Official Smash Ultimate Discussion

[Dcas]

I've been quiet since I've been labeled as "Being ungrateful" in the past for pointing this out but, yeah I agree in the fact that the marketing for this game has been ****.


The blog has been USELESS this cycle, and besides that one KRool/DSam vid, we've never seen newer builds of the game in motion, it's always been the E3 demo.



To put it into perspective, we've received two actual NEW things from the blog, 3 'technically'.


1#: Delfino Plaza was returning

2# Isabelle's Fishing Pole is her Side B

3# Greninja transforms during its Final Smash



But that's it.... We're STILL getting rehashed information from AUGUST.

Yes, ive seen you from some months ago. Youare like the minority here who usually tends to be more critical without being pessimistic, this smash marketing has been very ****, its not even debatable.

Some people says "oh this spoiled brats, they owe you nothing", well ill invite you to take a look to any recent FG or even any major blockbuster and see how the marketing works, they go full steam 3 months prior launch not to mention one month. And all of this for being so "secretive", as ive said im not even hype anymore i just want the game released, we all know what we are getting and the speculation to this point is just chris lax spam videos and people going round and round in circles, if you ask me, thats not funny to speculate about.

Either they are being extremely secretive because "nintendo" like lets be honest, the game would have been finished weeks ago OR an eventual delay wouldnt surprise me.

 

[Fenriraga]

The "bad marketing" really comes down to a lot of things being shown off at once rather than in bite sized chunks like we've been use to.

Having every veteran return is fantastic, but letting us know that right off the bat means they have no veterans to sprinkle in here and there every few Fridays like with 4, which broke up a LOT of the monotony of the Pic of the Days. We didn't even get any gameplay of 4 again after E3 until Sonic was revealed, and that was in October. And that was only like 30 seconds of game. Yet I don't remember people being quite as antsy, besides wanting a newcomer.

When the direct for Ultimate rolled around, we suddenly had 103 confirmed stages with the distinct possibility that it's every stage the game has to offer. Characters and stages are the two biggest "excitement" factors when it comes to Smash, and we already knew the VAST majority of each when the wait for the game wasn't even half way over.

The populus has barely anything to talk about. We can't go "Oh man, wouldn't it be great if X came back?!" Or "Wow, wouldn't X make a great stage?" The most we can speculate is newcomers, and even then stuff like the box theory and even Sakurai's own words have forced us to tamper out expectations.

We know so much, yet at the same time so little. The most important things have been given to us almost entirely, but everything else is completely in the dark. I think that's what's killing a lot of people here. Nintendo overfed us. We stuffed ourselves for hibernation, only for it to apparently not be enough to get us through the winter. I dunno, we're in some weird limbo between "we know too much" and "we don't know enough".

 

[DarthEnderX]

Thing is those half hour advertisements ARE the weekly updates.

Granted but, again, most other games don't give you EITHER of those things. So complaining that Smash gives you two things that are redundant seems pretty petty when other things give you nothing at all.

They really should’ve dropped the 30 second character trailers one at a time, maybe twice a week, just to build up some hype and speculation. It isn’t much, but it’s better than nothing.

Yeah. They could have released each one alongside it's character's blogpost.

 

[Graizen]

GAME:

Smash Bros trailer starts, a music starts playing...
What music would make you HYPE?

-------------------------

For me , this one:

 

[doomedtacox]

Which is BTW a god-awful route. Two of the biggest games competing with each other during November was an idiotic move.

I'm pretty sure people make up their minds on if they're pre-ordering (or buying on release) a game sooner rather than later, so I think from a business standpoint it's better to front load the info. Although I don't have a marketing degree or any experience so I can't say for sure.

 

[Rie Sonomura]

GAME:

Smash Bros trailer starts, a music starts playing...
What music would make you HYPE?

-------------------------

For me , this one:

Do I even need to say it?

Heck, any X song could be the opener as long as Uncontrollable plays during Elma’s gameplay. CODENAMEZ would be hella dope for the opening segment though

 

[JacobLeBeauOFFICIAL]

GAME:

Smash Bros trailer starts, a music starts playing...
What music would make you HYPE?

-------------------------

For me , this one:

Don't take this the wrong way, but I think this Digimon obsession is getting kinda creepy. I'm fine with you liking it, but It's giving me the jeebies how much you want a digimon Character in smash...even though they're not game characters.

 

[Shroob]

Explain to me what other video games even GIVE you half hour advertisements every few months along with weekly updates on game content on their website?

Like, most other games put out a 3 minute trailer 6 months before the game comes out and that's it. Then a 30 second TV ad if you're lucky a few weeks before launch.

Saying that Nintendo is doing a **** job with advertising and promotion is just asinine.

I'm seriously goint to sit there and say that other games don't even do that much.

So if Nintendo is doing a **** job, then every video game developer ever has also done a **** job.

The problem is, this is Smash.

We have two prior games who handled the whole advertisement gimmick much better.



Why did all the veteran trailers have to be up on day 1? Every time the blog 'updates' with one, it's literally a filler day.

Why can't new items be seen unless they appear first in a Direct? They're goddamn items.



I'm not asking for a lot, but they front loaded everything too damn hard, which Sakurai himself even agrees with.

 

[RandomAce]

This guy has a big point.
https://www.twitter.com/MLFoxwell/status/1054034776557019137
Smash Ultimate's advertising isn't exactly good, as we mostly seen things we already seen before, without a lot of new.

This is so true.

This should’ve been one of the most hyped games for a lot of people, but right now people are bored as heck waiting for something new rather than hyped.

I feel like the information should’ve been more streamlined, but Nintendo wants to reveal new information in bombs instead. And because of that, it makes it feel that we’ve been waiting or longer than usual.

 

[Union of Darkness]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQQeufBt0eE

#BigBoy

 

[Idon]

Don't take this the wrong way, but I think this Digimon obsession is getting kinda creepy. I'm fine with you liking it, but It's giving me the jeebies how much you want a digimon Character in smash...even though they're not game characters.

If Game and Watch is a videogame character, than digimon certainly count.

 

[Untouch]

We don't need new info, we need footage.
Just something new to look at.
Nintendo is treating the tournament demos as new footage when we've dissected nearly everything from the demo already.

From experience, I know how hard it is to capture new footage, but this really would have helped.

 

[DarthEnderX]

Don't take this the wrong way, but I think this Digimon obsession is getting kinda creepy. I'm fine with you liking it, but It's giving me the jeebies how much you want a digimon Character in smash...even though they're not game characters.

I don't have any interest in Digimon myself, but Digimon is as much a video game franchise and Game & Watch is.

 

[CrusherMania1592]

Why do I have a feeling the game may in fact be delayed at this rate

Which tbh I wouldn’t mind, they could squeeze in a few more base characters then

At least I can use that 60 bucks I'm saving for something else LOL

If the game gets delayed, I'm going to expect a LOT of salt and rage coming here and on Twitter. This game really shouldn't be delayed unless there's some programming that's causing glitches and/or the possibly of pulling a Sonic and adding another 3rd party rep


Even then, our biggest seller for the holidays is gonna be Let's Go Pokemon Pikachu and Eevee. PS4 and XB1 will be winning

 

[Noipoi]

GAME:

Smash Bros trailer starts, a music starts playing...
What music would make you HYPE?

-------------------------

For me , this one:

HAAAAYYY-O HABADEBEDADE

Also

Exiting the forest is very simple, all you do is follow these path turns...

 

[CosmicQuark]

I've been quiet since I've been labeled as "Being ungrateful" in the past for pointing this out but, yeah I agree in the fact that the marketing for this game has been ****.


The blog has been USELESS this cycle, and besides that one KRool/DSam vid, we've never seen newer builds of the game in motion, it's always been the E3 demo.



To put it into perspective, we've received two actual NEW things from the blog, 3 'technically'.


1#: Delfino Plaza was returning

2# Isabelle's Fishing Pole is her Side B

3# Greninja transforms during its Final Smash



But that's it.... We're STILL getting rehashed information from AUGUST.

Yeah, the marketing could have been handled a lot better (from a consumer's perspective not in the know of the intricacies involved... disclaimer out of the way). Here's what I would have done differently:

- Have the "Everyone Is Here" trailer, along with the basic explanations, as well as the basic changes made. The nitty gritty of character changes and higher level competitive changes could be saved for the Treehouse or the blog, to not alienate non-Smash fans and to give Smash fans more later to discover.
- Don't reveal every character trailer at the beginning. It's been said before, but that way there can be smaller news during the lulls. Adds to the excitement of gradually revealing each veteran, while still having the "Everyone is here" at E3.
- Speaking of lulls, it could've been paced better. Naturally you want your most popular/hype characters at the beginning and at the end. Hype is subjective, but no doubt Ridley and King K Rool were the highlights for most people given their popularity on the ballot (and I say that as someone not hyped for them personally, but looking at the polls and the general atmosphere, that's the conclusion I've drawn). Of course, some have said the previous games have had pacing issues ending anti-climatically, so perhaps it's to be expected, but certainly not ideal. And if you disagree the pacing has been off, take it up with Sakurai as he explicitly pointed that out in September (which is odd in the first place). Also this point is the most controversial (some say get everything big out of the way at the beginning), which is why it's last and the least important of the three.

Many more, but those are the most striking things that occurred to me. And of course, if the next Direct(s) is/are bigger than we expect, it may change the overall picture, but we can't know for sure until that happens.

 

[Guybrush20X6]

GAME:

Smash Bros trailer starts, a music starts playing...
What music would make you HYPE?

-------------------------

For me , this one:

This theme or Dancing Through the Danger.

 

[Luigi The President]

Granted but, again, most other games don't give you EITHER of those things. So complaining that Smash gives you two things that are redundant seems pretty petty when other things give you nothing at all.

Yeah. They could have released each one alongside it's character's blogpost.

I will criticize those games and I will also criticize Smash when it comes to that; Smash is my favorite series, but I can understand when it falters. Just bcause some other things don't give me Directs doesn't mean I can't have valid criticisms for how Smash can handle news.

 

[Fenriraga]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQQeufBt0eE

#BigBoy

Huh, I never noticed until now that Sonic's Spindash drags the for along the ground a bit now. That's a nice touch. I love how Sonic actually has to be agressive this time around, and does so pretty well.

 

[Thinkaman]

Sakurai tried the drip-feed marketing approach, he pioneered it. It didn't work, or at least, was not considered efficient. Sakurai has remarked how hellish of a burden the Brawl dojo was on the dev team.

The point of marketing is not to entertain people who would pay $500 for the game anyway. The point of marketing is to generate interest and dominate news cycles, which the triple-Direct + mass demo event strategy has done far superior than drip feeding blog posts.

Pettering out information on new items on the blog will not make random people play the game, nor create any passing headlines other than a "Weekly Smash Update" recap at the bottom of the article list at IGN. We know this, because we tried that, and that is what happened.

Anyone suggesting that pettering out returning characters at the pace of a reality TV show would have caused more of a splash than "EVERYONE IS HERE!" can be safely ignored.

None of this would be said about any other game series, fyi.

 

[Iridium]

GAME:

Smash Bros trailer starts, a music starts playing...
What music would make you HYPE?

-------------------------

For me , this one:

This. Just...this. I love the original, and a remixed version along with this would be sweet!

 

[Untouch]

GAME:

Smash Bros trailer starts, a music starts playing...
What music would make you HYPE?

-------------------------

For me , this one:

 

[JustCallMeJon]

Came back, any news today?

 

[CrusherMania1592]

GAME:

Smash Bros trailer starts, a music starts playing...
What music would make you HYPE?

-------------------------

For me , this one:

For me?


Anything Crash Bandicoot related. That's enough to make me lose my **** and have my folks kick me outside for awhile lmao

Came back, any news today?

Same ****, different day

 

[Pyra]

I've been quiet since I've been labeled as "Being ungrateful" in the past for pointing this out but, yeah I agree in the fact that the marketing for this game has been ****.


The blog has been USELESS this cycle, and besides that one KRool/DSam vid, we've never seen newer builds of the game in motion, it's always been the E3 demo.



To put it into perspective, we've received two actual NEW things from the blog, 3 'technically'.


1#: Delfino Plaza was returning

2# Isabelle's Fishing Pole is her Side B

3# Greninja transforms during its Final Smash



But that's it.... We're STILL getting rehashed information from AUGUST.

It's okay Shroob, I still love you.

And totally agree.

I dig the blog, personally, but in a "its kinda nice" way- it has not once made me more excited about the game haha

 

[doomedtacox]

I'm not asking for a lot, but they front loaded everything too damn hard, which Sakurai himself even agrees with.

How can we say this without knowing what's even in the final direct? If it has 4-5 new characters, subspace v2 in the form of spirits, some new stages, more items, assist trophies, etc, then that's a hell of a send off and will easily keep us hyped until launch.

 

[Untouch]

Sakurai tried the drip-feed marketing approach, he pioneered it. It didn't work, or at least, was not considered efficient. Sakurai has remarked how hellish of a burden the Brawl dojo was on the dev team.

The point of marketing is not to entertain people who would pay $500 for the game anyway. The point of marketing is to generate interest and dominate news cycles, which the triple-Direct + mass demo event strategy has done far superior than drip feeding blog posts.

Pettering out information on new items on the blog will not make random people play the game, nor create any passing headlines other than a "Weekly Smash Update" recap at the bottom of the article list at IGN. We know this, because we tried that, and that is what happened.

Anyone suggesting that pettering out returning characters at the pace of a reality TV show would have caused more of a splash than "EVERYONE IS HERE!" can be safely ignored.

None of this would be said about any other game series, fyi.

I agree in regards to the drip-feed, I don't think that needs to be done.
Just releasing the character trailers when the blog updates is enough though.

 

[Luigi The President]

How can we say this without knowing what's even in the final direct? If it has 4-5 new characters, subspace v2 in the form of spirits, some new stages, more items, assist trophies, etc, then that's a hell of a send off and will easily keep us hyped until launch.

Because you're making a whole lot of assumptions which easily may not come to fruition

 

[Dcas]

We don't need new info, we need footage.
Just something new to look at.
Nintendo is treating the tournament demos as new footage when we've dissected nearly everything from the demo already.

From experience, I know how hard it is to capture new footage, but this really would have helped.

Hence why i dread the "omg i dont want spoilers" i hate leaks.

This lack of info is because the secretive nature of soccer guy, just imagine how awesome if instead of useless character posts we know almost everything, we could get like each 2 weeks a short 2 v 2 of the newcomers in a new stage, with items or what not. Even some 3min vid explaning a bit the character, simple stuff as that or even trying to promote bit by bit how the online will work.

Any other game or company, save Nintendo, would have been bashed nonstop if they did this but since its Nintie people usually give them a pass.

 

[Waluigi is not getting in]

People think the marketing has been handled poorly... and then you remember the Best Buy situations. It's literally just the drought getting to people, let's not exaggerate.

 

[Pyra]

You gotta remember, none of this is riding on something like someone's life or anything immediately important like that- all of these debates are just for fun (despite people blowing a gasket every other post about some of them) and in the end don't really matter much. You can come to a conclusion to whatever you want, in the end, nobody actually knows what's happening with the game until it's officially revealed or the game is released.

People getting ultra hostile over more "out there" suggestions ruin the dialogue more than the people suggesting those things.

 

[CosmicQuark]

GAME:

Smash Bros trailer starts, a music starts playing...
What music would make you HYPE?

-------------------------

For me , this one:

This, so that people watching Vinesauce don't know if they're being faked out or not--and then the amazing revelation that it's not a fake out this time. For the full version:

 

[doomedtacox]

Sakurai tried the drip-feed marketing approach, he pioneered it. It didn't work, or at least, was not considered efficient. Sakurai has remarked how hellish of a burden the Brawl dojo was on the dev team.

The point of marketing is not to entertain people who would pay $500 for the game anyway. The point of marketing is to generate interest and dominate news cycles, which the triple-Direct + mass demo event strategy has done far superior than drip feeding blog posts.

Pettering out information on new items on the blog will not make random people play the game, nor create any passing headlines other than a "Weekly Smash Update" recap at the bottom of the article list at IGN. We know this, because we tried that, and that is what happened.

Anyone suggesting that pettering out returning characters at the pace of a reality TV show would have caused more of a splash than "EVERYONE IS HERE!" can be safely ignored.

None of this would be said about any other game series, fyi.

My thoughts exactly. What confuses me the most is why people consider the blog their main source of marketing. Like no it isn't lol, that'd easily be ads (youtube, TV, billboards, twitch, etc).

Alot of the people who are complaining have already been convinced to buy the game, which I'm fairly certain is a decision people make somewhat early after seeing what a game has to offer.

Because you're making a whole lot of assumptions which easily may not come to fruition

That's my whole point. We don't even know what's in the final direct so we can't say how much Sakurai front-loaded the information, which I don't even think is a bad idea in the first place.

 

[Dcas]

People think the marketing has been handled poorly... and then you remember the Best Buy situations. It's literally just the drought getting to people, let's not exaggerate.

May i say, go check recent FG games or blockbusters how theyve handled their releases? Its like nintendo really stick to their obsolete guns, like just watch the horrible online mode of their newest mario party... And no, is not a matter of life or death, is just annoying how Nintendo is so stubborn.

 

[CrusherMania1592]

Why did all the veteran trailers have to be up on day 1? Every time the blog 'updates' with one, it's literally a filler day..

There are quite a number of reasons


1. To emphasis that "EVERYONE IS HERE!"

2. To avoid any flame wars on the Smashboards about who is gonna get cut, who is gonna be the *cough* flavorofthemonth *cough*

3. To lessen the stress of who is gonna be on the next update

4. BECAUSE IT'S ****ING SAKURAI

 

[CosmicQuark]

My thoughts exactly. What confuses me the most is why people consider the blog their main source of marketing. Like no it isn't lol, that'd easily be ads (youtube, TV, billboards, twitch, etc).

Alot of the people who are complaining have already been convinced to buy the game, which I'm fairly certain is a decision people make somewhat early after seeing what a game has to offer.

Because it is marketing? Sakurai wouldn't be able to convince Nintendo to pour money and resources into making and sustaining the blog if they didn't feel they'll get a significant return on investment through its advertising. It's marketing different people than a 20 second ad on television, but all of it is a part of the marketing. It's not something Sakurai does in his spare time, writing up posts for the fun of it.

 

[Shroob]

There are quite a number of reasons


1. To emphasis that "EVERYONE IS HERE!"

2. To avoid any flame wars on the Smashboards about who is gonna get cut, who is gonna be the *cough* flavorofthemonth *cough*

3. To lessen the stress of who is gonna be on the next update

4. BECAUSE IT'S ****ING SAKURAI

We knew everyone was in the game by E3.

I mean the 30 second gameplay clips.


Whenever the blog updates with one, it's literally just a day where we don't get info from 8.8 covered.

 

[IronTed]

My thoughts exactly. What confuses me the most is why people consider the blog their main source of marketing. Like no it isn't lol, that'd easily be ads (youtube, TV, billboards, twitch, etc).

Alot of the people who are complaining have already been convinced to buy the game, which I'm fairly certain is a decision people make somewhat early after seeing what a game has to offer.

Agreed, the broader audience isn't going to care enough to search for a blog every day for minor bits and pieces of information. Not to say it couldn't be handled better, but when a huge part of the draw of this game is "Everyone is here!" you kinda have to actually show that everyone is here in a bid info dump.

 

[Waluigi is not getting in]

May i say, go check recent FG games or blockbusters how theyve handled their releases? Its like nintendo really stick to their obsolete guns, like just watch the horrible online mode of their newest mario party... And no, is not a matter of life or death, is just annoying how Nintendo is so stubborn.

Except Nintendo isn't Sakurai. Sakurai designs the game how he sees fit.

 

[Mr. Trumo]

GAME:

Smash Bros trailer starts, a music starts playing...
What music would make you HYPE?

-------------------------

For me , this one:

I dunno about you, but...

EDIT: Crap. CosmicQuark beat me to it. GG.