| mrstickball said: See, here's the problem: The X360, PS2 and PS3, despite their userbases, manage to sell core titles. Not as much as they used to, but despite the userbases, there have been some successes, again despite the user bases. You have to realize something is wrong with your userbases' buying habits (the Wii's) when Metal Gear Solid 4 on PS3 can nearly outsell your top 2, 3rd party games on another system with well over twice the userbase. Here's the damning list against the Wii of Top 3rd Party Console Games. All next-gen systems, with games above 100,000 units sold:
As it stands, The Playstation 3 is the best seller of 3rd party software over 100k (and most likely entirely). Period. Maybe that's me, but if console has almost 1/3rd the hardware units in the wild, yet are outselling your competition, there's a massive problem. I'm not going to comment further than this, because I think the numbers speak for themselves. |
I think you need to look a little more closely at that list because it's quite deceptive. For starters, look at how many key franchise installments are on there, and which platform they are predominantly on; the PS3 of course. Metal Gear Solid 4 had been anticipated in Japan for a long time, and would have sold a large amount regardless of the platform. Next we see DW, Pro Evo, DMC, Gundam and Yakuza; all of these franchises have followings in Japan and are proven sellers on platforms other than the PS3 so it's no surprise to see that they still sell now. A little further down there's Ridge Racer, another proven seller, and so on.
Conversely, look at the Wii's top sellers. A Dragon Quest spinoff. Yes, a SPINOFF manages to outsell every PS3 third party title here bar one of the highest profile games released so far this generation. Further down the list, a Resident Evil spinoff has managed impressive sales. We're still waiting to see the first key third party title here. Deca Sports, a game taking advantage of the Wii Sports phenomenon, sales reflect this. Still not a key third party title to be seen. That is until Dragonball Z and what's this? It has outsold the PS3's Dragonball title quite comfortably. This is the first fair comparison we can make given that both titles are main installments in a recognised franchise that's proven to shift units, and the Wii comes out on top.
Next on the list is Tales of Symphonia: DoTNW, seemingly not a mothership title as Namco-Bandai likes to put it, but not entirely a spinoff either and the original on Gamecube sold strongly. Sure enough it has managed to outsell Vesperia on the 360. The gap isn't as gigantic as it perhaps could/should be which suggests the Wii's fanbase isn't as core-concentrated. No surprise there.
Further down there's Resident Evil 4, a port of the Gamecube version. No surprise that it hasn't sold remarkably well given the very machine it's on can play the Gamecube original. We don't really have an equivalent title on the PS3 to compare to though. Then of course further down we have the Wii's edition of Pro Evo. Sadly this was released months after the PS3 version which hurt it, and it wasn't pushed at release which hurt it further. The PS3 version managed to triple the Wii version's sales which, even with the Wii version's release disadvantage in mind, is a clear win to Sony.
Overall I think it's fair to say that there just haven't been enough (heck, arguably any) major third party releases on the Wii in Japan to make a clear judgment on what you're suggesting. Monster Hunter 3 will be the first big test.
