Wii Sports Resort to break Nintendos records

Nintendo is determined to shatter the sales records set by Wii Fit with the release of Wii Sports Resort.

Wii Fit topped the UK All Formats chart 16 times in total – including a string of seven weeks in a row at No.1.

Wii Sports Resort is tthe biggest launch on Wii this year,” Nintendo’s senior product manager Robert Lowe told MCV. We are hoping to break the records set by Mario Kart Wii and then Wii Fit, and achieve a No.1 in the All Formats and the Wii charts.”

Nintendo has prepared a mammoth marketing blitz to promote the title.

In addition to an initial push surrounding the game’s release, the firm will be re-promoting the game heavily at Christmas and into 2010.

Lowe added: We have a huge TV campaign running over three months, a print campaign that will include cover-wraps on The Daily Star, Metro and Shortlist, an online takeover on MSN and all the major gaming websites, as well as a cinema campaign alongside Harry Potter.

Below the line, we have one of our biggest ever sampling campaigns planned in, based around a beach resort theme, as well as a massive PR push. I’d say it’s probably the biggest campaign I’ve ever been involved with.”

Nintendo’s marketing for Wii Sports Resort will be considerably different to promotions that the platform holder has run for family-friendly Wii games in the past.

Nintendo has decided to slightly move away from the ‘Wii family around the sofa’ style of advertising, and are now showing sporting professionals from around Europe trying out their expertise on Wii Sports Resort,” commmented Lowe.

The initial cuts of the Wii Sports Resort ad campaign really look fantastic, and we hope it will gain major cut-through to our broad Wii audience.

We’ll be targeting a very broad audience when the game is released in July – as Wii Sports Resort really is for anyone.”

Wii Sports Resort sold over 350,000 copies in its first four days on sale in Japan.