Non-established Nintendo titles receive not so positive reactions
More details from the translated investors Q&A with Satoru Iwata have been released, specifically about how when Nintendo announces products that aren’t established properties (like Mario and Pokemon), marketers do not typically have positive reactions.
“When we announce that a new ‘Mario’ or ‘Pokemon’ software is developed, marketers of Nintendo products all over the world naturally look forward to the launches even when they do not know the contents of the game. On the other hand, when we make a presentation to the same people about software which has had no previous track record and no name recognition, their reactions are not positive for most cases. I am not trying to offend our people in overseas marketing companies at all, and actually, their attitude is quite natural. If one is presented with two products, and the successful sales of one of them is guaranteed, and if they have to anticipate allocating a lot of resources to sell another, it is only natural that people have higher expectations for the one guaranteed to sell.”
I suppose that this does make sense when you consider the situation for marketers. Naturally, it will be much easier to market a new entry in the Mario series over a game like Disaster: Day of Crisis. Though, hopefully marketers understand that you can’t just lay back and continue to do what has been successful in the past, otherwise opportunities can be missed.
