The Importance of Marketing Bayonetta 2

gamrReview's Stephen C Barrett: "The first game developed by Platinum Games for Wii U, The Wonderful 101, was a brand new intellectual property that received very poor sales largely due to a profound lack of marketing and customer awareness. Nintendo cannot let Bayonetta 2’s Wii U debut follow the same fate."

[GenericNameHere]

I'll use a Bayonetta 2 picture as my pic if it even sells 750K units. I can't see this selling 1M when it's only on one platform, the platform that is selling the weakest and doesn't really have the fanbase for a game like this.

[ShadowHarp]

The Wii U is out selling the X box one

[GenericNameHere]

Ahh, that's right! The Wii U released at the same exact time as the Xbox One and PS4, didn't it? Only a foolish company would release their console a year early, get a year headstart, and waste all of that time. It's a good thing to hear that hasn't happened yet in our universe!

/s

[OtakuDJK1NG-Rory]

@GenericNameHere

Nope. Nintendo always releases a new console every 5-6 years nothing new.

[Realplaya]

@ GenericNameHere Let play role reversal Microsoft released the 360 and Nintendo released the Wii after the 360 and guess what within a year they beat out the 360 and eventually the PS3 beat the 360. So the head start is not a mute point. The year was not a time waster they never made one HD game and sold it until last year.

Now lets go back to May the Wii U has been the second best selling console for the last 3 months maybe all the way through the holidays. Lets just face it X1 is not better than the PS4 and doesn't have a library of games out and coming out to tempt people to buy the console.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

It's earned its place in sales right now.
It had a disastrous first year and recovered from it to go above the quicker-selling XBone.
The sales of the first year for the Wii U were so poor that, for all intents and purposes, it might as well have released at the same time as the other two, because the sales before that were basically the early adopters and nothing more.

Its first year is not why it's out-selling the XBone.

[GenericNameHere]

•How does it earn its place now in sales? Because of Mario Kart 8? By that logic, the Xbone doesn't earn its place in sales until Halo 5.

•Xbone has a disastrous first year because of all the extreme negativity. Guess what? It's still selling more than the Wii U in the same time frame. (Let me look up one of Aquamarine's post from NeoGAF for the sales comparisons, and get back to you if this is true or not)

•Same as above. You know what, let's not count Xbone sales until Halo 5 is released and goes on to sell millions. It's just the early adopters anyways like you said

•"It's first year is not why it's out-selling the XBone." So mind telling me what is then? I personally taught your whole comment was a whole lot of mumbo jumbo that could also apply for both the Xbox One, and the PS4 (in Japan, the country it's only struggling in)

[Metallox]

That's why they need to market it. Nintendo needs to educate its fans and convince them that Bayonetta 2 is a better package than Hyrule Warriors.

Better because it includes Bayonetta 1 for free,

better because Bayonetta 2 has better production values,

better because it's more serious since it's not fanservice of anything,

better because Bayonetta 2 is definitely going to be 1000 thousands of times more enjoyable than Hyrule Warriors.

Nintendo fans need to understand this and the company needs to put the example.

I'm going to be very mad if Hyrule Warriors outsells Bayonetta 2.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

If Bayonetta and Hyrule Warriors both reach the 1M mark, then I won't care which does better beyond that, because they'll have both succeeded as far as I'm concerned.

[deafdani]

750k would actually be a good sales numbers for this game, IMO. That would amount to 10% of the Wii U's install base.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

After all the marketing it's gotten from gaming websites doing previews and the huge presence it's had at other conventions and at E3, I'm confident that there aren't many gamers out there that don't know how awesome it's going to be.

That along with fan movements like Operation Platinum being supported by people inside Platinum games[one guy from Platinum said, on twitter, he'd find a shirt with #Operation Platinum's logo on it to wear to an event, amongst other gestures], gives me confidence that it can easily hit the 1M mark before its first 6 months are past on the market.
It's looking to be that much of an improvement over the original, after all, and the fact that it comes with an improved version of the original is just icing on the cake.

It's not niche anymore; it's gone from that to being the most anticipated action title of the rest of this year.

If Nintendo really wants to push it over the edge, though, then prime-time TV advertisements are what they need.

[GenericNameHere]

This is the ONLY character action game this year, so of course it's going to be the most anticipated action game of the year. And even Bayo 1 wasn't niche. Not when it's sold over 2M on two platforms. Once you sell over 1M, that's when you stop being niche, IMO. Not mainstream (that'd be over 5M), but has reached enough audiences to not be considered extremely niche.

Again, I seriously doubt this will even do 750K by the end of the year. You go from two consoles with over 80M combined fanbase back in 2010 to one with just a measly 6M in 2014, and you're bound to get much lower sales, even if the sequel has authenticity from the first game. But hey, I'm willing to keep my word of using a B2 profile pic if proven wrong.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

You're forgetting that the first game also had the likes of God of War and Devil May Cry to compete against, amongst a few other games.
This time around, it has a few more advantages;
Few if any competing titles for the fanbase to be split on owning over Bay 2.
A ton of controversy increasing its media saturation.
An upgraded port of the first game in the series to go alongside it, for free, increasing its value.
And do I even need to go deeper about how Ubisoft helped it out by riling up the Nintendo fans with that comment about Mature games not selling to the fan base?

As things stand now, 750K is, I believe, a low-ball expectation for the game.
Especially if we're talking longer term, as in the next 6-8 months.

I could be wrong, of course, and I'll be sad if I am, because this game deserves sales.
It's a serious, mature game that caters to the core demographic, and anyone complaining about Nintendo's lack of mature-oriented titles shouldn't be railing against this; they should be supporting it.
What a lot of haters don't get is that they've got the power to solve the Wii U's games dilemma by joining in on supporting the few mature games that will hit the system.
If they help the fans of the system support games like Bay 2 and Devil's Third en masse, it will clear the way for even more games like them.
Then the haters will become lovers, as the system joins the other two as a home for games that cater to their tastes.
That power is in their hands, but they're just leaving it up to everyone else.
That's something I just don't get...

[Realplaya]

@ GenericNameHere

1. It's a console with over 7 million user base.
2. Just because it didn't sell well on one console doesn't mean it won't sell better on the other. Apparently Nintendo gamers have different taste than the other two systems..
3. There is a movement going on and Nintendo Wii U owners will buy the game for a few different reasons. There starved for good games, There tired of being crapped on by other companies and lets be honest the game is good and with the 2 for 1 there is value in the bundle.

Why are you on every article trolling and dissing Nintendo and their user base?

[GenericNameHere]

Not same month, not same year. Devil May Cry 4 came out in February 2008, 2 years before Bay1's Jan 2010 release. God of War III came out same year 2010, but two months later in early March. There was no threat whatsoever from GOW considering a two months gap is big. Only competition it had were fellow newcomers Darksiders 1 the same week and Dante's Inferno a month later (which was the GOW clone).There are definitely lost sales from people who would buy Bayo 2, but they don't want to buy a Wii U just for 1 game. Bayo1 had negative controversy regarding its naked female protagonist who fights with her hair. I haven't heard much controversy from Bayo2 other than the initial fan outcry when it was revealed to be Wii U exclusive, which definitely hurts the game's sales potentials a lot. While Bayo2 is not the first game to include the first game in the sequel, can't deny that makes it an even better value. And can't blame Ubisoft. Nintendo has marketed their image as family friendly for so long, that I won't blame you for not taking risks with Mature games on Nintendo consoles. And the fan movement doesn't feel right with me. It's fine to hype up the game and telling people to buy it when it comes out, but why put a goal of 1M? Nintendo should be the one making that goal, not fans. If Nintendo truly cares about Bayo2, then give it the same marketing push as Mario, Zelda, and Pokémon would. Wouldn't want another Wonderful 101 flop in our hands. It's not the consumer's fault if they don't buy a game. It's the publisher's responsibility to market the games, reviewers to review the games, then fans to fully analyze the game and spread the word after the initial launch hype has passed to further extend the awareness of the game.

Btw, only got 5 bubbles, and this will my last and 5th comment. It's regarding the Xbone vs Wii U sales.
Wii U SHIPMENTS
7 months, 13 days: June 30th, 2013: 3.61 million
10 months, 13 days: September 30th, 2013: 3.91 million

Xbone shipments
Oct-Dec: 3.9M Xbones SHIPPED, 3M SOLD
Jan-March: Additional 1.2 SHIPPED, 5.1M overall shipped as off March 31st, 2013. Seeing as how Microsoft hasn't updated us yet even after Sony's 10M PS4s sold, it's safe to assume as of August, Xbone still hasn't shipped 6M yet.

Still, as of September 30th, 2013, the Wii U has only shipped 3.91M units (meaning it has sold less than that) despite being on sale for 10 months. Meanwhile, the Xbox One has already shipped 5.1M as off the end of March. So yes, the Xbone has been outselling the Wii U in the same timeframe despite selling for at a much higher price, and has an even bigger negative reception still around it

[Concertoine]

No ones denying the Xbone isnt selling better in the big picture, just that the Wii U is outselling it now and in the forseeable future as it has the better holiday line- up.

I wouldnt bet on either console to be honest, all MS or Nintendo needs is their next new system seller and they could jump ahead of the other.

[lilbroRx]

Sadly, I'm certain Nintendo of America is going to do a terrible job of marketing this. They can't even market the Wii U right.

They seems anti-Japanese games some times. They are responsible for the big 3 RPGs that came out on the Wii U arriving so late.

[DC777]

Your comments about The Walking Dead ads are spot on. I see them all the time. Yet, nothing from Nintendo. That just shows NOA ad reps aren't as tuned in to what's going as they should be. Don't advertise a Zombie game on a Zombie show which happens to be the number one show on television, just don't.

I don't watch a ton of TV but when kids are over and the kids channels are on that is the only time I see ads for Nintendo.

Hopefully they will get a clue with B2.