Thursday, January 14, 2010

Nintendo of America thinks you're ready for Beyonce's jelly (again)

Last April, Nintendo of America paid "Single Ladies" crooner Beyonce an exorbitant amount of cash (or not) to promote Rhythm Heaven. The result: A pair of TV ads showing the former Destiny's Child frontwoman playing (and seemingly enjoying) the Tsunku-designed DS game. Here's one of them:



Surprisingly, the ads didn't lead to success on the sales charts. In its first month on store shelves, Rhythm Heaven sold somewhere south of 91,000 copies, according to NPD Group. In its second month (May 2009), it sold less (much less, probably) than 110,000 copies.

That's the last time Rhythm Heaven appeared on NPD's sales charts, which suggests the title hasn't followed in the successful footsteps of its Japanese counterpart. (That game, known as Rhythm Tengoku Gold, has sold nearly 2 million copies since its release in June 2008).

Anyway, to make a long story short (I know, too late), the folks at Nintendo of American don't seem to be all that bothered by Beyonce's lack of selling power. Case in point: Yesterday's announcement that Jay-Z's better half will soon appear in a pair of TV ads pushing the company's Style Savvy game.

Should the spots fail to spur Style Savvy sales (try to say that three times fast), maybe the powers that be at Nintendo will give "Friends" funny lady Lisa Kudrow (and former Personal Trainer: Cooking and Professor Layton pitchwoman) another go.

2 comments:

Viewtiful_Justin said...

They certainly are cramming Style Savvy down our throats! Have you been seeing Nintendo Week? Holy cow...it's like every week they talk about that game. I dunno...Beyonce, Gary, Allsion, or not, I think I'd feel too gay buying it. :-P

Bryan Ochalla said...

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's aimed at little girls--which makes the constant references on Nintendo Week seem a bit funny :)