DON'T MAKE CRAP!

1: Has to be an Existing IP.

2: No Spin-offs

3: Advertise the f*** out of it.

Ugh...People realize how expensivive advertising can be right?

Left 4 Dead 2 campaign is around 50 million.

Aside from EA or Ubisoft, pretty much no third party can afford a campaign that big, and even if they could, they'd end up using all the money from the games sold trying to pay off the campaign. lol

There's also the problem of who to target. The Wii's audience is SO diverse as apposed to PS3 and 360 users. The medias used are so broad. From thousands to TV stations to thousands of websites.

This is the problem when you don't have a lot of money and your audience is all over the place.

And who knows, maybe most of the Wii owners don't care about buying new games, just the main Nintendo ones like Wii Sports and Wii Fit, with maybe a Mario game thrown in.

Judging from sales on many games, it seems the types of games third parties make only appeal to less than a million people.

I really think this is where Nintendo should step in. Market the hell out of their online system (they have the money) and push/reward people to check out the Nintendo channel, and let third parties use that like crazy.

First of all you have to friggin market your game properly. Noone can complain about a game not selling if its not even advertised. Even new IPs have a chance, I mean Scibblenauts couldnt have had more hype... and they did pretty well.

Speakin off that, innovate. The Nintendo audience is kinda special if u could say something. We just dont buy shooters over and over and call it a day. That will never do. We want to be charmed and amused.

And 3rd the quality must be on top. Thats just mandatory.

It's simple the ladder 2 of those 4 are crappy games.

"Some third parties are struggling to get their games to garner sales on the Wii"

Maybe they should make good games on the Wii. I hate to be a dick about it, but they have no right to complain about lackluster sales for lackluster games.

@Hami83

"Ugh...People realize how expensivive advertising can be right?"

Ugh...You do realize there's a difference between advertisement, and Halo 3 level marketing campaign?

"Left 4 Dead 2 campaign is around 50 million."

Again, there's a difference...

"Aside from EA or Ubisoft, pretty much no third party can afford a campaign that big, and even if they could, they'd end up using all the money from the games sold trying to pay off the campaign. lol"

What part of "not every advertisement campaign has to be that big" don't you understand?

"There's also the problem of who to target. "

Oh great, it's time to play Blame The Consumers! It can't possibly just be the 3rd parties fault!

"This is the problem when you don't have a lot of money and your audience is all over the place."

This makes little to no sense. Everyone watches TV in some form, just a few commercials and in store displays should do the trick. You do not need to spend tens of millions like you keep suggesting.

"And who knows, maybe most of the Wii owners don't care about buying new games, just the main Nintendo ones like Wii Sports and Wii Fit, with maybe a Mario game thrown in."

Except we have proof that this stupid fallacy is bullshit. 3rd parties will get Nintendo sales when they put as much effort as Nintendo does in their Wii games.

"Judging from sales on many games, it seems the types of games third parties make only appeal to less than a million people."

That's the main problem. Only a few hundred thousand will buy their B rate crap. Maybe they should put as much effort as they do on their 360 and PS3 games? Nah, that's asking too much from them...

"I really think this is where Nintendo should step in. "

Or maybe the 3rd parties should stop b****, man the f*** up and do their f*** job?

Same as other consoles.

@Inneverate

*sigh*
It's hard to explain marketing to someone who clearly has no clue, but here goes.

"Oh great, it's time to play Blame The Consumers! It can't possibly just be the 3rd parties fault!"

Asking the question of who to target is the first question you ask period. This isn't blaming the customers, but in contrast to what YOU watch, and say what some 35 year old mom watches is considerably different. And when trying to allocate media buys you have to try and get the most value out of your money.... Only a fool would think that a question like that is blaming the consumer.
This is where the audience is all over the place means. That was Nintendo's blue ocean strategy. Target as many people as possible. This could be age, ethnic background, income, location, family size, etc etc etc. Covering a demographic like this is good for hardware, but hard for software in terms of a company doing media buys to target potential buyers.

In terms of quality, whatever, that's based on opinion, tastes, developer budget and what not and I won't REALLY consider that a factor. It's pretty much a different issue and has nothing to do with marketing.

"Or maybe the 3rd parties should stop b****, man the f*** up and do their f*** job?"

*sigh*....
..So Microsoft making platforms to promote 3rd party games (like demos, videos, themes and options on their system to easily promote their product) and Sony (pretty much the same thing) is unneeded and not the system companies "moral" (can't think of a better word) duty to help these companies sell their games?

I'm not telling Nintendo to do their marketing, again, only an fool would think I'm suggesting that. What I'm saying is Nintendo should really promote their TOOLS to the public, so they'll use them more THEN for the 3rd parties to use them more.

You seriously underestimate how powerful help from the system company can be.

Oh and a side note, at minimum, a TV spot that's not at 3 in the morning on some obscure station can cost around, at minimum $10,000, where big stations like Fox or or NBC could be considerably higher THAN you have which show it's airing on, where sports shows or popular shows like American Idol could increase the cost even MORE.
It's not as cheap at you think, and that's just for some TV spots, let alone any possible paper, magazine ads, billboards, etc etc.

Though I will note that I find it incredibly surprising that even the big game developers aren't using online TV ad space more. Maybe the demographic if more different then I thought, but it's WAY cheaper than
TV.. I've seen Assassin Creed ads on them, but I'm surprised there aren't more.
Edit: I've seen the new Shaun White too. Good on Ubisoft for using this media.

And YES, there are cheap, more online social ways to get your game out to the public, but those tools are limited and usually don't reach that huge audience that doesn't go to sites like this or care about twitter.

The answer is simple:

Make games that people WANT to play.

Dead Space: Extraction? People wanted a game that played like RE4, not another rail shooter. Now you're probably thinking, "but people are going to buy Darkside Chronicles." Huge difference: one is a prequel that nobody has seen before, the other is a spinoff recapping old games. It's easier to pitch a rail shooter for a game like DC that's obviously a spinoff. When you say that an established game is a rail shooter, nobody is going to take it seriously (especially when you try to pitch things like 'guided first person experience'. Remember that one?).

Spyborgs? You know, I come to this site often, but I still don't know what the heck it is. I know it's a beat-em-up, but about what? What's the goal? What's the story? What gameplay elements would intrigue me? If I don't know, I can't say that I want to buy it, especially when it's been getting absolutely abysmal reviews (another factor in selling games).

All in all, third parties have done a terrible job at making me actually want to buy their games. Review scores and marketing is a huge factor, but you can overcome that by just making people want to play it. Red Steel is a perfect example; it didn't live up to the hype, but people bought it because they wanted to try it.

There is an unfortunate reality, and nobody seems to want to admit it: the Wii carries with it a stigma which it won't probably won't shake during it's lifetime - it's a family console, and its games are for kids and people who aren't serious about video games.

Of course, we know this to be untrue. We know that there are plenty of great, deep and engaging games to be found on Wii. But for every great, deep and engaging game, there are a pile of garbage games.

There are also games like LKS which appeal only to a small niche group of people... and only to the members of that small niche who can tolerate its almost obscene "cutesyness"... which in and of itself is a problem - the over abundance of the cartoony games. Like it or not, a lot of gamers are turned off by "cutesy" games, and simply cannot take them seriously in the face of games with somewhat darker or meatier characters and settings.

Nintendo, as the console manufacturer, has simply not been aggressive enough to challenge this stigma. In fact, they've done the exact opposite for the most part, embracing it in their advertising for first party games dating all the way back to Twilight Princess. Rather than offer up a iconic commercial like the one for Ocarina of Time, they present the "Wii Would Like to Play" line featuring their executives, a clown car, and a bunch of dorky-looking "hipsters" jamming around a couch.

Brawl was in the same scenario; while it was deemed worthy enough to have its own commercial rather than just be grouped together in a Wii "montage", it hardly showed off any of the game's features, instead focusing on the players. Rather than offering up something which delivers thrills and chills, and made me want to run - not walk - to the store to get the game, they gave us this. When compared to awesomeness that was the E3 trailer for Brawl, it's laughable almost to the point of deflating that excitement, reminding one that, despite this is supposed to be a great "core" game, Nintendo really isn't trying to market to players like me anymore.

The same issue exists recently. Just look at the commercials for NSMB Wii. Compare it to the commercial for Super Mario World, which was nothing BUT game footage, and suddenly the world's a LESS exciting place to be.

The ball is in Nintendo's court, and honestly, I don't think there's much they can do to redeem the Wii in the eyes of far too many. I'm of a small percentage of people who are still enjoying the Wii. Most of my friends were tremendously excited for the Wii when it was launched, and like me, sensed enormous potential only to be let down by the actions of developers and the overall lack of Nintendo's leadership in direction. Unlike me, however unfortunately, some of them have decided to abandon the Wii.

What it comes down to is a failure of Nintendo to lead. Other console makers have not only sought to aggressively market their own systems, but paint Nintendo into this corner they're in now. The stigma that surrounds Wii could've been broken by both marketing and software, and despite Reggie's protests, he just doesn't get it - people aren't going to shut up unless you make them. Unless you shove quality down their throat and put your money where your mouth is, they're going to abandon you.

It reminds me, honestly, of a girl who constantly neglects their boyfriend, spending all their time decorating their home, talking about and investing in wishy-washy things, never bother to cater to his ego or allow him time for "guy" things, or don't even bother to put out. When criticized (usually from the outside, since the man long gave up criticism to save himself the nagging), they then berate their critic with cries of how they wash clothes, make dinner, etcetera etcetera, yet they still neglect to address or even understand the core issue. Then, when the man moves on, they can't figure out why. They may make an effort to get him back, but it's often too late by that point.

The man has found another girl who he likes, who does all the things she didn't do, and he's not coming back.

The silver lining to that cloud? Since Nintendo isn't a woman - rather, a company that sells consoles - they can just try again next generation. But for now, things look bleak. I think the majority of the gamers who bought this system at launch are simply no longer interested in it, and I'm not sure that there's anything Nintendo can do now, let alone will do, to change its stigma.

Advertise the game, and it will sell better.

Unless its DJ Hero. Seems like Activision finally pushed their music crap too far, and I'm glad.