Nintendo: We Won't Change Our Marketing Budget

In regard to marketing expenses, at this point we do not plan on any particularly significant changes to the current forecast. However, there are probably many who look at the current first half-year financial results and feel that marketing expenses are increasing. In fact, there is a reason for this. Our financial results are all converted into yen. With the recent depreciation of the yen, marketing expenses spent in the overseas markets, when converted to yen, have increased. Please understand that the depreciated yen adds to sales while it also adds to expenses such as foreign currency marketing expenses when converted to yen. Given the current management environment, funds should naturally be used intelligently, so in that sense, we do not particularly foresee a significant deviation in marketing expenses at this point.

So in other words, you will continue to not market the Wii U at all, even when it needs it so badly. GG Nintendo.

SOURCE

well, its their funeral.

So, they want the console to fail?

It certainly feels like an almost deliberate sabotage at this point

Anyone else get the feeling that Nintendo is just letting it die on purpose? Like they're leaving it out on the market just long enough for the games that are already in the pipeline to come out and then they'll pull the plug?

That's not going to work well for them.

That's what I've been thinking. Of course, that would beg the question as to why they released it in the first place, but maybe it had been their plan to go with the Wii U for the entire generation right up until they realized how much of a gap there would be between the projected next gen and Wii U.

Since R&D of a new console that would be competitive there would take a while, and since the Wii was dead and they needed something, they probably just released it, but plan to support it minimally.

I dunno, I wanna know why it has been all but left for dead by them.

Not sure I believe that considering the last few Wii U commercials had Wayne Brady in it. He can't have been that cheap.

Their overall marketing budget remained static; I'm assuming they just started to use it more effectively.

I don't know, but they'd need to market the console a lot more than now if they want it to have any chance, in the long and short run.

@charizard1605: I really think it wasn't needed. The 3ds is basically acting like their safety net at this point; they can just fall back on it if the wii u tanks.

The real question is if it's viable for them to come out with another console 2 or 3 years from now that would be on par with ps4 and xbone

If they designed it like they designed Gamecube, a console that exceeds PS4 and Xbox One appreciably while also being cheap enough is not out of the question in, say, late 2016. This would give the Wii U a four year life cycle.

Of course, I begin to fear that the Wii U might end up becoming Nintendo's Saturn and damage the brand's long term viability.

Also, of course the Wii U was needed- more profits are always a good thing, and surely Nintendo expected it to sell. It didn't, but they wanted it to.

RIP.......WiiU.

Are those really Commercials? They look more like Internet Videos than anything. Then again I don't watch too much TV.

@charizard1605: nintendos brand as a whole is alright. The wii brand on the other hand has just about lost all steam in the public eye

Well, they are certainly some sort of advertisement considering they are short videos being uploaded on Nintendo's channel on YT.

No, Nintendo's brand is not all right. Any person would be extremely cautious of buying the next Nintendo console after the disaster that the Wii U has been (and hell, even the Wii was for most people where it was reduced to being just a glorified dust collector).

If Nintendo announced a new console that was a definite 'next gen' step from the PS4 and Xbox One in 2016 and released it in 2017 for, say, $300, I would not know if I wanted to spend money on it right then and there, given that: a) I wouldn't know about the third party support; b) I wouldn't know about continued first party support; c) I wouldn't know about the console's long term viability.

The brand has definitely taken a beating.

They need marketing now more than ever. Wii didn't need so many "Wii would like to play" commercials to sell itself, but the Wii U NEEDS that kind of stuff.

You can say that again.

No one takes a Nintendo System seriously anymore. If I was to mention a game that was on a Nintendo system to my friends and it wasn't Pokemon, Zelda, or Mario, they would go "Oh." and just brush it off and go talk about something they did on Halo or the Next Xbox.

Nintendo hardly has a brand standing here in the states.

Don't forget Smash Bros. and Mario Kart.

But yes, outside of those five games, Nintendo needs a desperate, complete reinvention, ala Sega with the Dreamcast. Except they need to be successful with it.

Stubborn to a fault.

Man, I only hear about Dreamcast around us gamer folk. No one really remembers that system.

Which is why I said they need to be successful with it, unlike Sega :P

I think you meant 'home console' , because the 3DS is most definitely taken seriously given its runaway success.

around my parts I mentioned Shin Megami Tensei on 3DS and my peeps went "What?"

The Wii got so much free press and word of mouth. Aint happening again Nintendo.

There comes a point when you gotta shit or get off the pot. The Wii-U is a failure. Mario won't save it even if it gets another 10. Gaming has changed and without strong third party support you have almost no chance of competing. The hardware, online infrastructure, and over reliance on first party won't save this system. It happens and you move on. No game in 2014 means more to the console it is coming out on than Zelda for Wii-U. Not Titanfall, Halo 5, Infamous, or the new Naughty Dog game. Zelda must, without a doubt, be one of the most amazing games ever for the Wii-U to have any chance at all of surviving past 2014. And I just don't think even if its great the system has any legs after 2014.

N needs to make a next-gen console as cheap as possible, vastly improve their online infrastructure, and get in bed with the big third party people.

Man.. around were i live, console gaming doesn't even exist. Shit, i'd bet my life that i wouldn't find a soul in my town that knows what the hell Shin Megami Tensei even is. I wouldn't know either if i wasn't on the internet and passionate about video gaming. Definitely don't trust your entourage for a base of opinion, is all i'm saying.

Yes, at least on my part, the discussion is restricted only to Nintendo home consoles

That would have happened for Shin Megami Tensei IV on any system, including something like the PS2. It's a niche series.

Yep, the Wii U is not the viral sensation that the Wii was.

The Wii U's failure is what the Wii deserved. Payback is a biznitch.

Eh. The Wii had tons of compelling games (even when its library did not necessarily appeal to me); the three Mario games, the two Zelda games, the Metroid games, the Kirby games, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Monster Hunter, Red Steel 2, Sin and Punishment, Punch Out, Animal Crossing, Super Smash Bros., Mario Kart, Wii Sports, Goldeneye, Wario Ware, Dead Space, Resident Evil, Okami, House of the Dead, Madworld, Sonic Colors, Muramasa, Little King's Story, there was a long ass list of great Wii games.

The Wii U has... well, embarrassingly little by comparison, really.

It doesn't matter how much Nintendo tries to reinvent itself, to be honest. Looking back, they've never had a trully succesful console (note: the SEGA Saturn had more 3rd party support and much more diversity than the N64) since the SNES. Their reputation is in a cesspool. The Dreamcast had a shit ton of games because SEGA was going bat shit crazy pouring unique IP after unique IP left and right.

That's not something Nintendo has ever, or will ever do. I honestly think their home consoles will forever remain on a distant third place in the mind of most people contemplating wether to buy one or not.

You forgot Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story and Pandora's Tower. :) They're the trinity of RPGs that are a must for anyone with a Wii.

I believe that is incorrect, and also would like to point out that the N64 had more support than the Saturn (unless you are referring only to Japanese support, in which case yes, your statement was correct).

Then there was the Gamecube, which also saw mostly every major multiplat except for GTA on it and multiple third party exclusives.

Nintendo feasibly could reinvent themselves, and yes, that would involve loads of new IPs to appeal to a new base too. The question is... will they want to do it?

I really really hope WiiU failed hard, I really hate Nintendo nowadays

Bad online, terrible third party support, lack of games, terrible marketing, awful name, WiiU is much more a mess than PS3 in early years

3rd party support? The Saturn had an ocean of arcade ports from countless devs that dwarfed the number of 3rd party developers for the N64, from were i'm looking. I'd be required some time to go research in depth to be sure, so i'm not gonna deny that i may be wrong. Tho i'm pretty sure i'm not.

Man, i meant SNES status. Neither the N64 or Gamecube came close to the 3rd party support or reputation Nintendo had wen they had the SNES.

Damn it, I knew I was forgetting something pretty major

I don't think Nintendo will ever be SNES status ever again (they aren't the de facto in home console video gaming), but I do hope they can be Gamecube status again, at least.

I don't get it.. Do people really want last gen consoles with the same features with some new hardware crammed in it? Regardless if you like the Wii or not, we should be grateful for one of the big producers taking a risk and doing something different..

How is the Wii U "doing something different?" They slapped a tablet controller onto 360 hardware and shove a zelda HD remake on to the damn thing. What exactly is so ground breaking about that?

I think they can market all they want and it will not change where they are. More games is the best marketing tool they can use.

You can play your console games on the toilet.

THats nothing new. I have a portable LCD screen for my GameCube. I could take that thing anywhere.

A wise choice ... the WiiU is beyond salvation ...

What has happen to Nintendo:(.

Selling at a loss. You're not gonna spend a ton on marketing in their situation. Their 'competition' isn't even out yet.

@charizard1605: I love how nintendo realizes that marketing such an awful product is pointless

Go 3rd party nintendo, I don't want to buy another one of your weak ass systems but you do have some good IP's and developers.

I really think Nintendo was hoping Sony and MS were not ready to reveal and release until 2015. They figured they'd make some money along side the 360/ps3 for a couple of years. Well they were wrong and not many want to go next gen unless its going to be in the same ballpark as PS and X1.

Fire Iwata.

Exactly