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[Busaiku]

Bash Party not appearing in the Wii's top 10 at all certainly isn't too encouraging.
Hopefully this one still has the legs of its predecessor, but it looks like it may not sell quite as much.

 

[Rolf NB]

Updated:

 

[charsace]

This surprises you why, exactly?

Because Halo 3 was released 2 years ago and KZ2 was released this year?

 

[Azih]

Yeah, there were definitely motivations to the decision, but lack of a proven userbase for their game shouldn't have been one of them.

Honestly, I'm taking in general while you're dealing with specifics. Why are there less shooters on the Wii than the other consoles? Because in general shooters don't do to well on the Wii, now *specifically* CoD does well everywhere but in that situation you start running into another fairly large issue that the Wii is underpowered.

 

[CrunchinJelly]

This surprises you why, exactly?

20 months versus 3 months would be the logical guess.

 

[Princess Carl]

This surprises you why, exactly?

Because one of, if not the best reviewed game this year has sold like shit with a 7.7 million install base in the US alone?

20 months versus 3 months would be the logical guess.

That too of course.

 

[donny2112]

The top of the Wii chart is known, except for:


Hope that's enough to sate curiosity for now. Thanks.

Two $20 games. Again, consumers are actively passing over full-priced games to pick up the discounted (last month with GH:Aerosmith, for example) or budget games. Only the top of the want list games are remaining mostly unaffected.

 

[FrankT]

Was that at Gamasutra? If so, can you post the actual text? I can't access the site currently.

No actually that was my deduction alone based on the #16 placement and Ani saying it did 80k for the month. I figure if Ani is right then #16 sounds about right at ~80k.

 

[EagleEyes]

Because Halo 3 was released 2 years ago and KZ2 was released this year?

Exactly. Awesome staying power for an HD shooter. ODST is gonna be huge.

 

[Shipptnotsold]

At least we're getting four digit numbers without zeros from the NPD.

 

[donny2112]

Why are there less shooters on the Wii than the other consoles? Because in general shooters don't do to well on the Wii,

Other than WWII games, what FPSs have been released on Wii? Quantum of Solace (which happened to have sold best on Wii through January), a WiiWare game, Red Steel, Far Cry (horrible port from most accounts, IIRC), Metroid Prime (iffy on it being called a FPS), and ... ? That's one of the reasons The Conduit is so anticipated by the core gamers here. It's a good FPS that's not set in WWII.

now *specifically* CoD does well everywhere but in that situation you start running into another fairly large issue that the Wii is underpowered.

Now that Treyarch has ported over the CoD4 engine to Wii, I don't understand why Activision doesn't task them to go back and port over CoD4 to the Wii as a budget release. Getting the CoD4 engine ported over was definitely a large factor in why there wasn't a CoD4 Wii, though. Just wanted to point out that it shouldn't have had anything to do with the lack of a proven userbase on the Wii after CoD3's performance.

 

[Zachack]

Other than WWII games, what FPSs have been released on Wii? Quantum of Solace (which happened to have sold best on Wii through January), a WiiWare game, Red Steel, Far Cry (horrible port from most accounts, IIRC), Metroid Prime (iffy on it being called a FPS), and ... ? That's one of the reasons The Conduit is so anticipated by the core gamers here. It's a good FPS that's not set in WWII.

Out of curiosity, do you know how dumb your post looks when you hi-five QoS Wii for being the best selling version? There's pretty much no way to twist that into a positive for Nintendo.

Now that Treyarch has ported over the CoD4 engine to Wii, I don't understand why Activision doesn't task them to go back and port over CoD4 to the Wii as a budget release. Getting the CoD4 engine ported over was definitely a large factor in why there wasn't a CoD4 Wii, though. Just wanted to point out that it shouldn't have had anything to do with the lack of a proven userbase on the Wii after CoD3's performance.

Again with the comparisons. Maybe BOTH the Wii and the PS3 have poor-ish audiences (although CoD4 did sell a couple Mil on PS3), but since the PS3 version can be easily ported, it got lucky. Of course, that assumes that there was nothing competing for audience at the same time.

Just because Game X Console X outsells Game X Console Y doesn't mean that either Console X or Y have an audience worth actively pursuing.

edit: The Wii version of CoD3 was competing against Red Steel. The PS3 version was competing against Resistance FOM. Red Steel has sold over 1M WW. Resistance has sold over 4M (according to wiki).

 

[donny2112]

There's pretty much no way to twist that into a positive for Nintendo.

It shows there's a desperately starved audience for FPSs on Wii (i.e. the PS3/360 owners probably had much better choices for an FPS). I don't think that's a positive for Nintendo (better to have a large audience that's just generally hungry for content), but it does make the point that the audience is there.

Again with the comparisons.

Comparing things? Shocking.

Maybe BOTH the Wii and the PS3 have poor-ish audiences

I think at launch, they both pretty much did, yes.

but since the PS3 version can be easily ported, it got lucky.

I think that's exactly the case with CoD4.

Just because Game X Console X outsells Game X Console Y doesn't mean that either Console X or Y have an audience worth actively pursuing.

If either of their sales are big enough, I'd say it does. I don't think Quantum of Solace and (probably) CoD3 paint that picture about Wii, but CoD:WaW certainly goes a long way in that direction.

Resistance has sold over 4M (according to wiki).

There's no way that's the case outside of heavy bundling outside of the U.S., which I think might've actually been the case. Resistance took a very long time to cross 1 million in the U.S., and I think it sold ~100K in Japan (which is actually very good for Japan).

 

[jvm]

There's no way that's the case outside of heavy bundling outside of the U.S., which I think might've actually been the case. Resistance took a very long time to cross 1 million in the U.S., and I think it sold ~100K in Japan (which is actually very good for Japan).

According to NPD, Resistance 1 has passed 1.1 milllion in the U.S. as of April 2009, excluding any bundles. (Brain fried. There were R1 bundles in U.S., right?)

 

[donny2112]

According to NPD, Resistance 1 has passed 1.1 milllion in the U.S. as of April 2009, excluding any bundles. (Brain fried. There were R1 bundles in U.S., right?)

I'm pretty sure there were in the U.K., but I don't recall an official one in the U.S. Motorstorm, Uncharted, and MGS4 have all been bundled in the U.S. in some fashion. I don't recall if any others have been, though.

 

[OldJadedGamer]

According to NPD, Resistance 1 has passed 1.1 milllion in the U.S. as of April 2009, excluding any bundles. (Brain fried. There were R1 bundles in U.S., right?)

There was a Target only bundle but nothing official.

 

[Warm Machine]

That still doesn't answer what technical advantage the HD twins offer for a shooter over the Wii other than better graphics. I'm still waiting to hear a real answer to this. People can claim AI but I personally haven't played a game yet where I've gone fuck that AI is amazing, it all seems like the same shit to me. People claim physics but has rag doll physics actually made a change in gameplay?

Graphics and gameplay go hand in hand, especially in an FPS. Each increase in graphics power and technique has had an immediate impact to gameplay for the developers who integrate it.

 

[gkryhewy]

Because Halo 3 was released 2 years ago and KZ2 was released this year?

Lots of things released this year and tanked. Killzone is not Halo. Halo 3 is probably the closest thing the 360 has to a Nintendo "evergreen." The closest thing PS3 has to an evergreen is probably Dark Knight on Blu-ray.

 

[JKBii]

New NPD hardware results for Frenck's benefit:

Nintendo DS 633.5K
Balance Board W/ Wii FIT (Wii) 352.8K
Rubber Band W/ EA SPORTS ACTIVE(Wii) 345.8K
Wii 289.5K
Xbox 360 175K
Plastic Wheel W/MARIO KART(Wii) 158.3K
PlayStation 3 131K
PlayStation 2 117K
Remote W/ Wii PLAY(Wii) 109.8K
PSP 100.4K

Best post in this topic

 

[Rolf NB]

Really, I'm trying to understand: What makes the Wii so dramatically different and alien from any console that existed before it?

???

 

[Gary Whitta]

If Nintendo wants to boost the shit out of its sales this holiday, how about a $250 bundle that includes Wii Sports AND Resort (including M+)?

 

[legend166]

Because in the same month a 3rd party HD game sold over a million units. And Bionic Commando is nowhere near as high-profile as something like The Conduit in the "core" world.

You realise you've just described the main problem with this entire generation without even noticing it, right?

Which is that a game which is pretty much agreed upon by everyone to be mid-tier at best, cost 20 million dollars to develop. Compared to an apparent top-tier game on the Wii, which, at most, would have cost half that.

You don't see the problem here? This is the problem with huge development costs on limited userbases. It's pretty much go big, or go home. And it sucks.

 

[Aaron Strife]

???

man this is almost as wacky as that time when Sony put two analog sticks on their controllers

 

[Bizzyb]

No, they're responsible for maintaining territories in which they can easily market and sell their products. They're responsible for making money. Right now, they have mitigated their standing to a severe degree on the market leader - not because of what Nintendo did but because they approached the platform as an anomaly, an enigma. Rather than leading with their strengths and making cost-effective decisions that would allow them breathing room on all the available systems, they segmented the market to the point where the only valid choice is one of attrition. They have trapped themselves inside a massive and very deep red ocean.

It was short-sighted and stupid.

You mean on 360 with shooter after shooter

or on Wii with Shovelware after shovelware?

I think 3rd parties should have treated the Wii like a market leader (quality software with real efforts) and not like a system that you develop for simply b/c it exists, which is basically what they're doing for PS3, except that b/c 360 also exists they have no choice but to also put the quality software on it as well.

 

[MotherFan]

Honestly, I'm taking in general while you're dealing with specifics. Why are there less shooters on the Wii than the other consoles? Because in general shooters don't do to well on the Wii , now *specifically* CoD does well everywhere but in that situation you start running into another fairly large issue that the Wii is underpowered.

What shooters? There is no evidence. The wii has not had many shooters, and the ones that it did get sold decently.

 

[MidgarBlowedUp]

infamous

why do ps3 owners hate good games?

Same reason Wii owners love bad ones?

 

[-Rogue5-]

DS, how the hell do you do what you do?

And PS2? Over 100k still? Seriously?

 

[Haunted]

If Nintendo wants to boost the shit out of its sales this holiday, how about a $250 bundle that includes Wii Sports AND Resort (including M+)?

...in three different colours (black, red, silver)?

They would make a killing.

 

[JoJo13]

I find it almost unimaginable that Bionic Commando: Rearmed pulled in more revenue than Bionic Commando the full retail game.

That's mind boggling. I wonder what Capcom thinks of that?

 

[Rolf NB]

DS, how the hell do you do what you do?

And PS2? Over 100k still? Seriously?

It had a price drop in April (99$).

 

[MidgarBlowedUp]

And PS2? Over 100k still? Seriously?

Kinda makes sense to me. I'm surprised it isn't selling double that with so many AAA used games for under $10 and graphics nearly on par with the Wii.

 

[The Faceless Master]

I know huh, so sad. Also, Rearmed was a 12 dollar online game, in which Capcom probably saw about -- 6 dollars worth of profit. With the other 6 going XBLA/PSN. So, assuming all said in done the game was downloaded 400,000 times -- 6 * 400,000 = 2,400,000 USD profit. That is like the cost to cover the tissue paper to wipe the tears of the developers, nothing more.

Dark Void - I've played it. And unlike Bionic Commando, is a pretty damn fun game. If not typical (cover and shoot) it's pretty, solid, good premise, and a few interesting game mechanics to seperate it from being a pure Gears of War clone.

However, I also think the name, marketing, time-frame of the game just won't sit well.

Capcom's golden period is Jan - March, RE5, DMC4, SF4, LP, DR all came out around that time (give or take) and tore shit up.

Dead Rising was released in August. Other than that, pretty much spot on.

 

[ZAK]

Kinda makes sense to me. I'm surprised it isn't selling double that with so many AAA used games for under $10 and graphics nearly on par with the Wii.

:lol That's a selling point now, is it?

 

[pakkit]

Same reason Wii owners love bad ones?

I've read this reply several times, and it still doesn't make sense.

 

[Femmeworth]

If Nintendo wants to boost the shit out of its sales this holiday, how about a $250 bundle that includes Wii Sports AND Resort (including M+)?

I highly doubt they would include Resort since it only comes out in July. I'm sure they will release one with M+, but not Resort. At least, not for $250.

 

[Rolf NB]

I've read this reply several times, and it still doesn't make sense.

Yeah, same. Wii owners don't love games. What they do is they begrudginly accept some of them.

 

[justchris]

If those IPs were so popular, they wouldn't need resurrecting, there's a reason why they weren't being tapped, not sure why some people kept asking dead IPs to be brought back and/or remaking games that never sold all that well the first go-around.

This is the wrong way of looking at it. Franchises that were popular in the past often waned in popularity simply because they ceased to exist. And they ceased to exist because the technology changed (from 2d to 3d), and the developers either lacked the creativity or the ability to bring them into the new technology. As that technology has improved, and developers have gotten more familiar with it, they now have the ability/creativity to make new version of those games (or so they thought). As an example, Super Metroid (SNES) to Nothing (n64) to Metroid Prime (GC).

That's the thing though, two or three of *any* kind of miss and a company is out of business. Being only as good as your last release is not something that is unique to gaming. And in *any* case the PC, PS3, and 360 all offer robust options for smaller online games now.

Except they're not. Nintendo made two misses in a row with the n64 and GC, and those are pretty damn major misses what with them being the primary thing their company is built on. The difference is, Nintendo is a fiscally responsible and well managed company. Or Grasshopper Manufacture, none of their games ever sell well, and yet not a single one of their unending string of failures has resulted in the company going under, and that is because they work within a reasonable budget. In their effort to compete with the latest blockbuster, companies are spending massive amounts of money, and when their game fails to be a blockbuster, that is going to have a bigger impact on the bottom line than the failure of a more experimental product with a smaller budget. Mass Effect would probably be a good example here, but I couldn't say for sure, but I expect its budget was pretty small in comparison to say, Oblivion or Fable 2.

There were different experiments, and the ones that worked better became the mainstray. Why do you insist on 3rd parties building or grooming markets? That's Nintendo's job.

Not according to 3rd parties. Why haven't there been a run of 3D platformers or First Person Adventures or Action games on the Wii? Because developers claim that its simply not possible to compete with Mario, Metroid or Zelda. Hell, the only kart racing games to follow Mario Kart were low budget affairs (except maybe the Nascar one, that one had to have some kind of budget for the license). Do you honestly think, if Nintendo did create a AAA FPS that sold 15 million WW that anyone would ever dare put an FPS of any caliber on the Wii? No, they'd just claim it was impossible to compete and put their next multi-million selling FPS on the PS360.

I'm not saying you're wrong per se, I'm just saying that developers can complain that Nintendo is not creating a market for their games, but if Nintendo did, they'd complain that they couldn't compete. They've accepted the Wii as a lose-lose situation regardless of reality, and that takes some kind of special type of delusion right there.

 

[donny2112]

the only kart racing games to follow Mario Kart were low budget affairs (except maybe the Nascar one, that one had to have some kind of budget for the license).

And MySims Racing. I figure EA created one engine and used it for both games.

They've accepted the Wii as a lose-lose situation regardless of reality, and that takes some kind of special type of delusion right there.

It's so special you almost have to admire it.

Old Man1: "That there's some mighty powerful delusion."
Old Man2: "Yep."

 

[Il Comodino]

how many days of sale for Infamous?

2 o 3?

good number!

 

[donny2112]

how many days of sale for Infamous?

5.

 

[Drkirby]

man this is almost as wacky as that time when Sony put two analog sticks on their controllers

Or when Nintendo Put that Plus Symbol in place of those stick thingys on there controller.

 

[Spider_Jerusalem]

how many days of sale for Infamous?

2 o 3?

good number!

I don't know... console exclusives are supposed to have some pretty huge sales spikes at launch, and this looks like something we won't even see in june's top 10. Probably good number if it was a generic title, but as a console exclusive I don't think so. And the game seems to be very good (getting my copy today): maybe bad marketing?

Edit: I don't know if anyone already brought it up, but out of curiosity, I checked the sales of Crackdown at launch. It's a similar situation, even if it had some 5 days more on shelves.

And it was first on the software chart, with 427K. This is what I call a good number for a console exclusive.

 

[JoJo13]

I don't know... console exclusives are supposed to have some pretty huge sales spikes at launch, and this looks like something we won't even see in june's top 10. Probably good number if it was a generic title, but as a console exclusive I don't think so. And the game seems to be very good (getting my copy today): maybe bad marketing?

Edit: I don't know if anyone already brought it up, but out of curiosity, I checked the sales of Crackdown at launch. It's a similar situation, even if it had some 5 days more on shelves.

And it was first on the software chart, with 427K. This is what I call a good number for a console exclusive.

I also heard that this Crackdown game came bundled with the Halo 3 beta.

 

[donny2112]

This is what I call a good number for a pack-in game for the Halo 3 Beta.

Fixed. Crackdown had just a little more going for it than simply being a good game with a new IP.

 

[farnham]

crossbow training is becoming an evergreen title

i wonder if it will outsell twilight princess some day

 

[Spider_Jerusalem]

I also heard that this Crackdown game came bundled with the Halo 3 beta.

As I said, it could be a marketing issue

 

[donny2112]

i wonder if it will outsell twilight princess some day

It's probably already past it. :| Twilight Princess is still $50 (Hello, NOA?!? Player's Choice lineup, please!), so Crossbow Training being $20 gives it a huge advantage in the current economy.

 

[Sadist]

It's probably already past it. :| Twilight Princess is still $50 (Hello, NOA?!? Player's Choice lineup, please!), so Crossbow Training being $20 gives it a huge advantage in the current economy.

Don't keep your hopes up for Player's Choice line for Wii.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

So you're suggesting that the Wii's audience has never existed before? That many of its owners didn't own a PS2 or have any interest in gaming prior to the release of the system? And that it's better to take your chances spending gobs of money on a single title rather than spreading the same amount of money out across several games in hopes of creating a new IP and helping to promote a healthy game-buying climate on a console with relatively low development cost, which is advantageous to you?

Well, hey, I'm willing to give third parties the benefit of the doubt. The market can be confusing. Remember when PS2 sales were so high because of those printing press fans and people jacking into the Matrix? Nobody knew what the hell they'd buy. And with the advance of analog buttons, they couldn't just deliver what worked in the past--what would be the point? Then the market ended up flooded with games trying to ride on the success of The Bouncer and Fantavision.

 

[Cygnus X-1]

The Wii does not need a price cut.

They are on the verge of a huge software release (Resort). That alone will push the system back into it's usual numbers. They are probably looking forward to squeezing one last Christmas in at 249$.

That's USA. Japan has Resort AND Monster Hunter.

After this holiday, they could finally do a tiny 50$ price drop and it'll be pandimonium all through 2010. Hell, they could probably drop to 149$ and still make money off the console.

That's also what Iwata said and I think he's right. Actually, it is almost impossible for wii sports resort to fail, since its predecessor is now the best selling game ever.