Some thoughts on Wii Game sales

[dschumm]

Mario Party 8- An absolute monster.
This more than any other game tells me what the people want. The like the blend of the old and the new. Traditional characters with intuitive Wiimote control. John Lucas is all over this one. They need to make the next one perfect and I think they could even double sales for 9. I think they were probably planning for a mid-year release but they will probably take the time to perfect it since 8 is still selling well. 9 will not have online. Sorry guys but you have a better chance of mulit-player deathmatch in the next Metroid than online in Mario Party. That is not the target for this game.

Zelda-
A great game that was a perfect transition for traditional games. I think the launch boosted it's sales and it has remained the quality game to get with a new system. Sales will taper off as that title is now owned by Galaxy. The next Zelda will be on Wii but will dissappoint sales wise. Without the launch boost, and competition for other amazing games the next one will sell less even with a bigger install base.

Super Paper Mario-
A good game featuring Mario hitting right in the middle of the game drought. OK sold. Additionally Nintendo actually marketed this game. Making it more pllatforming and less RPG may have dissappointed some diehards like me, but has helped its overall sales by making more acessable.

Resident Evil 4-
Anyone looking to make games for the Wii take note. Amazing controls, beautiful graphics and a great price make this a no brainer. Capcom is my hero. This totally changes the landscape of what people thought the Wii was about. It is abouta diversity of gaming tastes and making games that appeal to a large group of people. Quality did that for RE4. It also shows that many Wii owners were not GC owners.

Mario & Sonic -
OK so the only mingame collections that have outold it are WiiPlay, Rayman, and Mario Party. This game will pass Rayman by the end of the year and the other two were monster first party packages. How is this selling badly? Yeah Sega said 4 million for this and the DS version. Crazy but I think this game is almost a lock for 2 million. And this will defintinely be a launch title with the Wii in China. Look out. I am guessing we will see more of these from Sega. Expect a winter game compilation in 09.

Zack & Wiki-
Sad sad news, but it is showing signs of life in the US. With a big Europe launch this game will probably hit 300,000+ and break even. Why does anyone release games in Japan in Oct-Nov? And apparently reatilers didn't want this game. Sad. Capcom should have made RE4 only availabe to retailers in boxes that also have Z&W. Hehe

Red Steel
Swords and guns controled by the mythical Wiimote what could go wrong? Unfortuneately a lot. But since this was a launch title most people didn't find out until it was too late. The next one will have to be awesome. And if Rayman went from a 9.0 to a 7.9, Ubisoft better take more time with RS2 or they are gettting a 3.0 from me.

Link's Crossbow Training
Another missed oppurtunity for Nintendo. This should have been WiiCrossbow Training featuring Link. It should have been a Wii title and the package should have look like WiiPlay. You can barely see there is a game on the package. Come on, this should have been an easy 200,000 units Thanksgiving week.

WiiPlay-
I am going to agree with John Lucas again. The game sells the controller ,the controller sells the game. It is what people want when they buy the system. Look at how popular WiiSports is as a standalone in Japan. People like WiiSports and want more if it, peolel need more controllers for their social console. Done and done. Expect millions more.

Galaxy-
Once again I will say I think this game is doing great and why the hell does anyone launch anything in Japan in November? This game will soar past the 870,000 Sunshine achieved in Japan and considering it is Marios weakest market for 3D, it's doing just fine. This is now the game to get for the system and will remain so for it's life. We wont see another main series Mario this generation. This game will sell over Sunshine lifetime. I guess 8 million.

Metroid Prime 3-
A great game but I think it is time for Metroid to be reinvisioned again. Those that like it, love it. But that group is a small population of Wii owners. How many first person shooters are 1 player? That is a fine decision an all, but how would this game have sold with a deathmatch mode? I know that is sacrelidge to fans but the Wii is about making games appeal to a wider audience not smaller. I also think RE4 did as much to damage MP3 sales as Halo 3 did. They have the same quality, same audience, and one is cheaper from a series everyone has played.