Rules:
The console must reach 100 million units LTD and continue the global success that was the Wii.
The console must still feature the Gamepad in some fashion.
Now I understand that certain market trends, namely the mainstream boom of mobile and tablet gaming, really hampered the potential of Nintendo to recapture the casual market a second time around, but no excuses in this thread, just solutions! It may appear to be a very difficult feat to achieve but I don't believe it to be an impossible one. Outlined in this thread are the things that I think Nintendo could have done that would have made the Wii successor another global success.
First things first, a large chunk of the casual market is now gone and there's little hope in getting them all back, but I don't think it's all lost. Suffice it to say, in order for the next console to reach the extremely high hardware numbers that were enjoyed by the Wii, it will require the support of both the more "hardcore" and "casual" gaming audiences alike. In all fairness I think Nintendo understood this and attempted to market the WiiU as such a console, and while they got some things right, it's clear they also got a lot more wrong. The WiiU lacked appeal for a lot of people, for a lot of reasons and ITT we will try and take a look back and troubleshoot exactly why that was.
Anyways, what I would do:
The Name
Wii 2. Simple. There was waaay too much needless confusion with the WiiU name. This is such a simple and aggravating oversight I wish Nintendo would have caught. I believe simply naming it the Wii2, as opposed to WiiU, alone would have made a quite substantial difference in sales and the overall mainstream perception in the early days of the console.
Instead of
The Hardware
I like the gamepad and would absolutely keep it for the next console no matter what. I think it was a genius idea and could have been a huge selling point to both the casual and the hardcore audiences if marketed correctly. I would however make sure that the console launched with an entry level SKU that omitted the gamepad and I would ensure that all the first party titles (sans Nintendoland which would of been bundled in with a gamepad retail package for $129.99) would be playable with the WiiU pro controller and/or the Wii remote, nunchuck, classic controller etc.
I would keep the entry level SKU at the same price point of $300 but the console itself would have approx $100 worth of increased horsepower so as to ensure the system could be just powerful enough to run ports of major third-party titles developed for the PS4 and Xone. The entry level SKU would also come bundled with Wii Sports 2 (more on this later)
The "hardcore" SKU, if you will, would be retailed at $400 and would include a gamepad, a pro controller, and come bundled with the standard Wii Sports 2 along with a choice of either ZombiU or Black Ops II (I'll defend this point later)
To keep costs down (as it already stands with my plans, the standalone gamepad would be selling at a lost at retail and the hardware itself wouldn't have much of a profit margin, if any) I would keep the integrated hard drive space low at 16-32 gb but would make sure to communicate to the consumers the ability to add any external HDD for any additional storage that might be needed.
I would keep the gamepad exactly as is but would plan to release a higher-res, longer-lasting, better-ranged(if possible?) upgrade a couple years into the system's life.
I would also make sure that from day 1, the ability to use 2 gamepads on one console would be there.
The Software
This is key. No matter how powerful the console is, how innovative the new controller is, or how well priced the hardware is, it will mean absolutely nothing to the consumer if the games aren't there. Now, its not news to anyone when I say that there are a lot of abysmal mistakes Nintendo has made with third parties over the years. This has resulted in a number of seriously severed relationships with some major important players in the industry. Having good business relationships with the EAs, Ubisofts, 2Ks, and Activisions of the world is key to attracting the more "hardcore" gamers simply because these are the the publishers that make the games they buy and play. I would make it an utmost priority to ensure that these AAA developers are developing their latest hits for the Wii2 in conjunction with other planned platforms. This would be easier said than done of course, as these developers have time and time again been met with the same disappointing sales figures and lackluster publisher support when dealing with Nintendo in the past, but I would do everything I could to negotiate, at the very least, same-time releases of upcoming heavy hitters such as Bioshock Infinite, GTA V, and Battlefield 4 along with updated ports of recently released popular games like Skyrim and yes, Minecraft.
This would probably result in Nintendo having to foot a good chunk of the development costs for certain games but it would serve as a proverbial safety net for the big name publishers who would have no-doubt otherwise shied away from the prospect of risking their own resources in developing games for a new, untested Nintendo console. Of course, this would likely be seen as a bad business practice by the higher-ups at Nintendo (their typical thought process on third party relations consists of creating an interesting piece of hardware, supporting it with interesting first party output, which would result in high market-appeal, which would then in turn encourage third parties to develop for the console on their own free accord) but the fact of the matter is that, in terms of third-party relationships, Nintendo is in a very deep hole and ri$ks and negotiation$ would be absolutely necessary if they would ever hope to get out of it.
Another key relationship I would focus on is that with EA, namely EA sports. Theres no question that EA sports has some of the biggest franchises in gaming so I would do everything I could to ensure the Wii2 gets the best possible versions of these games. For instance, Madden for Wii2 would feature the ability for 2 players to play a game both with their own gamepads. This would allow each player to discreetly pick their plays and also be able to draw their own plays on the fly using the touch screen.
In terms of first party games, the following is what I would do to ensure that the launch lineup of the Wii2 would meet and exceed consumer and industry expectations. I understand that Nintendo had a more difficult-than-expected transition into HD development so just saying "have Mario Kart 8 and Smash 4 available on launch day!" would be quite reductionist and not at all practical all things considered, but there are still perfectly feasibly things that I feel Nintendo could have done differently in ensuring the Wii U had a more appealing and interesting first party launch line up. Launching with Wii Sports 2 is one of them.
Yes yes, Nintendo captured lightning in a bottle with the Wii and there's no guarantee that just simply rehashing the same games and strategies that made it successful would result in the same high sales numbers, sizable market share etc., but not launching with a Wii Sports 2 was a very serious oversight in my opinion. The fact of the matter is that the Wii became a huge hit in large part due to Wii Sports. It had become a game absolutely synonymous with the Wii brand in the same way Mario Bros was with the original NES. If a consumer is willing to pick up a Wii2 based off the name and the fun experiences they had with the Wii, they should rightfully expect Wii Sports 2 to be available immediately upon turning on the system.
Wii Sports Club was a solid game with solid ideas but it launched much too late into the system's life to make an impact. The system should have been pre-installed with Golf, Tennis, Frisbee Golf, and Bowling with other sports like basketball and archery available for rent or purchase. I'm sure early casual adopters of the system would have appreciated being able to play their favorite Wii Sports games in crisp HD with the added ability to play online with friends and relatives all over the world. Furthermore, I could see the typical casual gamer absolutely eating up the idea of representing their cities and states when taking their skills into the online arena (I think this was a genius concept from Nintendo, by the way) . Also, i would be sure that voice chat would be supported for people on your friends list. I think that the improved graphics, coupled with a new and interesting take on online multiplayer, could have served as more than enough of a justification for early adopters to keep the box in the living room, even if it was just simply there as a modern replacement for their aging Wii.
Everything else in regards to the first party launch line up would have been sufficient I think. A New Super Mario Brothers at launch was a good call. Also, as mentioned earlier in my post, instead of being bundled in every SKU, Nintendo Land should have served as a proof of concept to help sell casuals on the new tablet controller in the same way Wii Sports Resort demonstrated the value of the Wii remote plus. You could enjoy mostly everything the Wii2 had to offer with all the old controllers you already had, but if you wanted to up your game, the Wii2 tablet controller and wireless pro controller were available too.
As I mentioned before, the struggle of getting heavy hitters like Mario Kart 8 and Smash 4 to market would have still persisted. Nintendo did very wisely decide to partner with other Japanese developers like Namco to help speed up production for games like Smash, but frankly, from my completely uneducated point of view, the entire thing seems like an inevitable issue that was bound to happen in the launch of Nintendo's first HD console. I don't have any solutions in mind that could have realistically remedied the slow production of first party titles, but there's no doubting that that complete dearth of new releases in the months following the launch of the WiiU was absolutely abysmal and killed any momentum gained by an already lackluster launch. However, going back to my earlier point, it would have been much less of an issue if Nintendo was able to secure a lot of the big name third party titles that were being released at the time for other systems.
Also, hindsight is of course 20/20 but in a thread where we're trying to attempt the nearly impossible, no feasible possibilities can be left out: Nintendo should have seen the huge success of Minecraft in its early days and done anything and everything it could to have it available on their new console at launch.
Marketing
The marketing of the WiiU was by far the biggest failure on Nintendos part in handling the release of the system. However, in this hypothetical time traveling scenario where I am unexplainably called to make the big decisions, things are different. It's not called a WiiU, it's called a Wii2. It's not an add-on to the Wii, it's the next big thing and you better get with the program or be left in the dust. Yeah, edgy right?
It's absolutely worth noting that the timing of the WiiU was pretty much perfect. It launched a year before the PS4 and Xone and had the benefit of the being the first next gen console on the market. Gamers had owned their home consoles for years at this point and Nintendo had a perfect opportunity to introduce something fresh and new to the market that could make gamers excited.
Now, when I decided to name the console the Wii2, it wasn't an easy decision. Sure, if your last console ended up breaking 100 million sales worldwide it would seem like a no-brainer to keep the brand and build upon it. The problem, however, is that while the Wii brand typically resonates positively with the casual market and the mainstream media, the other side of the fence, the more gory, hardcore, first-person-shooting side, the brand is tainted with a rather unpalatable reputation. The Wii brand, to your average Xbox and Playstation gamer, carries with it the notion of a family friendly, kiddie, low-tech, gimmicky game system, one that is not suited to their more "hardcore" tastes and one that is not to be really taken seriously when compared to the other two systems. Sure the Wii is cool for playing Wii Sports with your family or Mario Kart with a group of friends but it's not a real system. It's doesn't have Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty, Madden, or Fallout and if it does? Lol no thanks. It's waggle, it's party games, it's Mario, and it's just stupid. The online sucks, the graphics are ugly, the controller is shit. Nintendo has let down the hardcore gamer repeatedly over the years and they have seemingly all but wrote off any new consoles from them, especially one that would be branded as a successor to the Wii. My marketing team's primary objective would be to fix this.
The way I would handle the marketing of the Wii2 would be split up into two completely separate campaigns. One for the casual audience and one aimed at recapturing the hardcore gamer. Both of which markets I will desperately need if I plan on making the Wii2 a 100 million unit worldwide seller. There's no question that both campaigns would be a tough sell considering the casual market has all but moved on to iPhones and iPads and the hardcore market has long since gone and discovered greener gaming pastures with their PCs and high def home consoles. However, if all my plans for the Wii2 work out like I've wanted them to thus far, I believe I would have all the necessary ingredients needed to win both crowds over.
Call of Duty, in the years leading up to the launch of WiiU, was the most important and influential franchise in the industry. It set record-breaking sales, year after year, and perfectly epitomizes, I think, the hardcore gaming market. If anyone ever expects to win over the hardcore crowd, they better hope to have a proper Call of Duty in their arsenal. Now this is where I might lose some of you (actually I would totally understand if you've lost me a long time ago, I have no idea why I feel the need to type all of this) but I believe that properly demonstrating the benefits of playing CoD on the Wii2 as opposed to the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 would have done wonders in piquing the interests of the hardcore market.
Story time.
When I lived on campus I had a WiiU and people would come over and either scoff at it or politely be like "Oh that's cool man good for you! I love Mario Kart!" I would try desperately to sway their opinions of the system (and of me to an extent as I was now that weird dude who was associated with buying a WiiU). I would show how it's a universal remote that can change the input, volume, and channel of the TV at any time, with which they would typically respond, "oh neat!" as they sipped their beers and planned desperately in their heads ways to escape this dreadful interaction they've somehow found themselves in. Then, at a lost for what to show them next, I would present them with the Google tours app which then might garner slightly more genuine responses of interest. "Oh!" I would say, "but this is the best part, you can play games on the tablet screen while someone else uses the TV. This would usually result in an "Ah that's really cool man...hey uh we're going to get out of here, it was nice seeing you again, good luck at your new job" I know first hand how hard it is to sell someone on a WiiU, it's a struggle to say the least. It wasn't until I bought Call of Duty Black Ops II, however, that I found something that genuinely excited these painfully stereotypical college student gamers. "Wait, he's playing too?" They would say gesturing to my roommate in the corner playing on the gamepad. "Yeah.", I would respond cooly as to refrain from becoming overly-excited and entering into my gushing Nintendo fanboy nerd mode. "Wait, so you guys are in the same match together? You're playing online?" "Uh yeah... Yeah we are", I would respond whilst impressively keeping my calm composure intact. "That is siiiiiiiick! This is the WiiU?" "Yeah" *sniffs* "it's pretty sweet. Just picked it up a month ago. Capitalizing on the momentum I had at this point, I would slyly slip in that for games like Assassin's Creed and Batman Arkham City, the gamepad would display the map, inventory, and HUD while leaving the main screen clear of any clutter that would typically be displayed, all while cooly avoiding eye contact and casually lighting up a cigarette. "Dude" they would say "I need to get a WiiU, that is sick. Also,, they would add, the fact that you have one and none of my other friends do makes you a really cool guy." It would be around this time that I would start making out with their girlfriends while they stood to the side of the room and clapped.
The point is, people didn't really "get" the WiiU until they saw the splitscreen/off-TV play features it had in Call of Duty and they didn't really express any kind of purchase-intending sentiment until they did. The possibilities opened up by having a secondary handheld screen that works in conjunction with the TV is the primary selling point I would drive home in my campaign to win back the hardcore.
I would be sure to feature the added benefits of playing Call of Duty on the Wii2 in atleast one of my commericals.
I would also have commercial where a bunch of young cool dudes are playing Madden while cracking jokes like "Ah see, you aren't shit now that you can see my plays, you fucking BITCH"
Another might feature a young couple exchanging adorably passive-aggressive banter with each other as the girl demands him to turn off his game (Skyrim, Bioshock, Call of Duty or whatever) so she can watch the new Real Housewives. It would end with him gladly complying as he puts in his headphones and continues his game on the gamepad, all the while she sits there pissed because, like, she won the argument but she didn't really. Women. Amirite guys?
Another commercial might showcase ZombiU and would advertise the tense scenarios experienced while playing the game. A cool looking, focus-tested, young dude would slowly be creeping through a level while momentarily looking down at the gamepad and tapping the sonar to detect any zombies that might be lingering around the corner. This too would end in a cheesy punchline as his girlfriend or mom or whatever turns on the lights, startles him, and cutely teases him for how big of a fucking pussy he is.
I don't know. My marketing team would iron out the details.
Every commercial in the hardcore marketing campaign would end with the slogan Wii2: Evolve Your Game.
Keep in mind the Wii2, under my noble leadership, is now significantly more powerful than the PS360 so improved graphics and higher processing power would also be a selling point that could be used.
The casual market campaign would be entirely different and would feature disgustingly cute moments with different colored families. One might feature a granddaughter playing Wii Tennis with her Grandma in an different state. One could have a dad mischievously keeping the gamepad display away from his family as they play some type of dungeon master asymmetric multiplayer game. I dont know, it will be cute and it will be effective, like I said my marketing team will figure most this shit out.
Ok yeah so theres my plan on making the Wii successor another global success... I think I covered most everything...
TL;DR: I... I really don't know how or why I felt the need to type this much shit out but feel free to discuss the scenario presented to you in the first couple lines.
The console must reach 100 million units LTD and continue the global success that was the Wii.
The console must still feature the Gamepad in some fashion.
Now I understand that certain market trends, namely the mainstream boom of mobile and tablet gaming, really hampered the potential of Nintendo to recapture the casual market a second time around, but no excuses in this thread, just solutions! It may appear to be a very difficult feat to achieve but I don't believe it to be an impossible one. Outlined in this thread are the things that I think Nintendo could have done that would have made the Wii successor another global success.
First things first, a large chunk of the casual market is now gone and there's little hope in getting them all back, but I don't think it's all lost. Suffice it to say, in order for the next console to reach the extremely high hardware numbers that were enjoyed by the Wii, it will require the support of both the more "hardcore" and "casual" gaming audiences alike. In all fairness I think Nintendo understood this and attempted to market the WiiU as such a console, and while they got some things right, it's clear they also got a lot more wrong. The WiiU lacked appeal for a lot of people, for a lot of reasons and ITT we will try and take a look back and troubleshoot exactly why that was.
Anyways, what I would do:
The Name
Wii 2. Simple. There was waaay too much needless confusion with the WiiU name. This is such a simple and aggravating oversight I wish Nintendo would have caught. I believe simply naming it the Wii2, as opposed to WiiU, alone would have made a quite substantial difference in sales and the overall mainstream perception in the early days of the console.
Casual Gamer 1 said:
Instead of
Casual Gamer 1 said:
The Hardware
I like the gamepad and would absolutely keep it for the next console no matter what. I think it was a genius idea and could have been a huge selling point to both the casual and the hardcore audiences if marketed correctly. I would however make sure that the console launched with an entry level SKU that omitted the gamepad and I would ensure that all the first party titles (sans Nintendoland which would of been bundled in with a gamepad retail package for $129.99) would be playable with the WiiU pro controller and/or the Wii remote, nunchuck, classic controller etc.
I would keep the entry level SKU at the same price point of $300 but the console itself would have approx $100 worth of increased horsepower so as to ensure the system could be just powerful enough to run ports of major third-party titles developed for the PS4 and Xone. The entry level SKU would also come bundled with Wii Sports 2 (more on this later)
The "hardcore" SKU, if you will, would be retailed at $400 and would include a gamepad, a pro controller, and come bundled with the standard Wii Sports 2 along with a choice of either ZombiU or Black Ops II (I'll defend this point later)
To keep costs down (as it already stands with my plans, the standalone gamepad would be selling at a lost at retail and the hardware itself wouldn't have much of a profit margin, if any) I would keep the integrated hard drive space low at 16-32 gb but would make sure to communicate to the consumers the ability to add any external HDD for any additional storage that might be needed.
I would keep the gamepad exactly as is but would plan to release a higher-res, longer-lasting, better-ranged(if possible?) upgrade a couple years into the system's life.
I would also make sure that from day 1, the ability to use 2 gamepads on one console would be there.
The Software
This is key. No matter how powerful the console is, how innovative the new controller is, or how well priced the hardware is, it will mean absolutely nothing to the consumer if the games aren't there. Now, its not news to anyone when I say that there are a lot of abysmal mistakes Nintendo has made with third parties over the years. This has resulted in a number of seriously severed relationships with some major important players in the industry. Having good business relationships with the EAs, Ubisofts, 2Ks, and Activisions of the world is key to attracting the more "hardcore" gamers simply because these are the the publishers that make the games they buy and play. I would make it an utmost priority to ensure that these AAA developers are developing their latest hits for the Wii2 in conjunction with other planned platforms. This would be easier said than done of course, as these developers have time and time again been met with the same disappointing sales figures and lackluster publisher support when dealing with Nintendo in the past, but I would do everything I could to negotiate, at the very least, same-time releases of upcoming heavy hitters such as Bioshock Infinite, GTA V, and Battlefield 4 along with updated ports of recently released popular games like Skyrim and yes, Minecraft.
This would probably result in Nintendo having to foot a good chunk of the development costs for certain games but it would serve as a proverbial safety net for the big name publishers who would have no-doubt otherwise shied away from the prospect of risking their own resources in developing games for a new, untested Nintendo console. Of course, this would likely be seen as a bad business practice by the higher-ups at Nintendo (their typical thought process on third party relations consists of creating an interesting piece of hardware, supporting it with interesting first party output, which would result in high market-appeal, which would then in turn encourage third parties to develop for the console on their own free accord) but the fact of the matter is that, in terms of third-party relationships, Nintendo is in a very deep hole and ri$ks and negotiation$ would be absolutely necessary if they would ever hope to get out of it.
Another key relationship I would focus on is that with EA, namely EA sports. Theres no question that EA sports has some of the biggest franchises in gaming so I would do everything I could to ensure the Wii2 gets the best possible versions of these games. For instance, Madden for Wii2 would feature the ability for 2 players to play a game both with their own gamepads. This would allow each player to discreetly pick their plays and also be able to draw their own plays on the fly using the touch screen.
In terms of first party games, the following is what I would do to ensure that the launch lineup of the Wii2 would meet and exceed consumer and industry expectations. I understand that Nintendo had a more difficult-than-expected transition into HD development so just saying "have Mario Kart 8 and Smash 4 available on launch day!" would be quite reductionist and not at all practical all things considered, but there are still perfectly feasibly things that I feel Nintendo could have done differently in ensuring the Wii U had a more appealing and interesting first party launch line up. Launching with Wii Sports 2 is one of them.
Yes yes, Nintendo captured lightning in a bottle with the Wii and there's no guarantee that just simply rehashing the same games and strategies that made it successful would result in the same high sales numbers, sizable market share etc., but not launching with a Wii Sports 2 was a very serious oversight in my opinion. The fact of the matter is that the Wii became a huge hit in large part due to Wii Sports. It had become a game absolutely synonymous with the Wii brand in the same way Mario Bros was with the original NES. If a consumer is willing to pick up a Wii2 based off the name and the fun experiences they had with the Wii, they should rightfully expect Wii Sports 2 to be available immediately upon turning on the system.
Wii Sports Club was a solid game with solid ideas but it launched much too late into the system's life to make an impact. The system should have been pre-installed with Golf, Tennis, Frisbee Golf, and Bowling with other sports like basketball and archery available for rent or purchase. I'm sure early casual adopters of the system would have appreciated being able to play their favorite Wii Sports games in crisp HD with the added ability to play online with friends and relatives all over the world. Furthermore, I could see the typical casual gamer absolutely eating up the idea of representing their cities and states when taking their skills into the online arena (I think this was a genius concept from Nintendo, by the way) . Also, i would be sure that voice chat would be supported for people on your friends list. I think that the improved graphics, coupled with a new and interesting take on online multiplayer, could have served as more than enough of a justification for early adopters to keep the box in the living room, even if it was just simply there as a modern replacement for their aging Wii.
Casual Gamer 1 said:
Casual Gamer 2 said:
Casual Gamer 1 said:
Everything else in regards to the first party launch line up would have been sufficient I think. A New Super Mario Brothers at launch was a good call. Also, as mentioned earlier in my post, instead of being bundled in every SKU, Nintendo Land should have served as a proof of concept to help sell casuals on the new tablet controller in the same way Wii Sports Resort demonstrated the value of the Wii remote plus. You could enjoy mostly everything the Wii2 had to offer with all the old controllers you already had, but if you wanted to up your game, the Wii2 tablet controller and wireless pro controller were available too.
As I mentioned before, the struggle of getting heavy hitters like Mario Kart 8 and Smash 4 to market would have still persisted. Nintendo did very wisely decide to partner with other Japanese developers like Namco to help speed up production for games like Smash, but frankly, from my completely uneducated point of view, the entire thing seems like an inevitable issue that was bound to happen in the launch of Nintendo's first HD console. I don't have any solutions in mind that could have realistically remedied the slow production of first party titles, but there's no doubting that that complete dearth of new releases in the months following the launch of the WiiU was absolutely abysmal and killed any momentum gained by an already lackluster launch. However, going back to my earlier point, it would have been much less of an issue if Nintendo was able to secure a lot of the big name third party titles that were being released at the time for other systems.
Also, hindsight is of course 20/20 but in a thread where we're trying to attempt the nearly impossible, no feasible possibilities can be left out: Nintendo should have seen the huge success of Minecraft in its early days and done anything and everything it could to have it available on their new console at launch.
Marketing
The marketing of the WiiU was by far the biggest failure on Nintendos part in handling the release of the system. However, in this hypothetical time traveling scenario where I am unexplainably called to make the big decisions, things are different. It's not called a WiiU, it's called a Wii2. It's not an add-on to the Wii, it's the next big thing and you better get with the program or be left in the dust. Yeah, edgy right?
It's absolutely worth noting that the timing of the WiiU was pretty much perfect. It launched a year before the PS4 and Xone and had the benefit of the being the first next gen console on the market. Gamers had owned their home consoles for years at this point and Nintendo had a perfect opportunity to introduce something fresh and new to the market that could make gamers excited.
Now, when I decided to name the console the Wii2, it wasn't an easy decision. Sure, if your last console ended up breaking 100 million sales worldwide it would seem like a no-brainer to keep the brand and build upon it. The problem, however, is that while the Wii brand typically resonates positively with the casual market and the mainstream media, the other side of the fence, the more gory, hardcore, first-person-shooting side, the brand is tainted with a rather unpalatable reputation. The Wii brand, to your average Xbox and Playstation gamer, carries with it the notion of a family friendly, kiddie, low-tech, gimmicky game system, one that is not suited to their more "hardcore" tastes and one that is not to be really taken seriously when compared to the other two systems. Sure the Wii is cool for playing Wii Sports with your family or Mario Kart with a group of friends but it's not a real system. It's doesn't have Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty, Madden, or Fallout and if it does? Lol no thanks. It's waggle, it's party games, it's Mario, and it's just stupid. The online sucks, the graphics are ugly, the controller is shit. Nintendo has let down the hardcore gamer repeatedly over the years and they have seemingly all but wrote off any new consoles from them, especially one that would be branded as a successor to the Wii. My marketing team's primary objective would be to fix this.
The way I would handle the marketing of the Wii2 would be split up into two completely separate campaigns. One for the casual audience and one aimed at recapturing the hardcore gamer. Both of which markets I will desperately need if I plan on making the Wii2 a 100 million unit worldwide seller. There's no question that both campaigns would be a tough sell considering the casual market has all but moved on to iPhones and iPads and the hardcore market has long since gone and discovered greener gaming pastures with their PCs and high def home consoles. However, if all my plans for the Wii2 work out like I've wanted them to thus far, I believe I would have all the necessary ingredients needed to win both crowds over.
Call of Duty, in the years leading up to the launch of WiiU, was the most important and influential franchise in the industry. It set record-breaking sales, year after year, and perfectly epitomizes, I think, the hardcore gaming market. If anyone ever expects to win over the hardcore crowd, they better hope to have a proper Call of Duty in their arsenal. Now this is where I might lose some of you (actually I would totally understand if you've lost me a long time ago, I have no idea why I feel the need to type all of this) but I believe that properly demonstrating the benefits of playing CoD on the Wii2 as opposed to the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 would have done wonders in piquing the interests of the hardcore market.
Story time.
When I lived on campus I had a WiiU and people would come over and either scoff at it or politely be like "Oh that's cool man good for you! I love Mario Kart!" I would try desperately to sway their opinions of the system (and of me to an extent as I was now that weird dude who was associated with buying a WiiU). I would show how it's a universal remote that can change the input, volume, and channel of the TV at any time, with which they would typically respond, "oh neat!" as they sipped their beers and planned desperately in their heads ways to escape this dreadful interaction they've somehow found themselves in. Then, at a lost for what to show them next, I would present them with the Google tours app which then might garner slightly more genuine responses of interest. "Oh!" I would say, "but this is the best part, you can play games on the tablet screen while someone else uses the TV. This would usually result in an "Ah that's really cool man...hey uh we're going to get out of here, it was nice seeing you again, good luck at your new job" I know first hand how hard it is to sell someone on a WiiU, it's a struggle to say the least. It wasn't until I bought Call of Duty Black Ops II, however, that I found something that genuinely excited these painfully stereotypical college student gamers. "Wait, he's playing too?" They would say gesturing to my roommate in the corner playing on the gamepad. "Yeah.", I would respond cooly as to refrain from becoming overly-excited and entering into my gushing Nintendo fanboy nerd mode. "Wait, so you guys are in the same match together? You're playing online?" "Uh yeah... Yeah we are", I would respond whilst impressively keeping my calm composure intact. "That is siiiiiiiick! This is the WiiU?" "Yeah" *sniffs* "it's pretty sweet. Just picked it up a month ago. Capitalizing on the momentum I had at this point, I would slyly slip in that for games like Assassin's Creed and Batman Arkham City, the gamepad would display the map, inventory, and HUD while leaving the main screen clear of any clutter that would typically be displayed, all while cooly avoiding eye contact and casually lighting up a cigarette. "Dude" they would say "I need to get a WiiU, that is sick. Also,, they would add, the fact that you have one and none of my other friends do makes you a really cool guy." It would be around this time that I would start making out with their girlfriends while they stood to the side of the room and clapped.
The point is, people didn't really "get" the WiiU until they saw the splitscreen/off-TV play features it had in Call of Duty and they didn't really express any kind of purchase-intending sentiment until they did. The possibilities opened up by having a secondary handheld screen that works in conjunction with the TV is the primary selling point I would drive home in my campaign to win back the hardcore.
I would be sure to feature the added benefits of playing Call of Duty on the Wii2 in atleast one of my commericals.
I would also have commercial where a bunch of young cool dudes are playing Madden while cracking jokes like "Ah see, you aren't shit now that you can see my plays, you fucking BITCH"
Another might feature a young couple exchanging adorably passive-aggressive banter with each other as the girl demands him to turn off his game (Skyrim, Bioshock, Call of Duty or whatever) so she can watch the new Real Housewives. It would end with him gladly complying as he puts in his headphones and continues his game on the gamepad, all the while she sits there pissed because, like, she won the argument but she didn't really. Women. Amirite guys?
Another commercial might showcase ZombiU and would advertise the tense scenarios experienced while playing the game. A cool looking, focus-tested, young dude would slowly be creeping through a level while momentarily looking down at the gamepad and tapping the sonar to detect any zombies that might be lingering around the corner. This too would end in a cheesy punchline as his girlfriend or mom or whatever turns on the lights, startles him, and cutely teases him for how big of a fucking pussy he is.
I don't know. My marketing team would iron out the details.
Every commercial in the hardcore marketing campaign would end with the slogan Wii2: Evolve Your Game.
Keep in mind the Wii2, under my noble leadership, is now significantly more powerful than the PS360 so improved graphics and higher processing power would also be a selling point that could be used.
The casual market campaign would be entirely different and would feature disgustingly cute moments with different colored families. One might feature a granddaughter playing Wii Tennis with her Grandma in an different state. One could have a dad mischievously keeping the gamepad display away from his family as they play some type of dungeon master asymmetric multiplayer game. I dont know, it will be cute and it will be effective, like I said my marketing team will figure most this shit out.
Ok yeah so theres my plan on making the Wii successor another global success... I think I covered most everything...
TL;DR: I... I really don't know how or why I felt the need to type this much shit out but feel free to discuss the scenario presented to you in the first couple lines.
