Disturbing Wii Third Party Sales

[T3kNi9e]

MP3 was advertised alot and it still only sold around 500,000. Thats not good. Most titles that are AAA go atleast 1 million.

Btw im pretty sure they were talking about Sadness as one of the games the good games going to Wii that no one wants to publish because they are worried it wont sell.

Its true developers rushed games the first year, but whats more scary is that they made money off of the horrible games because of the casual audience. Hell theres a topic about Cooking mama where everyone is saying how good it is and that crap is pathetic I wouldnt buy it for a dollar. They're making a Cooking Mama 2 lol.

 

[thas]

Its true developers rushed games the first year, but whats more scary is that they made money off of the horrible games because of the casual audience. Hell theres a topic about Cooking mama where everyone is saying how good it is and that crap is pathetic I wouldnt buy it for a dollar. They're making a Cooking Mama 2 lol.

ok i have to agree with that paragraph. cooking mama sucked. also MP3 sold more than 680,000. its getting there. you may think that ads dont work, but they actually do. just not those corny ads that nintendo does. like why the hell would i want to see people playing the game. i dont mind the two japanese guys, their funny but seriously. nintendo should have made a better commercial for MP3. that music on the commercial and footage from MP3 dont go together at all. the only game i can really see on wii that had effort put into it but failed was Zack and Wiki. Moh:h2 put a lot of people of because it was also on the psp. it is abit degrading to only be good enough to get a psp game.

why Zack and Wiki didnt sell is beyond me. i guess not a lot of people liked the point and click adventure. i sure dont.

 

[CantGetAWii]

MP3 was advertised alot and it still only sold around 500,000. Thats not good. Most titles that are AAA go atleast 1 million.

Btw im pretty sure they were talking about Sadness as one of the games the good games going to Wii that no one wants to publish because they are worried it wont sell.

Its true developers rushed games the first year, but whats more scary is that they made money off of the horrible games because of the casual audience. Hell theres a topic about Cooking mama where everyone is saying how good it is and that crap is pathetic I wouldnt buy it for a dollar. They're making a Cooking Mama 2 lol.

Yes, its like I said. Developers saw the Wii as nothing more than a Fad, something for the casual. They then realized there are still gamers out there who don't like Cooking Mama, and made games like No More Heroes etc. for us. More of the same will come this year, and its our job as gamers to buy and play the good games that we can.

I don't know why we keep talking about Metroid Prime, not just saying you in particular, but everyone. Thats first party, and Nintendo's own fault for focusing too much on the casual. They won't help out third party's in terms of advertising, I mean look at what they advertise for their own games. Its up to the third party developers to step up, make good games, show em' off and ultimately get rewarded. Thats what it comes down to.

 

[T3kNi9e]

Alot easier said than done. Kind of sucks because even though No More Heroes is a cool game, its not quite up my alley. I may still buy it but maybe not, its a toss up. But if it doesnt sell good, this may hinder the possibility for more serious 3rd party games because developers will think it cant sell or publishers will not want to publish the game because they think it wont sell. Just like whats happening to Sadness. If Sadness can't get a publisher it could be cancelled. Especially since developers tend to need publishers money to finish games.

 

[hal2814]

The best thing Nintendo can do to help third party sales is to get as many Wiis into households as possible. If they keep up the market penetration, there are going to be enough third parties trying to get a piece of that market share. Trauma Center apparently sold well enough to warrant a sequel. Sega seems to be happy developing for the Wii. And there will be a new Bomberman coming out. New EA Sports titles don't seem to be slowing down. Zack and Wiki sales disappointed a lot of people but why did everyone expect a genre that's practically extinct to suddenly do well again? I love adventure games but I'm a BIG minority there. If you share my love of adventure games, then so are you. Just be glad that you'll be able to pick up a copy of Zack and Wiki pretty cheaply in the near future.

 

[largedarry]

This is just something that 3rd parties like to complain about. The truth is that GOOD 3rd party titles sold on the Wii. Both the RE sold very well (even considering the RE:UC is a rail shooter), GHIII has sold amazing and I'm sure the next well advertised or popular game comes out it will sell well.

Games like Manhunt, MoH, Scarface, Godfather, etc. are all bad games or a genre that where the horse was beat to death 5 years ago (not to mention MoH is one of the worse WWII FPS) or a uses a movies name, which always sells horrible.

Games that are gems like Zack and Wiki and No More Heroes (although NMH has yet to release outside of Japan so it could actually sell well) suffer from no funding for advertisements. I bet 90% of Wii owners would not have ever heard of either of these games, but I bet +60% of the general US populace knows that Halo 3 is out.

I believe this is an issue that must be addressed by Nintendo itself because third-parties don't seem to have the balls to take a chance. The Big N, on the other hand, has all the necessary advantages. One, gamers like you are more likely to buy a Wii title published by Nintendo. You can deny it all you want, but you know it's true. Second, Nintendo has the resources to create a AAA adult-themed (and exclusive) Wii game -- or several of them, which would be preferable.

I just need to comment on this one, I would happily buy non-nintendo games if there was something there to actually buy (truthfully I own 5 games and only 2 of them are Nintendo titles, don't have the money to buy the other ones I want). Someone can quote me if they want, but I have to say that Nintendo is one of the greatest game development companies out there. When Nintendo releases a title, its always AAA. Basically if 3rd party companies would make games that actually compared to Nintendo's, they would sell just as well as Nintendo titles.

 

[T3kNi9e]

Just like the article read, Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil: UC did well because its basically a household name around gamers. Most gamers know what Resident Evil is. Especially now since their have been 3 movies about it.

Btw ide say more than 60% know about Halo. Even my mom who only watches Lifetime, HGTV and Univision,(yea the spanish channel) knows Halo exist.

 

[wezeles]

Where are you pulling these numbers outta for 1st party games?
SMG sold 4.69 million so far.. its only been out what a few months MP3 sold over a million so far.. not great but good for a metroid game in the first release year...

Your right on Resident evil they seem to be doing ok but could do a loads better from advertisment...

MOHH2,No more Heros,Zack and Wiki these are games that should have done much much better than they have so far,none of them selling close to a million copies, and half of them i never even heard about untill someone brings it up...

Its there own fault if they want to cut there own throats, you cant say the fans arnt there when there are 20 million Wii's sold...
Granted maybe 10 million dont care about anything but "wii sports" but the other half the market will buy a good game if they knew it exsisted in the first place...

With these sales numbers its obvious that only the "hardcore" are even buying 3rd party games and usually its after they have been out for a few months and they find out they are a decent buy...

 

[CantGetAWii]

Where are you pulling these numbers outta for 1st party games?
SMG sold 4.69 million so far.. its only been out what a few months MP3 sold over a million so far.. not great but good for a metroid game in the first release year...

Your right on Resident evil they seem to be doing ok but could do a loads better from advertisment...

MOHH2,No more Heros,Zack and Wiki these are games that should have done much much better than they have so far,none of them selling close to a million copies, and half of them i never even heard about untill someone brings it up...

Its there own fault if they want to cut there own throats, you cant say the fans arnt there when there are 20 million Wii's sold...
Granted maybe 10 million dont care about anything but "wii sports" but the other half the market will buy a good game if they knew it exsisted in the first place...

With these sales numbers its obvious that only the "hardcore" are even buying 3rd party games and usually its after they have been out for a few months and they find out they are a decent buy...

Fair enough, but you need to take in to account how many of those consoles were bought by casual gamers, many of which avoid games like No More Heroes and opt to buy Cooking Mama. However, if there was more advertising out there, some of those casual gamers may be able to see what the game really is like and will check it out. Many casual gamers don't go on Wii forums, or surf the net really. They tend to be less tech savvy then the average person, so their knowledge of the Wii..well its just not there.

Advertising would be a big plus.

 

[T3kNi9e]

Wezeles still getting your numbers from VGChartz? Sorry I dont go to that trash website. The reason why I and websites go by units shipped is because thats where the company actually makes money. If they ship 5 million copies of SSBB, then thats how much money they will make. Regardless if only 1 million of those copies are actually sold. Which btw VGChartz doesnt count the fact when people return their games or exchange it or even trade it in for another game. Basically the numbers keep going up and never down. So unless there's a announcment that Metroid Prime 3 has sold 1 million, I wont believe it.

The list of Wii games that have been announced to have sold atleast 1 million are and not including the bundled Wii Sports/Play:

Zelda: TP (3.61 Mill)
SMG (3.41 Mill)
Mario Party 8 (2.89 Mill)
Wario Ware: Smooth Moves (1.82 Mill)
Super Paper Mario (1.74 Mill)
Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree (1.38 Mill)
Mario Strikers Charged (1.33 Mill)
Rayman Raving Rabbids (1 Mill)
Red Steel (1 Mill)
Resident Evil 4 (1 Mill)
Wii Fit (1 Mill)
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (1 Mill)

6 of 12 games are Casual type games that anyone can play.
8 of 12 games are Nintendo's.

Aside from RE4, those are all advertised games.

 

[Mingus]

I spent the past five some years watching ads for incredible games. At the end of those advertisments what did I see. Game only for Xbox and PS2. Shame Shame. What did we get on the GC? TS:2 and James Bond.

What us wii owners must understand is that Nintendo doesn't care about the third party. They release their big hits and that's all good. They've made some mega-bucks and they will probably be good for the next system. I made the decision to not deal with it and picked myself up another console. I say my wii is worth it just for first party. I really don't buy 3rd party for Wii.

I have four more games I plan to buy for the wii.
Smash Bros Brawl
Mario Kart Wii
Wii Fitness
Star Fox (which has yet to truely be mentioned)

 

[wezeles]

My numbers are higher than yours! lol

They would be lower if Game sales were based on "in home" like they do with console sales... and they only do that with console sales because they are showing which system is bought more not who ships more... and that is a more accurate way to determin a "console war" you can get all the numbers from VG.. shipped and sold...

I agree when it comes to games the amount sold to the store is the important number because it has already been paid for the store cant send it back after that...

im guessing you are going by NPD sales numbers? thats only the USA you know? no wonder they are so low... Gaming dosent just happen in the states... no matter what Bill Gates wishes lol...
For ps3 and nintendo they have alot of market around the world...

Eaither way it just goes to show the games that have sold well have been advertised... nintendo 1st party games are on t.v. constantly... If you want more than "hardcore" sales you gotta advertise

 

[wezeles]

They have never cared about 3rd party games... thats like your DVD player company carring about what DVD's sell...

When xbox or PS have to care they dont have enough 1st party to support there lost of profit in console lost... they have to make it up in license fees thats why they have a buttload of 3rd party.. so they get the "best" aswell as a big pile of bad.. in the end they just have more to choose from so its looked at as better...

But why would Nintendo care? they make little money of license for games compared to the bucks they make of 1st party games...

 

[T3kNi9e]

The numbers I gave are worldwide... The numbers come from press releases given by the companies.

 

[TortillaChip520]

The best thing Nintendo can do to help third party sales is to get as many Wiis into households as possible. If they keep up the market penetration, there are going to be enough third parties trying to get a piece of that market share.

but why should nintendo care about third parties developers? Nintendo's job isn't to sell more consoles so that more good games to come out, their goal is to sell as much Nintendo anything as they can.