Topic: Game Journalism

[KDR_11k]

I think the Metroid series as a whole is simply not a gigantic seller so 1.3M is probably within the expectations Nintendo had for it.

[D_Average]

Geometry Wars Wii actually had some hip ads. I'd find a link if I wasn't on my cell. Sadly, I was the only customer influenced by said ads.

[Mop it up]

As for reviews, I thought we've covered that in this thread - most consumers don't read reviews.

I'm a little confused by something. You acknowledge that the majority of the Wii userbase is uninformed, but you think they are the types of gamers who would buy "bloctbuster" games, which typical sell only to the "hardcore" crowd?

According to Nintendo, in March, 2008, Metroid Prime 3 had sold 1.31 Million Units.
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2008/080425e.pdf (Page 6).

What's considered a good seller now-a-days?

It's all relative. 1.31 million isn't much compared to the 20 million of Wii Fit. When third-parties see numbers like that, what type of games are they going to focus on? Also, that number is quite a bit less than what most shooters have sold on the XBox 360.

You know, when the Wii came out there was this FPS called Red Steel that sold a million despite severely lackluster quality. Why the **** didn't third parties look at that and think "if a shitty FPS can sell a million, a good one can sell truckloads"?

Red Steel was a launch title, which tend to sell well simply because there are so few games available. One could say The Conduit attempted to follow up on that, and it was met with pretty low sales.

[KDR_11k]

Yeah but how long did it take for The Conduit to show up? People who bought Red Steel were probably looking for something better fairly quickly but they didn't get anything.

[Mop it up]

There was also the Call of Duty series, which posted respectable sales, though not even half as much as on other systems.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Well CoD on Wii was always late and with little to no advertising.
Most people that wanted to play them likely already bought a PS360 and that game to go with it.

I'm sure lots of fans of FPS moved to the HD systems since what they were craving was not being released on the Wii, and if it was, they could get it in HD 8-12 months sooner somewhere else. If they starve a market in a certain area and then try to feed it scraps later on, they shouldn't be surprised that that market is either already dead or has moved onto greener pastures. They did the Nintendo audience wrong and now they have to deal with it.
Too little too late.

[Mop it up]

Call of Duty Modern Warfare is the only one of the three that is a late port.
Call of Duty 3 was released one week after the XBox 360 version.
Call of Duty World at War was released on the same day as the other two versions.
I can't speak of advertising though, but most of that seems like conjecture to me.

[NWR_DrewMG]

I'm sure lots of fans of FPS moved to the HD systems since what they were craving was not being released on the Wii, and if it was, they could get it in HD 8-12 months sooner somewhere else.

Or they already had a 360 because they probably played Halo on Xbox, and therefore bought the next Xbox console.

Saying all of the FPS fans left the Wii behind implies that the Gamecube had enough of a FPS userbase to establish a large FPS userbase on the Wii at launch, and I'd doubt that.

[BlackNMild2k1]

I'm just saying alot of people bought the Wii early because of the possibilities that the wiimote brought to the table. Lots of us were expecting FPS to be a major genre on the Wii, yet the only offering of note was RS at launch and I don't know how long it was until the next FPS with marketing came along.

IF you look back through a lot of multi-format forums back in mid-late 2007-2008, lots of people's Wiis were supposedly collecting dust and PS360's were already purchased. That is a huge missed opportunity by 3rd parties, but whats done is done, and we can only move forward from here.

I bet the first big Arc FPS is gonna be a pretty huge deal in the HD circles and control is gonna be praised.

[Stratos]

I'd argue the Gamecube had an FPS fanbase because of all the Goldeneye/Perfect Dark fans that were hoping for the next great Rare FPS to materialize. Though if that were the case Nintendo lost those people last gen because Rare never could produce PD0 before being sold and the closest thing to come was Timesplitters. If I were a huge FPS fan who bought consoles specifically first and foremost to enjoy those types of games I would have gotten and XBox pretty fast last gen for Halo and abandoned the 'Cube. I wouldn't be surprised of those people just never committed to the Wii because they were waiting to see what came for it and since nothing materialized after Red Steel they moved on to 360.

[BlackNMild2k1]

I was gonna post this in the teabagged thread, but this is a story for The Wall of Shame.

IGN: All right, let's switch focus a bit. THQ was one of the first and biggest third-party backers of Wii and you guys gambled with original licenses like de Blob and Deadly Creatures. The latter was a T-rated game that flopped. Why do you think T and M-rated titles like these haven't found an audience on Nintendo's platform?

Brian Farrell: Yeah, it's the audience. I'm glad we made the experience. Deadly Creatures was a fun experience. Critically well-reviewed. Didn't find much of an audience and I think more of the core-gaming audience is on 360 and PS3. I know Nintendo doesn't like that message. I'm a huge fan of Nintendo personally, but that's just not where the audience is or the audience there is fairly limited. The old guys like me and maybe you will still play the core stuff -- all the stuff we love about Nintendo on the Wii. But we don't branch out and play some of the core experiences on the Wii. If we do, we go HD and play on PS3 or 360.

I think that's the dynamic that's going on. There's nothing wrong with that. There's plenty of audience on the Wii. We've been concentrating more on our kids, family and casual stuff there and there is a viable business on the Wii for that stuff. It's just not the core experiences.

IGN: So it's safe to assume we won't ever be seeing a version of Darksiders or anything like that on Wii?

Brian Farrell: Yeah, I won't rule anything out. There are things that we can do. At E3, we'll be unveiling a few things around Wii that are some brand extensions and you go, "Okay, that makes sense on Wii." I can get that audience on the Wii. I don't want to front-run our PR department on some things. I don't want to rule out those things. You have to be smart about what you put on Wii from a core gamer's standpoint. But if you look at what's selling on Wii, it's Nintendo's stuff and it's kids, family and casual. Our kids, family and casual gained a lot of share this year on the Wii with things like The Biggest Loser and Marvel Super Hero Squad, and those type of products. And that's where the Wii consumer is.

I would love to see Deadly Creatures release on the HD consoles and find it's audience there. I'll even give them the bug marketing campaign so that people are even aware that it exist.

Well I await to see what THQ has in store for the Wii come E3 2010.

[UncleBob]

IGN:Why do you think T and M-rated titles like these haven't found an audience on Nintendo's platform?

Brian Farrell: Yeah, it's the audience.

...

[BlackNMild2k1]

IGN:Why do you think T and M-rated titles like these haven't found an audience on Nintendo's platform?

Brian Farrell: Yeah, it's the audience.

...

that would be the tl;dr version of it

[UncleBob]

As for reviews, I thought we've covered that in this thread - most consumers don't read reviews.

I'm a little confused by something. You acknowledge that the majority of the Wii userbase is uninformed, but you think they are the types of gamers who would buy "bloctbuster" games, which typical sell only to the "hardcore" crowd?

Blockbuster games don't just sell to the hardcore crowd any more than blockbuster movies are only seen by hardcore movie goers.

The fact that the Wii Fanbase is uninformed is what makes them navigate to blockbuster titles... "Ohhh, I saw this shiny game on TV!  Buy!"

I know several people discount the effects of a proper advertising campaign - but then how do you explain Professor Layton?  Game came out, sold... questionably (to the point people thought the sequels wouldn't be released in the US) - then, bamn - a few months later, Phoebe is on TV doing commercials for the game and it's topping the sales charts.

But, again, this goes back to the idea of a proper advertising campaign - knowing the market you're aiming for (and should be aiming for).  Metroid Prime 3 is a good example - it had the one commercial... It was probably the weakest of the "Wii would like to play" line-up... and that these just wasn't suited for the type of game Metroid is - it's not a party game or a group game - it's a solo adventure.  Shooting and exploration.  Not something "we" play.

[D_Average]

One time at gamestop I saw a GCN FPS that looked like a comic book. It was only five dollars or so and I was tempted to buy it but then I remembered I needed that five for a frisbee. How is the it?  Worth buying?  Did it sell well? 

[Ymeegod]

Are you talking about the game XIII?  It wasn't to bad, easily a nice rental and worth $5 IMO. 

[Mop it up]

I'm not discounting good marketing, but no amount of advertising will sell a game to people who aren't interested in it. I'm afraid I still don't understand exactly what a "blockbuster" game is, but I guess it doesn't matter.

Above all, I think most third-party developers simply aren't interested in creating games for Wii, and prefer the other two systems. I can't say I blame them for that.

EDIT: I do agree with at least one thing from that IGN interview:

Didn't find much of an audience and I think more of the core-gaming audience is on 360 and PS3. I know Nintendo doesn't like that message.

[UncleBob]

My idea of a "blockbuster" is a big game designed to sell big.  Just like your summer blockbuster movies that have huge budgets, big names attached, special effects, expansive story line, etc., etc.

[Mop it up]

So does Wii Fit count?

[BlackNMild2k1]

A Blockbuster game would be just like a Blockbuster Movie.

BIG Name, BIG Budget, BIG Advertising, BIG Push.
Basically heralded as the EVENT of whatever time it is coming out.

Harry Potter - Blockbuster
Spiderman - Blockbuster
Avatar - Blockbuster
NSMBWii - Blockbuster
Halo - Blockbuster
Madden - Blockbuster

Not every Blockbuster finds it's mark though like Little Big Planet or Snakes on a Plane.

[Mop it up]

Sounds risky. I can understand why they choose the XBox 360 and PS3 for those types of games when they know there's an audience for them.

[UncleBob]

So does Wii Fit count?

Personally, I wouldn't count it.  BnM's post pretty much sums it up.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Sounds risky. I can understand why they choose the XBox 360 and PS3 for those types of games when they know there's an audience for them.

Well if every gamer was a sheep, each system was a corral, and the sheep dogs(games) that the farm hands(publishers) released were designed to herd the sheep into specific corrals. Then the Wii corral was not supplied with enough core sheep dogs to herd in all the core sheep. There are plenty of core sheep in the Wii corral, but there are just a lot more in the HD corrals.

Nobodies fault but the farm hands for unevenly dispersing their sheep dogs.

[King of Twitch]

I regard what THQ says, a company that released Bratz: The Movie, Bratz: Girlz Really Rock, 5 Spongebob games, 2 All Star Cheer Squad and Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader games, and 5 Pixar movie games, about as equally as I regard my next bowel movement.

[Mop it up]

How many of Nintendo's games would you consider blockbuster games?
If the best-sellers on Wii aren't blockbuster games, what is to say that these types of games would sell well on Wii?