BishopLamont said:
It's a failure compared to other training games. It's a failure in expanding the DS audience. Yes I'm sure it made a profit considering it's budget, but at this point I think Nintendo is more concerned with expanding the DS audience, and it this regard it didn't do so well. I'm not one to support the magical LanceStern "300k success" theory, but Nintendo is a special case where profiting isn't just enough, they really want to expand the audience more then ever.
Which audience were they trying to expand into? The Facening audience? They did that. That's what the sales were. If it's some other audience, why do you think a Facening product was supposed to do that?
If Nintendo announced "South Beach Diet Wii" for the Wii, which of the following audience do you think would be a healthy target for the product?
a) People who have heard of South Beach Diet and are interested in a South Beach Diet product
b) People who like Halo 3 and Coors Lite
If your audience is B, "South Beach Diet Wii" is probably not a good product fit. I honestly believe that Nintendo aren't total fucking morons even if they sometimes act like it, and so I don't suspect they would expect to get a non-Facening audience with a Facening product.
This issue is further compounded by the fact that the particular cultural fad in question is totally fucking bogus. I mean, Facening is something I would expect to see in a three pack with "Read your Tarot Cards" and "Talk to Angels" products for 45 year old women who loved "A Million Little Pieces" until they found out it was fake and then they "hated it all along". In all of your posts, I've genuinely failed to see anything that constitutes an admission that you read and understood my repeated explanations of the fact that this product is an utter sham.
If you want to know what will REALLY expand the DS audience, your best bet is to look at Nintendo's own words. Iwata has repeatedly said that they want DS Download data for movie listings, bus times, sports info, inside restaurants, and everywhere in your life. Face Training DS takes your Facening routine and involves the DS. No good if you don't have a Facening routine. EVERYONE, though, has a daily living routine that will involve transportation and entertainment and eating and going places.
There are still some great ideas in terms of DS software, but I don't necessarily expect any of them to be BT-style successes. Nintendo doesn't need those right now. I'm sure they'd rather 15 titles that all appeal to different audiences selling 100k a pop than one title that sells 1.5 million. Diversification is okay. If you look at the secondary DS tier, like all the Kanji dictionaries and lifestyle guides and travel guides and such, that's the next level of the expansion. Not just blockbusters, but slow burning utilities too.
But I can't stress enough that whatever expansion you want to conceive of, Face Training could never be a part of it and it would be a pathetic disgusting hollow shell of a shit-filled world if Facening ever was an agent for expansion and change.