My OperaAdvanced Terminology
By .edDotEd. Monday, July 23, 2007 2:52:10 PM
What's in a name?
With Nintendo reportedly paying a hefty sum for wii.com, Apple licensing out i[your product name here], Colin McCrae's latest racing game being called DIRT: Colin McCrae Rally in the US (because his name is less recognizable than dirt here?) and Colin McCrae: DIRT everywhere else, and recent rumors that the Game Boy line may not see another system, I decided to explore the latter on a level not often focused on: consistancy.
'Game Boy' has, over the past two decades, been the quintessential term for portable gaming. Having worked a few years in gaming retail, I was privy to those marketing materials Nintendo sent out monthly to remind the world we're all spelling Game Boy Advance wrong. Similar to this digital document on the correct usage of the Wii logo I got at E3 last year (in a press kit).
It's not just Game Boy anymore
[/IMG]
Gameboy
Game boy
GameBoy
Gameboy Advance
GameBoy Advanced
Game Boy Advanced
GB
GB Advance
Game-boy
GBA Correct!
Game Boy Advance Correct!
The Game Boy line has sold a million gizjillion systems to the hands of every human on earth, even dead people and still-soggy babies, also aliens and some apes. But Nintendo has recently mentioned some hard to swallow phrases like how there is a slim chance the Game Boy brand will see another system. Looking at this sales chart below, it's easy to see why they feel the need to focus on what's working.
Nintendo system sales compared over the past few years in the US. Note how important holiday seasons are.
Supporting both GBA and DS from a supply side, marketing, and from a software support and publishing perspective Nintendo would be dividing their resources. Subsequently, splitting their fanbase and lowering potential DS sales. Nintendo DS enjoys a commanding lead as the number 1 video game system overall, releasing another Game Boy system (as much as it would please myself and some other die-hard fans) would only take some sales away from DS.
If we look at the way people search for Game Boy Advance worldwide, we can see there is a problem.
There are many different ways to search for Game Boy Advance.
[/IMG]This is a great example of the struggle companies deal with in terms of inconsistancy in branding, often a problem for popular global devices (do you think every country knows the significance of the moniker 'RAZR' when describing Motorolla's thin phone?). The trouble is that many people call it something different because of thier language or a language barrier. The most popular term is GBA, naturally, but as you can see from the chart to the right, certain countries use this far more than others. One very positive thing is the relative use of these terms is [almost] proportional, with very little deviation; a sign of strong control of marketing materials and brand awareness. In other words, GBA is a matured mass market product and no one term has unrelated peaks or valleys in terms of use.
Nintendo (like any other company) goes to great lengths to ensure people call their device by the proper name. Consistancy in branding helps to make the user experience a standard from store to store, so the company can rely on certain constants existing at the point of sale and focus on much more important aspects of mass market production. With certain controls in place, the consumer can begin to form a database of information on a product that gels with what they expect to see, and can spread the information effectively to others. Knowing this also makes certain aspects of reporting easier. We can rely on these constants to help draw these somewhat clear trends in the Game Boy line. I say somewhat because despite the effort made, years in the market, and popularity, when you have a system that has sold more than 45,000,000,001 systems (see: Look Around You - Maths), you're going to lose out to the inconsistancies that arise from major mass market appeal.
This last chart shows the steady increase of Nintendo DS related news is proportionally inverse to the steady decline of people searching for the most popular term for the Game Boy Advance over the same period of time, that term taken from the chart above: GBA.
The purple 'nintendo ds' line was added to show the second most popular search term for Nintendo DS, other than just 'DS.'
So as we dry our eyes and wish the Game Boy line many "Special Editions" in future Nintendo related design (see: Famicon Game Boy micro for Famicom legacy proof, and NES GBA SP), we can at least be sure that Nintendo is riding the larger wave to success, and further, our personal entertainment and pocket dollars should have their fate spelled out as long as the Big N continues to prove why they're back on top. Just as 'playing Nintendo' was the term for playing anything back in the day, I think people will continue to say 'Eddie dropped his Game Boy in the toilet' even if it's a DS, NeoGeo Pocket Color, or god help me a PSP, for years to come.
No, I've never dropped anything in a toilet... *looks at Neeecole*
With Nintendo reportedly paying a hefty sum for wii.com, Apple licensing out i[your product name here], Colin McCrae's latest racing game being called DIRT: Colin McCrae Rally in the US (because his name is less recognizable than dirt here?) and Colin McCrae: DIRT everywhere else, and recent rumors that the Game Boy line may not see another system, I decided to explore the latter on a level not often focused on: consistancy.
'Game Boy' has, over the past two decades, been the quintessential term for portable gaming. Having worked a few years in gaming retail, I was privy to those marketing materials Nintendo sent out monthly to remind the world we're all spelling Game Boy Advance wrong. Similar to this digital document on the correct usage of the Wii logo I got at E3 last year (in a press kit).
It's not just Game Boy anymore
[/IMG]Game boy
GameBoy
Gameboy Advance
GameBoy Advanced
Game Boy Advanced
GB
GB Advance
Game-boy
GBA Correct!
Game Boy Advance Correct!
The Game Boy line has sold a million gizjillion systems to the hands of every human on earth, even dead people and still-soggy babies, also aliens and some apes. But Nintendo has recently mentioned some hard to swallow phrases like how there is a slim chance the Game Boy brand will see another system. Looking at this sales chart below, it's easy to see why they feel the need to focus on what's working.
Nintendo system sales compared over the past few years in the US. Note how important holiday seasons are.Supporting both GBA and DS from a supply side, marketing, and from a software support and publishing perspective Nintendo would be dividing their resources. Subsequently, splitting their fanbase and lowering potential DS sales. Nintendo DS enjoys a commanding lead as the number 1 video game system overall, releasing another Game Boy system (as much as it would please myself and some other die-hard fans) would only take some sales away from DS.
If we look at the way people search for Game Boy Advance worldwide, we can see there is a problem.
There are many different ways to search for Game Boy Advance.[/IMG]This is a great example of the struggle companies deal with in terms of inconsistancy in branding, often a problem for popular global devices (do you think every country knows the significance of the moniker 'RAZR' when describing Motorolla's thin phone?). The trouble is that many people call it something different because of thier language or a language barrier. The most popular term is GBA, naturally, but as you can see from the chart to the right, certain countries use this far more than others. One very positive thing is the relative use of these terms is [almost] proportional, with very little deviation; a sign of strong control of marketing materials and brand awareness. In other words, GBA is a matured mass market product and no one term has unrelated peaks or valleys in terms of use.Nintendo (like any other company) goes to great lengths to ensure people call their device by the proper name. Consistancy in branding helps to make the user experience a standard from store to store, so the company can rely on certain constants existing at the point of sale and focus on much more important aspects of mass market production. With certain controls in place, the consumer can begin to form a database of information on a product that gels with what they expect to see, and can spread the information effectively to others. Knowing this also makes certain aspects of reporting easier. We can rely on these constants to help draw these somewhat clear trends in the Game Boy line. I say somewhat because despite the effort made, years in the market, and popularity, when you have a system that has sold more than 45,000,000,001 systems (see: Look Around You - Maths), you're going to lose out to the inconsistancies that arise from major mass market appeal.
This last chart shows the steady increase of Nintendo DS related news is proportionally inverse to the steady decline of people searching for the most popular term for the Game Boy Advance over the same period of time, that term taken from the chart above: GBA.
The purple 'nintendo ds' line was added to show the second most popular search term for Nintendo DS, other than just 'DS.'So as we dry our eyes and wish the Game Boy line many "Special Editions" in future Nintendo related design (see: Famicon Game Boy micro for Famicom legacy proof, and NES GBA SP), we can at least be sure that Nintendo is riding the larger wave to success, and further, our personal entertainment and pocket dollars should have their fate spelled out as long as the Big N continues to prove why they're back on top. Just as 'playing Nintendo' was the term for playing anything back in the day, I think people will continue to say 'Eddie dropped his Game Boy in the toilet' even if it's a DS, NeoGeo Pocket Color, or god help me a PSP, for years to come.
No, I've never dropped anything in a toilet... *looks at Neeecole*
(42%)
seaempty # Monday, July 23, 2007 4:07:05 PM
And kudos for the "Look Around You" clip.
AntonCaptainSeagull # Monday, July 23, 2007 4:23:10 PM
also, do you think that the Nintendo Phone, should that patent ever EVER rise from the pages, carry the Gameboy name? or variation, "Phoneboy"? If nintendo entered the cell phone market - INSTANTLY I would buy into it. YEAR WARRANTY on phones! Excellent customer service! and somthing I normally don't go gaga over, ringtones! we can get 100% authentic ringtones! - Plus the phone gmes (somthing I have never cared about) would be exactly what we want them to be - NES/SNES games, and if it were a Gameboy, Gameboy games!
.edDotEd # Monday, July 23, 2007 5:40:49 PM
a reasonable business proposition. but Nintendo would have to explore the negative effects of introducing the potential blast back of modders and home brewers that would try to side step the platform in leui of free roms for emulating software already available on phones that have Java, or J2ME specifically.
As for making a line of phones.. im my dreams.
MK-MK # Monday, July 23, 2007 6:23:46 PM