Aielyn said:
GTA Chinatown Wars was in the style of the original two GTA games, which never really sold very well. And it didn't "sell very poorly" - it sold 1.35 million copies (based on VGChartz numbers - which shouldn't be TOO inaccurate). It did better on DS than on PSP. Assassin's Creed 3 was on Wii U... to quote GamesRadar: "Despite being bigger and, in many ways, better, ACIII is a flawed experience, held up by its incredible gameplay, and weighed down by a new infestation of bugs and poor design choices--and the Wii U version is the messiest of the bunch." And "The Wii U version in particular includes some problems all its own, like muddy visuals and weird looking textures. Sometimes it looks identical to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 version, and other times it looks like Connor’s textures haven’t fully popped in. Multiplayer is included, and it's a good time if you can get in a game, but that's a pretty big "if." The servers were almost entirely empty when we searched for people to play with, and unless something changes you'll likely experience the same frustration." Meanwhile, let's look at its TV ads, like this one. Notice something? Which systems are listed at the end as getting the game? Here's another one. The official trailer. And here's another ad. And this one, and a launch trailer. The only time the Wii U got mentioned was in a single dedicated Wii U trailer, three months before release. Didn't even get a launch trailer. Splinter Cell: Blacklist is no better. Here's a quote from NintendoWorldReport (because the only non-Nintendo-specific site that reviewed the Wii U version was Eurogamer Portugal, and it's not in English) - "During missions cutscenes would often crop up with only half their audio playing. The subtitles meant that, usually, I was still able to see what someone was saying, but the audio continued its one-side conversations on and off throughout my time with the game. While these glitches only really interfered with the gameplay at one point, during which I was forced to repeat a five-minute section due to being stuck in an elevator, it makes the entire experience feel like it was slapped together at the last minute." I will say that at least they had commercials for Blacklist that included the Wii U logo... These issues wouldn't be a problem with franchises established on a system, but neither Splinter Cell nor Assassin's Creed had established markets that would buy them immediately. Nintendo gamers have learned not to rush into purchases of third party titles, because they tend to be poorly ported, glitchy affairs. COD:BO2 is a special case, because the CoD franchise (since Modern Warfare, at least) is built on multiplayer, and people won't buy a version for a system that their friends aren't getting. Add to this the fact that they didn't have post-release support... to such an extent that the Nuketown 2025 map, which others got at launch, took two YEARS to show up on the Wii U, and there was literally NO DLC packs released for Wii U - compared with four major packs for the other systems. And it's not like they hid the fact that it was going to play out that way. For a series like CoD, that's a great way to completely annihilate any chance of further sales, on a new system. As I pointed out, ZombiU did better on Wii U than Zombi did on either PS4 or XBO. Rayman Legends did quite well despite Ubisoft handicapping the Wii U version's chances. Neither of these got any sort of follow up, though. As I said, third parties aren't willing to put in the effort without pre-existing evidence of a market, and aren't willing to compete against Nintendo in anything except the "casual" market - hence why they've made no effort in the Fighting genre, the non-realistic Racing genre, Platformers, RPGs, etc. They release a lesser version of a game, and then expect it to sell as well as Nintendo's top-line titles despite never having attempted to build the market first. |
GTA Chinatown Wars on PSP was a late port, and it was only made after the DS version bombed. But PSP already had two superior GTA games, LCS and VCS, that weren't limited by DS hardware. And these two games sold over 7 million and 4 million respectively on the system. the DS had a m Why should PSP gamers settle for less when the system is far more capable? On the DS, it was the best that Rockstar could have done with the series while keeping the gameplay intact.
AC 3 may have some issues on Wii U, but its not bad, I've played it a little on the Wii U, and its not noticeably worse than the PS3 version. The marketing, well I agree with you there, I didn't know the Wii U version wasn't marketed.
Splinter Cell Blacklist has some framerate issues on Wii U, but it also has the highest image quality of any console version. The framerate issues only occur in heavy action scenes, which is not the focus as its a stealth game. Its very good game too, so more people should have played it.
ZombiU was ported to PS4 and XB1 two years after the Wii U version, and these consoles have better survival horror games. But did DS have a better GTA like game, did Wii U have better open world games at launch than AC 3, and does it have a better stealth shooter than Splinter Cell Blacklist? It does not, but despite them not having competition they didn't sell, and that's primarily due to Nintendo fan's demographics.
That's also the reason why Rayman did better on Wii U than other consoles, its the demographics as Wii U has a huge platformer fanbase made by Nintendo.
As for building a fanbase why should third party bother when Nintendo gamers don't give them a chance and gamers on other consoles happily buy their games. As much as we are discussing technical details of games here, the general public does not know or care about them when they buy a game, only the hardcore gamers do. So their effect on sales of games is very small close to release of a game, but these games didn't have a good launch either.
