Ex-Nintendo Employee Reveals How a Massive Wii Sports Promotion In New York City Almost Remained a Pipe Dream

Published 04/22/2022, 2:00 PM EDT

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Nintendo has pulled off many remarkable feats in the past few decades and the gaming giant continues to evolve. With the journey from the remarkable era of 8-Bit technology to the modern-day majestic Switch console. The studio has managed to sell millions of copies around the world and continues to offer serious competition to its rivals.

video source: Kit & Krysta

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However, at one time, the studio took on a massive project geared towards marketing WiiSports Resort in the American market. The studio came up with a rather spectacular idea to set up an actual resort in the middle of Times Square to promote the game. However, something went uncharacteristically wrong and the entire event turned into a PR nightmare.

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Nintendo planned the whole event but failed to a rain check

The YouTubers were apparently a part of the team behind this massive spectacle that took place in 2008. The studio had failed to make a promising mark on the community during E3 and this was their idea to reconcile. Speaking about the event, the idea was to build a resort with an actual gaming setup and tons of sand covering the whole area.

Nintendo’s employees indeed faced a lot of difficulties to acquire necessary permits and shipping everything to the city. It was not an easy task to take on but sadly luck wasn’t ever in their favor from the beginning.

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via Imago

Krysta said, “But we were really unlucky with this whole thing because the day of the event it rained. And We struggled, for like a long stretch and I think we all did.” 

The PR team had done a great job in terraforming the floor into a beach area, but the unaccounted rain ruined everything. She continued, “That was always like the danger of a rain plan but this time it was pretty hard to have a rain plan because literally, it was like sand on. But it looks like a dam it does not look like a beautiful sunny warm island resort. Those rainstorms in New York are no joke”

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It should have been a memorable moment for the company but unfortunately, it quickly turned into a disaster The plans were put in place to offer a real-life experience of a sunny beach area in the middle of New York City, but the rain turned everything into damp.

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Written by:

Ayank Chourasia

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Ayank Chourasia is an eSports author at EssentiallySports. He has been writing since 2016 across various fields, having done his BBA from T.I.
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Edited by:

Pritam Priyedarshi