The Non-Existent and Suddenly Now Required Hype Machine of Nintendo

Look at this trailer. Honestly, take a good look at it. It doesn’t reveal too much plot but unveils enough content to get you excited for a movie that is still many, many months away. And when that time finally, finally comes it will dismantle the box office and will handily walk away with millions of dollars without a single review actually affecting it. Marvel and Disney have now become the kings of hype in the Hollywood business. They have taken familiar properties and made each movie a major event, a major chapter in the comic book universe. And unless there is a total, epic flop to the likes of a Green Lantern, then we are going to see their strategy remain consistent for years to come.




Activision has essentially copied this strategy by making every November the month of the Call of Duty. They have thrown three different companies to make these games to ensure that there is no cancellation, no delay, no issue, and a meticulous consistent schedule. With the video game industry being as cutthroat as ever, Activision’s yearly delivery of Call of Duty games has been a near miracle, and the astounding success that follows shows that gamers don’t mind the product in the least bit. And with the upcoming version releasing for the XBox One, PS4, PS3, and XBox 360 we will be sure to see more great financial numbers arriving for what has become the biggest third-party publisher in the land.



Notice we are missing a company in there…





Nintendo has once again lost another third-party franchise because of its WiiU still utterly lacking in third-party sales. And this leaves Nintendo without a consistent presence in the month of November. Yes granted they do use the month often, but there isn’t an anticipation for the month unlike that of the online FPS community with their Call of Duty. What Nintendo is totally lacking is their convincing of American and European gamers to look forward to November and a consistent output of video games. Even though we have seen plenty of Super Mario on the WiiU, we have yet to see Zelda, Samus, Kid Icarus, Fox, Captain Falcon, Kirby, and even Pikachu make some noise on the system.

Nintendo needs to adapt the Marvel technique of releasing games. Nintendo needs to set release dates for popular franchises well ahead of time and build the hype through posters, through trailers, through sneak peeks from other games, and through perky rumors that will invade the Twitter and Gaming Universe. No more secret release dates, no more uncertainty until merely months before the actual release, and biggest of all no more scattered release dates. They need to realize that great games will die a quick death if given an awful release date no matter how good it might be. Eternal Darkness was a psychological horror video game released in 2002 in the month of-----June. If they had simply waited until late September/early October in the Halloween season we probably would have gotten a different result. Nintendo has a strong brand connection and needs to find a way to keep the hardcore crowd excited while entice the curiosity of those looking from outside the bubble.

Pretend like Nintendo tomorrow unveils this upcoming major gaming lineup:

Super Smash Brothers 4:
November 2014


Star Fox: Alpha Unit:
September 2015


Metroid: Extinction:
November 2015


The Legend of Zelda: Beyond the Grave:
September 2016


Super Mario World 3: Triple Threat:
November 2016


Pokemon Universe:
November 2016

Wouldn’t that entice curiosity out of you, even if it might be years before you actually see the game? Wouldn’t it stir up conversation? Wouldn’t it stir up the slightest bit of controversy seeing this lineup? Now, not all games have to attach a long-time-from-here release date, but the major franchises deserve this hype, deserve the press months before the finished product even arrives. And you and I both know that we will see most (hopefully all) these franchises on the WiiU, so why not give us some anticipation to chew on? Why not give us a couple first-looks and first-glimpses to get us excited? Give us small trailers, some awesome posters, something.

Avengers 2 is still 7 months away and it is the most discussed movie of the entire month of October. And that was all because of a trailer. Nintendo’s brands and franchises and fanbases are strong enough to draw the similar type of hype. You can’t spit a small E3 trailer and be done---remind us of what’s coming. With Nintendo pretty much being all by itself with this generation, it needs to churn out as much as possible out of the exclusive IPs that it owns. Smash Brothers this year would be the perfect jump-starter for these other franchises to grow some fans, grow some hype, grow some anticipation, and give the Nintendo WiiU some desperate life.



Nintendo, you have great ideas being done by talented people. Let the world be aware of this.

How Destiny Went Hollywood to Survive the Negativity

So, you are a big gaming company with a big video game coming out. At least $300 million was spent on this game. At least.


You secretly realize that your game may not turn out as well as you planned.


Gaming journalists are highly anticipating getting their first look at the game before it releases to the public. So the question is, do you give it to them and absorb the upcoming mediocre reviews? Or do you limit the pre-release reviews, limit the press, and just allow for the opening weeks to attempt to win back the money coldly spent on the heavy marketing and the game itself? Well of course Bungie and friends chose the latter, launched a layer of journalism controversy when the reviews started arriving, and it overshadowed the great opening week. Also overshadowing the criticisms were the barrage of cool commercials flying left and right on all your cable networks.

Time will tell if the seemingly vengeful reviews will negate some of the sales in the long run but one thing is for certain: the 2 million it gained on opening week can overcome any obstacle leading up to it. Taking a page from the Hollywood Blockbuster, we are seeing an increase in companies releasing AAA titles with extreme hype and plenty of incentives on that opening week before anybody can realize how flawed it just might be. While smaller and indie games depend on the good reviews (more so than movies to be honest) to make its way to a successful run, the blockbuster strategy allows for companies like Activision to just have a good hype train to make back its money before the criticism can even arrive.

Call of Duty owns November every single year---no matter how bad the game may or may not be. American gamers love familiar shoot em’ up/online territory, and Call of Duty has become that go-to franchise. Selling 9 million at least per game since Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty claims the month of November, starts the hype from the summer, and allows for the dedicated fanbase to do the rest. Movies do best in the summer, while video games do best in the fall---especially in the months of September (Halo, Grand Theft Auto 5) and November.

Video game creation is tough, because making games that have the AAA look cost more than ever. They cost the amount of a summer film. So the goals in the past 5-7 years have shifted to instead of catering to the gaming journalists that can spread the good word around, they decided to invade the ad space of popular websites and invade the television sets. Long gone are the days when Mario Kart: Double Dash got a 7.9 from IGN and launched a wave of controversy. IGN and Gamespot don’t have the power of before, and we see magazines and websites like 1up and Gone Gold falling by the wayside.

The Hollywood trend has been in gaming for a while, but Destiny is arguably the first example of a game that not only managed to overcome the negative reviews, but managed to overcome the gamer outcry and gaming website’s seemingly disdain taste for the new franchise. And this might be the sign for things to come as now places like IGN don’t get the easy access to new games if the big companies don’t believe in it. Destiny survived the Twitter negativity, and few things can ever survive Twitter hate.

Although I don’t see Eastern Hemisphere gaming giants like Nintendo tread down this path (Nintendo doesn’t even really believe much in the power of having the right release date) Western Hemisphere companies like Activision, EA, and Ubisoft follow suit with focusing its budget more on marketing and less on the game itself. It might come off as cruel and misleading to the gaming public but consider this: the gaming industry doesn’t allow for you to flop and survive. Flops can cripple the biggest of gaming companies no matter what the track record is. Midway Games did amazing in the 90s with NBA Jam, NFL Blitz, and Mortal Kombat. Now it’s in the middle of Chapter 11. The gaming industry is cruel, and every possible edge will be used to ensure that the companies of today don’t fall like the companies that struggled to get out of the 90s and 2000s.

Although video games make more money than movies nowadays, expect gaming companies to look as summer blockbusters when figuring out a way to churn out guaranteed hits. It has worked for Call of Duty (a franchise that never releases a game with more than 2 hours of single-player gameplay) and Destiny (A seemingly incomplete and bugged-out game)---so expect the strategy to expand.

Bringing DJ HeroBack

Now this blog is more on the unbiased analytical side, its not really much of a fan blog or a fan site. We usually keep all major personal opinions to ourselves while discussing what we should see in the next generation of gaming. All this is going to be put aside because there is a cancelled franchise that needs to rise from the dead. For the sake of the world of quality gaming, we need this back.


I want DJ Hero back.





We need DJ Hero back.

Activision canned the franchise in 2010 after sluggish sales and a noticing of the dying of the music genre (the dancing genre however is picking up). But it was hands-down one of the best new franchises from the seventh generation, and the best new musical franchise. DJ Hero was one of the best games of the past decade as it introduced a new way of playing video games. And after the sequel, the franchise was already matching the quality and acclaim heights of the Rock Band series and the earlier Guitar Hero titles. Two games in and we were barely scratching (pun intended) the surface of what we can accomplish with the DJ Hero brand.


Someone needs to whether buy this franchise, or Activision should bring it back. But I want it back. Now. I want to be able to scratch Daft Punk classics. I want to be able to imitate the works of Grandmaster Flash, DJ Jazzy Jeff, DJ A.M. (r.i.p), David Guetta, Deadmau5, and other very talented DJs in the Western Hemisphere scene. I want to be able to scratch excellent mixes being done by the surprisingly talented in-house development team of FreeStyle Games. DJ Hero does such a great job they make overrated and undertalented artists like Black Eyed Peas and Kanye West bearable.




And now, looking ahead (and using my imagination): I want to be able to create my own mixes; I want to be able to mix-up and mash my list of songs, and then upload them for other gamers around the world to download. I want to be able to compete in DJ tournaments online and try to top other scores of aspiring DJs across the board. I want professional DJs like Daft Punk and RZA to continuously upload some of their mixes for us to download and mess around with. I want to be able to create my own dance club and set it up in my way for me to able to watch my creation bounce around to the latest beat. The sky was the limit with DJ Hero and its infectious and clever gameplay. Unfortunately, unless a revival is in order next generation, we may have just seen the last of a potentially incredibly awesome franchise.




Bottom Line: DJ Hero was an excellent idea well-executed in its first couple games, but with so much more room to grow. It was one of those few cases of a series of games being made exclusively for the hardcore, for a specific crowd as opposed to trying to adapt fully to the mainstream. If you need any proof, point to the music and the artists associated with said games. DJ Hero could have expanded to a point in which we have hundreds of gamers creating their own mixes and sharing them with the world, leading to an online experience that you wouldn’t get anywhere else. But as of now all we can do is hang on to our dreams and hang on to the two great games that have already come out. One thing is certain though:





I want my DJ Hero back.



Now.