Ports, Rereleases, and Advertisements

Games have been being marketed more and more in today's society. Advertisements for consoles and games can be seen everywhere. Not surprisingly. If you want something to sell, you advertise it.

While pondering Chrono Trigger, I suddenly realized something. I hadn't seen a bit of advertising about the game. There were an official website, and it was previewed a couple times. Other than that, nothing. And it is hardly limited to Chrono Trigger. I can't think of a single port or rerelease that has gotten any hype whatsoever.

No wonder the things don't sell as well as they should! I mean, even the outright awful games of the current generation are getting more advertising than any of the ports. Some of the best games of all time have been rereleased, to mediocre sales and a collective lack of interest. Because no one knows about them.

I mean, even when the gaming market was much smaller, these games had better advertisement than they do now. The whole point of porting it to a new system is to open up the games to new people who will pay you for them. So why don't the developers work to let anyone know? Instead they create two page websites that will only be visited by the intense fans of the games whose sales are already pretty much guaranteed. That is not a good business decision.

I mean, even the rerelease of Ocarina of Time has only garnered attention because it is constantly listed as a game that will make the 3DS a worthwhile buy all by itself.

ADVERTISE, PEOPLE!

Advertisement is a double-edged sword, really, although in the ports/re-releases case I see it as a kind of pride thing. Like they think that the games will automatically sell if re-released, which isn't always the case.

I'm pretty sure I've seen recent magazine ads for the DQ rereleases on NDS. And maybe even one for Chrono Trigger. And also FF Anthology, Chronicles, Origins etc. back in the day.

One of the reasons I imagine there aren't any television ads for rereleases is that those ads like to attract the audience with stunning visuals and there would have to be some explanation why this game isn't on par with the current cutting-edge technology to those people who are not familiar with the first title.

Also, polnar alluded to, an older game is already estabished in history and requires less 'education' of the public to to make them aware of it. Which would you rather buy? An unhyped new game or an unhyped rerelease? Clearly the new game would not get much play because no one knows anything about it. But people arelady know something about the rereleased classic and that will at least generate some sales. Advertising is expensive and companies would probably rather spend their money showing potential customers their future products rather than their past ones.

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Originally Posted by Del Murder

I'm pretty sure I've seen recent magazine ads for the DQ rereleases on NDS. And maybe even one for Chrono Trigger. And also FF Anthology, Chronicles, Origins etc. back in the day.

One of the reasons I imagine there aren't any television ads for rereleases is that those ads like to attract the audience with stunning visuals and there would have to be some explanation why this game isn't on par with the current cutting-edge technology to those people who are not familiar with the first title.

Also, polnar alluded to, an older game is already estabished in history and requires less 'education' of the public to to make them aware of it. Which would you rather buy? An unhyped new game or an unhyped rerelease? Clearly the new game would not get much play because no one knows anything about it. But people arelady know something about the rereleased classic and that will at least generate some sales. Advertising is expensive and companies would probably rather spend their money showing potential customers their future products rather than their past ones.

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Pretty much exactly this.

Games that are not expected to make huge bank usually don't really get advertisements especially these days because of how expensive it is. Also if it's a re-release of a beloved game it's also less likely to get marketing. Of course, there are also times where the companies misjudge how popular something will be and (unknowingly) waste money on advertisements and lose more money than they gain (case in point, Mega Man Legends 1).

I agree with Del and Polnar, and really, if you think about it re-releases and ports are meant to be a quick and easy way to reuse old games and assets to make more profit. Since older titles especially will never sell as well as newer modern releases have the potential too, dumping a lot of money into marketing doesn't make sense. The more you spend to market it, the lower the profit you'll make, and you will never make back the money spent on TV or similarly expensive ads.

Taking something like the re-releases of FFIV-VI on the GBA for example, you're not out to sell millions. The market your after is really made of three types of people: those who played the game before and enjoyed it, those who remember that era fondly but may have missed the game in a previous incarnation, and those who may not have been playing games when it was originally released, but who've developed an interest in games from that time period. None of those people make up a huge portion of the market, so you really want enough press so people know it's there, but beyond that you're wasting your money most of the time.

Yeah that's basically how ports seem to work. They port them for a not-very-high cost (usually) and so, if the game is already pretty well-known they won't usually dump the money into ads. This also works because even though they're not really aiming at a bigger market with most re-releases and ports, they can still usually make back the money they spent total on porting the games.

Porting games still costs quite a bit with all the printing, the retranslation (if they decide to put a new script into the game), redoing menus and such, but it's not quite as bad as making a brand new game.

There is also the fact that the best advertisement tends to be "word of mouth" or nowadays the interweb. Demon's Souls had very little PR but it is probably one of the best selling PS3 games due to word of mouth. Ports don't need much, cause just saying you'll make it, and when it will release, is enough for people to mark their calendars and talk about it. Just looking at the DL on the major consoles of ports is enough to show that not much advertisement is needed.

Granted, their are times it should get some better PR... Front Mission 1 for the DS was a port in Japan, but outside of Japan it was a first time release, so I was really surprised how little SE gave it any attention and not so surprised when it didn't sell very well.

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Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno

Demon's Souls had very little PR but it is probably one of the best selling PS3 games due to word of mouth.

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1.16 million sold making it 83th best selling PS3 title. Anything that cracks a million is probably a success, but I definitely wouldn't call it a run away hit. It is just another case where very high repute amongst the connected gamer community (aka people like us) =/= massive sales numbers.

Its a best selling Japanese RPG on a console. How is that? :p

Phoenix Wright was a game that got kinda big by word of mouth as well.

Capcom initially lowballed the amount of copies, and when the game got rave reviews the price skyrocketed for a few months. The demand was so high however that Capcom pretty much had no choice but to reprint the game. Justice for All and Trials and Tribulations and even Apollo Justice oddly didn't really get the same treatment though.

Not bad for a series that was initially a Japan-only GBA series (excluding Apollo Justice which of course was specifically DS-made).

Now if only they'd done the same for Granbo and Yuushun Rhapsody. =/