I hate to say it, but if they are banking on Conduit 2 they are probably in a lot of trouble.

There's not a big FPS fanbase on Wii (as they know).  Their first game didn't instill a lot of confidence - especially the game crashing bugs in multiplayer, and was pretty generic.  And they will be competing directly with CoD:BO AND Goldeneye both of which will get a lot more hype.

Conduit 2's claim to fame was the split-screen & split-screen online, which is almost unique to them on Wii but now Goldeneye has stolen that away.

Most Wii FPS fans will probably only buy 1 of the 3 FPS this fall.    The only way for the already greatly disadvantaged Conduit 2 to overcome CoD and Goldeneye's  marketing $$ and brand is to be a superior game.  A notably superior game with addictive gameplay.  

While that isn't impossible for HVS to achieve, it may be with the budget Sega gives them, or their skills.   And an underwhelming Conduit 2 will likely do as well as NMH2.   Disasterously bad.

I still got an old damaged flame shield sitting here when I called the Conduit looking dull and average on this site before it was released.. the hype on the site was huge..

Additionally my buddy mentioned why Tournament of Legends moved away from the "300" look and Bushido Blade style gameplay.......Sega. It was a Sega decision.

Well from the looks of it. It's shaping up to be the superior wii fps this year. I has a lot going for it that can far exceed the other shooters. Besides, Conduit 2 will be made from the ground up for the wii. I'm pretty sure black ops will be focused more on another platform, so goldeneye might be the biggest competition, still conduit 2 has more online modes....so far. Conduit 2 also has a few "firsts" of wii fps online gameplay. Like a headset and patching to correct bugs. I wouldn't say that they're dead yet, they still have some time. Although with all that i've said, i do think it's being released at a bad time.

Yup, same here. I called it mediocre looking and many wii fans here were up in arms. The amount of hype that game had was simply insane given HVS's history along with how bland it looked.

It sucks that many people at HVS lost their jobs, especially in this tough economy. I assume that a lot of those laid off had that much input into what they were making and were probably just victims of decisions made by higher-ups in the company. That said, I doubt the grinder would have shaped up to be anything worthwhile after the awesomeness of L4D1 and L4D2. Can't say I have much faith in TC2 either.

That's a pretty good idea, it can't be that hard to port and raise the resolution and then sell it for $40 as a Move title.

Outside of Resident Evil 5, the PS3 hasn't got a zombie game yet and I'd buy a HD Grinder Move.

Considering what they achieved with The Conduit, they should concentrate their efforts to be a middleware provider. Else or renew the design team entirely. The Conduit's design was so mediocre that many of their customers are not excited to pick the sequel. I plan to purchase Conduit 2, but I might leave it to next year as they are many great titles coming out in the following months.

Yeah, but does HVS know they screwed up?  I hope they do.

Oh, I didn't know HVS was working on Conduit 2. The Boxart doesn't say HVS... maybe it's on the back...

Dumb move, they'd massively raise costs, massively lower addressable userbase (if it goes HD, it needs to be 360 & PS3 both, no question) and I still doubt any publisher would bite given HVS' track record (Sega certainly wouldn't, given near all their recent western games have underperformed on PS360).  The reason they went PSN/XBLA is so that they could self-publish the property, and still hopefully find a partner for the Wii version at retail.

If HVS wants to survive, they need to go 3DS.  Publishers are hungry for content there, their technology would translate pretty well, and Wii spec games like The Conduit or The Grinder seem ready made for porting.  3DS really does look like the path of least resistance...