(09-12-2013, 03:38 AM)Koopaul Wrote: I'm afriad it doesn't work like that. Us gaming nerds are inclined to look up stuff online and share it among our gamer friends, but the average consumer makes up a much bigger percentage of the market. We are the minority.
We need some REAL tv ads to spread the word around. I have some gamer friends who I sometimes play with. Even though they love video games and consider themselves gamers, they never watch E3, look at game trailers or read game news. Even though they are "hardcore gamers" they are casual about how they buy games. If they hear about it from something, or see it somewhere and it sounds cool, they'll buy it.
And given how people are, I think that applies to the majority of consumers. Ads count. Big time.
so the logic goes that, if I or my friends see an ad for, say, Call of Duty, that means we'll share it/buy it(poor anecdote)? what about minecraft? no ads when it first appeared, yet spread like wildfire almost instantly from internet sharing. you even said yourself that your friends would show interest in things shown to them and yet you, with your knowledge of the game, didn't show it to them at all? even knowing that they take an active interest in gaming? isn't that a contradiction to your "we gaming nerds are inclined to look stuff up"?
another issue that pops up is that some people don't even watch TV, and ads might even be secluded to only a few channels. not only that, but pre-recording shows or simply recording them while away is becoming more popular as well as watching them on the internet, making it even more likely that ads will not be seen at all. why take that risk with such large amounts of money?
one last point is (this is lazy but proves my point) Mighty No. 9. how did it get so popular with over 2 million USD in support? not only through internet sharing, but the factor of recognition, a massive point that suppresses new IPs. we know who's making MN9, we generally know how it's going to play out, and we know we enjoyed that type of thing in the past. with W101, we only get what we see, and we can't tell if the game will deliver an enjoyable experience or not.
when the game's been out for a while and videos and reviews begin to surface, the game will either tank or succeed depending on those that did play it. from those who played it, we will recognize that the game gave them a good/bad experience, and we will use their experience to make our final decision. it's been that way for a while, and it's been that way (at least for me) for the WiiU and the Wii and just about any console/new IP that has been released to date.