Recently we had a poll to see what game would have the best lifetime sales and Little Big Planet (LBP) and Wii Music were among the games being voted on. I argued that unlike fanboyish votes being cast niether of these games would be top dog. However, these two games really do belong in a different competition.
Which game will actually sell more, LBP or Wii Music?
They have a lot in common. Both are 1st party games being pushed by their respective designers as AAA games that everyone should own. They both need, no, require a lot of creativity from the community to actually enjoy the game itself. I mean LBP would suck if the community didn't create a lot of good, fun levels. Wii Music would suck if you weren't given a lot of flexibility on how you are able to make music. Both have a few youtube clips so far that show that each game has its own merits and with the right amount of creativity can be a potentially fun game.
So what it really boils down is, sure both games will probably easily reach 2 millions users off of name and buzz alone. But, will either game have enough creativity thrown at it to hit that magical 5 million mark? I still think no, they won't. I still think titles like this that require so much effort to actually enjoy won't have that type of appeal.
However, they are perfect games to compare. I think watching their results through this holiday answer the question of who will win the creativity war.
Wii Music is probably Nintendo's weakest entry into the "Wii" title lineup. It has no hardware associated with it and is still full price. Yet it is labelled "Wii" and maybe that is all it needs at first. Then if it has enough tools to be easily creative it could be phenomenal. Hell, this game probably should of had an emmense online network that incorporated Wii Speak. For $50 I would probably get it if it came with Wii Speak.
LBP is probably Sony's best 1st party game this year. At least its being pushed by Sony as their epic Mario. I has no actual built in game, however, it should come with a million user created mini-games very quickly. Again, if the tools are easily used and fun and the community is vibrant and creative it could also be phenomenal.
Me? I really don't know. I am torn between the two as niether appeals to me. I like to play games, not create them first. I never cared about the map creators in games like the Civilization series which has always had good map creators. However, I have downloaded people mod kits made from them. I have no interest in making musical songs, yet I enjoy watching some the youtube clips.
I guess we will know in January.
