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jarrod on 10 August 2010
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Mr Puggsly said:
jarrod said:

Revisionist history.  Core games did great on Wii at the start, from RE4 to DQ Swords to Red Steel to COD3 to Metal Slug Anthology to Trauma Center to Ghost Squad... all tiers of games and franchises, and everything was basically meeting to exceeding expectations.  Nevermind Nintendo's own core games (Zelda, Mario, Metroid, etc), which are among the best selling in the industry.  Even now, Wii actually has quite a few low tier success stories, like Muramasa or Tasunoko Vs Capcom, it's hardly like MH3's alone in being the one 3rd party Wii game to do as well as hoped.  MH3's the only original AAA 3rd party core game though, so it's one of the few core titles that will sell like a AAA 3rd party game.  Again, Wii can't sell what it doesn't have...

And I didn't 'cherry pick', I simply used a few recent examples of notable bombs, which seem to be getting more and more common on the HD twins.  And btw, Raven and Bizarre are both wholly owned subsidiaries of Activision, they literally are Activision.  I did enjoy the mealy mouthed sales excuses though... you sound like a Wii defender.  Which sort of belies the point, there's nothing really inherently unique about Wii's situation or ability to sell what games.  At this point yes, it's market was shaped by what it got, but what it got wasn't really reflective of it's potential or even what it was actually selling upfront...

Like I said, the Wii overwhelmingly sold shovelware, party games, and 1st party much better. A few core games that sold decent doesn't change that.

I hardly consider TvC a success. Blur on both consoles will likely out leg it. Muramasa is likely a success. I own it, not exactly a high quality game. As of now, I think Capcom should have released MH3 on the PSP. It would defiinitely sold better. There were other core games released this year. NMH2, S&P2, RS2, and Arc Rise. Feel free to make excuses for those. Prince of Persia bombed on all platforms, most notably the Wii.

Ultimately, there would be more core games on the Wii if developers were genuinely happy with sales they have received. HVS was trying to cash in on the lack of core games on Wii. Now they're struggling as well.

Those aren't notable bombs. LP2 and DV both got abysmal scores. You know HD consumers are savvy to game reviews. Raven and Bizzare are used to crappy sales.

Its almost like you're saying the HD consoles are bad at selling core games because not everything is a success. When I'm just saying HD consoles have a much better record at selling 3rd party core games than the Wii. For example, a piece of garbage like Saint's Row has sold better than any 3rd party core game on the Wii.

I don't think you get it... I'm not disagreeing that Wii chiefly sells shovelware, casualware and 1st party games, especially now.  I'm saying the reason for that though isn't inherent to the platform, it's reflective of the games it's gotten.  It's also not reflective of Wii's first year either, the first year core games actually did better than casual generally, and that was also due to the library landscape.

Capcom said TvC exceed expectations btw, and it did around 50k it's first NPD, which was just one week.  Blur did only 31k it's first NPD, and that's on both systems combined over a week as well.  Blur might outleg it, but that's because it'll move the 600k or so Activision hoodwinked retailers into buying for under $20.   Blur should outsell TvC given the funding and promotion behind it, the fact that it's even in question is proof enough the game bombed hard.  This was supposed to be the "COD of racing" lol.

Muramasa did about as well as it could have.  It's performing on par with Vanillaware's last 2D ARPG on PS2 (Odin Sphere), so I'm not sure what you want there?  That's the real problem with a lot of Wii's core 'flops' or whatever... basically since it doesn't get the AAA content a microscope is put over the few core B/C tier games it does get, and when those sell like B/C tier games, pundits/press/analysts throw up their arms a cry "Wii can't sell core games".  It's ludicrous, it'd be like basing PS2's sales potential off games like Odin Sphere, God Hand, Chulip, RE Dead Aim, Death by Degrees, etc.

As for MoHun... PSP *is* getting MH3.  Or it's own variation of at least, (smartly) tailored to the platform.  MH3 is also already the best selling game in the series outside Japan, it was the first 3rd party console million seller in Japan this gen, so it's not like Capcom's really missed any opportunities there.  They've handheld MH wonderfully really.

I'm not going to make excuses for those Wii games, I think NMH2 and RS2 genuinely underperformed (for various reasons), though S&P2 is 1st party (and let's be honest, no one was expecting big sales there) and ARF *just* came out (we have barely any data on it's performance, too early to say).

And I'm not saying core games do worse on the HD twins.  I'm saying sales of core games this gen have been self-fulfilling prophecy.  It's the same on HD as on Wii, 3rd parties decided what would sell, then they put that there and built those markets, then it happened.  There were early indications for a healthy core market on Wii (COD3 Wii outsold COD PS3 for example), but the content didn't follow to build that, and now it's a wasteland.  Too late to really change that imo, it is what it is.  3rd parties can now either face an apathetic (and in some cases hostile) Wii marketplace, or go HD where you have to go big to compete and fairly often go broke in the process.  At this point, I think everyone misses PS2. :/

Also, I thought Saints Row was better than GTA4. :P