Profit. Profit profit profit profit profit
Profit determines success, profit and publisher expectations. Mindshare is also important, but mindshare doesn't necessarily mean money (or else Nintendo would be tripping over themselves to release Mother 3 in North America). It's all about games reaching their target market in a way that they are noticed, and profit within parameters set by publishers, this is success. To compare these games in terms of sales within their own genre doesn't work, because there are too many barriers to simply set The Conduit in a match against the average shooter, because the average shooter is a very fragmented concept to begin with. You could set it against the average Wii shooter, but there isn't much there to compete with.
Monster Hunter: pissing me off since 2010.
