Topic: High Voltage on The Conduit Sales and On-Rails Shooters

[NWR_pap64]

IGN talks to Eric Nofsinger of High Voltage Software about The Conduit sales, motion control pressure, and on-rails shooters.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=18954

 Last week marked the release of the highly-anticipated Wii first-person shooter The Conduit from High Voltage Software. In celebration of the game's release, IGN sat down with Chief Creative Officer Eric Nofsinger and talked about what they expect of this major release.    

One of the most important topics of discussion was The Conduit's sales.    

After being asked if High Voltage feels any pressure and if they have any expectations, Nofsinger explained that "[they] want people to play the game because we think that anyone who does is going to enjoy the experience. As to sales estimates, we humbly hope it outsells every game ever made. [laughs] Seriously, we sincerely hope we have earned Wii owner's support in our efforts. The more support we receive, the more we will funnel those profits into even better original games for them."    

The topic of sales has been much debated as of late due to the low sales of MadWorld on the Wii. The Conduit hopes to find a successful core audience on the system. Regarding motion controls, IGN asked Nofsinger if they felt any pressure to continue making games that feature motion controls.    

"Not implicitly," said Nofsinger, "but we do feel the pressure to continue to make great games."    

Another interesting topic is that of on-rail shooters on the Wii. With both EA's Dead Space: Extraction and Capcom's Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles on the horizon, IGN asked for the company's thoughts on these recent developments.    

Nofsinger explained that this isn't a bad way to make games "itÂ’s just a different way" that allows developers to focus on the things on screen.    

As far as High Voltage's decision to go with the first-person shooter genre and not the on-rails one, "we wanted to create the best first-person gaming experience on the platform and we felt that the only way to do it was to allow gamers to control their movement."    

Nofsinger added, "Having said that, we do earnestly believe that the Wii is capable of far more than gamers have played to date."

[KDR_11k]

Considering The Conduit has been reportedly hard to find I wonder what sales numbers they're getting.

[walkingdead]

has it been hard to find? i hope so, i went in to game stop the day after it came out and bought it and got a copy of the special edition.  the one you were only supposed to get if you reserved the game.  i wonder if there first shipment was just all spec ed's.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Special Edition is supposedly a GameStop exclusive. All copies bought from GS would be SE.

[Enner]

I was at a Best Buy on sunday and I didn't see any copies on the shelves. The game was advertised in the sunday ad as well. Maybe this means the game is selling very well for its first week! Or that few copies were shipped out.

[Jonnyboy117]

Scarcity does not necessarily point to good sales. It could mean that retailers didn't order many copies, or that Sega only printed a limited first run to watch the sales trends before distributing more.

[BlackNMild2k1]

A GS employee tried to tell me they didn't get many copies in in when I went it to get mine, and that every copy they had was most likely to cover pre-orders. She told me to hold on while she checked to see if they had any extra copies as she reached down in a stack of of cases and pulled out The Conduit.

To me it looked like the stack had atleast 8-10 copies from what I saw, and she didn't really check to see how many of the copies she had were pre-ordered, she just handed me on from the middle of the stack.

So if I were to believe the GS employee, there weren't that many copies shipped out, but going by what I saw in the store, they had a decent amount of copies for a game with little name recognition. & if BB were to put it in a Sunday Ad, then you know they had plenty of copies to go around.

[EasyCure]

Special Edition is supposedly a GameStop exclusive. All copies bought from GS would be SE.

I picked the game up at GS after work on friday (closes retailer to work) and i got the "so ugly its awesome" cover from them with no mention of a SE at all. Perhaps those just ran out? I don't care either way, i'd probably lose the art book that came with the game anyway lol

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

All copies pre-ordered from GS would've been SE, not just any.

[kraken613]

My Walmart sold out of 20 copies in 3 hours on Tuesday.

[BlackNMild2k1]

All copies pre-ordered from GS would've been SE, not just any.

I didn't pre-order at all, guess I just got lucky.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

You know what that means?  Your community lacks non-casual Wii gamers.  Sad.

[EasyCure]

All copies pre-ordered from GS would've been SE, not just any.

Thats what i figured, but BnM said otherwise. Doesn't matter to me though. I didn't see where the clerk pulled it out from so i couldn't tell ya if they had a lot of copies or not.

When i tried to buy it last Thursday, Best Buy didn't seem to have it at all. I checked the wii aisle, i checked the customer service desk and i didn't see it. No i didn't ask anyone, cuz i dont like deailng with their staff.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

They stink of attitude?

[EasyCure]

They stink of attitude?

some attitude, some stupidity, some just stink.

[NWR_insanolord]

I didn't pre-order it but I got the Special Edition.

[Stratos]

I got the SE but it was the last copy. I had to drive two cities away to find a store that had it. Most places either hadn't gotten their shipments yet or ran out. I'm convinced my local GS ordered a low number to force people to pre-order. The way the guy chided me to 'pre-order next time' sounded like he was trying to make it be a lesson to encourage people to pre-order.

Appropriate considering on the podcast they were saying how much bull it was that companies were 'making games tailored to the Wii's uses' and making on-rails shooters.

[KDR_11k]

Scarcity does not necessarily point to good sales. It could mean that retailers didn't order many copies, or that Sega only printed a limited first run to watch the sales trends before distributing more.

It does mean it's outperforming expectations though, whether those are retailer or publisher expectations.

[Stratos]

Scarcity does not necessarily point to good sales. It could mean that retailers didn't order many copies, or that Sega only printed a limited first run to watch the sales trends before distributing more.

It does mean it's outperforming expectations though, whether those are retailer or publisher expectations.

Plus the demand caused could make more people want to run out and buy it.

[EasyCure]

I got the SE but it was the last copy. I had to drive two cities away to find a store that had it. Most places either hadn't gotten their shipments yet or ran out. I'm convinced my local GS ordered a low number to force people to pre-order. The way the guy chided me to 'pre-order next time' sounded like he was trying to make it be a lesson to encourage people to pre-order.

Appropriate considering on the podcast they were saying how much bull it was that companies were 'making games tailored to the Wii's uses' and making on-rails shooters.

I made a right outta my jobs parking lot, drove down the block and made a right at the light. As i pulled into the shopping plaza driveway i made a left at the stop sign, then made a slight left and parked directly in front of Game Stop. I undid my seatbelt, opened the door and locked my car up behind me then continued to walk in and wait at the counter. A young man asked if he could help me, i told him i was looking for the Conduit on Wii and he rang me up. I exchanged money for the goods i was recieving, got some change back with my receipt and walked back to the car.

If they didnt have it i would've walked outta the store, turned right and walked a few yards to Kmart.

How did everyone have so much trouble finding it?

[Stratos]

It probably depends on how big the stores are. I had to go to a larger city to find a store that had a copy. Plus my Wal-Mart, Target, FredMeyer, Hollywood Video/Game Crazy and local indy store GameBreakers had not yet gotten shipments. The only one that didn't even order any was the Hollywood, and they aren't really a full blown GameCrazy, they just have a single glass shelf/case with new current gen games and accessories.

All signs point to a lot of places just not getting the game right away. At least in my area.

[BlackNMild2k1]

I got the SE but it was the last copy. I had to drive two cities away to find a store that had it. Most places either hadn't gotten their shipments yet or ran out. I'm convinced my local GS ordered a low number to force people to pre-order. The way the guy chided me to 'pre-order next time' sounded like he was trying to make it be a lesson to encourage people to pre-order.

Appropriate considering on the podcast they were saying how much bull it was that companies were 'making games tailored to the Wii's uses' and making on-rails shooters.

The girl at the GS I went to all but dropped to her knees to beg me to pre-order, like the whole store is gonna go out of business if I don't reserve a copy of the  games or something.

It was kinda pathetic and I felt bad for her. Should I feel sorry if her store closes because they didn't pre-order enough copies of the games to have a few extra to sell to customers that just happen to wander in looking for a game.

[Stratos]

No. I think her manager is using scare tactics to get them to sell pre-orders. I've never worked for a game store before, but I am wondering if pre-orders have become the game retailer equivalent to referalls in the banking world. My sister used to work for a bank and they required you to make a certain number of referrals and get a number of them to turn into actual deals to stay employed and it is even tied to your performance appraisals. Maybe the manager is threatening layingoff the employees with the least amount of pre-orders made.

[kraken613]

I walked into GameStop Wednesday morning and got the SE.

[EasyCure]

No. I think her manager is using scare tactics to get them to sell pre-orders. I've never worked for a game store before, but I am wondering if pre-orders have become the game retailer equivalent to referrals in the banking world. My sister used to work for a bank and they required you to make a certain number of referrals and get a number of them to turn into actual deals to stay employed and it is even tied to your performance appraisals. Maybe the manager is threatening layingoff the employees with the least amount of pre-orders made.

I believe I've heard testimonials from GS employees (maybe even on THIS forum) stating that this really is the case. Not so much from the store managers but the corporate bosses enforcing the managers to do so.