Nintendo pulls Wii advertising

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Vertigo Acid

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Faced with continued shortages of the popular console, Nintendo has decided to pull advertising for the Wii, to be replaced with DS ads instead.

A Nintendo spokesman says: "We have been running the campaign all year round, but we want to take a responsible stance this Christmas and not fuel demand."
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This decision probably would not affect the frenzy demanding at all. Perhaps if they had done this a little earlier, would ease the demand for a bit somewhat.
 
Yeah, really. Do they need to advertise the DS either?
 
This just strikes me funny... I mean... according to all the die hard gamers I see posting and listening to them in person... you'd think the Wii to be a complete and utter failure? Then you read about market share and posts like this and you realize how detached they have become and how mainstream the Wii actually is. Pretty cool imho. :cool:
 
Jeff Foley said:
This just strikes me funny... I mean... according to all the die hard gamers I see posting and listening to them in person... you'd think the Wii to be a complete and utter failure? Then you read about market share and posts like this and you realize how detached they have become and how mainstream the Wii actually is. Pretty cool imho. :cool:
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Hey, I love my wii I play with it all the time.
 
hey you need your fellow halo 3 addicts to blast wii's shortcomings only to realize how awesome a party game a wii is.
 
Jeff Foley said:
This just strikes me funny... I mean... according to all the die hard gamers I see posting and listening to them in person... you'd think the Wii to be a complete and utter failure? Then you read about market share and posts like this and you realize how detached they have become and how mainstream the Wii actually is. Pretty cool imho. :cool:
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Wii is so popular because its fun for a whole family... the market targets for the wii are people from age like 5-95.... when the xbox and ps3 you get what mainly 12-30yr old mostly males (yes i know there are girl games OMG!)

I got a wii and it was the first time my parents have EVER played a video game with me

i tried to get my mom to play forza on 360 and that was a nightmare
 
Jeff Foley said:
This just strikes me funny... I mean... according to all the die hard gamers I see posting and listening to them in person... you'd think the Wii to be a complete and utter failure? Then you read about market share and posts like this and you realize how detached they have become and how mainstream the Wii actually is. Pretty cool imho. :cool:
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If anyone is looking for a Wii here's a tip: Go to Wal-Mart on Wednesdays (They get shipments on Tuesday's or Wednesday's) around 9am. Ask if they got any in. Then wait in line for one. Thats what I did to get mine.

BTW. Mario Galaxy is AMAZING
 
Atherton213 said:
Wii is so popular because its fun for a whole family... the market targets for the wii are people from age like 5-95.... when the xbox and ps3 you get what mainly 12-30yr old mostly males (yes i know there are girl games OMG!)

I got a wii and it was the first time my parents have EVER played a video game with me

i tried to get my mom to play forza on 360 and that was a nightmare
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Same here, both my parents played the Wii with me, one time for around 1.5 hours. My sister refuses to play, though, instead she just laughs at the rest of us making fools of ourselves - great fun.

I can't wait to go back home over x-mas break to play my Wii... (don't have a TV nor enough space to play it in my dorm).
 
Jeff Foley said:
This just strikes me funny... I mean... according to all the die hard gamers I see posting and listening to them in person... you'd think the Wii to be a complete and utter failure? Then you read about market share and posts like this and you realize how detached they have become and how mainstream the Wii actually is. Pretty cool imho. :cool:
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I find it funny just how wrong the so called "experts" were who predicted that the Wii was nothing more than a gimick and that sales would drop off - well, here we are a year later and you still can't find a Wii on a store shelf. Owned :D
 
If they quit the advertising and put the money into manufacturing then they would make more $$$.
 
RoBo said:
If they quit the advertising and put the money into manufacturing then they would make more $$$.
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There are situations that simply require time, not money, and from the sounds of it, ramping up production levels of the Wii is one of those instances.
 
and there were those of you who laughed at those people who waited out on a chilly november (was it nov?) waiting at a bestbuy for a wii... heck when I waited in line at the time, they had a HARD time finding people who wanted one. Most were hanging around for the PS3!
 
"Damn it, my product is selling so well that I have to be responsible and not advertise it so as to not attract any more attention than it's already generating."

Most companies DREAM of being able to say this. :cool:
 
Kind of a case of too little too late,isn't it? In fact,if anything it heightens the frenzy by further emphasizing that there's a shortage publicly.
 
I like how Nintendo has to stop advertising their products because they are selling too many of them too fast...

Ever heard of another company that had to do that?
 
i dont get how they cant keep up with demand on these things. its not like its a freaking space shuttle. i mean how hard can it be to ramp up production after an entire year?
 
RoffleCopter said:
"Damn it, my product is selling so well that I have to be responsible and not advertise it so as to not attract any more attention than it's already generating."

Most companies DREAM of being able to say this. :cool:
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Plus they made money on every piece of hardware from day one, same with the DS. Nintendo is rolling in cash right now and the stock is on fire (my three positions are up 30%, 60%, and 100% since I started buyingit in March).
 
I love Nintendo and the Wii as much as the next person, but to claim they are cutting Wii ad funding because they're 'responsibly avoiding further demand' is the silliest thing I've ever heard. Not even non-profit organizations put the community before the company. It's simply a matter of 'Hey, the demand these ads are creating is no longer returning money. Let's switch to ads that might make us money.' End of story.
 
Serpico said:
Plus they made money on every piece of hardware from day one, same with the DS. Nintendo is rolling in cash right now and the stock is on fire (my three positions are up 30%, 60%, and 100% since I started buyingit in March).
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My wife and I bought some stock in June,but wish we had jumped in a lot earlier.Wii would have made a fortune. :eek:
 
rhexis said:
i dont get how they cant keep up with demand on these things. its not like its a freaking space shuttle. i mean how hard can it be to ramp up production after an entire year?
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It doesn't work like that though. In order to increase production you must build (or purchase) plant space/time. None (maybe Sony? Doubtful) of the console companies directly manufacturer the consoles, therefore having your OEM build more of your system means you must offer them enough many to cut the product of other products for them. If you can't do that then you must offer enough sustained business for them to build another plant. The Wii is extremely popular now, but popular enough to build a multi-billion (potentially) dollar plant that is a many year investment? No, it's not. So you have to see the issue here.

I'm actually finally grabbing a DS for myself this winter season, it's game library is finally to the point that I can jump in and grab a ton of ultra cheap games.
 
kllrnohj said:
I find it funny just how wrong the so called "experts" were who predicted that the Wii was nothing more than a gimick and that sales would drop off - well, here we are a year later and you still can't find a Wii on a store shelf. Owned :D
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And lots of people buy them just because they're in short supply. No other reason. A friend of mine bought one, not even wanting one, just because Target had some. I own a Wii, but the fact is to me, are too many crappy games out for it. They dont censor games like MS and Sony do. Gone are the gold stamp from the big N. You see posts all the time about people having a Wii, and never playing it.
 
fallguy said:
And lots of people buy them just because they're in short supply. No other reason. A friend of mine bought one, not even wanting one, just because Target had some. I own a Wii, but the fact is to me, are too many crappy games out for it. They dont censor games like MS and Sony do. Gone are the gold stamp from the big N. You see posts all the time about people having a Wii, and never playing it.
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All of the people I talk to that want a Wii wanted it to game on, and those that had a Wii loved it and played it often (or if they didn't they were lamenting the fact that they were too broke to buy new games).

And how do you know MS and Sony are censoring games? That sounds like a load of BS to me.
 
fallguy said:
And lots of people buy them just because they're in short supply. No other reason. A friend of mine bought one, not even wanting one, just because Target had some. I own a Wii, but the fact is to me, are too many crappy games out for it. They dont censor games like MS and Sony do. Gone are the gold stamp from the big N. You see posts all the time about people having a Wii, and never playing it.
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That is an incredibly dumb way to spend your money, even if it's only $250. Just saying.

And by censor, do you mean "they don't stop games from being produced?" Nintendo is not around to police game quality for other companies. There will be games they won't release because of a rating (AO games) but the same goes for the other two.

The Nintendo Seal only assures you that the game was released under an official Nintendo license.
 
I dont own a Wii myself but I do Want to get one because I think it would be nice to be able to get the kids involved too. They are disabled so they cant learn the harder button combos to push ect....

A few of my friends own one and heck they even have a Wii night where the family gets together and play games.

I think the people ( myself included ) were thinking this was not going to catch on at first was because it was something new.... and not the traditional gamepad. To me it just needed some time to adjust.

Now if i could only find a Wii...
 
kllrnohj said:
And how do you know MS and Sony are censoring games? That sounds like a load of BS to me.
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Both Sony and Microsoft have had a sort of minimum standard for games ever since PS2 and the first Xbox. These are VERY, VERY lax standards. Generally the games simply have to work somewhat reasonably well (so as to not constantly crash the system or mess up storage) and graphically not strain the eyes. Microsoft's standard was considerably higher for Xbox than PS2's primarily to keep the notion that the average Xbox game can and should look better than the average PS2 game. There have been instances where MS pulled the license on developers for games that did not meet these standards, but like I said you'd have to be trying really hard to mess it up. You'd have to be the Uwe Boll of the video game world. The only game I can think of that was in danger of being pulled was some Paintball FPS for the Xbox, which eventually shaped up and met the minimum standards (barely).

This practice of a minimum standard of development originated with the Nintendo Seal of Approval back during the NES days when consoles were flooded with crappy games from start-ups or other companies trying to cash in on the market. If Nintendo hadn't come up with the system, there could've been another video game market crash of the early 80's as consumers would've continued to be inundated with literally hundreds of shovelware and simply been turned off to video games as a whole. Consumers were already confused by the sheer amount of games where only Michael Jordan could afford to buy all the games to see which one he liked, which lead to the creation of review magazines like Nintendo Power.

The Nintendo Seal of Approval also did denote that the game had a proper license as well, however the Seal and licensing went hand in hand. They would only grant a license to games which met their minimum standard and conformed to Nintendo's iron fist. Tengen (of Gauntlet fame) was really the only developer to have any success without the Seal, but they were soon obliterated by Nintendo's legal team.

Generally the cost of licensing and development is high enough that people put some amount of effort into their work, so this clause in the licensing agreement is hardly worth mentioning. I'm sure Nintendo still has their standards, but they're probably based around the most casual of gamers, i.e. your parents. You may think that fishing game for the Wii is shovelware, but there's a lot of old folks out there that love it.
 
rhexis said:
i dont get how they cant keep up with demand on these things. its not like its a freaking space shuttle. i mean how hard can it be to ramp up production after an entire year?
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Purely conjecture, but I would venture a guess it is because they do not feel it economically viable in the long-term to ramp up production to meet demands in the short-term. I'm sure they are trying their hardest to do what they can with what they have, but going out and buying/making new plants or making partnerships with other such companies would cost too much money. Nintendo is in the business of making money. They also happen to be very good at it. Better than both Sony and MS's game divisions combined.

To put it more simply, in hypothetical numbers, if it cost a billion dollars to make a band new plant and Nintendo only projected selling enough Wiis to make $750,000,000 from now until the next console generation, then it wouldn't be wise to make that new plant just because they can't fill demand this season/year.
 
fallguy said:
And lots of people buy them just because they're in short supply. No other reason. A friend of mine bought one, not even wanting one, just because Target had some. I own a Wii, but the fact is to me, are too many crappy games out for it. They dont censor games like MS and Sony do. Gone are the gold stamp from the big N. You see posts all the time about people having a Wii, and never playing it.
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I have a PS3 and a Wii.

PS3 is used for bluray, that is pretty much it. Played ass creed, and dealt with constant lock ups, like it was running on a PC.

My Wii has given me, so far, 3 AAA titles: metroid prime 3, mario galaxy, and zelda.

i am also playing games I missed back in the day, never had a SNES, so have also been playing zelda: a link to the past.

wish more third party games would make it on the VC, would love to see square games like chrono trigger.
 
The people who constantly say that there's a conspiracy or that Nintendo is creating an artifical supply shortage or failing to ramp up production fails to realize that Nintendo sells the Wii to huge worldwide demand, and they produce nearly 65,000 Wii's PER DAY.
 
Spare-Flair said:
The people who constantly say that there's a conspiracy or that Nintendo is creating an artifical supply shortage or failing to ramp up production fails to realize that Nintendo sells the Wii to huge worldwide demand, and they produce nearly 65,000 Wii's PER DAY.
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Screw that, they fail to realize nintendo is out to make money, and limiting the supply for a high demand item like the wii makes little to no business sense at all.
 
RoffleCopter said:
"Damn it, my product is selling so well that I have to be responsible and not advertise it so as to not attract any more attention than it's already generating."

Most companies DREAM of being able to say this. :cool:
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Was going to say the same thing but you beat me to it. Having "demand to high" is what you would call a good problem to have (in most cases).
 
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