14 DAY TRIAL // In their reviews, critics deemed Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars as one of the best games to come out on the DS this year. But, in spite of the actual quality of the title, and the recommendations given by gaming sites and magazines around the world, it sold very poorly. The lack of proper publishing support the game received has Nintendo very disappointed and even frustrated with the marketing strategy that was used for it. Nintendo of America's Executive Vice President of sales and marketing, Cammie Dunaway, talked to MTV and shared her and the company's opinion on the matter.
"It's frustrating," she said. "Certainly there have been mature titles – Resident Evil, the first Call Of Duty – that have sold over 1 million units. With something like GTA there's great content there and we do think that it will have a long tail and we've seen that with a lot of titles across all genres on DS. Part of what's needed is that you have to put marketing support behind these titles."
Dunaway further added that, "One of the things we've learned is that the dynamic of 'throw it on television for a few weeks and then move on and forget about it' just doesn't work because consumers are out there and new consumers are coming all the time so you've got to keep coming up with new ways to expose it. I think they should continue to put marketing support behind it." And it's hard to disagree with her. No one can claim that the actual title was bad, even if you ignore the critics. So, the problem had to lie in the way the game was marketed.
While it's true Chinatown Wars wasn't as big of a release as GTA IV, except for a few gaming sites, there has been little publicity for the title. What should have ridden the back of the big title, this spinoff acted more like it was shy to be found in its 'elder' brother's company. This is by no means the first good game to remain in the shadows due to poor marketing, but it is strange to see a member of the Grand Theft Auto franchise receive such little attention.