stof said:
If you mean terrific and complex games to appeal to the seasoned gamer, then yes. But there is a decent sized audience of gamers that are looking for the traditional mix of FPS, horror, and mature content action games that so far haven't come around to the DS. How many games are there that appeal to that crowd? I'll make a list of the top "adult sellers" I understand if you think different agmes meet this criteria. The top seller so far is Metroid Prime Hunters. with probably around 1 million. An early game with a great brand behind it that should have kicked off the trend. But it just didn't happen. From there it goes down hill fast. Force Unleashed clocked half a million with the Starwars name behind it. Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow? 300k with the Castelvania name behind it. Assassin's Creed: Altairs Chronicles. Alright, here's the DS version of the multi million selling AC game and it racks up 230k Resident Evil: Deadly Space 210 K Call of Duty Modern Warfare 170k Touch the Dead 160k Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword 140k Dementium 120k
And it goes on. Now I don't think this failure to find a library of successful "adult" games is the DS's fault. I think it's largely the fault of the games themselves, there are too few, released too far apart with not much to set most of them apart from the offerings on other consoles or handhelds. But the DS can definitely pull off that demographic shift to appeal to this crowd as well, but the Moons and Dementiums aren't going to do it. It's going to need major games that will attract people's attention from the start. It's going to need Grand Theft Auto's, and other games of it's ilk. I really can't wait to see what GTA and the DSi can do to shift some of the DS's target audience. It'll be one of the more interesting trends of this gen. |
It's also going to take advertising which a lot of publishers and developers are not doing for some of the games that you mentioned. If gamers do not know the game is developed then why would they go and look for it. The DS has a pretty big library and publishers are going to have to do something to make their titles stand out. Not very many people are going to go look for unknown gems on the DS rack at the local Gamestop, Ebgames, or Walmart.
Note: Metroid Prime Hunters had very good advertising. Nintendo even hired the Resident Evil, the movie, director to make the commercial.
If Nintendo is successful at the moment, it’s because they are good, and I cannot blame them for that. What we should do is try to be just as good.----Laurent Benadiba
