By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
jarrod on 24 March 2010
Edit Thread
Doobie_wop said:
jarrod said:
Doobie_wop said:
kykiske said:

I love how people combine PS3 and xbox360 software sales so they doesn't call some games 'flopped'.

So the fair thing I guess is to compare Wii vs PS3, Wii vs xbox360 or even PS3 vs xbox360 software sales O.o

I'm guessing your referring to me, the reason I add both platforms is because the game isn't exactly developed twice, it's developed once on a lead platform and ported over. The cost of developing two titles and porting a game to a different platform are different. It's like if someone asked how many copies of Resident Evil 4 has sold, I'd answer 6.57 million copies across the Wii, Gamecube and PS2.

Well, once you start comparing for budgets, you really can't do a 1:1 HD:Wii sales ratio at all.  To return on investment, an HD game needs to sell somewhere between 2 to 3 times as much as a comparable Wii game.  And that's just figuring development, not promotion (which on HD also tends to dwarf Wii in terms of budget and scale).

I guess your right, but until we have a list of the budget's for every HD and Wii game, then this turn's into a flawed debate. The only reason I thought budget's may not matter as much concerning the HD consoles is that the same engine is alway's being reused in regards to multiplatform titles. Wii game's on the other hand may have to be built from scratch and then have the time and effort of putting it's motion control's capabilities to good use. The best example I could think would be Dead Space, it used the The Godfather engine. Dead Space: Extraction was built from scratch. In the end I don't really know, I'm just taking shot's in the dark.

Well, the only real things we have to go for budgets is what's said by developers/publishers, and usually they won't even make comparisons directly between Wii and HD.   The only time I've actually seen that is from Ubisoft, who said Wii games cost between $3-5m, while HD multiplatform cost $10m+.

Many 3rd party Wii games also use recycled or licensed engines though, precious few are actually made "ground up" for the platform.  DSE is one of the few, though in comparing it to DS1 you have to remember that it was (1) outsourced and (2) had a far, far shorter R&D cycle (DS1 took almost 4 years and was originally an Xbox 1 game, DSE took just over one year).