Wii Fit selling out in Japan

[johnlucas]

MontanaHatchet said:

Quote from Mr. John Lucas himself:

"Fools!" "I never usually second guess a region buying preferences but I have to make an exception in this case." "FOOLS!!" "Mario Party 8 & Mario Party DS matching up with the mainline franchise in the series????" "Those are the spinoffs!" "Super Mario Galaxy is the mainline of the whole franchise for God's sake!"

And I think you know what his usual posting sounds like.

That's right I said that. And I meant it too.

But you missed the reasoning behind it. I have NO problem with Mario Party 8 & Mario Party DS or any of the other spinoffs franchises from the Mario series selling well. I LOVE that they sell well. It has nothing to do with this "Casual" "Hardcore" nonsense.

I was shocked because the main central part of the franchise from which all of those games came looked lackluster in comparison seeing how well THEY did. It was emotional overreaction on my part because if they liked all the other games why not at least some love for the central unifying line of this franchise especially such a well done one like Super Mario Galaxy. Which has multiplayer capabilities and all.

It would have done me just fine if SMG pulled a weekly performance like Mario Party 8 & Mario Party DS. But under it?

However, something dawned on me not too long later after I made this comment.

Wii Fit was stealing all of the buzz. It looked like SMG got cannibalized by Wii Fit & then suddenly it all made sense. DS is cheaper and portable so Mario Party DS sold big but people were saving up for Wiis & Wii Fit & Nintendo was preparing supply for the region the past few months. This explains the sudden ebbing in Japan that we couldn't get our minds around. They were just saving up for Wii Fit at the exclusion of most everything else. The Japanese aren't all rich and they have to pay bills like everyone else. I believe many of them were making sure to get this new Wii Fit before anything else and THEN they'll pick up the other titles along the way. So they just froze the wallets for awhile which unfortunately got SMG among others caught up in the mix.

I wrote this idea here in the forum a few times after I made this comment you bolded.

I realized that I overreacted without looking at the larger picture first. I try my best not to get caught up in that but I'm not perfect. It happens. I'm not proud of jumping the gun like that being such a plan-minded individual. I always use foresight & forethought to a maddening degree.

I had no doubt Wii Fit would have the "line around the block" presence I was expecting for SMG. The fact that some have commented on buyers picking up SMG along with the whole Wii/Wii Fit package lets me know that it was Wii Fit which caused the uncanny valley on the sales charts throwing off many of our expectations.

SMG will be fine in Japan & I shouldn't have worried so much. I got too caught up in the excitement & missed the big picture. But that reaction was a reflection not of bitterness that Mario Parties sell well but more that the tree trunk of all the branches didn't match. It was more like what are the spinoffs without the original show?

John Lucas