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So it has sold 840,000 in it’s launch week in Japan, getting to a million after eleven days. And with expectation at a fever pitch it will definitely launch at number one in America and Europe. But will it be one of the biggest games of 2008? No, and the reasons are obvious. They are the same reason that SMG, also one of the best reviewing games ever, was only number 30 in the UK sales chart for the whole of last year.
Basically Super Smash Bros, Brawl (SSBB) and SMG are gamer’s games. They are mainly bought by people for whom gaming is a hobby. And whilst many Wii owners are gamers, most of them aren’t. Most Wii owners are casual game players, and whilst some of these may well be interested in SSBB, most won’t be.
A major difference between gamers games and casual games is the profile of sales over time. Gamers games sell massively at launch but after just a few weeks they are selling very few. Casual games just sell steadily and keep on selling. Just look at how long Brain Age has been in the charts, for instance.
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Is this guy for real? I especially like how he cherry-picks the sales of SMG to make them look bad. Of course, SMG was released in the middle of November and only had a month and a half to compete when a lof of those titles had all year. His "casual" argument falters again because Twilight Princess and Metroid Prime 3 have all sold more than most "casual" games.