Is Nintendo's marketing policy the right one to follow?

[PenguinManiac]

For the past years, Nintendo has been following a very "isolating" marketing policy: they don't want to compete with Microsoft and Sony, they're just trying to please their own fanbase.
We could consider this E3 the emblem of this behaviour: they didn't even have a conference, they just streamed their games for six hours straight, two days in a row. No flashy trailers (with some exceptions), no loud announcements, just gameplay. Exactly what the fans had been asking for. They've shown games that are all going to be released soon, they've shown us what we're actually going to play.
And yet, despite this "isolation", Breath of the Wild was the most mentioned E3 game on socials. With just a single game, they conquered viewers and gamers.

So, is Nintendo right in following this policy? Don't mind the competition, just cultivate and please your niche, staying true to the principles that have always characterized their games and are the basis of the Nintendo difference. Are you happy they're still trying to be their own thing, or would you prefer them to get closer to the rest of the gaming world?

 

[pwarbi]

In a way I admire the fact that they're trying to follow there own path and not copy the other major players in the gaming market, but at the same time I do think they need to adjust their policy slightly.

Nintendo still have a lot of fans and they'll continue to buy Nintendo products no matter what, so Nintendo have an obligation to produce the best they can. Not copying others but knowing if they did would be better for their customers should be looked at in my opinion.

 

[Demon_Skeith]

They are still in business aren't they? So clearly what they are doing is working for them somewhat.

 

[Demon_Skeith]

All businesses have to evolve and constantly try to improve their standards. It's when you get too complacent that your competitors surpass you and you business suffers in sales. Nintendo did a great job in the 80s and 90s. But times have changed and gamers have changed as well. I think total immersion games and violence is the trend in gaming. Microsoft and Sony have powerful consoles and share majority of the titles that are released, something that Nintendo will not do and made a stance against ultra violent games.

If they cannot give their customers what they want or expect in a timely manner, they will go elsewhere to get it. I'm speaking about console gaming. Their handheld games is their only saving grace. That has done well in the past.

It has been very clear that Nintendo did not keep up with the changes very well.

 

[CM30]

Given how well it's worked out in the Wii U era, nah I don't think so.

That Wii audience is gone now. And to be honest, I doubt it's ever coming back.

 

[Dame6089]

I don't think this is Nintendo's marketing issue, but that's a discussion for another day. The reality is that we do not need a 3rd console that is essentially the same. You can argue about Xbox One vs PS4 all day, but it comes down to them being extremely similar consoles. Nintendo adds something different with their first party titles. You could own a PC and a Nintendo console and get almost every experience, which I think is a good thing.

 

[mcorm]

I agree Dame6089. I like how the Wii is different from other consoles, but I'm not sure it is different in the right way. I like them trying to choose their own path, but I think they should move away from the Wii to something different.

 

[Dame6089]

I agree Dame6089. I like how the Wii is different from other consoles, but I'm not sure it is different in the right way. I like them trying to choose their own path, but I think they should move away from the Wii to something different.

I would agree that the Wii phase is done. They captured that market and made a ton of money. I think now they should focus on making a machine that allows them to develop their great 1st party games, but also is easy for other developers to work with too. One of the issues of the Wii U was that 3rd parties didn't know how to take advantage of the Gamepad at all.

 

[lb]

I don't think that they're going to change their mentality anytime soon. Maybe if the NX fails, but that probably will not happen, so Nintendo will continue to stick with what they've been doing so far.

 

[My3Sons_NJ]

The Nintendo NX will probably be successful for the small subset of gaming customers that have pre-teen children or have an affinity for the Mario-based games. They'll have a ready-made customer base of 15-20% of the gaming population but it will be difficult for them to expand beyond this base given the lack of top-shelf gaming titles.

 

[shockwave]

Yeah. But Nintendo almost always live up the expectations, unlike some others companies that like to talk about lot of features when every of them ended up being a disappointment. The isolation has its drawbacks too, the gamer demography grew a lot since the Nintendo market supremacy
during the SNES era; but only a portion of that newer audience actually buys Nintendo products, albeit large, it is not enough for Nintendo to stay relevant in market. A sizable portion of the audience is concentrated within Third Parties (From Software,treyarch,EA etc.), and the lack of support the WiiU provides for them really raised an issue for Nintendo market growth.

 

[AgentD]

While other companies rely on flashy trailers, Nintendo is all about the gameplay. Why? Because Nintendo can't compete with the graphics or budget of other consoles, but it can give them a good beating when it comes to gameplay and innovation.

That's why their 2 hour Zelda gameplay works better than a crazy CGI trailer with a celebrity cameo. They excel in gameplay in the industry of GAMES. They know that they're the alternative, as other have said you can get pretty much the same experience on PC/PS4/XBONE but you can't get anything close to the Nintendo IPs outside of the Nintendo consoles, that's why they have such a loyal fanbase and why it works when they cater to those fans.

Of course this is not the Wii, the selling point of motion controls is not there anymore, and the flashy graphics with celebrity voices are there for a reason, they do help sell more games. But the Nintendo fans will be there to buy every Mario Kart and every Zelda.