Nintendo bringing Wii U, 3DS to Sundance
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Mario maker to have presence at this week's film festival in Park City, Utah, with Wii U Video Challenge and Nintendo Lounge.
Nintendo is hoping filmgoers at this week's Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, will spend some of their free time thinking about games. The Mario maker has announced it will host several events during the annual film gathering, the first of which is the Wii U Video Challenge.
To be held tomorrow, January 17, the Wii U Video Challenge is an event that will showcase films about the next generation of game consoles. Three short films will make their premiere at the event, including those focusing on Wii U and New Super Mario Bros. U.
Nintendo executives, "industry influencers," and other "VIPs" will be in attendance during the event. A live audience will vote to determine the winning film.
On January 18, Nintendo will open its Nintendo Lounge to executives and celebrities before opening to the public on January 21. Inside, fans can play a range of Wii U and 3DS games, including the already released Nintendo Land and ZombiU, as well as upcoming games like Wii Fit U and Rayman Legends.
As for its 3DS showing, the Nintendo Lounge will let attendees go hands-on with New Super Mario Bros. 2 and Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask, as well as three upcoming games: Brain Age: Concentration Training, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate.
Games had a part in last year's Sundance Film Festival as well, with Indie Game: The Movie taking home the Best Editing accolade within the World Cinema Documentary Competition.
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
32 comments
2 Like This may help Nintendo promote the Wii u. You have to actually play the console to get the idea behind it.
This comment has been deleted
I want to get Wii Fit U. My balance board is still good and I want to use it daily again. :)
3 Like Wii Fit U? My childish humour detector sees a way to make a crude joke by exchanging the letters in "Fit" to something involving letters u,c,k.
10 Like Instead of this, the Nintendo news that somebody on this site should be reporting is that Pandora's Tower just got announced for North America! Spring 2013 release date, published by Xseed. Woot!
@armodillo17 Now that, should be front page news. Can't believe it's taking GS this long before reporting on it.
@abHS4L88 @armodillo17 Haha, I was surprised it took you this long to respond. I expected you to be among the first. Woot, indeed!
Woke up late today, haha. I woke up at 8:25, hit my alarm and decided, screw it I'm going back to sleep and woke up 3 hours later :P
@armodillo17 Really? I thought it was already out in NA along with Xenoblade Chronicles and Last Story.
1 Like @Nexozable @armodillo17 Nope. It was translated into English for release in Europe, but it was never brought here until now.
5 Like @hitman047m4 @armodillo17 Theres a certian failure here when the commenters give better news than the game news site....
1 Like I like Nintendo events. They bring hot girls to showcase their stuff. Good ol' Japanese marketing.
3 Like So they are going to show three short films ,to help promote their newest console that does not play films. I guess they are trying to make people forget that their newest system has only 1 good game out for it, and no more coming till April. Nintendo wants to make people think they are not failing I guess.
4 Like @exedeath Seeing how we're moving away from dvds and physical copies and all that stuff in favour of Netflix and others (Which WII U has by the way.) I don't see it being a issue.
Try harder next time, okay?
3 Like @exedeath They have Netflix and others! More people streamed video than bought DVDs in 2012. That will only be more common from here on.
2 Like WTF Nintendo? More weird marketing strategy. How about you actually have games to demo in your demo stations? How about you put some real info out their about your system that people who don't frequent game magazines and websites might actually see? Too many people still think the Wii U is just a tablet add on for their Wii. Bringing your products to a film festival... Huh?
3 Like @endorbr Essentially, the purpose of having a lounge at the Sundance Film Festival is to give products away to random celebrities who visit bunches of these gifting lounges. It is what it is. They've had a lounge in previous years as well.
Well I guess the thinking is to get celebrities onboard with the idea so they'll indirectly hoc the product. Seems to me they could do that by just boxing one up and mailing it to them if they wanted to be cost effective about it. Still really seems like a lot of advertising money that will be spent on something that won't see them good returns. They really need to just be focusing on doing a better job of getting the word out to people who don't frequent sites like this and those who aren't that into gaming as a serious hobby.
2 Like @endorbr Got to find some form of advertisement somehow. You know... in order to get their products to sell.
Also god forbid they reach out to new audiences...
1 Like They just have the weirdest marketing. I'm not sure what their thinking is. It's like they have no one with marketing knowledge running their marketing department. They're spending a lot of money on advertising but it just seems to be really ineffective. I don't think sending a crew to a niche film festival is really going to help them.
1 Like @endorbr @SirApathetic005 @nintendoboy16 Any publicity is good publicity ;), and both Sony and Microsoft have done the same thing in the past... specially with their launch parties full of celebrities and media going home with a free console ;).
I just think its going to be a lot of advertising budget spent for very little effect. It'd be like trying to hoc kitchen appliances at Comic Con. Not saying some people wouldn't check that out but it isn't going to really drum up business for your product since that isn't what people are going there to see.
7 Like @endorbr It's hard to pay for advertising when you're a company that ONLY develops video games, and are competing against companies that play a pretty big part in the electronics market in general.
Nintendo takes what they can get, and tries things differently time and time again. This is normal for them.
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