Game Market Dominance Through... Charity?
Over at HDRLying, there's an intriguing new editorial entitled 'Giving Back: Market Dominance through Charity', and it posits that the more freebies or pseudo-freebies given out through 'philanthropic marketing', the more beloved a game company may become.
Prime example? Club Nintendo in Japan, he says: "The genius in Club Nintendo is two fold: not only are all products on the site (including figures, Nintendo Music CDs, and even games) exclusive to Club Nintendo, but members that gain a certain number of points over the course of a year are made Platinum Members. Platinum members then choose a free gift from a list at the end of the year, which is then sent to them, free of charge."
The Sony Game Advisory Panel is also mentioned, which is "...an invitation only network that allows Sony gamers to post their game collections, blog about their thoughts on gaming, participate in pivotal gaming surveys, and more. The whole idea is made to make the gamer feel special; to make them feel as if they have the ability to change the course of game development. Who knows? Maybe they actually do." So how about it? Can you 'buy' loyalty through programs like this?
Comments
Yeah, I'm a bit bitter over Club Nintendo.
Time was that Nintendo of America was going to start doing things like that. They still have the registration form on their website for filling in the serial numbers of the games you buy. I managed to get one of my favorite Gamecube disks, the compilation of Zelda 1 and 2, Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, from that program.
And then, for all intents and purposes, it ended. Since that disk, the only real bonus they've sent out was a demo disk for Metroid Prime 2. After that, the only premium for U.S. audiences has been a handful of Nintendo Power issues, another way for them to advertise at us, which seems pretty crappy to me considering how many registered games I've got on my list by now (and it even adds in Virtual Console games automatically).
Meanwhile in Japan they get an exclusive Game & Watch collection, a special version of Balloon Fight, and other things too. This is -nuts-. What NOA sent out is not even, strictly speaking, a reward: even the Zelda bonus disk carried the same Wind Waker that was going around stores at the time!
We register games, in their mind, solely in order to get advertised at even more.
Posted by: John H. | April 29, 2007 1:21 AM
Related to that picture? Check out this video:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=_5ZMPNu3m2I
It's Chris Kohler getting a little liquored up and then opening and playing the DS Game & Watch Collection, completely ruining its collector's value. Good for him.
Posted by: Scott Jon Siegel | April 29, 2007 6:27 AM
Nothing advances the art form like brand loyalty.
Posted by: Jared | April 29, 2007 7:59 PM
Honestly, no.
I've been a Nintendo-loyalist from the time I was a little girl, and the only thing I've ever gotten as a reward from Nintendo was the aforementioned handful of Nintendo Power Magazines.
I'm partial to companies that try to put their users first, profits second. Companies who don't sacrifice game play for pretty graphics, and who actually give a crap about what games they're putting out there.
Posted by: Matdredalia | May 1, 2007 10:21 AM