The Overlooked Silent Portable Market
Saturday, June 2nd, 2007 at 12:40am by Erick
Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan launched in 2005 in the land of the rising sun to critical acclaim and lukewarm sales. A sizeable import market for the game facilitated the release of Elite Beat Agents in the United States in 2006, resulting in less than half of its predicted sales. How can a game that everybody loves do so poorly in the market?
A poll conducted here at Infendo said that about 78% of you played portable games with full sound, either through the speakers on the system or via headphones. However, 22% of you (myself included) revealed that you often play portable games with the sound muted. After all, who wants to be the prick on the bus/restaurant/waiting room that’s blaring Pokémon battle fanfare at top volume? In part, this is a disparity between our largely American audience and a Japanese one - also in part is a difference between your average Infendo reader and a casual portable gamer. But those figures notwithstanding, the fact cannot be denied that any audio-oriented game released for a portable system effectively cuts off about a quarter of its target market.
Imagine if you were to make a racing game, something that appealed to a broad demographic and was by all accounts the finest racing game ever created. Now imagine that in order to play this game, you would need to swipe your driver’s license every time you wanted to boot it up. The average gamer is around 40 years of age, and this absurd caveat would in the end probably restrict less people from playing your game than requiring sound on your portable venture would.
Now, truth be told, had Elite Beat Agents not required sound to play, it would probably have only shifted about 34,000 more copies at launch - Even so, this number combined with actual sales is at least over half of the expected sales for the title. And in the world of new intellectual property, every sale counts.
Ubisoft is preparing to release Jam Session for DS in the near future. And all told, it’s a wonderfully brilliant idea that both stymies innovation and will in all likelyhood move less units than Horsez. And it’s a damn shame, because analysts and producers alike will once again learn the wrong lessons from its failure at market and blame that on its “quirky” premise. Innovation is key to rising to success in this industry, but the lock in which that key fits only turns for those that understand how to market their inventions. So developers, here’s a tip: don’t make your customers be that prick on the bus. Nobody likes that guy.
June 2nd, 2007 at 8:11 am
Wait… So now it’s a bad thing that they come up with fun, innovative stuff? Ok, so not everyone will play it because it needs sound. So it will sell less copies. So… so what?
Now here you are saying, “So developers, here’s a tip: don’t make your customers be that prick on the bus. Nobody likes that guy.” Why take the fun away from all the people that do enjoy sound (and use headphones on the bus)? All in all I guess I just don’t really get your point.
June 2nd, 2007 at 11:35 am
Negrin: Erick makes a great point, in fact. The problem with the market is that, while innovation oftentimes does help a product rise to acclaim and commercial success, the method by which you market that product can often provide a disappointment, regardless of whether or not the game is actually good.
When I was young, any action figure or toy that made some obscenly loud noise was just something my parents weren’t going to buy for me or one of my siblings. It’s hard enough to take care of three kids. It’s even harder when their toys and gadgets are blaring irritating noises. I hate to say it, but most parents feel the same way.
Then there’s the even more basic scenario of the guy on the bus who wont turn his copy of Elite Beat Agents to silent, and the nongamers dont understand that he cant. Nobody wants to be that guy, as Erick said.
So the point Erick is making is not that innovation and fun should be thrown out the window, just that they should find the best way to market it. Because, regardless of the fairy tale land you have your head in, sales do matter in the long run. If a game does not sell enough copies, it tarnishes the company’s name. If the developer suggests a new and creative idea, the liklihood of that idea making it past a pitch in a boardroom is slim thanks to the fact that the previous idea did not do so hot. And then we are forced to play something much less exciting, like Grand Theft Auto 15.
June 2nd, 2007 at 2:31 pm
I bought EBA, and I enjoy it, but I gotta say…. it’s easily the loudest DS game I’ve ever played. If someone played the demo at a kiosk, he might be taken aback by its loudness and decide to get something else. Dunno about the original Ouendan.
Another important factor in EBA’s lack of sales may be that it took almost 2 years to appear in the US, and most people who bought the import probably assumed it was a simple English port, and passed up the US release.
Finally, I’d love to see some citation for the “average gamer is 40″ figure. Maybe if you include Minesweeper and Solitaire you can hit that figure, but at age 38, I’m by far the oldest person I’ve ever met who owns multiple consoles and buys games to play myself (as opposed to parents who own consoles and buy games for their kids.)
June 2nd, 2007 at 2:53 pm
Sound isn’t the problem. The problem relies in no ads and no promotions for the game. I’m happy the game sold that good for a word of mouth game. I remember when the Ds started everyone was talking about this weird japanese game that played like a comic book with jpop songs. Think about being any regular guy and starts looking in the box art and the back, what the fuck is this game about? NEXT! Web people love it because everyone read about it and then plays it and then shows it to their friends and so on, but people bought tons of Brain Age and Nintendogs, games that uses a lot more sound and voice that Ouendan.
Think about it.
June 2nd, 2007 at 4:20 pm
I don’t understand why software companies feel that they don’t have to market their games. The reason this game didn’t sell is because nobody knew anything about it! Come on! How can anyone expect these games to sell when they get ZERO advertising? In order to make a buck you have to spend some first.
June 2nd, 2007 at 7:27 pm
EBA had tons of advertising through the usual Nintendo channels - You had banner advertisements for the game on a lot of websites, Nintendo Power couldn’t (and still can’t) shut up about the game, et al. Out of all the DS titles out there, it’s the one that I’ve heard the most about. More than even new Super Mario Bros or Nintendogs.
Also, you can play Brain Age and Nintendogs without sound - Brain Age specifically asks you whether you want to use the microphone before a testing session.
June 2nd, 2007 at 9:08 pm
Erick it just goes to show you how much good it does to only speak to the hardcore crowd. You have to agree that game advertising is weak. People can quote candy bar commercials but have no clue what video games are available for their system except for licensed garbage (which sells well without advetising because people love familiarity).
Elite Beat Agents would have flown off the shelves if it was called Elite Beat Spiderman/Spongebob. If a studio cares to make a quality game that has no familiar license then it might be worth it to try and familiarize people with it just a little more.
June 3rd, 2007 at 3:12 am
“EBA had tons of advertising through the usual Nintendo channels” I KNOW! that’s why it sold to their 34,000 hardcore followers, while Pokemon only has sold 1,000,000 because there seems to be 1,500,000 pokemon fans. Without ads you are pretty much doomed.
Want proof?? Imagine the Ipod without the ad marketing campaign. it would have sold to the 1% apple market, and maybe 3% pc market. but with their fantastic ads never mentioning computers or anything other than music and dancing and how much music you can carry around, everyone said “I NEED AN IPOD! ok I HAVE AN IPOD, WAIT I NEED A COMPUTER TOO??”. and Apple usual channel was macworld magazine, but decided to go to evry fucking magazine available and every tv channel primetime and now owns 90% of a market.
June 3rd, 2007 at 6:33 am
@ Andrew G.
Still, the way I understand it, the point Erick wsa making is that yes, innovation is good, as long as it’s not loud. Sure, I see exactly where you’re coming from with the three kids with loud toys scenario–but come on, is that really enough of a reason to basically blame it on the developers? As in, would you rather not see EBA on the market at all? Because that’s sort of the vibe I got from the conclusion of Erick’s blog post.
Anyway, as for advertising, I can’t speak first-hand since I don’t live in the US, but from what everybody here is saying, it seems pretty obvious that the game was advertised to the hardcore crowd and… sold well with the hardcore crowd. And that’s about it. If you have a guy on the bus playing EBA at full volume, it’s not Nintendo’s fault he’s being a jerk. Although yes, as for marketing I do think it might be their fault… or at least something they didn’t think of. If I was Nintendo, I sell the game bundled with some reasonably crappy headphones as a bonus. That actually _is_ a good point.
All in all, no, I don’t live in a fairy tale land, and yes, I do realize the importance of sales. And it’s very true that marketing is key. However, if you’re Nintendo and make money on just about everything, moderate sales of a title like EBA is hardly a reason to divert your innovativeness to other areas. More likely, it’s a reason to market the sequel in a better way–and with this I cannot agree more. But it’s still a far cry from saying, “this kind of game is bound to fail because it depends on sound.”
June 3rd, 2007 at 6:40 am
Oh, and one more afterthought. Erick writes:
“How can a game that everybody loves do so poorly in the market?”
A question: is EBA really the only example of that? Or even an example good enough to point to sound as the culprit? Couldn’t it be that this is a classic case of mistaking correlation for causation? I mean, I’m sure you’ll agree there are many more brilliant (and yes, often quirky) games that sold poorly compared to the different Horsez of the gaming world?
June 3rd, 2007 at 10:05 am
No advertising? I clearly remember seeing television ads, aired on Fox during The Simpsons, no less.
It didn’t sell like Pokemon, certainly, but I recall it being the bestseller of the week a few weeks ago. People are certainly buying it.
June 3rd, 2007 at 3:03 pm
@Negrin:
You make a great point. Erick probably could have worded his point a bit better in his post. Sorry if I seemed a bit sour.
You make another great point. It’s kind of difficult to use EBA as an example when other innovative games that didn’t necessarily use sound semi-flopped when compared to expectation. Okami is a great example of a game that, while acclaimed by critics and consumers alike, did not do commercially well (which is a bummer, it was an amazing game). However, if a game uses sound (or any noticable factor, for that matter) as it’s main method of gameplay, it can hurt the sales. The parent logic that I used earlier applies. And sure, it’s not Nintendo’s fault that the guy on the bus is suddenly the jerk on the bus, but the guy on the bus is out to buy a video game he can play on the go, and if that game makes everyone stare at him, he’s not likely going to buy it.
As many people have mentioned (and this is something I didn’t think of), advertising was a bust, too. I did see commercials, but certainly not enough. And an even bigger problem with Nintendo’s DS commercials (not so much with the Wii) is their too damn wierd. Make a commercial that literally explains the game, becuase if your’e going to market to a crowd of nongamers, unless the game is that easy to understand, little Jimmy is going to have to take thirty minutes to explain it to mom anyway. If you want to catch the proper attention, simply explain to them what it is you want to sell.
Yes, there was advertising, but it only seemed like it was there for an awareness factor that really only applied to the “hardcore gamer” crowd. Market to a different crowd the proper way, please. Dont leave the nongamer scratching his or her head.
June 3rd, 2007 at 4:22 pm
This blog makes another excellent game with extreme poor sales (and these were REALLY extreme poor sales): Electroplankton! Did anyone pick up that one? I did, loved it, haven’t played it in a while, and probably also because its point being to play music limits its usage.
Having said that, I’m glad Nintendo didn’t think “because it won’t be a best-seller, we won’t make it”…
June 3rd, 2007 at 10:35 pm
ummm….two words:
americans suck
June 4th, 2007 at 1:38 am
I agree with Erick. But I must say, enough blogging about this and go pick up a copy! Sorry this is so short, I’m using a Wiimote to type this. And Americans don’t suck, your mom sucks.
June 4th, 2007 at 5:10 am
Damn, you guys can play EBA/Ouendan on the frikkin’ BUS? I can’t even play it on the train, my stylus shoots out in all directions at even the slightest jostle!