Too much Square Enix and not enough Disney? I see very few references of mentions of this franchise in mainstream Disney galleries. Why did Square Enix make the franchise so secular? It's supposed to be East meets West, which means half-East and half-West, but Kingdom Hearts has too much East and not enough West!
Last edited by SuperMillionaire; 11-14-2009 at 08:40 PM.
Is that your final answer?
I just meant that most of the movies they've featured prominently are part of that franchise and that directed age group.
I'm also glad they're bringing in Snow White and Cinderella since those characters had been featured in the series without their worlds. I'm interested to see how Malificient becomes involved in all of this mess since she's an example of one of the Disney characters I think actually has a good role in the series.
I'm not saying that Square Enix should alienate their core audience, which is indeed Japanese, but I still think that they need to take American audiences into consideration to equally appeal to both. I would say that the company should use its North American subsidiary, Square Enix, Inc., to put some touches of American pop culture on the localizations.
I'd also like to see more promotion of Kingdom Hearts on the Disney Channel and in the Disney Magazine, as well as promos for it in DVD releases of Disney movies and TV shows.
Is that your final answer?
I've no idea about Disney Magazine (but lol2print advertising), but I know there were a bunch of advertisements on the Disney Channel when Kingdom Hearts 2 came out. Aside from having the standard 30 second ad, they had an in-depth look thing. I'm not sure if they're doing that for 358/2 Days, but I'm pretty sure I've seen a Days ad on other channels. I don't think promotion is an issue at all.
American pop culture references would hurt my insides so much. The only game series I've ever see do that effectively in a localization is the Ace Attorney series. I think the localization is just fine as it is. It's got loads of Disney stuff already it doesn't really need to be Americanized any more than it already is by sheer virtue of Disney involvement.
I'm not saying that SE of America should make drastic changes to the storyline, but just put a few American pop culture references in there, to widen its appeal among Disney fans. Seriously, 9/10 Disney fans don't even have a clue what Kingdom Hearts is. I've gone to numerous Disney stores in several malls, and I NEVER see any Kingdom Hearts-related merchandise!
Is that your final answer?
They're probably not pushing Kingdom Hearts merchandise in Disney stores because the average person walking into a Disney store isn't there to buy video games.
That said, I guess I have just one question: why is it such a big deal that 9/10 of Disney fans don't even have a clue what KH is? Disney is such a huge corporation, and their customers span across various demographics. Why is it a concern that Kingdom Hearts isn't a recognizable franchise for all Disney fans? It's a freaking huge success amongst Disney fans who play video games, and that's really all that matters. Why worry about the people who don't play video games? That's like worrying about selling a book to someone who doesn't like to read.
I still don't understand why you think this is a problem. If someone doesn't know what Kingdom Hearts is they're probably not gamers and therefore not part of its target demographic. I don't get why you seem to think it's absolutely necessary to try and expand this demographic in all these (quite frankly silly) ways. Kingdom Hearts isn't like Wii Sports. It's not designed to be picked up and played by anyone and everyone with a minimal learning curve. It's advertised to gamers who like Disney, not all Disney fans everywhere. I don't see why this is an issue.
You'd probably be hard pressed to find one, but again, is that really a problem? I've never heard of a gamer who frequents a Disney site. It would be wasted add space, as it's better left for adds that appeal to the kind of people who frequent Disney websites, which is not the target of Kingdom Hearts.
You see Kingdom Hearts advertising in places that attract gamers, not Disney fans. Hell, most people who picked up Kingdom Hearts don't even watch Disney anymore, cause all the characters are from a past era.
Most kids today, the people who frequent Disney sites, probably don't give a toss about Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. You'd have to make current games mainline newer Disney Characters.
And thats just going to alienate the modern day fans away.
So should they target the generation that grew up with those characters? What good would that do? Most of them have grown past Disney, and aren't going to be enticed by them dragging these characters up from the past. So thats a wasted target audience.
The people Kingdom hearts appeals two are the following: Gamers who happen to have enjoyed old school Disney, RPG/Action RPG fans, and Square Enix fans.
And guess what? They heavily advertise to all these groups through the Sqaure Enix site, IGN, Gametrailers, and other places Gamers frequent. advertising to any other group of people for this game would be outright silly and a complete waste of corporate funds.
It would be like trying to sell training wheels to Lance Armstrong.