Almost as cool as wrestlers signing in church - November 6th, 2001 - Drew Cosner
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this column are those of the participants and the moderator, and do not neccessarily reflect those of the GIA. There is coarse language and potentially offensive material afoot. I wish they would construct a Taco Bell in my mouth. Don't say we didn't warn you.
I have to say, being DA for over a year has conditioned Chris well; he certainly knows how to pick out the topics that will incite the insane debates of pure opinion I do so love. I think for tomorrow I should give Chris a topic along the lines of "which is correct: Christianity or atheism?" See how he likes that one. | Who are you, and what did you do with the real Nij? | | I'm sure you're thrilled to receive a letter from me again... I've been seeing a lot of commercials lately for PS2, GameCube, and Game Boy Advance. According to GameSpot, the Xbox advertising campaign just kicked off yesterday, and their game-specific commercials are still on the way, so I can't speak for their commercials. I'll say this, though: Whoever's doing Nintendo's Game Boy Advance commercials is a genius. I love those damned commercials-- the one with the choir-boy wrestlers cracked me up; the Golden Sun commercial is visually stunning. As far as the GameCube commercials go, I've only seen the commercials for the system itself and wasn't too impressed. As for who is "winning the battle for the hearts and minds of U.S. gamers"... Nintendo and Microsoft are going after totally different segments of the market. Nintendo gamers know who they are, and Microsoft is making sure that Xbox gamers know who they are. Despite the proximity of the two systems' release dates, they are not direct competitors. -Nij; My life is twenty-four hours a day. |
I may as well just start this column off by admitting how ill-prepared I am to host this particular debate; as far as I'm concerned, Nintendo and Microsoft are both sucking. So far I've seen one GameCube commercial, which came on so late that I was half asleep and couldn't even tell you what happened. Something about a girl on a couch turning into a GameCube when this guy went to kiss her. As far as Xbox ads go, I've just seen that Taco Bell stuff, which makes me want to eat tacos more than anything else. It's not like I'm one of these people who likes to blame MTV for all of society's ills, watching only local television shows and PBS. I watch far more of MTV2 and Comedy Central than anything else on television. So what the hell, Microsoft and Nintendo? Am I not the average consumer watching average shows at an average time? Why will you not reward me for my carefully-plotted conformity? However, yes, I will agree wholeheartedly with you when it comes to your final paragraph; Nintendo always does pretty well regardless of the current gaming scene. Nintendo may not have struck as strong a chord with the N64 as company execs might have hoped, but the system was continually profitable. The combination of illogical, rabid Nintendo fanboys like myself and younger gamers ensures that as long as Miyamoto keeps the goods coming, Nintendo will probably do just fine. The Xbox has to worry about the PS2. The Xbox is coming out of the gate a relatively new system with a launch line-up that, while decent, is no comparison for the games Sony's got coming down the pike. As I've mentioned before, I'm incredulous about MS's chances for this reason in particular, but I hadn't counted on the marketing blitz the company has conjoured up, with partners like Taco Bell. If MS can start attracting some high-profile exclusives from developers, and really squeezes Sega for what we know the company may be worth, the Xbox may just do okay after all. But MS had better hurry; the next-gen wars are officially in full swing this November, and I'd give the Xbox about a year to offer a library comparable in strength to Sony's before most consumers will have made their console purchases. | Feel the sheer presence! | | Drew - HA! They've got your slave ass doing mid-week columns! Anyway, as for the advertising blitz of doom, both sides have an edge that balances them out. Nintendo has a track record of fun. Sure, the N64 was only so so, but it had some great titles and I know many people who love their big N's. They also have weird commercials, decent media coverage, and advertisements in the GBA's, which everyone and their mother are buying, or should buy. So they have the advantage off the jump; a fan base, good visibilty amongst gamers, a magazine, while bad, with numerous subscribers, as well as proven qaulity first party entertainment. Whenever you buy a Nintendo system, you know Nintendo will put ou good games for it, regardless of whether or not anybody else does. However, the X Box makes up for this in a few ways. First, no one can deny the sheer presence of Microsoft. They are everywhere, impossible to avoid, and pushing their latest venture quite strongly. Next, they have availability. More Xs where available for preorder, and so most retailers pushed them much harder(I am going to avoid the stores being bought issue). Finally, they do have some workign demo boxes out there, and those are working, big time. My friend is a hardcore Sega fan. and nearly wept after the Shenmue 2 thing. At first, he decided he was gonna import the European version and buy a PS2.After playing some game on a Box, I forget the title, he's hooked, and buying a Box. Most likely, he will not buy Shenmue 2, and still import the Euro, or the Japanese and borrow my Japanese step-grandmother. So while I am planning on a PS2, and would like a Gamecube, I think the war is right now a dead heat between all three consoles, and the holiday advertisment war is very tight, with Microsoft possibly having a slight lead. Peace, Ray Stryker, who thinks none of this matters because Sega makes games for all three and he loves his GBA. Long live Golden Sun. |
Frankly, I think preorders are a ridiculous way to determine the success of console, and I don't know why manufacturers insist on citing preorder numbers. Okay, so I do, but I still think it's ridiculous. The simple fact is that the number of heavy gamers in North America and Japan has reached a critical mass: a console has to be pretty damn shitty not to sell at least 300,000 units. Of course, the inevitable fallout of this little setup also helps bolster a company's campaign: all of the big gamers buy out nearly every system upon release, leaving unwitting parents scampering all over the place to find one for their kids. The press picks up on this, we have a "hottest toy of the year" story, and the mindshare improves exponentially. Or in a reader's words: | The Taco Bell Box | | Drew, I think this year, the general public is irrelevant because I suspect both systems' hardcore fans will snatch up all the units availible this year. I think the X-box has the loyalty of hardcore Sega fans, who have always despised Nintendo style games and blame Sony for the death of the DC. IMHO the motivating factor behind the snapping up of pre-sells is the specter of last year's PS2 launch, when only people that camped out overnight or prepurchased in full months in advance walked away with new systems on 10/27. In all likelihood, despite Gamecube launching with six hundred thousand units (not much larger than the PS2 launch of five hundred thousand) and because Xbox is rumored to be launching with a paltry three hundred thousand units, history (ie chronic shortages) will repeat itself in the third week of November. With both Nintendo and Microsoft only promising a million or so systems this year, people that visit a store after work to pick up the system they have seen in commercials are going to walk out empty-handed until well after January. All of the gamers I know are PS2 owning males in their mid twenties, the vast majority of whom have picked up their PS2s only recently, having decided (with a little prodding from me) that in the near future, PS2 is where the games are at. Discussion of new systems centers around the X-box because my friends are more interested in Halo, DOA3 and NFL Fever then they are in Waverace, Super Smash Brothers, and Luigi's Mansion (I don't know any big Nintendo fans). As for the ad campaigns, one non-gamer I work with, upon seeing an Xbox commercial, wondered why Taco Bell was making videogame hardware :). - Mark |
At the risk of getting flamed for my horrible, horrible biases again, I'll have to say that your friends' purchases reflect most of those I've talked with. Just about every casual gamer I know feels that the Xbox and GameCube both look nifty enough, but the PS2 is where the games are going to be. As things stand, I can't really argue with them much. | Been around | | Which company has better ads? Definitely X-Box. The reason is quite simply: they are actually around! Maybe I should be a bit more specific. I have seen Gamecube ads on the Net and in game magazines, but that's it. To really reach casual gamers, Nintendo needs TV ads. And so far, I haven't seen any. I've seen plenty of X-Box TV ads though, especially during that MTV show a few months ago (X-Box was the sponsor). Heck, even that rap star Choclair is promoting the X-Box. His latest music video shows him playing the X-Box, which is I guess MS's way of saying that the X-Box is so cool, even rap stars are playing it. Whatever. But what can you say? MS has a lot more dough than Nintendo, or at least that's the impression I'm getting. -Paris |
You know, I've seen a GameCube ad, and I've yet to see an ad specifically about the Xbox. I've just seen those Taco Bell ads. We must be more iconoclastic in our chosen forms of entertainment than we realized, Paris. | Damn you, Chris! | | Anyone who says that the N64 "failed" and experienced a "downfall" might as well get a tatoo on his forehead, reading, "I have nothing worthwhile to say about video games." |
I would argue that the N64 did, in fact, fail, in that it was unable to maintain the inertia that started with the NES and rolled over into the following console generation with the SNES. Likewise, the N64 was certainly the downfall of Nintendo's top dog position in the gaming industry. So, in response I say that anyone who mocks another gamer based solely on his interpretion of what is now inconsequential gaming minutia should have "I'm a self-righteous anal-retentive" tattooed on his head. And what's with people writing flames not even having the decency to include at least a handle anymore? I miss the days of Eggman; now there was a man who could write hate mail. None of this sissy "Oh, you didn't print my letter," "Oh boo hoo, you consider a console less successful than I do" crap. | Sly Slone | | I wouldn't say either is winning over the hearts of gamers very well with the commercials. Discounting the creepy Taco Bell commercials, I could count the number of GameCube & Xbox spots combined on a single hand. I'd have to give this one to GameCube though, because A) I can count Xbox spots on a single finger and B) It was the green blob with voiceover. I'm catching the Onimusha commercial left and right, though. Xbox does get a lot of mainstream writeup, but at least recently not a lot has been positive. Even MSNBC can be quite hard on the bugger. But then, they say no publicity is bad publicity, right? I dunno if Microsoft has been doing anything similar, but Nintendo's been sending out those spiffy life-size (except for the flatness) GameCube mailings including CDs with video and screens. They're both doing the "Let the public check it out." thing, though Nintendo's going all across the country over many weeks. But even if as I see it Nintendo has more advertising going on, these buggers are less than two weeks away and I'm surprised I'm not seeing more from both. But hey, if lack of mass awareness makes the chances of me grabbing a Cube on day one higher, I'll live. -Joshua Slone |
I hate when I can't think of a response to a letter. Curse you, Slone; your letter is as though a self-contained microcosm without need of outside comment to lend it purpose. Just admit that your intention was to make me look inept. | Some like it hot. Some like it not too hot. | | Well, since Microsoft seems have completely bought out all the advertisment space for all of my local game stores, added to the fact that Taco Bells seems more hell bent advertising X-box than their own products, still added to the fact that in every online pole ive read (I admit, only 3) X-box is way ahead of Game Cube (Just under PS2)...im gonna have to say X-box is gonna be the hot new system this year. Wow, that was a long sentence, completely throwing out years and years of english classes im sure. Kandrin, likes it hot...but not too hot. |
Well, I do think that the polls you're referring to are a tad misleading. You have to remember that sites like GameSpot are visited by heavy gamers, who are hardly representative of the mass populace. A good portion of Nintendo's audience is in the younger age bracket, and generally kids don't use the Internet nearly as much as adolescents and older gamers. You end up getting mainly the latter two groups filling out those polls. | I blew up the Pepsi factory after I got my 275th "try again" cap | | In my opinion, it would seem that Nintendo doesn't NEED advertising. They've been around for so long and by now I'm willing to bet everyone knows about Gamecube, just by word of mouth. Hell, people love Nintendo. They bring us jolly fun games like Mario...and uh, Super Mario. And, uh...er...Mario 64. I'm at a lost beyond that, but surely you see my logic! X-box, on the other hand...has earned my hatred. After buying roughly a dozen large drinks at Taco Bell, I've yet to win one--indicating that Bill Gates has a personal grudge against me. probably 'cause I kicked his dog that one time...jeez, some people! ~The Kouji |
I mainly printed this because it's the most interesting backlash to an advertising campaign I've ever heard. Or read. Or whatever you consider the columnist/column reader transactions. Closing comments: So I'll give you your topic for Chris tomorrow, but first a little setup. it seems all of a sudden rhythm games are everywhere. Not even a year ago, gamers were all but begging to have the wildly popular Dance Dance and BeMani games released in the States. Now we've got games like Parappa 2, Rez, and Frequency all on the way. What's more interesting is that Rez and Frequency are both subgenres of this relatively new genre: action-rhythm. So here's the deal: with the advent of newer hardware, do you think the rhythm genre is on the verge of enjoying the same kind of renaisance that RPGs did in the previous console generation? Or do you think publishers are getting recklessly bold, releasing too many titles in a messed-up niche genre that the general public could care less about? Why don't you just let Chris know. -Drew Cosner, big fat fatty fat fat. | | | |
