ACNH Audiences

 What Motivates Their Audiences

                                                                                                                            Social aspects are inside the game as well as through the Nintendo online subscription.    

Action- In ACNH there are bugs that can chase the character

Social- You can interact with other villagers as well as visit friends islands.

                                                                                                                              

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Mastery- There is an island rating inside the game - this links to achievement

Immersion- The game uses real items and animals to seem realistic

    

Creativity- Can customize your island at      your own pace

Types Of Player- 

Casual- occasionally have short sessions of playing games - candy crush while waiting for a bus.

Core- Own their own console - play regularly however not serious/professional

Hardcore- High end equipment - play very often - sometimes play competitively. 

ACNH is intended for the casual due to the portability of the game however it appeals to both the core and hardcore gamers.

One hardcore village I liked was a dystopian themed city - the colors were striking and I liked how the weather set the scene. This is an example of hardcore gamers on a casual and slow paced game.

STRAY INSPIRED CITY//CYBERPUNK ABANDONED CITY//ISLAND TOUR//ANIMAL CROSSING:NEW HORIZONS - YouTube

Marketing In Gaming-

Most companies use large scale  and third party (usually) events to promote and market new games. - summer games fest or the Nintendo direct.

Nintendo typically keep audiences engaged with semi-regular free updates however ACNH has not been updated in over a year leading to lots of frustration among fans.

 The most powerful form of marketing for games is easily word of mouth and user generated content. Essentially the users are advertising for the company for free!!!!

How does ACNH apply to a wide audience

• range of skin tones/hair types/eye shapes
• more customization later on - have to play the game for a certain hairstyle
• built on the popular Miis from Nintendo

87 YR OLD HAS A 3500+ HR AC ISLAND-

-Audrey - played for 3 yrs - 87 yrs old

-grandson bought her a new DS when the old one broke

-hasn't completed the game yet

She became a huge internet personality - Nintendo decided to make her a villager INSIDE the game

              

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

BREAKING NEWS!!!!!

 HUGE DEAL BETWEENN ACTVISION AND Microsoft - 69 bn takeover

River Island

 Established in 1948

250+ UK stores

expanding worldwide and online

conventional high street fashion advertising

Social campaign- #labelsareforclothes.

Similar to dove as they both promote positivity with yourself. Both use hashtags to allow intertextuality and also create prosumers as customers may post with the #.

Both attempt to create inclusivity within their brand.

The audiovisual advert featured a wide range of actors ranging from ethnicity to sexuality. Attempted to seem scandalous by showing things that wouldn't typically be shown on adverts - stands out by challenging stereotypes

The second advert also challenged stereotypes but this time focused more on the actors' disability, ethnicity, culture and more.

Jordan Luce, wheelchair basketball player and river island affiliate/influencer. condition makes him sometimes wheelchair bound. Also French.

I think RI used him as he bridges the gap between disability and the more able bodied as he is only occasionally wheelchair bound it shows how having a disability doesn't make them completely separate from able bodied

I think RI interviewed Luce to make him and all the people he attempts to represent seem more approachable weather its about their ethnicity or disability.

C-olour

L-ayout

I-mage

F-ont

T-ypography

25% of UK citizens are classed as having a disability however only 4% of characters in adverts are disabled.                                                   

Animal Crossing

 Advertising-

Nintendo announced ACNH over a year before the release in order to generate excitement in the community. They released a first person video talking to one of the characters Tom Nook which gave an immersive experience to the audience which is vital for a social simulation game.

             

Merchandise- 

Animal Crossing has many many different forms and items of merchandise ranging from plushies to clothing items and even my personal favorite as shown below!!!!

ACNH cat costume.

Adverts- 

Take your friends along for the ride with Animal Crossing: New Horizons

This advert covers the social aspect of the game by following a narrative of a fractured friendship group broken up due to one member moving house and animal crossing is shown as the glue that holds the group together

Adverts from the game generally take turns targeting every single age group, essentially as soon as you can hold a switch you can play animal crossing to the day you die!!

Monetization-

How businesses make money from selling a product. In the gaming industry it ranges from as simple as pushing a coin into an arcade machine, to buying an entire game or even little  exclusive and customizable options inside the game. 

Digital Convergence-

Where you can access multiple forms of media from one device. for example, on a phone you can listen to music, play games and watch videos/social media. Makes media much more shareable. Some video game systems pioneered this method such as the PlayStation that allowed multiple games to be played on one console

Prosumers-

no longer passive in their consumption of media as they can interact and shape the game through sharing, streaming and interacting. People can be payed to stream their gameplay.

Console Wars-

3 big brands in the console industry, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo - driven by technological advancements - in order to increase console popularity these consoles sometimes release console exclusive games to attract more customers to their consoles.

Best Selling Consoles OAT

PS2- 157 mil

DS- 154 mil

Nintendo switch- 122.5 mil

GameBoy- 118.7 mil

PS4- 117.2 mil

PS- 102.5 mil

WII- 101.6 mil

PS3- 87.4 mil

Xbox360- 84 mil

GameBoy advance- 81.5 mil

The statistic that surprised me the most was the  WII being so high up as it was widely regarded as a family console however things like GameBoy advances were personal and would need to buy multiple for a family.

One pattern that I noticed was that handheld and portable devices tend to do better than stationary ones

ACNH and DOOM eternal released on the same day - boosted each others sales

Henry Jenkins-

Fandom Theory-

Synergy-

Where 2 companies join together to increase sales.

Monetization-

Nintendo initially resisted industry developments in monetization - didn't buy into 'loot boxes' and in app purchases. Instead, Nintendo generally focused on releasing high quality, bug-free releases.

However, recently Nintendo have capitalized on industry monetization trends. Charges 17.99 a year for nintendop online - free games and online play - can visit other ACNH islands.

ACNH released for£50 and has no in app purchases - once u buy it you have everything.

Consumer game software market valued at £4.28 bn in 2021. - 11.4% growth since 2019.

fastest growing industry.

Video games often outsell film or music.

How Nintendo protect their products.

Seal Of Quality- guarantees you have purchased a Nintendo quality product

Nintendo games depreciate in value very slowly due to the exclusivity as well as the quality they state they have.

other platforms like steam, tend to regularly discount games or lower the price after a certain amount of time.

ANIMALCROSSING - £50 on release and £50 today.

Nintendo have managed to stay out of console wars due to their advertising as a family console - gentle ads and low age ratings. Easy to use hardware - Wii controls - hybrid (tv and handheld) of a switch - touchscreen on the ds etc.

This digital convergence is huge in japan due to the busy working lives, a handheld console to be able to play games whenever they get a shred of free time.

Hearts Of Iron IV - Comparison Case Study-

-War themed

-Action - the theme that ACNH misses

-Older demographic

-Single player, complex strategy game - long play sessions(hardcore)

-Indie games - independent game with no publisher - target a smaller audience as the games don't cost as much to make

Another game that released in 2020 was Spider-Man Miles Morales-

-An open world game to a much larger scale that ACNH 

-dissimilarly to ACNH it is also an action game 

-A lot of focus on the soundtracks

-Also a huge success 

Nintendo

 Top 10 Nintendo words-

*Mario

*Fun

*DS

*Gameboy

*NES

*WII

*WII U

*Switch

*SNES

Games-

production- Takes 8-9 months (some can take MUCH longer) - Rights, acquisition, voice actors, coders and more

Distribution- internet, TV ,social media

Consumption- Release on multiple platforms, updates and support

Nintendo keep their games on their platforms. 

    EXCLUSIVITY - attracts fans of the game to their entire brand.

Animal crossing doesn't use voice actors - no language barrier.

E3 2019 - Animal Crossing trailer-

Peaceful, isolated, bare bones/basic, soft graphics - no sharp corners, calm soundtrack, relaxing

      Seasonal graphics

                                                    in game                                                   time matches real time

 A social simulation game, franchise, simplistic tasks and activities match what consumers were starved of in 2020 when it released

USP is its tranquility - gives consumer a break from the fast paced nature of life.

Made by 2 developers - Katsuya Eguchi and Hisashi Nogami

Announced in 2018 - released in 2020

First game to sell 5 million copies in a month.

Won best family game in 2020 game awards

In 6 weeks - surpassed lifetime sales of all previous animal crossing games and became the second best selling game on the switch

15th best selling game OAT

5th fastest seller in its first year - 2 billion gross profit.

How Nintendo protect their products.

Seal Of Quality- guarantees you have purchased a Nintendo quality product

Nintendo games depreciate in value very slowly due to the exclusivity as well as the quality they state they have.

other platforms like steam, tend to regularly discount games or lower the price after a certain amount of time.

Dove

 Personal hygiene market valued at 64.4 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow at 5% a year till 2026

revenue in beauty and personal care is around 571 billion and is expected to grow at 3.8% yearly till 2027

Some products skyrocketed during COVID 

In beauty and personal care market around 37.5% of total revenue was made through online sales.

Cocooning- the growth in people remaining idle at home and shopping online.

Be Novel and experimental - unique and new products gain a lot of interest.

Environmental responsibility- sustainability is important to companies image as it is increasingly on consumers minds. Some companies get scrutinized and loose sales due to lack of environmental consciousness.

Wellbeing and health- Awareness of personal health is paramount - consumers seek guidance with their products and want to 'buy' a healthy life - clean is important.

Value for money - consumers are caring less for expensive exclusivity and have an increase in demand for products to be good value for their money.

DOVE-

Doves new ads challenged the expected bodies and views of women by showing real and relatable women for their models and ads after finding out that over 68% of women said they felt worse about themselves after reading a women's magazine. Their old ads were more typical of the times however still showed women in natural portrayals. 

FAIRY LIQUID AD-

*Stereotypical housewife 

 OXO Cube Ad-

*Also stereotypical

*Well spoken

*Cooking dinner

The 'good mother' stereotype is an idea crafted and reinforced by the media that the woman of the house cooks, cleans and does most domestic jobs.

The idea that all mothers are glamourous, calm, loving and organized
Operates in the kitchen

Intertextuality- The shaping of a text's meaning by another text. It is a 'nod' or allusion to a similar or related work that is designed to reflect and influence an audience's interpretation of a text. 

Hashtags are a type of intertextuality that helps bring more attention to a media form - typically in advertising campaigns.

Dove BRM ad-

Photographers immersed themselves in 6 real mothers' lives in order to capture the 'realest' possible image of them in order to break the intimidating mold that caused mothers to feel inadequate 

Dove hired Pulitzer prize photographers 

-average of 8 mins was spent viewing the posts

-10.3% of market share switched to baby dove after the ad campaign

-out of home ads (eg billboards), print, and online ads

C-lower/middle class

A-30-40

G-women

E-any

D-able bodies

Pros of Hashtags-

-allowed free advertising as people could repost under the hashtag - increases user interactivity

-all in one space

-increases brand awareness

-relevant to the times (2018 was hashtags peak popularity)

-replaces the product image

Media Audience Theory

 Albert Bandura-

Hypodermic needle model- Suggested the media are powerful and oppressive  - control the passive audience by 'injecting' their message. However this isn't completely true as I've played plants vs zombies but I've never seen a zombie or planted a plant that can shoot peas. 

BOBO doll experiment - 

Bandura wished to observe the effects of witnessing violence's on an audience so he showed 2 groups of children a doll - one group witnessed the doll being gently played with and cared for and so the children matched this behaviors whereas the other group watched the doll get mauled and repeatedly damaged and so they did the same. This was a revolutionary finding as at the time it was widely believed that watching violence would purge you of all violent thoughts and even calm you down.

Stuart Hall - Reception Theory-

Believes that the media 'encode' a message and we as an audience download it into our minds however unlike bandura suggesting its instantly accepted, Hall suggests our minds 'decode' it and decide for ourselves if we wish to accept. These encoded messages are called the preferred meaning.

The 'dominant-hegemonic' position is the preferred reading that just accepts the meaning.

the 'negotiated' position accepts the ideology and intentions but disagree with certain points of it - essentially a compromise.

the 'oppositional' position rejects the overt message and its underlying ideological messages.