Namco Bandai Sales VP: Wii and DS market has collapsed

[Flake]

@pepharytheworm

Yeah, but this guy wouldn't be sitting pretty with his company if he came out and said 'oh, maybe if we made better games and actually bothered to market them, we'd sell better'.

There are tens of MILLIONS of Wii's and DS's out there...yet how often do third parties bother to market their shit? They put games on the shelves and forget about them. Later, when the game sells like shit because no one has a clue that it's even there, people like this guy make controversial and outlandish statements, blaming others for their own failures as a game company.

[yomomma1]

I agree with flake. I think the reason, though that companies start blaming the fault on someone else is because of the volume of DS/WIIs out there. They think "Oh look, there are 70 million wiis out there we will sell a bunch!" When their game isn't good and aimed at a niche audience.

[durkada]

Meh. I don't know how valid the marketing argument works. Sure, they could do more, but it ignores the demographic of the DS/Wii core audience. I suspect that the average owner has a budget, probably enjoys Nintendo and is predisposed to buy more Nintendo products (if they buy another one after their inital Wii/Wii Sports combo!).

One thing Nintendo does well, almost to the exclusion of third parties, is market their own stuff. And they market hard. And why shouldn't they? They've sold the hardware and now have a free forum to do so.

What I wonder, exactly, is what kind of deals third parties have made with Nintendo. Take Sin & Punishment II, by our favorite Treasure dev co. If you watch the videos on the Nintendo channel regarding that game, they are extensive and suggests that Nintendo has some role in that game. Perhaps they are financing it?

I suspect third party developers are not as comfortable on Nintendo platforms for that reason. Just as alot of developers are frustrated with trying to get their apps in an iphone.

[wclem]

No games, no sales, duh!

I have tried many, many DS games and to be honest, I cannot find a reason to buy any of them. More FF remakes? RE-RE-RE release of RE?

Cooking mama?

Put a good, normal, wireless controller on the Wii, make the games better, cheaper and have a standard for quality.

[noiseredux]

when he talks about 3 kids in a garage, what game is he referencing?

[SplashChick]

I like how the guy blames it on DS piracy, saying that all his kids' friends have an R4, while in the same breath saying that they have no money. What exactly are you expecting them to buy with those $0, huh?

"Piracy is ruining the gaming industry" arguments are mostly bullshit for exactly this reason. Nine times out of ten you weren't going to make money off of that person anyway, but companies like to ignore that fact and count it all as losses just to play for pity.

[Pulsar_t]

While it's true that not every pirated game = a lost sale, to say that piracy doesn't impact sales is incorrect. There will always be cheapskates who will pirate because they can. And they're hardly a minority either.

[SpaceBooger]

I didn't read all of the posts, but I will tell you that I teach in a small school district where there is only about 110 kids per graduating class (14,960 people total in the town). I teach 7th grade and last month the 7th graders went on a field trip and three of the kids on my bus had R4s for their DS.
I was shocked, so on the track and field day I talked to a couple of them and it seems as if there is a large number of kids that have pirated DS games.
I asked them if their parents knew what a R4 was when they bought it and one of the kids said "My parents were excited to buy one game [cart] so they wouldn't have to buy anymore."
So after that day my view of pirating changed slightly.

[pepharytheworm]

I didn't read all of the posts, but I will tell you that I teach in a small school district where there is only about 110 kids per graduating class (14,960 people total in the town). I teach 7th grade and last month the 7th graders went on a field trip and three of the kids on my bus had R4s for their DS.
I was shocked, so on the track and field day I talked to a couple of them and it seems as if there is a large number of kids that have pirated DS games.
I asked them if their parents knew what a R4 was when they bought it and one of the kids said "My parents were excited to buy one game [cart] so they wouldn't have to buy anymore."
So after that day my view of pirating changed slightly.

Now how many kids on the bus had DSs and no R4?

[SpaceBooger]

I didn't read all of the posts, but I will tell you that I teach in a small school district where there is only about 110 kids per graduating class (14,960 people total in the town). I teach 7th grade and last month the 7th graders went on a field trip and three of the kids on my bus had R4s for their DS.
I was shocked, so on the track and field day I talked to a couple of them and it seems as if there is a large number of kids that have pirated DS games.
I asked them if their parents knew what a R4 was when they bought it and one of the kids said "My parents were excited to buy one game [cart] so they wouldn't have to buy anymore."
So after that day my view of pirating changed slightly.

Now how many kids on the bus had DSs and no R4?

None.
The kids who had them are all friends and I imagine they planned to bring them.
It doesn't matter the ratio, everyone knew about them but only those four brought them. Many other kids were warning them not to talk to me about them because of the illegality of the roms.
I don't think one kid is killing the market, but I always imagined people like us on this site being the only ones who emulate and use flash cards not a bunch of kids in a town where the "downtown" consists of a gas station, local hardware store, local pharmacist, and a convenience store.