Sega's lesson: We probably won't be making mature games for the Wii anymore

[YoungLad]

Saying that "Wii is only good for shooters" is pretty much equivalent to labeling yourself an outsider.

There are lots of different games that beat the Wii shooters by a mile or at least offer just as interesting gameplay.

 

[DBloke]

Wii is only good for shooters. Cause its like your holding it yourself! If you get the wii zapper its lush. Call of Duty is the only game on Wii anyways

Thats possibly the most biased opinion I have ever read.

Gun addons for the Wiimote still feel like your holding plastic.

 

[Caliko]

7 points difference, oh, whatcha gonna do.

The difference in technology (together with the overall focus on Nintendo's ever existing franchises) is the main problem. You cannot lie that both the 360 and PS3 are more powerful in terms of graphics, so there is more point developing shooters on the other system.

We should also not forget that Nintendo appears to be targeting families and little kids as their peer groups, so with such main course there's no wonder nobody interested in releasing good shooters for the Wii.

Well lets do the math realistically. "Hmmm... What shall I purchase?? The superior "REAL" version for $19.99 or the watered down arcade shooter for $49.99. Well let me look at the reviews... Hm... The 360 one is getting better reception and everyones telling me how the Wii version is on rails. I'm going for the real Dead Space experience."

That is a realistic consumer point of view. And it seems to pass by developers heads all the time. Do they not realize that a lot of Wii owners also own a 360 or that even a casual gamer can distinguish between a knock off and the original experience?

Extraction is a good game, i agree. But just like Resident Evil, they're getting the full experience while the Wii gets an arcade shooter. And developers expect us to eat it up?? Sega is guilty of this too, pushing the conduit as Halo for Wii yet falling way short of expectations. I appreciate that they at least tried but they need to face the reality.

REALITY: Don't expect The Conduit to sell like Bioshock.

And for all the naysayers who often throw around the excuse "But teh Wii capabilities wont allow good h@rdCor3 shooter!!!1"

Perfect dark was done on the Nintendo 64........

 

[UnMem]

Conduit Mutliplayer did not stand up to its expectations either.

 

[Kage848]

I cant take credit for this as it was posted on another site. I think its pretty interesting non the less.

For reference, here's the VGC totals for all M-rated Sega games so far this gen...

The House of the Dead 2 &3 Return (Wii) 1,130,000
The House of the Dead Overkill (Wii) 480,000
Yakuza 3 (PS3) 480,000
Condemned 2: Bloodshot (360) 470,000
Condemned: Criminal Origins (360) 460,000
Viking: Battle for Asgard (360) 410,000
MadWorld (Wii) 370,000
Condemned 2: Bloodshot (PS3) 310,000
Viking: Battle for Asgard (PS3) 280,000
The Club (360) 240,000
Bayonetta (PS3) 200,000
The Club (PS3) 150,000
Golden Axe: Beast Rider (360) 120,000
Bayonetta (360) 90,000
Golden Axe: Beast Rider (PS3) 80,000
Stormrise (360) 50,000
Stormrise (PS3) 50,000
Tenchu: Time of the Assassins (PSP) untracked


Average sales per console...

Wii: 660,000
360: 263,000
PS3: 221,000

 

[YoungLad]

I'm surprised that Overkill sold so well.

 

[DBloke]

It was well advertised

Thats the key really

There upcoming Bayoneta (how ever its spelt) is also getting advertised a lot

 

[Kage848]

I'm surprised that Overkill sold so well.

Lots of comercials + good game + well known IP = good sales.

 

[YoungLad]

I know that, but I'm starting to question myself, how come are they stoping the development then?

Or do they expect say 1 million copies in the first week?

 

[DBloke]

I know that, but I'm starting to question myself, how come are they stoping the development then?

Or do they expect say 1 million copies in the first week?

Because advertising is expensive
For a simple little section in a tabloid news paper it costs about 5 grand TV adverts very as to when there on and what program there on the add break in
They you have to cover the cost of making the game

You can see why there not making Mature games for the Wii anymore

 

[Kage848]

I know that, but I'm starting to question myself, how come are they stoping the development then?

Or do they expect say 1 million copies in the first week?

Because advertising is expensive
For a simple little section in a tabloid news paper it costs about 5 grand TV adverts very as to when there on and what program there on the add break in
They you have to cover the cost of making the game

You can see why there not making Mature games for the Wii anymore

While that's true they need to advertise to sell there games on any system so thats not an excuse. Also it's a well known fact that HD games cost more to make than Wii games.

I really dont know what there talking about. All i know is a quality Wii game with some backing behind it will sell.

Lets face is SEGA is not what they used to be. Honestly i think they are losing it.

Check this out....http://www.nintendoeverything.com/30463/

“The interesting thing is Nintendo, they make money off of every console they sell. I think one of the big things that we found out is it really is a mass market product where mom or whoever goes out, the 80% of the people out there who go out and buy a Wii box are happy with Wii Sports and they don’t really need another game. Or if they do need another game, they’ll buy Wii Resort because it comes with a free Wiimote or Wii Play…So, honestly I don’t know…You can obviously see that profits are down for Nintendo. I think the Wii is on its tail slide, unless they drop the price to like 80 bucks then you’ll start seeing it flying off the shelves. And I believe they’ll still make money if they drop it to 80 bucks…Point being is they have the ability to lower the price on the Wii [...] where Sony and Microsoft cannot do that.”
AddThis

BTW the Wii sold ~1.8m Units last week and thats a new record for a single week that was set by the PS2 in the 6th generation with ~1.77m.

I guess its no wounder SEGA has been out of the hardware market for a while.

 

[raisinghelen]

Look at Dead Space. We were stunned. That was my litmus test. Basically, it's like, okay, you got EA, who can put all the marketing muscle behind this, an established franchise that scored quite well on 360 and PS3. They should be able to actually hit this out of the park, right? We got numbers, real numbers aside from NP, and I'm like, 'Whoa.'"

It is a shame that publishers are looking at Extraction as a benchmark for mature titles. Yes EA have all the marketing muscle but where was it for Extraction? I never saw the game advertised once. The Resident Evil games sell around a million but that really is an established franchise, where as Dead Space has only had 1 game and a cartoon movie, so it's hardly in the same league. Didn't the original game only sell just over a million anyway? EA were stupid if they really expected an on-rails game to sell the same amount, especially as it was pretty clear before it released that most of the existing Dead Space owners had no interest in the game at all.

The sales figures for Sega are interesting. I think that the reason for them singling the Wii out despite them selling more mature games on it is that they thought that their games wouldn't have as much competition on the Wii so they would sell like the huge blockbuster 360 games do. When they didn't they probably thought "we can make mature games that might sell a few hundred thousand or a cheap casual game that might sell millions", so naturally they will choose the more profitable option.

I still believe that a mature Wii game could sell in the millions though if it was:
a) An actual 'AAA' title.
b) Given the big marketing hype and advertising like MW2 or AC2 had.
c) Something that people actually wanted.

If their game doesn't cover all 3 then it wont sell millions. Sadly a lot of mature Wii games have one or two on those factors but none have managed all three. Take Silent Hill for example, it is a great game that is really well made but it will have poor sales because Konami haven't marketed it at all.

It isn't just a case for mature games either. Look at Nintendo's own games. Mario is obviously always a selling point but is it really a coincidence that their biggest selling games are Mario Kart Wii, Wii Fit or (soon to be) NSMB when they are the most advertised games? With the Wii having so many new gamers who don't scoure the interwebs for gaming information you have to put your product in their face for them to buy it because you wont get sales if they don't even know it exists.

Now I've heard that Sony and Microsoft aid in advertising 3rd party games on their systems, where as Nintendo don't. If this is true then Nintendo really need to rethink their 3rd party stategies because while they may be making bucket loads of money now they will suffer in the long run.

 

[Kage848]

Look at Dead Space. We were stunned. That was my litmus test. Basically, it's like, okay, you got EA, who can put all the marketing muscle behind this, an established franchise that scored quite well on 360 and PS3. They should be able to actually hit this out of the park, right? We got numbers, real numbers aside from NP, and I'm like, 'Whoa.'"

It is a shame that publishers are looking at Extraction as a benchmark for mature titles. Yes EA have all the marketing muscle but where was it for Extraction? I never saw the game advertised once. The Resident Evil games sell around a million but that really is an established franchise, where as Dead Space has only had 1 game and a cartoon movie, so it's hardly in the same league. Didn't the original game only sell just over a million anyway? EA were stupid if they really expected an on-rails game to sell the same amount, especially as it was pretty clear before it released that most of the existing Dead Space owners had no interest in the game at all.

The sales figures for Sega are interesting. I think that the reason for them singling the Wii out despite them selling more mature games on it is that they thought that their games wouldn't have as much competition on the Wii so they would sell like the huge blockbuster 360 games do. When they didn't they probably thought "we can make mature games that might sell a few hundred thousand or a cheap casual game that might sell millions", so naturally they will choose the more profitable option.

I still believe that a mature Wii game could sell in the millions though if it was:
a) An actual 'AAA' title.
b) Given the big marketing hype and advertising like MW2 or AC2 had.
c) Something that people actually wanted.

If their game doesn't cover all 3 then it wont sell millions. Sadly a lot of mature Wii games have one or two on those factors but none have managed all three. Take Silent Hill for example, it is a great game that is really well made but it will have poor sales because Konami haven't marketed it at all.

It isn't just a case for mature games either. Look at Nintendo's own games. Mario is obviously always a selling point but is it really a coincidence that their biggest selling games are Mario Kart Wii, Wii Fit or (soon to be) NSMB when they are the most advertised games? With the Wii having so many new gamers who don't scoure the interwebs for gaming information you have to put your product in their face for them to buy it because you wont get sales if they don't even know it exists.

Now I've heard that Sony and Microsoft aid in advertising 3rd party games on their systems, where as Nintendo don't. If this is true then Nintendo really need to rethink their 3rd party stategies because while they may be making bucket loads of money now they will suffer in the long run.

This is very true and i really agree.

Nintendo is going to be supporting Monster Hunter 3 in EU/AU it seems...http://kotaku.com/5440336/in-europe-monster-hunter-is-now-nintendos-baby....

Hopefully this is a sign of things to come.

 

[Maximo]

I'm really getting sick of devs/pubs bitching about sales. Half the mature games released have been on rail shooters...isn't that market a lil over saturated at this point? We got HotD 2&3..HotD OK...Dead Space Extraction..RE:UC..RE DC..among a few others...So right there you are taking what is obviously an already niche market for Wii audience & narrowing it down even further while at the same time expect it to sell huge..give me a break

Lets take a look at RE4...at the time it was 2 year old port...It was a well known franchise with AAA style effort...,and wait a minute there it sold very well...hell if i recall it had some decent advertising at the time too

Even Konami kind of fumbled here. I praise them for not going the on rails route ,and doing something different with Silent Hill...BUT come on just give us something tradiontal for the franchise first on Wii..then experiment.

The problem is these devs are using the Wii as an experimental concept ground. Well what if Silent Hill had no weapons...what if Dead Space was on rails.. its like lets throw some pasta to the wall ,and see if it sticks.

I bet if something like GTA came to Wii ,and had a huge marketing push it would sell well. It might still be a slow burner ,but it would do well.

Which makes me think of something here...Why are these companies panicking about a Wii game selling millions in a month...its not the wii games thats costing them a fortune to develop...its the 360/ps3 games.

So sounds to me they're getting pissed because they're half assed efforts on wii ,or lack there of are hurting their budgets for the 360/ps3 games.

Last gen u didnt hear all this whining about sales ,but oh wait 2 out of the 3 systems last gen didn't cost an arm & leg just to make one level either.

 

[YoungLad]

I don't really care that much about how game sells, as long I like the game myself.