Episode 963: Bending Time and Space to Market Donkey Konga – Radio Free Nintendo

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The only thing direct is our broadcast to QVC.

Marketing is a complex, expensive, and bewildering exercise. We joke on RFN that it runs on cash and cocaine.

This isn’t actually fair. It’s not the 1980s anymore – these days they use electronic fund transfers.

It’s easy to think the hardest part of building a Direct is just figuring out what games to feature and maybe where to slot them. This misses the more interesting challenge: how do you feature each piece of content in its best light?

It’s very easy for one game to potentially overwhelm similar products. You could also create too many trailers that feel too similar – they being to blur. Pairing a quiet game with a loud one could over or under stimulate. A game with a huge budget next to one that was less-so could create an unpleasant contrast.

Simply put, you have to think about not just the product but how they’re being presented. They are gears in a complex mechanism. If the teeth gnash against each other the entire machine grinds until the gnarled teeth pass.

The great solution: the single product Direct. One game, one movie, one resort. You can let a single creator run wild. It is in fact both their circus and their monkeys.

Today we are the ringmaster, and in the center ring is Jane Goodall and what I hope is just a man in a Donkey Kong costume.

This week, Jon is playing Animal Crossing: New Horizon. We must investigate. By the time you read this James will have played the Pragmata demo at least three times. Guillaume is playing what he considers a “James Game,” The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy. He’s also playing the very memorably named Battle Axe. Lastly, Greg is escaping Midgar in FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE INTERGRADE.

After the break we attack a single email: make a Sakurai-style marathon Direct. Any game. Any host. The only challenge is to make it take a long time.

Email me.