It’s a well known fact that a game’s overall sales are determined by how well it sells in the first few weeks after its release. If a title can not find a large group of buyers right from the start, whatever hype the game had fades away as new games arrive on store shelves. Often this happens when a game is mediocre, but sometimes truly fantastic titles suffer from this phenomenon. In the gaming industry, if you want sales, you have got to really push your product, no matter how good the game may be.
With Microsoft’s wildly popular Halo franchise coming to a close with Halo 3 this September, Halo advertisements are starting to emerge. For example, Burger King recently announced they would soon be offering a Halo inspired value meal nationwide, with food packaging, of course, branded with Halo 3 ads. All of this is happening with Halo 3 a month and a half away.
While all of this is going on, Nintendo seems to be sitting by on the sidelines as the release date for Metroid Prime 3 rapidly approaches. While Microsoft is pushing Halo 3 into the public’s faces, the hype for MP3: Corruption is almost non-existent. If someone hasn’t been following the game since E3 last year, it seems possible that they wouldn’t even know that the game existed, let alone that it is coming out in 3 weeks.
What do you guys think about this? Is Corruption going to suffer from Nintendo’s lack of hype? Personally, I want to know how Nintendo can expect to keep their commitment to the hardcore gaming audience if they aren’t even willing to get aggressive with their advertising. There is no doubt in my mind that Prime 3 is going to be an incredible game, and I would hate to see it struggle to find an audience amidst the Halo mania that is about to erupt.
