The Nintendo of America President ponders about the future of the series.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/24455
Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime expressed his concerns regarding the future of Metroid: Other M's sales. He expressed that the tile "should be a million unit title" in an interview with Kotaku.
"We're not going to get there, not through the holiday," he said. "And we are doing a lot of thinking as to why. Because it's a great game. The consumer reaction because of the quality has been strong. We're doing a lot of thinking about why we didn't get there. I think the marketing was strong, advertising was very good, the social media we did was very positive."
The title has sold around half a million copies in North America, and despite the bleak outlook for the title, Fils-Aime believes that the Metroid franchise still has a future.
"I'm not going to sit here and criticize a style of the game," he said. "But have I read the same feedback that said, broadly, that the portrayal of Samus felt different than how the player in the past had internalized the character? I've heard and read the same feedback. Do I think it's warranted or not? I'm not quite sure yet... I don't yet believe that that is the driving factor to the performance of the game."
Metroid: Other M has received criticisms regarding how the character of Samus was portrayed. In our review of the title, Zachary Miller expressed that the writing was weak, but that the overall gameplay was solid.
If you guys allow to chip my two cents in... Did Nintendo really believe in Other M? I mean, when Retro did the Prime series Nintendo didn't do that much of a hullabaloo about it. Sure there were trailers and reveals, but from the way they are expressing themselves about Other M's failure its like the games that came before it mean nothing. Is it because the title was developed in Japan and thus was a title for the Japanese audience?
I think the reception of Other M might be historic, along with Wii Music. I've never seen a game receive this much hatred and cause this much anger in BOTH sides of the argument. Believe me, I have seen this title being defended with the same tenacity as the haters.
Corruption didn't do all that well either. This has nothing to do with the quality of either title, and it certainly isn't a result of the crappy writing, voice acting, or any other specific criticism you want to make.
The reason is actually pretty simple, and I'm surprised that Nintendo of America claims to be so puzzled. Metroid can't sell a million units for the same reason that so many other high-quality, complex, adult-oriented games have performed below expectations on Wii. Nintendo didn't establish the platform as a strong destination for such games in the first place. Before Other M, what was the last first-party Wii game with a similar level of design complexity and seriousness of tone? All I can think of is Corruption itself, released three years earlier. It's no wonder that gamers aren't looking for these kinds of titles on Wii!
The reason is actually pretty simple, and I'm surprised that Nintendo of America claims to be so puzzled. Metroid can't sell a million units for the same reason that so many other high-quality, complex, adult-oriented games have performed below expectations on Wii. Nintendo didn't establish the platform as a strong destination for such games in the first place. Before Other M, what was the last first-party Wii game with a similar level of design complexity and seriousness of tone? All I can think of is Corruption itself, released three years earlier. It's no wonder that gamers aren't looking for these kinds of titles on Wii!
people claim they want more hardcore titles on the Wii but truth is they really dont because we would see better sales otherwise.
the lower-than-expected sales also cant be blamed on story or bad voice-acting because someone would have to play (and presumably buy) the game to be exposed to these since there was no demo. sure, those are reasons why people who did play the game now detest it but people who didnt play the game cannot comment on it. true, the word of mouth was far from great, and this could have had a negative affect on sales, but only to those who spend time reading and writing comments like we are.
Corruption didn't do all that well either. This has nothing to do with the quality of either title, and it certainly isn't a result of the crappy writing, voice acting, or any other specific criticism you want to make.
The reason is actually pretty simple, and I'm surprised that Nintendo of America claims to be so puzzled. Metroid can't sell a million units for the same reason that so many other high-quality, complex, adult-oriented games have performed below expectations on Wii. Nintendo didn't establish the platform as a strong destination for such games in the first place. Before Other M, what was the last first-party Wii game with a similar level of design complexity and seriousness of tone? All I can think of is Corruption itself, released three years earlier. It's no wonder that gamers aren't looking for these kinds of titles on Wii!
people claim they want more hardcore titles on the Wii but truth is they really dont because we would see better sales otherwise.It seems more like people changing the definition of terms, as many of Nintendo's games that were once considered "hardcore" like Mario are now called "casual."
Metroid sells, predominantly, to people like us, who pay attention to reviews and word of mouth, and those have been, at best, mixed.Actually, I'd argue that that word-of-mouth is way more critical to selling to 'casuals'. They aren't going to care what some snobby game reviewer geek thinks about a game, but they will pay attention to what their friends are playing.
Not that this applies to this particular game, which is clearly designed to be casual "unfriendly"
Anyone calling Mario games casual has obviously never tried to get 120 stars.**** casual term, **** hardcore terms. Mario is about universal appeal, and he has it in spades damn it.
The true injustice is that games that were among the best of the generation (looking at you Zack and Wiki and Little King's Story) fizzled. This is partly due to the Wii's core appeal and partly due to the way the video game industry has changed.I find that arguable at best. Those two games were brand new IPs that hardly received any marketing push, and when you are competing with Nintendo's games, which receive more marketing then the typical third party disasters (MadWorld, Dead Space: Extraction), there is a problem. We've been saying it over and over again, third parties just don't bother to advertise their games on Nintendo platforms. Unless Nintendo gives them moneyhats, if they think it will be a hit.
Corruption didn't do all that well either. This has nothing to do with the quality of either title, and it certainly isn't a result of the crappy writing, voice acting, or any other specific criticism you want to make.
The reason is actually pretty simple, and I'm surprised that Nintendo of America claims to be so puzzled. Metroid can't sell a million units for the same reason that so many other high-quality, complex, adult-oriented games have performed below expectations on Wii. Nintendo didn't establish the platform as a strong destination for such games in the first place. Before Other M, what was the last first-party Wii game with a similar level of design complexity and seriousness of tone? All I can think of is Corruption itself, released three years earlier. It's no wonder that gamers aren't looking for these kinds of titles on Wii!
it all comes down to Metroid being much more of a niche franchise than people are willing to admit. the series has rarely done well in Japan and has only seen marginal success in the west. people claim they want more hardcore titles on the Wii but truth is they really dont because we would see better sales otherwise.
This one didn't make much sense to me. I saw more commercials for it than I do for most Wii games. It had a hot chick in it. Yet it didn't sell. I really don't think most people read reviews, they just buy on impulse.
Then what about MGS4 and- *punches himself in the face*This one didn't make much sense to me. I saw more commercials for it than I do for most Wii games. It had a hot chick in it. Yet it didn't sell. I really don't think most people read reviews, they just buy on impulse.
People listen to other people and what many people said was that Other M is a disgrace to the Metroid name. You can't have that kind of hatred going around among the target audience and expect the game to sell as well as a regular game.
If the game is getting close to 500,000 copies in North America, that means it's already on track to outsell Zero Mission which according to the NPD sold 439,000 copies in North America. So the excuse that it offended the Metroid fanbase doesn't work anymore since a much better loved Metroid game sold worse.
Then what about MGS4 and- *punches himself in the face*This one didn't make much sense to me. I saw more commercials for it than I do for most Wii games. It had a hot chick in it. Yet it didn't sell. I really don't think most people read reviews, they just buy on impulse.
People listen to other people and what many people said was that Other M is a disgrace to the Metroid name. You can't have that kind of hatred going around among the target audience and expect the game to sell as well as a regular game.
