Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars is one of the best DS games of the year. but high scores from critics haven't been matched with high sales, something that frustrates Nintendo's Cammie Dunaway.
Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales & marketing believes more marketing support should be put behind it to ensure improved sales.
"It's frustrating," Dunaway told MTV. "Certainly there have been mature titles - Resident Evil, the first Call Of Duty - that have sold over 1 million units. With something like GTA there's great content there and we do think that it will have a long tail and we've seen that with a lot of titles across all genres on DS.
"Part of what's needed is that you have to put marketing support behind these titles. One of the things we've learned is that the dynamic of 'throw it on television for a few weeks and then move on and forget about it' just doesn't work because consumers are out there and new consumers are coming all the time so you've got to keep coming up with new ways to expose it.
"I think they should continue to put marketing support behind it," she concluded.
Many Nintendo fans believe that the failure of perceived hardcore titles such as GTA will mean that third parties will shift their focus away from mature titles but with games such as Red Steel 2, Silent Hill and No More Heroes 2 coming next year, there are plenty of titles aimed at gamers next year. But will another GTA game be released on a Nintendo platform?
I think the main problem was that there wasn't the target market on the platform. While a reasonable percentage of DS owners are over the age of 18, hardly any will be interested in this game. Adults with a DS tend to play the more casual games on it. The thing is those that would play that type of game have consoles and/or a PSP and considering they had fully 3D GTAs on the PSP years before this (and now have Chinatown Wars) I can't see sales improving.
I think the main problem was that there wasn't the target market on the platform. While a reasonable percentage of DS owners are over the age of 18, hardly any will be interested in this game. Adults with a DS tend to play the more casual games on it. The thing is those that would play that type of game have consoles and/or a PSP and considering they had fully 3D GTAs on the PSP years before this (and now have Chinatown Wars) I can't see sales improving.
I agree with you, especially on the point that most fans of GTA games would rather play these games on a console.
It wasn't a marketing problem, it was a piracy problem a while back i trawled around torrent sites for an article and the total DL's clocked in at about 195000 if i remember correct. bet its much higher now. the same people that were banging on about the game are playing it, they just didn't buy it. and im sure porting it to PSP will increase sales because PSP owners don't pirate stuff... oh wait.
But it's a DS game, it was built for the DS and barely enhanced for the PSP.
Both the PSP GTAs broke the million barrier.
If people feel they are getting something of less quality they aren't motivated to buy it.
Had R* promised a GTA title on any system of equal quality to VC or SA then of course it'd have sold a million plus.
The problem is that as much as it's not mentioned it can't be denied that R* tried to take their PS audience over to the DS with samller budgets and greater potential for sales.
This generation it's obvious that R* aren't interested in feathering Sony's cap and have tested where they can best make money. The result? They have lost some of their core audience from the PS2.
The success of GTA4 may be at the expense of guaranteed future success and profitability.
It does not matter how good a game is or how many great reviews it gets, It is the marketing that makes or breaks a game these days. I can't remember seeing a single TV advert for Chinatown wars.
It's a shame because it was a good game, it's just that it didn't mesh with Nintendo's policy of "putting smiles on people's faces..." I hate that motto. I think I honestly saw more adverts for the PSP version than I ever did for the DS one.
If Cammie Dunaway is looking for someone to blame she should start by looking in the mirror. She is part of the problem - her cringe worthy, family friendly, casual, naff. cheesey E3 show performance is the very source of problems like these.
More time is given to Wii Music, Wii Fit, Plus, Wii Sports Resort etc than it is talking about gamers games. Chinatown wars got a brief mention with a still of the title.
The problem is if you market your platforms purely at casual markets and don't do enough to promote real games you never going to generate the interest to sell those decent titles because they get lost amongst the casual and shovelware.
I like how people say that China Town wars is a gimped GTA. Shows your age. Or lack of it.
I basically see it as the missing link between 2 and 3.remember kids GTA on the PSX was a top down game. and the DS has roughly the same amount of power as an N64. thus the decision to make it top down.
Funny though that PSP in fact has the gimped version of China town Wars. Without the touch screen controls its just not as fun.
I like how people say that China Town wars is a gimped GTA. Shows your age. Or lack of it.
This explains it's failure on PSP in a nutshell. Majority of PSP owners are 'graphics whores' - the fact that it is critically acclaimed with top reviews means nothing to them. It as simple as "It's not even 3D, looks rubbish innit bruv!"
It's failure on DS is due to marketing (lack of it) and piracy. I brought a legitimate retail copy on release day for Ł17.99 - very reasonable I thought! and the game merges both old and new GTA elements (including DS functions) very well. Shame many PSP owners are too narrow-minded and over look such a great title, a game that any self respecting GTA fan would enjoy!!!
true nintendo,cammie,reggie have talked some sh!t over the last few years: "retailers will want to keep shelf space reserved for a blockbuster title xmas 09" being one of the examples. (still waiting,what game is it and when's it out? hello!? anyone!!?)
compare nintendos marketing of say...mario kart wii to dead space extraction from ea or pro evo from konami. nintendo's policy is to market games for 2 year stretches,everyone else just slaps it on the wii/ds and forgets about the marketing after a week run in gamesmaster etc... or worse still: no marketing and hope that word of mouth will help.
even silent hill is getting very little marketing over in the states right now (i've got it btw,it's cool).
most people don't know what decent games are out for the wii because they're not told about them.
you then have the likes of ea pulling away from wii development while complaining about low sales when they haven't even bothered advertising their own software. have some faith in your own work ffs.
Funny though that PSP in fact has the gimped version of China town Wars. Without the touch screen controls its just not as fun.
What a load of bull. Those few mini games were the fun part of Chinatown wars? Seriously? Making molotov's.. that was the fun part?
Some things just won't work on PSP that work brilliantly on DS and vice versa (can you imagine a game like Scribblenauts ever working on the PSP, for example?), so it isn't illogical to assume that a game developed for use with the stylus is going to lose some of the intuitiveness when certain functions are ported to a simple button press.
The lower sales, and lower overall review score for the PSP version at that popular ranking website would certainly suggest as much.
The main reason was non existent advertising. No one even new what the game played like because they hadnt released any video footage until the game came out. When Nintendo advertise their own products, theyre everywhere so much so that it gets annoying but at least they push theyre software and hardware.
The lower sales, and lower overall review score for the PSP version at that popular ranking website would certainly suggest as much.
No, most people who own a PSP also own a DS. And these were the people who bought the DS version in the first place. And thus didn't see the need to buy it a second time. The PSP was just like Bioshock on the PS3, too little too late.
The lower sales, and lower overall review score for the PSP version at that popular ranking website would certainly suggest as much.
No, most people who own a PSP also own a DS. And these were the people who bought the DS version in the first place. And thus didn't see the need to buy it a second time. The PSP was just like Bioshock on the PS3, too little too late.
true that may have been a factor. But i'd say more people own a ds and no PSP.
It also did lose a lot of its charm, without the ds. Making molotovs was fun. as was hotwiring cars. It just all came together a lot better on the ds and the PSP version just smacked of a rushed port.
However as is the case with pretty much everything its down to the marketing and publicity. China Town wars got almost zero.
Maybe Nintendo should start doing the marketing for all the games on its machine 3rd party and all. Would hopefully end up in less under appreciated gems like dead space extraction.
I like how people say that China Town wars is a gimped GTA. Shows your age. Or lack of it.
I basically see it as the missing link between 2 and 3.remember kids GTA on the PSX was a top down game. and the DS has roughly the same amount of power as an N64. thus the decision to make it top down.
Funny though that PSP in fact has the gimped version of China town Wars. Without the touch screen controls its just not as fun.
SVD putting it on PSN/Live is a god awful idea.
nothing wrong with it at all.
it'd sell more than DS and PSP combined.
if capcom can remake SF2, a game everyone has played, in its MANY forms, for PSN and make a killing... rockstar can give fans a GTA they havent even played before.
It does not matter how good a game is or how many great reviews it gets, It is the marketing that makes or breaks a game these days. I can't remember seeing a single TV advert for Chinatown wars.
Not TV ads, but if you live in London you can STILL see them all over the tube... Phone boxes... Buses... Not as many as Eps from Liberty City, but a decent number.
This was always about the platform though. Most over 18s contributing to the impressive sales of the DS have either bought it for cutesy retro games or Brain Training and its ilk. Otherwise its kids. Sure, it's a bold move putting it out there but it's kind of like putting the new Saw DVD on the shelves in the childrens aisle, right between the Tweenies and In the Night Garden...
Rockstar have tried with their marketing; I've seen TV ads of it several times (later hours due to age ratings), 1-page posters in games magazines over several months and copies happily sitting on a shelf of their own in plain view within stores. So what's the problem? The core attitude towards the DS.
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