Nintendo has this nasty tendency to make money with their consoles, despite often being seen as the "loser" in the reputed console wars. Their stock holders are generally quite happy, especially in recent times, and believe it or not, Nintendo has a war chest of something like ten bazillion yen. Certainly a large R&D budget went into developing Wii technology, but everyone knows that the system is essentially a calculated risk. Nintendo needs to push its new brainchild, and it needs to push it hard; thus the chest springs open yet again.
A recent Bloomberg article states that Nintendo will launch a year-long, $200 million ad campaign for the Wii. Further, 80% of that money will be solely devoted to marketing toward non-gamers, attempting to expand their market into the coveted (and excuse the generalization) "old people and women" demographic. That's a whole heck of a lot of money to get the word out ... be sure to do your part and invite your baby boomer neighbors for a quick session of Wii Sports.
[via Joystiq]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-13-2006 @ 10:55AM
Mundane Noodle said...
This doesn't really relate to this entry, but I ran into a marketing flaw this weekend.
I took my kids to a Gamestop to cover for my urge to try out a Wii. I noticed that the Wiimotes were not available and wondered what was going on. Turns out, you have to leave a driver's license to play on the Wii. Does this not exclude some of the intended audience that Nintendo is trying to reach? I understand that a lot of core gamers are in the non-driver's-license-toting population, but there are quite a few non-gamers who are not...
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11-13-2006 @ 2:59PM
a robot said...
That's simply a security feature - they need to have something that you can't walk off with so that you can't do exactly that, and take the controller with you.
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11-13-2006 @ 3:31PM
Taufiq said...
I hope they come up with something good so that I don't have to explain to each of my friends what a Wii is. =/
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11-13-2006 @ 3:47PM
cubeboy101 said...
no as other forms of id maybe aceptable and small children will be with there mum day whoever
200 sqillion dollors wii is going to dsisss all competition
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11-19-2006 @ 10:52PM
Sam Perch said...
Is the Nintendo Wii global?
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