Monster Hunter mania has struck.
Whenever a high profile core game is released on the Wii, anti-Nintendo fanboys everywhere spam the internet claiming that the game will not sell. For the most part it’s true, with games such as Dead Space: Extraction performing very poorly, but in other instances core games such as Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Call of Duty have sold extremely well on Nintendo’s home console. However, the majority of third party core flops were poorly advertised, if at all. With Monster Hunter Tri — arguably the most “hardcore” game to release this generation — Capcom have finally done what other third parties were too lazy to do on the Wii: advertise.
Monster Hunter is a big deal over in Japan. The portable entries in the series have single-handedly kept the PSP relevant in the East. Released back in August of 2009 in Japan, Monster Hunter Tri sold very well — it’s the only third-party Wii game in the region to go over 1 million units sold. Admittedly, Monster Hunter is a big deal in Japan. Bringing over a game in a series that isn’t popular at all in the West was a gutsy move by Capcom. Other third-parties would have just sent it straight to retail without pushing any sort of advertising behind the game. Not Capcom.
The first step in promoting Tri in the West was through the use of free demo discs obtainable at GameStop. The demo offered two quests — one hunting the Great Jaggi and the other hunting a Qurupeco — and every weapon type was available to play around with. The demo did have a few bugs here and there, and the loading screens were a lot longer than they are in the actual game. Nevertheless, it served its purpose.
How often have you seen commercials on TV for high-profile Wii games? The last that comes to my mind is for Red Steel 2 and The Conduit. Both received television ads, but nothing very major by any means. Monster Hunter Tri went on to sponsor South Park’s 200th episode on Comedy Central, and it even had commercials playing through episodes of Oprah. The commercials themselves are very clever, featuring Ironbeard McCullough talking about the game in a spoof of Deadliest Catch.
The biggest advertising push Capcom has given Monster Hunter Tri isn’t from television or web ads. No, Tri has gone onto “sponsor” several subways in the United States. One of which is San Francisco’s Powell Street subway, where large banner ads of hunters fighting the Lagiacrus are all over the walls. Compared to how the big third-party PS3 or Xbox 360 games are advertised, Capcom has done very well. Games such as Bayonetta have sponsored UFC matches, and “Random Shooter X” always gets a big push.
Coolest ad ever? Click the link for more.
So, how is Monster Hunter Tri faring at retail? Tri was released on April 23 in Europe, and after just one day on shelves, it made it into the #5 overall spot for top selling games. The next week, Monster Hunter Tri blasted into #4. Additionally, the treasure pack bundle with Tri on GAME is the site’s number #1 selling video game. The official NPD numbers have yet to come in, but if Tri‘s seeming success in EU is any indication, it looks like Capcom have completed their goal of popularizing Monster Hunter in a region that doesn’t consist of Japan. Monster Hunter Tri definitely deserves the high sales numbers, too — it’s an outstanding game.
Check out my review for Monster Hunter Tri here, and add me online: D Turtle.
6 Responses to “This Is How You Advertise”
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Impressive for Capcom for advertising this but I can’t help but wonder about how you mentioned that other companies are too “lazy” to advertise their game. What if the case was that some of these companies just didn’t get enough or have enough left over in their budget to spend on advertising? Now I know some like Ubisoft must have had some left over to push for Red Steel 2 or other games but it seems too easy just to say games flop just because companies were too lazy…
Advertising is part of a game’s budget. You have to have some sort of money put back for advertising.
And you can’t really start advertising after you’ve made money on the game. That doesn’t really make any sense.
it looks like Capcom have completed their goal of popularizing Monster Hunter in a region that doesn’t consist of Japan.
pretty sure nintendo is handling marketing for the EU
@jay- The game came out only in Europe?
I think you could take this a couple different ways.
On the one hand indie developers might not even have a budget for anything aside from delivery pizza and soda to fuel their work – and probably have jobs on the side to support themselves. James from Ska Studios would probably be a good example of this. He has to rely on the games selling themselves from a pure fun factor angle. You don’t see billboards for I MADE A GAME WITH ZOMBIES IN IT!!! (I’m not going to try and get the l33t spelling of this one right) but the game is really fun and has obviously done well with no advertising.
On the other hand established publishers such as Capcom and Epic and SEGA have working capital that they can use to advertise their games and they probably more often than not have already forecast how their titles will perform at retail. Naturally that is how they’ll determine where to pump their advertising dollars. Why funnel cash towards a product that you know won’t sell well?
Make a 360 version and I’m all over this.