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Forums - Sales Discussion - Wii Starwars... less WW sales than either HD console? Why?

atma998 said:
Maybe because Star Wars fans are nerds and HD consoles are for nerds? :P Who knows? lol

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Groucho said:
The "legs" issue is the only outstanding one... at this point, this game needs legs on the Wii in order to stand up to the HD versions. I'm sure its still paying the bills -- the license almost ensures that. But this is a strong indicator for 3rd parties, as to which console to focus on, as a primary, and that could be a concern for Wii owners in the future, with regards to overall game quality.

Here's my problem - the game isn't of very high quality. I've played it, and it isn't anything special - it's a traditional game with a metacritic of under 70. This means the sales are pigeonholed into just the Star Wars demographic, whom are older gamers just fine with traditional controls & better graphics. The Wii version doesn't offer enough to offset the HD consoles' benefits for these fans.

If this is an indication that the Wii will not get high budget, mediocre titles, I don't think Wii owners will care all that much. If a big "adult" Wii game is to outsell those on the HD consoles, there must be a very compelling reason to pick the Wii version over the HD consoles. This is difficult to pull off for traditional games, especially "AAA" titles, since so much of the budget is thrown into the graphics. If Assassin's Creed went multiplatform, I'd bet on its sales ratio being similar to TFU.

For a Wii game to perform well, it takes more than just throwing tons of money into a game's budget. This is the reason large third parties fear it.



I think really what we are seeing is large bases of persistent buyers on the PS3 and 360 while this base for Wii is not as prevalent. Games still will sell well on Wii but it'll take time to see those full effects. I think GHIII is a perfect example of that. Does that mean PS3 and 360 have more core gamers that would fit those kinds of buyers? Probably but Wii has that too but considering these are the Nintendo core crowd they only show up big on the Nintendo titles. Looking at trends of SMG, SSBB, and MK Wii are a testament to that.

So Star Wars is really no exception. Really one thing going from the beginning against it was that it was announced a hell of a lot later but I can see why people are wondering while SW plus Wii isn't instant explosion. Well that hype for the first month would mainly come from that persistent buying crowd I talked about which won't show up to much when they find out SW: TFU is not the true lightsaber game they wanted. (Note that Wii Motion Plus Star Wars will be huge haha for this reasoning). However the mainstream and casual buying crowd that has which is much more extensive than PS3 and 360's will never know that. They'll see Star Wars and Wii and recognize the same hype and buy instantly. It's just that instantaneous buy won't happen on the first day or week or month. Who knows whne it will happen. But becuase there is so many of them there will be strong persistent sales on a weekly basis as they figure it out tied in with a huge jump in the holiday season.

Don't believe me? Well its all in the sales trends. Go back and look at some Wii games that were pretty mainstream before holidays and then look at them during the holidays. Madden 08 is probably the best example but there is a good bit more. SW: TFU should follow similar trends. Stay steady without holiday weeks and then explode during the holidays.

And this goes for all platforms, btw. Not just speaking of Wii. Just Wii's will be a more prevalent case considering it has more mainstream buyers than PS3 or 360.



This week (week 4) the Wii version of Star wars: TFU is now selling the most in others. As with many Wii games this one may have long legs as well



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In a few month the Wii-Version will be the most sold version.

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The issue is simple.
If the Wii version was crushing the others versions, developers could focus on the Wii only and benefit from lower development costs.
As it is they can't and they still have to develop for HD platforms and spend a significant time on game realism and graphics as it is what HD owners want.
As a result the Wii version always look poorer and the lower development costs for Wii does not reduce much the total development costs for developers...

PS : I don't buy the HD consoles owners are more geeky and more into Star Wars.. The Star Wars franchise was actually very present and strong on the game cube... Besides the fact that Star Wars franchise has crossed into mainstream long ago, you have to look a long time to find someone that never heard of Star Wars...



PS3-Xbox360 gap : 1.5 millions and going up in PS3 favor !

PS3-Wii gap : 20 millions and going down !

Wii Starwars... less WW sales than either HD console? Why?


Because it looks like hell and has inferior physical effects and these are the only things that are apparently rewarding and fun in this game, which was otherwise pretty underwhelming.



Star Wars' largest market is what? Nerds.
PS360's largest market is what? Nerds.

Bam, there's your reasons for the large numbers for the 360 and PS3 versions. You'd have a tough time finding someone who bought TFU because the game looked good, as opposed to the fact it has Star Wars in the name. And yes, not to mention the game is brutal on the Wii. If I had to buy the game, I'd buy it for my 360 and not my Wii.

And TFU is not a AAA game. A AAA game is a game that gets good reviews. AAA means the best of the best. Not "Holy shit it sold 2 million units!". You wouldn't say You Don't Mess With the Zohan is a better movie than Brokeback Mountain just because it made more money.

Mario Galaxy, Gears of War, Halo, GTA, Zelda, Gran Turismo, Okami. That's AAA.



"AAA"



Star Wars' largest market is what? Nerds.
PS360's largest market is what? Nerds.


Exactly.

Normal people play WoW and Wii. Go back to your nerd lair, nerds.



PC + Wii owners unite.  Our last-gen dying platforms have access to nearly every 90+ rated game this gen.  Building a PC that visually outperforms PS360 is cheap and easy.    Oct 7th 2010 predictions (made Dec 17th '08)
PC: 10^9
Wii: 10^8

As a Star fan I can tell you that when it comes to the games realism is a huge factor, so we can have the movie experience. So I knew the HD versions would sell most. I as a game fan can appreciate the controls better on wii, but I´m in the minority, plus they did a real crappy job with the visuals, the wii is capable of more. You can tell they decided to develop it at the last minute when they realized that just going HD would not be profitable since they put so much money into the new graphics and physics engine.



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