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NPD Sales Results for December 2009

ShinNL

Member
grandjedi6 said:
As a Wii-only "gamer" I think you are in a far smaller minority than I am.
I'm the average can-only-afford-(have-space-for)-1-console-and-I-like Wii-Sports-and-normal-games-college-student. I think I'm in a much larger group than a multi-console owner. The same type of group that buys a PS2 for Singstar and EyeToy. I'm sorry but your arguments are pathetic and you're being completely ignorant here. I don't care if you're just trying to be right, but you're just spouting nonsense with each post.
 

Eteric Rice

Member
Opiate said:
Stop with the Wii third party talks. It's over. If you were hoping for better support, you lose.

Why is no one talking about DS third party sales? It just sold another 3.3M units, too. It has an even larger install base than the Wii. It has even lower development costs than the Wii. And yet Western third parties don't support it, and no one seems to be suggesting that's going to change. It's because people are so accustomed to this, that they don't even question it any longer. They've always lived in a world where handhelds were supported weakly.

It's time to change your frame of reference, and think of the Wii like you would the DS. It simply is not going to happen.

The DS at least got Japanese support out the ass. The Wii doesn't even have that.
 

FrankT

Member
chuckddd said:
Looking back through the thread, I'm kind of disappointed about missing the pornography. :eek:

Yea well, the wife was like what is that.....:lol

Must have been a Snah account.
 
timetokill said:
Good stuff, and exactly why it annoys me when people say it's "too late" for third-parties and the Wii. It is almost an assumption that Wii is really still a fad or at least a "phase" and eventually it's going to go away. The Wii will eventually be replaced but what it represents and who it targets is not going to go away, people. This is the future. Wii 2 will come around, and Sony and MS are trying their damndest to grab some of that pie with Natal and the Wand. Third-parties are going to have to figure it out eventually, or accept niche status.

I don't think the implication is that the Wii is a fad, it's that third parties pissed in their pool for too long and even quality "core" software now is likely not going to turn their fate around.
 
Tiktaalik said:
Wow even with the Mario branding Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games did much, much worse than I thought it would. 1 million including the DS and Wii? Meh.
NON-SPORTS GAME CASUALS DO NOT LIKE ITERATIVE GAMES
 

Tiktaalik

Member
Stopsign said:
You call that bad? The game hasn't been doing as well as the original game pretty much all around the globe, but that doesn't mean it did "meh". The Winter Olympics haven't even started yet. I can bet that there will be a resurgence in sales in February when they are on.


It's decent I just had higher expectations giving that it felt like it was a winter themed game and it's kid oriented and those games, especially Mario branded ones, would seem to be a good fit for an xmas bump.

Is this game tracking worse than the old summer title?
 

Eteric Rice

Member
Soneet said:
Hint: I think I have more rights to project my taste as the Wii userbase than you, because I'm a Wii-only owner dying for real games. Yes I do fucking want MH3 and NMH2. And IMO it's so incredibly obvious why.

Edit: Your post is even more insane that I initially thought. Name me a top quality Wii game with core gameplay of PS360 games. Go ahead. Try.

Resident Evil 4.

Wait, that sold...

Uhh...
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
grandjedi6 said:
As a Wii-only "gamer" I think you are in a far smaller minority than I am.

More to the point, let`s say Wii-only gamer likes 6 360 games and would like to have them ported to the Wii and would buy them day one. Wii games are $50, which means to play those 6 games, he will outlay $300.

We`ll say Dead Space, Mirror`s Edge, Assassin`s Creed, Tales of Vesperia, Mass Effect, and Oblivion because I`m looking at my game shelf and need six names.

Those games are all available for below $20 on 360 with a minimum of effort. ToV would be the only one that on average would sell above $20. For all six games, the person would outlay $120. With a 360, that`s $320--only twenty dollars more than buying the games in hypothetical future Wii support world. If he bought a 360 on the $100 rebate, it`d be $220. He`d save $80, and that`s not counting savings from buying used or cheap new 360 games to have fun with his new system beyond the 6 he wants a port of.

If the Wii only gamer buys all his Wii games used and 6 months late, and thus wouldn`t realize savings by buying the games on the cheap on the 360, that removes the financial incentive but severely limits the original complaint. If you only want to buy games for $20 and less, that`s great, but the consequence is that the games you get to buy are limited by that.

Ultimately I believe that any Wii-only gamer on GAF who feels that they want more HD-style content would not only realize additional happiness by getting an HD system, they`d likely realize cost savings versus their initial plan of staying Wii-only. The same works in reverse but while I do hear 360-only owners ask for Wii ports, I rarely hear them ask for Wii ports because they`re unhappy with the library on the system they do own.
 
user_nat said:
If true, this doesn't seem to add up with Sony's PR release.

UC 2 - 950k
AC 2 - 865k (448k + 417k)

Top 3 PS3 games in 09 according to Sony:

1. MW2
2. Madden 10
3. AC2

NPD is for up to 2nd of Jan so maybe they have some data on the 2 weeks since then, only needs to keep pace with the last two holiday months sales for those 2 weeks to shoot past 1 mill.
 
This amazing month still didn't quite propel Wii 2009 up to its 2008 total, but it did manage to blow by PS2's best year by over a million.
Roders5 said:
Anyone else seeing some naked girls dancing and jacking off men?
Sounds about normal for the NPD results thread.
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
user_nat said:
If true, this doesn't seem to add up with Sony's PR release.

UC 2 - 950k
AC 2 - 865k (448k + 417k)

Top 3 PS3 games in 09 according to Sony:

1. MW2
2. Madden 10
3. AC2

I`m not sure where Road`s number is from, but if there is a discrepancy between Sony`s PR and NPD`s numbers, I would say that the press release is likely using a slightly different set of numbers--either internal projections, shipments, print run, North America versus US, NPD + internal tracking for January, etc. Either way, we can safely say AC2 is above 750k and below 1.1 million ;)
 
user_nat said:
If true, this doesn't seem to add up with Sony's PR release.

UC 2 - 950k
AC 2 - 865k (448k + 417k)

Top 3 PS3 games in 09 according to Sony:

1. MW2
2. Madden 10
3. AC2

If Sony's PR was jumping back and forth between "US" and "NA", a marked difference in AC2/UC2 sales in Canada could explain the snafu.
 

Road

Member
Tentative 2009 console top 10 with known sales (rounded to the nearest 100,000):

1. [360] Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - 5.8 million
2. [WII] Wii Sports Resort - 4.5 million
3. [WII] New Super Mario Bros. Wii - 4.2 million
5. [WII] Wii Fit - 3.5 million
4. [WII] Wii Fit Plus - 3.5 million
6. [WII] Mario Kart Wii - 3.1 million
7. [WII] Wii Play with Remote - 3.1 million
8. [PS3] Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - 3.0 million
9. [360] Halo 3: ODST -
10. [NDS] Pokemon Platinum Version - 2.0 million
 

Chrange

Banned
Sho_Nuff82 said:
If Sony's PR was jumping back and forth between "US" and "NA", a marked difference in AC2/UC2 sales in Canada could explain the snafu.

UC2 was on sale in Canada for $35 immediately following Christmas, so that HAD to help sales.
 
Very good for Wii, but at this point it could sell 10 million a month and it still wouldnt matter, we will still get the good nintendo games (that woulda came even if it sold 10 a month) and 3rd parties booboo facing the system.

this gen is weiird
 

careksims

Member
Good for Nin. Let's hope they give some of that money to Zelda and Other M. I really want the quality go through the roof and into Heaven for those!

Kudos to Sony as well!

MORE software sales!
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
Chrange said:
UC2 was on sale in Canada for $35 immediately following Christmas, so that HAD to help sales.

AC2 was on sale in Canada for $29, including the Collector`s Edition, immediately before Christmas, so let`s not descend into lunacy involving trying to micro-analyze the impact of minor retail sales in a minor country in the grand scheme of things.
 
Chrange said:
UC2 was on sale in Canada for $35 immediately following Christmas, so that HAD to help sales.

Still, it's Assassin's Creed. Frankly I'm amazed Uncharted 2 outsold the PS3 version in the US thus far, it's tracking much better than the first.
 

Chrange

Banned
Stumpokapow said:
AC2 was on sale in Canada for $29, including the Collector`s Edition, immediately before Christmas, so let`s not descend into lunacy involving trying to micro-analyze the impact of minor retail sales in a minor country in the grand scheme of things.

God damn, I wish I'd known about that sale :lol
 

kinggroin

Banned
Can't wait to read the Silent Hill numbers, for better or worse.

This isn't anything related to, "See! Third parties CAN do well", but rather that if this game fails hardcore, then it may very well be the last in my favorite horror series.

Does anyone want to take a stab at what the publisher will consider a success? I'm guessing 600k WW?
 

Road

Member
The 417k for PS3 ACII came from here: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/01/npd-2009-video-game-sales.html

They posted a combined SKU top 10:

1. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (2.84 million units sold)
2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2.75 million)
3. Wii Fit Plus (2.4 million)
4. Wii Sports Resort (1.8 million)
5. Madden NFL 10 (1.5 million)
6. Assassin's Creed II (1.2 million)
7. Mario and Sonic at the Olympics (1 million)
8. Wii Play (1 million)
9. Mario Kart (936,730)
10. Left 4 Dead 2 (728,491)

I just subtracted the 783k (360 version) from 1.2 million. I assumed the PC version is not included (Err.. It was not even released yet. lol)
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
Chrange said:
God damn, I wish I'd known about that sale :lol

I shit you not, I traded AC2 regular edition for $37, walked into the same store 18 hours later, used $29.99 in trade-in credit to buy the Collector`s Edition. It cost me $-7 to upgrade from regular to CE.

Road said:
AC2 number source

Excellent catch.
 

Firestorm

Member
I didn't see YTD so calculated it:
ayxb43.png
 

Calcaneus

Member
Technosteve said:
i am buying a DS LL to replace my DS Light that replaced my DS Phat. Would you like to buy my DS Light?
I'm planning to get a DSi, to futureproof myself somewhat, but thanks for the offer.
 

hellclerk

Everything is tsundere to me
grandjedi6 said:
Would a normal third person game be playing to the Wii's strengths? Possibly, but also probably not. For example, a hypothetical Resident Evil 4-2 could work really well but at the same time it wouldn't really be using the Wii's strengths outside of minor Wiimote implementation. Not that I'm suggesting that all Wii games must adhere to unique motion controllers and such. Its just that a Wii game which only offers a traditional experiece but with Wii controllers will have a hard time competing with PS360 titles and such.

I think Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is a good example of how to make a traditional game and yet also play to the Wii's strengths. It uses the Wii's unique features, has a traditional gameplay sense to it and yet still wouldn't be as effective on another system (which I guess we'll find out when the PSP/PS2 version hits!).
But what about games like Little King's Story? The only reason LKS doesn't have CC support is because they didn't have the time to implement it. There was nothing relating to "playing to the Wii's strengths" as there was no IR pointing or waggle in any respect. It's still an absolutely fantastic game that just wouldn't be possible on another console due to budgets.

My point is that any game can sell on the Wii, but that doesn't mean it will. It needs support from marketing to get people to know it exists. The problem as I see it is that businesses aren't looking at this from a consumer-centric position like Nintendo does. This can be seen in how 3rd parties deal with poor selling games: "the Wii market this and that", it's blaming the consumer, and thus completely counterintuitive. The customer is never wrong, and they're not wrong for ignoring games they haven't had much exposure to. It's the 3rd parties for not exposing the Wii market enough with them.

It's all the same though, I don't think 3rd parties will be able to recover from this kind of a fuck up at this point. They better bet some eggs on Nintendo next generation though. Not all of them, just enough that they can transition well if the Wii's successor pulls away well enough.

Edit:
Also, I'm in the same boat as Soneet. I don't really have much time, energy, or money for anything but my Wii.
 

lowrider007

Licorice-flavoured booze?
timetokill said:
that was why I bolded the ones that are brand new franchises this generation. obviously Mario is a well-known name that has been around for a long time.

But with the others, that's not true. Sure, Wii Sports came with the Wii, but Nintendo had to still sell the Wii to them, didn't they? How far have we come that Wii Sports selling well was a "given"? Do we need to pull out the Wii-revealed thread again?

Nintendo must have done SOMETHING to get your parents and grandparents to want a Wii and to want things like Wii Fit, right?

Yes they did do something, they appealed to non-gamers in a revolutionary way by inventing the Wii with motion controls, at first (my mum obviously at that time not my grandparents) was quite intrigued by this because she thought it was a control method that she could handle and it might be fun to play with my younger brothers, and then when she learnt that it came with a compilation of Sports games it was a done deal as she thought it would help keep the kids active and have fun at the same time, it's was the hardware with the new control method that really sold it to her, and no third party can compete with that, so once on board she is already familiarised with the Wii-Sports franchise, which she upgraded to Wii Sports Resort this Christmas

Look, I'm not saying that third party's can't compete at all, but I find it very unlikely as Nintendo are masters at appealing to non gamers and milking the Mario franchise which everyone knows and loves.

stupei said:
I love NPD day. :lol

Everyone knows why Wii-play sells so well because of the extra controller, it's practically pitched at every outlet when you buy a Wii, everyone I know that asks me about a purchasing a Wii I tell them "make sure you grab a copy of Wii-Play.
 

Eteric Rice

Member
doomed1 said:
But what about games like Little King's Story? The only reason LKS doesn't have CC support is because they didn't have the time to implement it. There was nothing relating to "playing to the Wii's strengths" as there was no IR pointing or waggle in any respect. It's still an absolutely fantastic game that just wouldn't be possible on another console due to budgets.

Speaking of LKS, I wonder what it's at right now?
 

Hero

Member
grandjedi6 said:
Hint: That core gameplay that the majority of Wii owners want is not the core gameplay of PS360 games. If people wanted that then they would just play PS360 games, which they have. I think you should refrain from projecting your own tastes upon the Wii userbase as if they would ever care about the same games as you.

Do you seriously not realize how ridiculous your statement is? That's some pigeon-holing right there. The Wii has such a large userbase that its owners are diversified enough to support "PS360" games. Look at Monster Hunter 3 in Japan. Capcom actually made a legitimate game developed specifically for the Wii and it sells over a million units. There's hardly any other equivalent for third party publishers that you can compare what you're saying to.
 

grandjedi6

Master of the Google Search
Soneet said:
I'm the average can-only-afford-(have-space-for)-1-console-and-I-like Wii-Sports-and-normal-games-college-student. I think I'm in a much larger group than a multi-console owner. The same type of group that buys a PS2 for Singstar and EyeToy. I'm sorry but your arguments are pathetic and you're being completely ignorant here. I don't care if you're just trying to be right, but you're just spouting nonsense with each post.
You post on NeoGAF, you are the average of nothing. Sure, the Wii-only group is likely far larger than the multi-console group, however the majority of that Wii-only group is not the same as you, at all. For example, the majority of Wii owners would never care about Monster Hunter 3 or No More Heroes 2. That alone helps separate you distinctively from the rest of the Wii userbase that you're trying to use for popularity support. Anyway, there's not much to argue here as you are obviously not representive of the Wii userbase in anyway. If you were, the type of games you listed would sell a whole lot more.

P.S. Technically I was a "1-console-normal-games-college-student" too for 2007 and the majority of 2008 so I suppose I have knowledge of sides then now don't I?

Stumpokapow said:
More to the point, let`s say Wii-only gamer likes 6 360 games and would like to have them ported to the Wii and would buy them day one. Wii games are $50, which means to play those 6 games, he will outlay $300.

We`ll say Dead Space, Mirror`s Edge, Assassin`s Creed, Tales of Vesperia, Mass Effect, and Oblivion because I`m looking at my game shelf and need six names.

Those games are all available for below $20 on 360 with a minimum of effort. ToV would be the only one that on average would sell above $20. For all six games, the person would outlay $120. With a 360, that`s $320--only twenty dollars more than buying the games in hypothetical future Wii support world. If he bought a 360 on the $100 rebate, it`d be $220. He`d save $80, and that`s not counting savings from buying used or cheap new 360 games to have fun with his new system beyond the 6 he wants a port of.

If the Wii only gamer buys all his Wii games used and 6 months late, and thus wouldn`t realize savings by buying the games on the cheap on the 360, that removes the financial incentive but severely limits the original complaint. If you only want to buy games for $20 and less, that`s great, but the consequence is that the games you get to buy are limited by that.

Ultimately I believe that any Wii-only gamer on GAF who feels that they want more HD-style content would not only realize additional happiness by getting an HD system, they`d likely realize cost savings versus their initial plan of staying Wii-only. The same works in reverse but while I do hear 360-only owners ask for Wii ports, I rarely hear them ask for Wii ports because they`re unhappy with the library on the system they do own.
Excellent post. Like I said above, I too was once a Wii only owner (not a fanboy though). However once the Wii's lineup started drying up in 2008 and the 360 dropped in price, well, it seemed like an obvious decision so I pulled the trigger. I've never understood why people whine about not having titles on other systems when its rather easy to just buy that system. I mean 1 or 2 titles is one thing, but more than that and it just becomes a better idea to take the plunge.
 

Azelover

Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams, and it was. It really was.
Sipowicz said:
i think the problem is that a for a lot of publishers that equates to gimped gameplay or a lack of content/polish.

i think third party wii software has been very good this year but it hasn't sold as well as it should have. i think it could have sold much better if they'd gotten the word out to casuals in a big way

stuff like boy and his blob, silent hill, little king story and rayman rabbits is cool as fuck and deserves to sell very well

You can make that argument about any game, but when you get right down to it the person buying it is the one who decides that. Wii Play may be a simple game, but it's the best introduction to Wii controls there is and it's a great deal at $10 over a controller.

These games don't deserve to sell just because they're good to you, they need to perform the job the consumer needs. Third parties don't understand Nintendo's approach and that's fine, they don't need to succeed at it.

It's about games, not companies. The ones that get it right will be rewarded, doesn't matter if that's third party, second or first. It's just about games.
 

schuelma

Wastes hours checking old Famitsu software data, but that's why we love him.
Hero said:
Look at Monster Hunter 3 in Japan. Capcom actually made a legitimate game developed specifically for the Wii and it sells over a million units. There's hardly any other equivalent for third party publishers that you can compare what you're saying to.

I'm saying this because I have a very unhealthy obsession with Japanese sales..but technically it has not sold over a million copies at retail. It has shipped over a million, but has sold around 980K or so.
 

hellclerk

Everything is tsundere to me
Eteric Rice said:
Speaking of LKS, I wonder what it's at right now?
I fear to ask, but apparently it's been selling well in Europe. The last interview with Kimura said as much. It brings relief to my heart to know that it could do well enough to let Kimura make another game :')

schuelma said:
I'm saying this because I have a very unhealthy obsession with Japanese sales..but technically it has not sold over a million copies at retail. It has shipped over a million, but has sold around 980K or so.
schuelma
Wastes hours checking old Famitsu software data, but that's why we love him.
(Today, 08:54 PM)
Reply | Quote
 

gkryhewy

Member
Wii number is absolutely astonishing - the very definition of expanded market, since it absolutely outclassed the previous record.

Will Bloomberg spin it negatively? Stay tuned.
 

VideoMan

30% Failure Rate
Nintendo Press release.

NINTENDO FINISHES 2009 WITH MULTIPLE SALES RECORDS

Wii Has the Best Month in Video Game History, Nintendo DS Has the Best Calendar Year of All Time

Jan. 14, 2010

A holiday shopping frenzy helped both of Nintendo's video game systems make history: Nintendo's Wii™ home system sold more than 3.8 million units in December, a new all-time single-month U.S. sales record. The Nintendo DS™ Lite and Nintendo DSi™ hand-held systems combined to sell more than 3.3 million, the second biggest month in U.S. history.

Those strong December numbers helped propel the Nintendo DS franchise to more than 11.2 million sold in 2009, a new U.S. calendar-year sales record for any video game system – ever. The Wii console finished 2009 with 9.6 million sold. Of all the Wii consoles ever sold in the United States since its November 2006 launch, nearly one-fifth (18.7 percent) were sold during November and December 2009.

"Wii, Nintendo DS Lite and Nintendo DSi combined to sell more than 7 million units in the month of December alone," said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. "Clearly there is overwhelming consumer demand for fun games, motion controls and value. This remarkable hardware sales surge presents a tremendous software opportunity for Nintendo and its third-party partners as we head into 2010."

Lifetime U.S. sales for Wii have now surpassed 27.2 million units. No other home console has ever sold so many so quickly. Lifetime U.S. sales for the Nintendo DS franchise have topped 38.8 million units, surpassing lifetime sales of the Game Boy™ Advance franchise.

As always, great software drives hardware sales. In December alone, consumers placed six Nintendo games in the top 10 best-sellers of the month. These include New Super Mario Bros.™ Wii at No. 1 with more than 2.8 million sold, Wii Sports Resort™ at No. 2 with more than 1.7 million sold, Wii Fit™ Plus with the Wii Balance Board™ accessory at No. 3 with more than 1.7 million sold, Wii Play™ at No. 6 with more than 1.0 million sold, Mario Kart™ Wii at No. 7 with more than 936,000 sold and Mario & Luigi™: Bowser's Inside Story for Nintendo DS Lite and Nintendo DSi at No. 10 with more than 656,000 sold.

For all of 2009, Nintendo finished with seven of the top 10 best-selling games of the year. These include New Super Mario Bros. Wii at No. 2 with more than 4.2 million sold, Wii Sports Resort at No. 3 with more than 4.2 million sold, Wii Fit™ at No. 4 with more than 3.5 million sold, Mario Kart Wii at No. 5 with nearly 3.1 million sold, Wii Play at No. 6 with more than 3.1 million sold, Wii Fit Plus™ at No. 8 with more than 2.4 million sold and Pokémon™ Platinum Version at No. 10 with more than 2.0 million sold.

All numbers contained in this document are according to the NPD Group, which tracks U.S. video game sales.

For more information about Nintendo, please visit www.nintendo.com.
 
grandjedi6 said:
Hint: That core gameplay that the majority of Wii owners want is not the core gameplay of PS360 games. If people wanted that then they would just play PS360 games, which they have. I think you should refrain from projecting your own tastes upon the Wii userbase as if they would ever care about the same games as you.

Bullshit. The wii userbase is simple - it wants good games or a good deal. Third parties may well be as deluded as you are, thinking that the audience just doesn't want the kind of games they are capable of making, but the truth is Wii owners have just been very discerning.


Wii Sports is some of the most fun you can have with the Wii console. 50m+ sold. Third party response? Cheap clones that even from a glance at the box, look like exactly that. The people who made Carnival Games and Deca Sports were lucky to do as well as they did.

Wii Play - cheap collection of minigames, thats only worth the price because it comes with a free remote - its basically the best way to get a second remote. 24m+ sold. Third party response? DERRRRP, I think they want minigame collections.

Wii Fit - a videogame that is marketed to capture people in the market for an impulsive self improvement fad or genuinely want to try and exercise and self-improve. Been done before on PS2 and countless other consoles, but never with a gimmick as clever as the balance board. 22m+ sold. Third party response? Cheap clones, but in some cases, clever takes on the idea -- such as EA Active and Ubisoft's Just Dance.

Mario Kart Wii - a fun online kart racing experience. 18m+ sold. Third party response? I can't even think of one. Car Vault? No Gamecube games sold this well btw. This is comparable to GTA San Andreas and GT3: A-Spec level success.

Super Mario Galaxy and New Super Mario Bros Wii - platforming games in both their freshest and old-school forms. Both 8m+ sold. Third party response? A port of Klonoa, and a Rabbids game where you push another Rabbid around in a trolley - which on the face of it could probably sound just as bad to people as FLUDD did last gen. And whats worse its came out after Ubisoft confusing the brand with several Rabbids minigame compilations. Thankfully, Capcom recognise the platform market potential with Megaman 9 and 10, and you could argue that A Boy and his Blob and a few other titles fit the bill as well.


I'm still not quite sure why third parties decided Wii would be suitable for an on-rails shooter revolution. Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles sold over a million, but did no one stop to consider that maybe the brand itself confused quite a few people into buying it after playing the sublime Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition, and the RE games before it? Don't get me wrong, REUC was decent -- but I'm not sure very many Wii owners out there were clamoring for a sequel, or Dead Space Extraction, or House of the Dead or Ghost Squad etc. Was it just the IR functionality that prompted this, or was it a cheap way to spit out a game?

There are colossal gaps in the Wii's library that no-one has actually tried to fill. When I list games on other systems in the coming paragraph, don't misunderstand me as being someone who wants games in that franchise, or games of that graphical fidelity on the Wii. I'm not stupid. And I have a PS3, so I couldn't actually care less about getting them on the Wii. I am however perplexed that powerful publishing entities haven't stepped up to try and fill a need on the console, that those titles fill on the HD twins.

For starters - no one has tried to put a truly high caliber FPS or TPS out. Metroid Prime Corruption can hardly be called an FPS - but its the best one on the system. The next best thing on the system is Conduit - created by a developer that previously made bank by producing Barbie games. Meanwhile the HD twins have Resistance, Killzone, Halo, Gears of War, up to date Call of Duty entries, the online masterpiece Warhawk... fair enough the FPS genre has always used the latest and greatest graphics engines, and a lot of the third person games I mentioned there thrive on their ridiculously good looks too. So maybe the absence of equivalents on the Wii isn't all that surprising. What about other genres that Nintendo doesn't fill? Non-Smash-style fighting games? Capcom vs Tatsunoko and Dragonball games. Is that it? What about third person action adventure games? Entries in franchises like Prince of Persia or Tomb Raider are tailing off, and new franchises like Assassins Creed are built with the more powerful systems in mind. There's no God of War, Bayonetta or Darksiders style games heading to the Wii.. Mad World and NMH are probably as close as Wii owners can get to that. What about arcade racing and sim racing? Flight games -- weren't the Rogue Squadron games obscenely popular on the Gamecube? A decent Star Wars game on the Wii at all would be a good idea.

I was a big fan of PSO on the Gamecube, and I would have liked to have seen a game like that on the Wii, but no-one has really attempted it. People blame the crap online system on the Wii for that, but come on, the Gamecube was even more crippled. I would have liked to have seen a decent RTS, or a game that controls with a pointer the way WoW can be controlled with a mouse.

I just can't help but feel that for Nintendo - the Wii is the first console in two generations where they're really capitalising on everything they do -- while third parties just stack up the missed opportunities.


Ultimately I get the feeling third parties have decided that cross platform development on the other two platforms is more important than development on the single platform with the largest market share. That *might* be whats best for them, and that *might* be why we've been seeing what we've seen this generation with regards to Nintendo support. In a sense, lowballing the graphical capability and introducing a new control method was a double edged sword for Nintendo. Had they had these kind of sales, been graphically on par with the other two and the other two had jumped on the motion bandwagon as they will do this year -- then Nintendo would probably have better support. The thing is, they couldn't have achieved these sales without powering and positioning the Wii exactly as they did... so its all moot. We are where we are.
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
grandjedi6 said:
Excellent post. Like I said above, I too was once a Wii only owner (not a fanboy though). However once the Wii's lineup started drying up in 2008 and the 360 dropped in price, well, it seemed like an obvious decision so I pulled the trigger. I've never understood why people whine about not having titles on other systems when its rather easy to just buy that system. I mean 1 or 2 titles is one thing, but more than that and it just becomes a better idea to take the plunge.

I got my Wii launch month, my 360 in Fall 2007, and my PS3 in Fall 2008. My 360, I bought maybe 30 games in the first 6 months, and I don't think I paid more than $30 for any of them. They weren't all AAA gems, but when you buy a new console, you have this wealth of titles that you just didn't think about.

Hell, when I got my PS3, these were the titles I had in my mind that I wanted to try out at retail: Valkyria Chronicles, MGS4, Folklore, Ratchet and Clank Future, Uncharted, Resistance, Heavenly Sword, Afrika, Buzz, LittleBigPlanet. I snatched them all up. The most expensive one that I paid for was Heavenly Sword for $34. Everything else I bought for less or was given as a gift. While I did purchase several full-or-near-full price titles for the PS3 in 2009, the vast majority of all gamers could have literally spent the whole year playing those titles that I mentioned. Assuming I bought 10 $30 titles instead of 10 $60 titles, I saved $300 out of the ~$350 that the PS3 cost my girlfriend in 2008. Anything going forward and the chance to play games I wouldn't be able to play otherwise were just gravy!

Mind you, if you're the kind of person that buys 5-6 games a year, being a multi-console owner is not for you... of course, if you're that person, why the fuck would you be complaining on the internet about a dearth of quality games even if you're a single-console owner of <insert shittiest console of the generation>?

Cruzader said:
So no one answered this...Will Sony meet their deadline they have set for March or something? Ideas?

This generation we've seen, I shit you not, a platform holder stuff anywhere from 3.5-4.0 million in additional stock into the channel and then basically not send a shipment for 3-4 months. Whether Sony meets it or not is up to whether they want to follow that and whether they're able to con retailers.

In terms of whether their sales will justify the initial call? Pretty doubtful. I'd have to run the exact numbers, but they should end up 1-2 million short off the top of my head.
 

Tmac

Member
Now all the pressure is on microsoft shoulders. They HAVE to show something to revert that downard trend.

Loosing to WII was excusable (different audiences, etc), but now they are behind their real competitor. Worldwide for a while now, and in NA things start to look grim...

2010 will be a crucial year for microsoft xbox efforts.
 

ShinNL

Member
grandjedi6 said:
For example, the majority of Wii owners would never care about Monster Hunter 3 or No More Heroes 2.
Let's continue this when those games are out, shall we? Don't jump to conclusions. I'm not expecting Modern Warfare 2 sales numbers but I do expect large numbers. You probably don't. We both don't know yet. That's the difference in our views and we'll see who's right later.
 

greepoman

Member
chuckddd said:
Looking back through the thread, I'm kind of disappointed about missing the pornography. :eek:

For real...now I'm curious. Surely someone had to have saved it ? Throw a link up with some NSFW tags pour favour :D
 
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