Would you count these games as a sucess or a failure- Wii Edition

[Conegamer]

Yakuzaice said:

jarrod said:

Yakuzaice said:

GooseGaws said:

Yakuzaice said:

Monster Hunter Tri - Japanese sales weren't very good, and it doesn't look like it will have the legs of the PSP games.  Western sales have been fairly strong.

Uh... what?  This is the only third-party million-seller on the Wii in Japan, and one of only two million-sellers not published by Nintendo on ANY console this generation (the other being FFXIII).  How is that not very good, again?

Because it is a franchise where the last iteration had higher sales than any Final Fantasy ever.  FFXIII, a franchise which peaked below Monster Hunter, and had its peak 13 years ago, outsold MH3 by nearly 80%.  Not to say that was exactly unexpected considering it found its fame and fortune on portables with local play.  That doesn't make the sales good though, especially when you take into consideration the budget was much higher than the PSP games.

If Dragon Quest X were to come out tomorrow and sell 1 million copies lifetime that would be very poor as well even if it is only the third 3rd party million seller on consoles.

Problem is, the last console DQ sold 3.6m while the last console MH sold 650k.  The differences extend past just console/handheld for MH too, as MH3 carries a subscription fee for multiplayer (and indeed it's the best selling subscription based game EVER in Japan).

Tri met Capcom's Japanese sales targets (and actually exceeded their subscription targets).  You can't really call that anything but a success.

If this were something like Animal crossing where it did about 1 million on GC, 5.3 million on the DS, and then 1.3 million on the Wii I'd be more inclined to agree with you.  It is pretty clear cut there that just the switch to portables allowed the franchise to explode.

I'm trying to find the article about their subscription targets, does it actually have any hard numbers or just general comments like they were "happy" with them?  I'm guessing if people are still paying for it they haven't done a very good job of convincing their friends considering 2G outsold Tri almost 7 to 1 this year.

Tri had its reasons for underperforming, but that doesn't make it a success.  It also had plenty of things going for it.  Higher budget, plenty of advertising, a big push from both Capcom and Nintendo, and of course coming off of the massive hit that was 2G.

I think the big thing is the Stigma attached to the Wii as well. People I know were less inclined to buy it at first, either for the hope of it coming to the PS360, or the high price tag, or, more importantly, the fact people view the Wii as a "kiddy" console. Whilst this probably doesn't account for a lot of lost sales, it's still a contributing factor. People I know are almost embarrased to admit that they own a Wii, and shove it in my face with a frustrating barrage of pointless COD facts back at me, and refuse to see it as a worthwhile entry to the series.

Oh well, their loss I suppose. It's a shame they didn't get more sales, but it beat Capcom's expectations, is the best subscription game in Japan EVER (as mentioned) and no doubt made a tidy profit, which is why I expect Monster Hunter 4 on the next Nintendo home console.

All in perspective I suppose...