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Tears of the Kingdom Did Nintendo's TotK Marketing Work?

Hyrulian Hero

Zelda Informer Codger
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You may all recall my insistence over the past few months that Nintendo should hold everything back for TotK. There was no grand E3 showcase, no consistent updates, and even the final trailers showed little more than the opening cutscene. Granted, there was a treehouse the day before launch (which I still haven't watched) and the review embargo was lifted like a week before release (I believe) but we really knew very little about TotK before we got it in our hands. It seems to me a bold strategy Cotton to employ such elusivity in marketing such an important flagship title but I was personally grateful for Nintendo's discretion. I would absolutely love a similar campaign for the next game but it may have worked best with TotK since it was built on the BotW engine and inhabited the same world. Still, I was very pleased with three marketing for this game.

Did it work for you? Would you have had a better experience with the game if more had been revealed ahead of time? What would you like to see with Nintendo's next Zelda marketing campaign?
 
I think you summarized it well when you said this marketing strategy worked for TotK because it was built on the BotW engine and used the same world so most people were happy with more BotW, and I think Nintendo was content with riding that wave since BotW is by far the best selling Zelda game ever. I read somewhere that the video from March that Aonuma put together to display Link's abilities was mainly for the people who were still uncertain if TotK would have enough unique content, and the sentiment I got from the Internet was very positive from those who were still on the fence.

I don't think this strategy would work for a game with a completely new world and new mechanics that fundamentally change the gameplay from BotW. Nintendo would have to go more in-depth before release or face a situation like with The Wind Waker being perceived as alienating before release and suffering in sales despite positive fan reception after release.
 
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I think it’s a combination of things. All the detail that went into BotW hype and marketing was kinda necessary given that it was such a huge change to how it even plays, down to button layout and all. TotK on the other hand, certainly has similar changes, but much smaller ones that can lead to much more variation and possibilities - likewise with all the changes to a familiar world. In that way I think Nintendo really wanted to get people more curious about the mystery of it all and think about what they’ll do, rather than being told what they can do.
 

Hyrulian Hero

Zelda Informer Codger
Joined
Oct 6, 2016
Location
SoDak
I think it’s a combination of things. All the detail that went into BotW hype and marketing was kinda necessary given that it was such a huge change to how it even plays, down to button layout and all. TotK on the other hand, certainly has similar changes, but much smaller ones that can lead to much more variation and possibilities - likewise with all the changes to a familiar world. In that way I think Nintendo really wanted to get people more curious about the mystery of it all and think about what they’ll do, rather than being told what they can do.
Yeah, I don't totally disagree but at the same time, TotK is well on its way to really outpacing the sales of BotW. It's not just BotW players buying this game, it's new Zelda players as well. I do think the tactic probably works better with a preexisting comparable game but I don't think they would have experienced significantly lower sales of BotW if they had shown very little before release. They were so dang coy with TotK and I absolutely loved it. OoT is the highest rated game ever published, BotW is the third and TotK is the fourth so I think Nintendo could continue to market this series with very little prerelease and still make crap-tons of money while providing a surprise experience for fans every time.
 

Mikey the Moblin

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Yeah, I don't totally disagree but at the same time, TotK is well on its way to really outpacing the sales of BotW. It's not just BotW players buying this game, it's new Zelda players as well. I do think the tactic probably works better with a preexisting comparable game but I don't think they would have experienced significantly lower sales of BotW if they had shown very little before release. They were so dang coy with TotK and I absolutely loved it. OoT is the highest rated game ever published, BotW is the third and TotK is the fourth so I think Nintendo could continue to market this series with very little prerelease and still make crap-tons of money while providing a surprise experience for fans every time.
they also jebaited the hardcore zelda fans who would have skipped it if they were told "this is gonna be JUST LIKE botw, right down to the search and destroy divine beasts"
so the silence paid off there, as small of a portion of the fanbase as it is, it's still probably a couple million
 

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