Nintendo wants to maintain their video game market share

Slashdot It! In an effort to move out of last place in the gaming console wars behind Microsoft and Sony Nintendo is making one of its strongest marketing moves in years. It plans to spend more than $200 million to advertise and market its next-generation Wii console. Nintendo's concept Nintendo's concept of "gaming for the masses" is evident in every element of the marketing campaign. The company has set up an online social networking community and scheduled sampling events in average people's homes. Urban gaming events, retail midnight madness promotions, a multi-city music tour, and hands-on play opportunities in malls nationwide are also in the works.

"You have two joysticks and 12 buttons on the standard controllers of both Sony and Microsoft. You need to know what each of those buttons do in a particular game," O'Rourke said.

Nintendo has gone back to basics, he added. The movement of a user's hand on the joystick determines the action on screen, which is very intuitive.

"Anyone can pick up a Wii controller and play relatively well relatively quickly," he explained.

The ads Wii's central ad campaign follows two friendly Japanese men who are shown demonstrating the Wii's ease of use and playability. The TV spots, which begin airing this week, also include a series of vignettes spoofing reality TV shows.

In other television initiatives, Comedy Central will host a contest to give away a Wii every hour throughout the long Thanksgiving weekend. At the end of the weekend, the grand prize will be a Wii console and a Toyota Scion that is tricked out to look like a Wii.

The ad is paying off Nintendo's efforts are already paying off.Wii's MySpace page has attracted nearly a million page views from more than 200,000 unique visitors. Members have created Wii videos and posted thousands of messages in the forums.

In a 24-hour period in early November, Wii served as the centerpiece of a multipart "South Park" episode, appeared on the front page of The Wall Street Journal, made People magazine's "Style Watch" gift guide issue, and was featured on a National Public Radio report about holiday gifts.

Will the flood of cash and strategic marketing measures pay off for Nintendo? The marketing certainly helps, O'Rourke noted, but what helps more is a solid console with a fair number of games available at launch, he said.

"The combination of the fact that Nintendo's technology is a bit less expensive to develop and [that] they have those big title characters -- like Mario and Zelda -- to depend on will help them succeed in the next generation," O'Rourke said.