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jarrod on 29 December 2010
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Resident_Hazard said:
jarrod said:
Resident_Hazard said:

I'm not really "championing" Haze's sales.  Just using it as an example to show that there is clearly a market for FPS titles on the PS3 where there isn't on the Wii.  "There's enough of a market for FPS titles on the PS3 that even the crap sells pretty well."  People are going to buy crappy games no matter what, and the Wii is proof of that.  Carnival Games should never have sold even 10 copies, let alone the millions it's pushed.

For what it's worth, while I'm still at Best Buy, in the games department, I do my best to steer Wii shoppers away from crap.  You want to see championining?  I suggest Kirby's Epic Yarn constantly. 

Haze is about as apt an example as Red Steel was for Wii.  Both games were terrible and sold largely because they launched early, had little competition, and were hyped to hell by platform evangelists.  A theoretical Haze 2 would also probably sell about as well as Red Steel 2 did (ie: barely)... neither proves anything about the suitability or market presence for FPS on their respective platforms.  

I think a sequel to Haze would sell better, comparitively, than Red Steel 2, if Haze went through the same kind of "quality assurance" overhaul that Red Steel 2 did.  On the HD consoles, people still actually buy sequels.  Consumers--and gamers specifically--stopped buying sequels on the Wii over a year ago.  Frankly, each follow-up on the Wii tends to sell roughly half--or much lower than--what the previous title did.  From Resident Evil: Chronicles games to Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2.  Many sequels on the HD systems are selling roughly the same as their predecessors (maybe only slightly less)--and the longer they're out, the more they'll sell.  I'm pretty confident that over time, Bioshock 2 and Fallout New Vegas will close in on their predecessors.  Left 4 Dead 2 handily outsold Left 4 Dead 1.  Halo Reach easily toppled ODST, and it might even catch up to Halo 3.  The Call of Duty games certainly show no signs of slowing in sales. 

Now, if all you want is "suitability of an FPS title" on a given console, clearly, the HD systems are where people want to play their FPS games, since all of, what, two FPS titles on the Wii managed to sell a million copies?  It's just Metroid Prime 3 and Red Steel I think.  One of them was carried on the popularity of a solid franchise, the other had no competition and was carried by hype. 

Haze is also not quite in the same category as Red Steel.  When the PS3 launched, there were other FPS games for competition.  Red Steel had zero competition from other FPS titles, and almost not other competition in general at it's launch. 

Oh please, Haze 2 would bomb like none other due to the negative light the brand sat in after people were duped into buying the first.  Just like with RS2.  Unlike RS1 though, Haze was considered a sales disaster, so the brand's pretty toxic and I doubt it'll ever happen.

And Red Steel launched against COD3 actually... y'know, the game that sold pretty much the same across Wii and PS3?  FarCry was there for launch too.

Galaxy 2 is selling on comparably with the original btw.  It's actually doing better in Japan, about the same in Europe, and a bit worse in America, though Galaxy 1 had a holiday season to push it harder and faster upfront.  You're also comparing half a year to over 3 years of sales there.   RE DarkSide Chronicles sold almost identically launch aligned though... again, Wii games have legs, you can't just compare a sequel to it's predecessor that's been out years and expect the same total.  I'd agree, Wii's software market is softer for sequels in general, but you're two examples here don't show that at all when looked at past a superficial level.

I do like how you crucify the six month old Galaxy 2's sales, then immediately turn around and assure us all that legs will carry an actual declining sequel like Bioshock 2 to it's predecessor's ltd though.  Neat how that works!

Meanwhile, how did Resistance 2 do compared to the first btw?  How did Singularity sell?  Wolfenstien?  Condemned 2?  Bloodstone?  Dark Void?  Quantum of Solace?  Vanquish?  The Club?  Dead Space?  Lost Planet 2?  They're all huge multi-million sellers right, I mean they're having the fortune to release on HD shooter utopia?  Where even the "crap sells pretty well"?   ;)