Nintendo's House of Glass

Nintendo's far-reaching plans for GameCube marketing in Europe have been unveiled today, spanning TV, cinema, print and new media, as well as the WipEout-infused club scene. Although not quite so profound as Sony's David Lynch Third Place advertisements, the TV and cinema campaign aims to dramatise the immersive nature of Nintendo GameCube. As you may already have seen in footage released to the Internet, a glass cube dominates each advert, showing the blurred line between reality and the escapist fantasy of the gaming world. That's what it says here. Each Leo Burnett-developed advert focuses on different elements of the fifty games promised by the summer, including footage from the likes of Luigi's Mansion, Super Smash Brothers Melee and Rogue Leader. The new signature line, "Life's a Game" is also used. Although your humble correspondent has yet to witness any of the adverts first hand, if they're anywhere near as amusing as the GameBoy Advance campaign of last summer, then we thoroughly approve. In terms of media advertising, Nintendo plans contemporary campaigns including SMS spamming and spots on MTV and Yahoo. Promotional CD-Roms will be distributed en masse across the continent. Cube Clubs - a feature used to great effect in the United States - will pepper the land as part of a 42-date, 28-city tour of Europe. Each Cube Club will have all fifty playable titles as well as famous DJs and other attractions. In the UK, the tour will head to Newcastle, Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham and finally London during April. Details at http://www.cubeclub.co.uk. The final prong of Nintendo's campaign is its in-store displays. More than 3,500 interactive units will start appearing in game stores across Europe. Ultimately, the real question is whether or not all this exposure can help Nintendo beat off the threat of Microsoft. Sony is far and away the market leader, with little chance of being caught, but the Xbox - despite costing nearly twice as much as the humble GameCube - presents a more realistic, but equally formidable challenge. Taking on the will of Microsoft. Yikes. Related Feature - Nintendo busts out the chequebook