It seems to me that in the last year and a half, third party Wii developers have been complaining more and more about how the Wii has caused their games to fail, and subsequently lose money. Is this true? Well, developers have definitely lost money, but I don’t believe it’s the fault of the Wii, and the reason is simple: People are making comparisons that take average-reviewed niche games and compare them with critically acclaimed mainstream games. The fact of the matter is that comparing No More Heroes to Call of Duty 4 or Halo 3 is just ridiculous, because no matter what system a game like No More Heroes is released on it will not sell as well as a mainstream shooter game. Therefore, the goal of this article is to compare the sales of a game like No More Heroes to another game in its genre with similar review scores, rather than taking unfair comparisons and basing my judgments off of them.

The way I see it, there are three things that make a game sell: High review scores, lots of advertising, and not being a niche title. So it’s safe to say that if I am to draw comparisons, I need to find games that have relatively equal review scores, equal amounts of advertising, and games that are in relatively equally popular genres. As such, here are the comparisons I will do:

The Conduit vs. Dark Void
Madworld vs. Bayonetta
The Conduit vs. TimeShift
Muramasa: The Demon Blade vs. Odin Sphere
Call of Duty: World at War (Wii) vs. Call of Duty: World at War (PS360)
No More Heroes vs. Killer 7

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-]Conduit vs. Dark Void[-

Why it’s a fair comparison: The Conduit and Dark Void were both hyped titles, and from what I saw, received fairly equal amounts of advertising (I’d give the edge in ads to Dark Void, but no matter). Both titles score in the high 60s on Metacritic, and neither of them are niche genres.

The Graph:

Sales to date:
Dark Void: 240,000
Conduit: 390,000

The Conclusion:
So here are two games that are fairly comparable in terms of advertising, review scores, and nichity (term = coined), and the numbers come to one basic conclusion: The Wii is a better system for selling a hardcore action game than the PS3 or 360. Even when combined, the sales of Dark Void don’t measure up to that of The Conduit. Consider that the combined install base of the PS3 and 360 is right around 70m, and the Wii’s install base is 69m. Even with a higher install base, the sales of a hardcore game of equal “value” to The Conduit can’t match up to what the Wii is able to pull. That “Wii is bad for selling hardcore games” idea is starting to sound a little fishy, isn’t it?

Of course, it wouldn’t be fair to just base my conclusion off of one analysis, so onto number 2:

-]Madworld vs. Bayonetta[-

Why it’s a fair comparison: Well, to be honest, it’s not. Bayonetta had higher reviews, is less nichity, and had more advertising than MadWorld. So why am I comparing them? Because they’re both made by Platinum Games. Founded by key members of former studio ‘Clover’, Platinum games has a lot of trouble selling their games because of how niche and weird they are. Here’s the question: Can they sell their games better on the ‘hardcore’ systems, or the childish Wii?

The Graph:

Sales to date:

Bayonetta (360): 480,000
Bayonetta (PS3): 530,000
Madworld: 450,000

The Conclusion: Madworld, the Wii title, had significantly lower review scores and much less advertising (Bayonetta went so far as to sponsor UFC matches), yet still managed to pull numbers that are at least comparable to the PS3 and 360 versions of Bayonetta. Sure, there is a nearly 100,000 unit gap between Madworld and the PS3 version of Bayonetta, but that can easily be explained by the difference in reviews and advertising. Additionally, Madworld has proven to have fairly long legs whereas Bayonetta is topping off rather quickly. We’ll see if the trend continues, but as it stands, Madworld is to this day selling very steadily.

-]Conduit vs. TimeShift[-

Why it’s a fair comparison: Once again I draw upon the knowledge that the sales of The Conduit give us by comparing it to not just another niche title, but another title in the exact same genre of FPS. TimeShift and the Conduit have very similar stories in terms of hype level and disappointment, and their sales chart tells us even more. Both of these titles are in the same genre, have the same review scores, and were advertised even more similarly (as far as web-adverts go; I didn’t follow television advertisements for TimeShift) than The Conduit and Dark Void.

The Graph:

Sales to date:

TimeShift (360): 310,000
TimeShift (PS3): 90,000
The Conduit: 390,000

The Conclusion: Here’s yet another case of people seeming to underrate the sales of The Conduit. Even when you combine the sales of TimeShift on both platforms, The Conduit still almost beats it, and that’s no small feat considering the hype surrounding both games. What does this tell us? Clearly there’s been some dirt spread on the idea of third party Wii games not being able to sell.

-]Muramasa: The Demon Blade vs. Odin Sphere[-

Why it’s a fair comparison: I was thinking of what game I could compare to Muramasa, and nothing really came to mind. What Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 game could really compare to Muramasa in terms of reviews or genre? None that I can think of! So, I went back in time and took a look at Odin Sphere, the 2D platformer made by the same people that developed Muramasa, and compared the sales.

The Graph:

Sales to date:

Muramasa: 250,000
Odin Sphere: 320,000

The Conclusion: Odin Sphere has sold a good bit more than Muramasa, and the reviews are pretty similar (Odin Sphere: 83, Muramasa: 81). There are two things to take into account: As of now, the PS2’s install base is nearly twice that of the Wii. This means there are two PS2 owners for everyone one Wii owner, which can increase sales in and of itself. Secondly, Odin Sphere came out during a time when platformers were much more popular (not to mention it’s been out much longer), whereas now the genre of choice is an FPS. Overall, the sales don’t differ enough to draw any sure-fire conclusions about which console was better for selling this sort of game.

-]Call of Duty: World at War (Wii) vs. Call of Duty: World at War (PS360)[-

Why it’s a fair comparison: Of all the ones that need an explanation for why it’s a fair comparison, I’m thinking that this one is pretty self-explanatory.

The Graph:

Sales to date:
360: 6,300,000
PS3: 3,800,000
Wii: 1,400,000

The Conclusion: Now, Call of Duty: World at War is an interesting case of “cross-platform-itis”, which is when a game is released on the high end consoles (PS3, 360), and simultaneously on the Wii. What happens in this case is that developers get lazy on the Wii version and put out something that isn’t as good as the PS360 counterpart. What this does is similar to what Valve’s porting job of The Orange Box to Playstation 3 did. For those that aren’t familiar, the port of the Orange Box to PS3 was filled with glitches and bugs left and right, and turned off many PS3 owners to purchasing the game. As such, the sales for the PS3 version of the game were but one-fifth of the 360 version. The same thing happened with World at War on Wii, to a much worse degree. The game had graphical glitches, sure, but due to the weaker power of the Wii it was also missing nearly a third of the features in the other games. The PS360 versions had many more features, better online support, better graphics, more modes, and yet still the Wii version managed to break 1,000,000. Perhaps this is saying something in itself?

-]No More Heroes vs. Killer 7[-

Why it’s a fair comparison: Again, this is one that needs little explanation. Both games were made by the same person, and were both in the same type of niche. While their review scores are a bit different, I think that the sales are so significant that it’s tough to argue the reception point.

The Graph:

Total sales to date:

No More Heroes: 470,000
Killer 7: Collectively didn’t even make a mark on VG Chartz

The Conclusion: The graph really could not be any more self-explanatory. The Wii title sold much, much more than the game that was on both PS2 and Gamecube, and neither had any advertising whatsoever. In this case, there is no doubt that the Wii is a better seller of the ‘core’ third party title.

-]Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Reflex vs. Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway[-

Why it’s a fair comparison: I’m not sure that this one is a 100% fair comparison, but in terms of reviews, both games are equal. Additionally, Modern Warfare: Reflex got literally zero advertisements and next to zero press at all, which means no matter how few advertisements Hell’s Highway got, it’s at least as many as Reflex.

The Graph:

Total sales to date:
Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway (360): 820,000
Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway (PS3): 700,000
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Reflex: 970,000

The Conclusion: Once again we see a Wii title that has equal advertising, equal review scores, and of the same genre selling significantly more than a 360 or PS3 game. After all of these conclusions, it’s hard to doubt the idea that Wii is actually a better system for selling ‘core’ titles, wouldn’t you say?

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Now, I would’ve loved to compare games like Little King’s Story and Dead Space: Extraction to other third party titles, but unfortunately these games don’t have any games that they can really be compared to because they are very niche titles. I considered comparing LKS to Pikmin, but then realized that Pikmin is indeed a first party Nintendo title.

So here’s my question to all the people complaining about Wii third party sales: Why are you comparing games with mediocre reviews and moderate amounts of advertising, to games with stellar reviews and insane amounts of advertising? Did you expect a game like The Conduit to sell as much as Halo? What’s happening here would be the equivalent of the owner of a run-down, dirty burger joint owner complaining that he doesn’t sell as much food as McDonald’s. You’re comparing two things that are on completely different levels, so until someone releases a game with consistently high review scores, lots of advertising, and in a genre that people actually like, I’m not going to believe anyone when they tell me that the Wii is a bad system to make third party ‘core’ games for, because as I’ve found, the facts point to completely the opposite.

How about you guys? Do you agree with me? Are all my comparisons fair comparisons? Is there a Wii title that has gotten high review scores and a lot of advertising that hasn’t sold well? If there is, please let me know! I’d love nothing more than to hear some counter points to my argument!

From Nintendo everything.

Now that is new ...hum ...we we must never forget making a Wii game is waaaay cheaper than making a HD game.

youre exactly right
ive seen about 10 adverts for madworld in uk but it is one of the bestselling games in uk

You can't just compare Call of Duty to Brothers in Arms. They're in completely different leagues. Also, for the kind of support Wii has had, it sells tremendous amount of software. If it were Sony or Microsoft with such lackluster support on their respective consoles, they'd be long gone.

Call of duty world at war received great reviews on Wii platform, over 80+ in review score and still, do not manage to sell 1.5 million. Yes maybe the game has less features than the HD version, but it we considered that COD world at war was the best FPS on wii platforma and was released at the same time with the HD version, it still way above. In the rest of the game, HD user has way more options in third parties core games, we can't buy it all, but i don't think Wii user has too much options for buying third parties core games.

Comparing Brothers in Arms to CoD is hilarious.
Comparing The Conduit WW sales to Timeshift NA only as well
Madworld costs £4 since 2010. They could sell another 500k, but they would barely get any revenue from that.
Dark Void is just a bad game that no one needs in a crowded genre with much much better games. I'm glad it didn't sold well.

I'm not arguing that third party games don't sell on the Wii in general, but I have the feeling that the good games, which actually deserve the sales don't sell.

Angelv577, but wii version didn't have any advertisment compared to massive ps360 campaign plus add the fact that Call of Duty series is pure online experience - people don't buy wii to play online games.
to me it's hard to say that any wii game flopped when it sold more than 200-250k LT if we consider the fact that developers of games like Conduit and House of the Dead Overkill which are one of the most expensive 3rd party wii games and had the biggest advertisement campaigns so far(if we're talking bout core games) were happy and were eager to make sequels when they sold 200k copies(makers of Overkill).

Conduit budget was just 7mln$ and it was spend on making new engine, game development and advertisement - even game like Left 4 Dead 2 had 30+mln$ campaign backing it up(Valve alone spend 25mln$ on advertising this game). 400k for any game with this kind of budget is a success this gen no matter how good or bad the game is and i won't be surprised if Conduit will pass 500k by the end of this gen.

Brothers in Arms to... Call of Duty 4? Seriously? lol

Anyway, other than that... I think -

The Conduit should be compared to another FPS. Haze, for example. AvP. Frontlines: Fuel of War. And wasn't Dark Void released just this year?

Why did you compare Conduit WORLDWIDE sales, to Timeshift NA sales?

The MadWorld vs Bayonetta one... "yet still managed to pull numbers that are at least comparable to the PS3 and 360 versions of Bayonetta". You forgot to mention that Mad World has been out for 7-9 Months LONGER than Bayonetta.

This thread is some first-rate spinning.

Third party core games generally don't sell that well on Wii because:

1) they suck
2) they are too hard to sell
3) or they suck

Most quality, mainstream core games do sell, like Call of Duty, Resident Evil, Sonic and House of the Dead. That's all there is to it, really.

I'm nearly at a loss for word's...

Your comparing Brothers in Arms to the most popular FPS franchise in history, really?

When was Dark Void hyped? It was a broken game on release as well in a crowded genre.

Bayonetta just released in Janurary, it could go on to sell a million per console by the end of the year.

You just compared a PS2 game to a Wii game.... I don't even want to answer.

Overall, your worse than the HD fanboys that nitpick at Wii 3rd party games.