Agreed. Brands matter a lot not only to an average casual consumer but enthusiast too. I remember the big jump in preorders when they added Call of Duty name in front of Modern Warfare 2. They must be toying away with an idea of it being its brand but saw what people like to buy.

Same old recognized names.

Not having a TV commercial=//=promoted only on Nintendo Directs.

Take a walk to a movie theater, go inside, watch some youtube advertisements, disable ad block and pick up some magazines, a 4 page  placement may be waiting there to surprise.

Strangley enough Nintendo does a decent amount of advertising in Australia of all places.

Ah well having Miiverse might get more people to try the games

This is my theory on this -- kids view cartoony games as something that belong on their smartphone now. You look at most of the popular smartphone/tablet games and they're things like Angry Birds and Plants Vs. Zombies and Cut the Rope ... bright, colorful games.

But on home consoles, since they're getting their fix of cartoony games on their tablets ... they are migrating more towards the more high-end visual games like COD, GTA, Last of Us, etc. (stuff they probably shouldn't be playing but gravitate to because it's what their older brother/cousin is playing).

As a result games that are "in the middle" like Puppeteer, Wonderful 101, Little Big Planet Racing, Rayman, etc. are finding there's little to no market for them anymore.

Nintendo's big gun family IP like Mario/Pokemon/DKC are still safe as are the top licensed cartoony games like LEGO and some Disney stuff, but everyone else is basically screwed.

Kids are changing are a bit I think.

Those games flopped because they have limited appeal. Sure if they had a well known and loved brand/Characters attached they would have sold better as that would add to their appeal. But it likely wouldn't have made them massive successes either, a brand doesn't guarantee success. If a game is appealing to a wide audience it will sell well regardless of the brand, just look at Minecraft for example. Minecraft is on the way to being one of the most successful games of all time, but it is a completely new IP.

Some titles catch the eye's of consumers and some don't. Its unfortunate that 2 quality games sold so poorly, but to their credit I think both were released digitally(not sure about W101)? So you never know what happened on Sony and Nintendo's marketplace.

And just a quick question regarding Puppeteer, is the co op any good or would I just be buying it for the single player?

I disagree, what sales games is promotion, advertising and hype.

Sadly for both Wonderful 101 and Puppeteer, while the fanbases tried to grass root hype the games, the main companies didn't promote and released in wake of the main stream monster that is GTAV they were sent out to die without even being given guns for their bullets.

You really just have to look at the success of games like Dishonored, Heavy Rain, The Walking Dead or Just Dance, most these spread due to word of mouth or hype via media hard ons for their more unique elements. The same could happen for Wonderful 101 or Puppeteer but sadly the audience isn't probably strong enough to push that.

Games that sell of off hype have been usually hyped for at least a year by the time of their release

My guess is most people are not even aware of those games so if they see them on the store if shelves (if they are even on store shelves) they have no basis to judge them.

Wonderful 101 was always a hard sell. Small install base, developer with little commercial success and from what I saw, next to none promotion anywhere. Add on that it is a hard game to equate for anyone and frankly does not lend itself to casual gaming experience. Not saying that is bad, but can explain why average consumer passed on it.

As for Puppeteer, well Sony frankly do a pretty poor with many titles in terms of awareness or hype. Puppeteer just felt lost in the shuffle that will be a game months or years from now people will be surprised ever existed when you bring it up (outside of really hardcore gamers). Frankly 2013 is very crowded and will be several games fall through the cracks.

Puppeteer released on the same month (or week?) as GTA V , whoever thought it was a good idea should be hanged not only fired.

I disagree.

Games like these have a very limited appeal. It's not unfair if people who would not be expected to buy a game don't buy it. People like to criticize the overuse of metrics, but if the publishers are disappointed with these results, they have to look at these numbers and get realistic about what they can expect.

And no, brand name does not sell games.

VISIBILITY DOES.