Re: Dead Space
I have bought all of the "Mature" Sega three. I even enjoyed each one at the beginning.
I played through Madworld twice.
I really enjoyed Conduit. I sometimes play CoD4 on PS3, but I'll be honest, I hate dual analog. I'm not saying the controls suck for everyone, but, for me, I can only use dual analog in calm situations. Get me in an intense firefight, and I flail around like a moron. So Conduit, despite being cliche and predictable, was perfect for me.
I also liked HotD at first.
Even these titles, though, failed at being sufficiently polished. Conduit freezes annoyingly in online multiplayer, but even worse the game has been effectively ruined by hackers who become invincible and can fire a million rockets at once. I traded in HotD because the frame rate drops to about a 10 FPS and it becomes unplayable. Madworld, which occasionally freezes the Wii, holds up the strongest.
When Dead Space was announced, I was looking forward to it. Finally, RE4: Wii: Part II. It's everything those of us who like pointer-based aiming have been asking for. Then it was announced as an on-rails shooter.
I read the reviews. Apparently, it's a well-constructed on-rails shooter. And not even "on-rails" in a StarFox or Sin and Punishment way. It's a lightgun game. That's great that they polished it, and added ambiance and effects. But you can't polish something that I don't want and make me want it.
I can't speak for everyone. I can't speak for larger sales trends. I agree the Wii audience is not as strong a market for high-budget AAA M-rated titles. No argument there. Nonetheless, I can speak for myself as a part of whatever market is there.
Dead Space can have equal ambiance to the original. It can even have more story. But if I cared about ambiance and story, I wouldn't be asking for the game on Wii. As a Wii consumer, I want the gameplay that I want to play. That is a third-person action/adventure/shooter with IR-based aiming. Dead Space isn't that. So no buy.
That's my anecdote. I don't believe I'm alone. Even if the Wii market is not as large as the XBox360 market, publishers still have to appeal to the market that is there. Or they don't have to, but then I'll just go buy A Boy And His Blob instead.