhaps we will want to be busy educating them or letting them take part in "worthwhile" play - Play in which they, intellectually, learn something. Of course I'm not dismissing gaming wholly, variationg is key to a child's learning.

Moreover, I do understand that this does involve a whole can of individualism - so this could be an obselete statement.

 

If we are to believe that because we grew up on games, the world will become more tolerant to them we should expect games to appear in (current view) unconventional areas (areas in which they are similar to their content...ie Kawashima's Brain Training in a college library.) Yet the publishers will always have their say, and at the moment they should be breaking down doors and setting new boundaries. And only Nintendo have started to do this. I just hope everyone else follows.

 

One more example is Steam, it's in the perfect place for those who know what's coming/going/around. "Gamers" if you will. Perfectly placed and does well for it. Perhaps in the future all hardcore titles will be downloadable through something similar to Steam. With fewer hardcore titles being in game stores. Perhaps we will receive Mario 2070 through our consoles via a pre-order as it will mean those that want it will get it simultaneously, worldwide. And those whom are clamouring for "casual" titles will be in the vast majority.

 

Maybe one day, we won't be the core gamer.

 

Obviously I cannot predict the future (shock!) but damn, the opportunites for gaming in the future is immense. It just needs to move on (socially and marketing wise) than it has in the last twenty years.

 

Heck, the duration of the Wii's lifespan has already involved people saying it has changed everything -for better and worse.

[Jamba]

Yeah it will take longer than we want it to but it's the industry own fault and people like Mark Rein should be strung up in the street for being part of the process. We need to start taking the Elitism out of game production and start finding out what is good gaming for everyone not just the gamers. Very few people have ever addressed that question.

 

But don't be dispondent. As you said, the Wii has changed things very fast and I think that Nintendo almost has a bee in it's bonnet about getting everyone playing games. Do you remember the luke-warm and slightly confused reception that Wii Fit got last year? Well look at it now! Ground is being made quickly but some other people could do with getting on the train, though.

 

At the speed of the recent past (ie from when the DS was released) then I expect the landscape of the industry to have completely changed by next gen. If devs are thinking "wtf?" now then they need to get a life raft.

[Kurtle Squad]

You look at health DVDs in Boots?!

 

There was me thinking it was there for condoms....

[Coolness Bears]

I think this is a good idea to sell games where you wouldn't usually expect them to be! expecially for games such as WiiFit being sold in Boots and the like.

 

An example in where this advertising works is my Dad who went into sainsburys to buy a Card for someone and next to the card was a single Brain Training DS game where it wouldn't have normally been.

 

Now my dad is definately not an impulse buyer but he did by brain training just like that without thinking about it.

 

If it hadn't of been there then he would not of even thought about it!

 

So in order to grab new people into playing games I think this needs to happen. Putting the games into ordinary people's more familiar surrounding's they are more likely to buy the game.

 

As I feel These specialist gamestores put some people off and think that's not for them! But I've never met someone who hasn't enjoyed a good game at some point. Even if it was back in the N64 days.

 

I'm slowly using the point of what I'm trying to say but the general message is in there somewhere!