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Forums - Nintendo - Rock Band 4 not coming to Wii U because "the audience is not there"

Materia-Blade on 06 March 2015
SjOne said:
I just remembered, Rock Band is published by EA. Of course its not coming to Wii U

That explains it. Doesn't justify, but explains.



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Materia-Blade on 06 March 2015
vivster said:
Why release any game to a low install platform?

To sell, I guess. Then, do you think ps4 and x1 shouldn't be getting any game when they launched, right? Low isntalled bases.



Materia-Blade on 06 March 2015
maxleresistant said:
mysteryman said:

Interview with HardcorGamer

Daniel:  The Wii U is a really hard call for us, but from our initial research the audience is not there yet, and I would be really psyched for there to be this public outcry of “Where is the Wii U? I will absolutely throw money at you and I wanna buy it and preorder it!” and all that.  And then we start working on it.


If Nintendo was doing his job, they would have convince them to do a WiiU version.

If third parties were doing their own jobs, we wouldn't have this problem.



kitler53 on 06 March 2015
naruball said:
Guess it's one of those countless times that silly developers don't know any better, but forum people do. Guess we'll never know who's right. If they do release it for the wiiu and it flops, there will some kind of conspiracy involved.

because it's not their money.  when it's your money, your investment, your time and effort, your ability to eat and pay the morgage on the line,.. the risk assetsment evaluation becomes a much more meaningful decision than, "but i want it".



Guitarguy on 06 March 2015
Materia-Blade said:
FentonCrackshell said:
Guitarguy said:
Doesn't surprise me. What non-Nintendo developed(published) game has been relatively successful on the Wii U? Even highly acclaimed games like Bayonetta 2 have not been super smash hits. It might just not be worth the effort on the developers side.

Finally someone who gets it. Even perennial million sellers like FIFA and Madden don't sell on Nintendo consoles. Putting those games on WiiU would be a waste of time and money.

Can't believe you're using two games sent to die by EA as a comparison.


He is not unequivocally wrong though.

http://www.vgchartz.com/platform/47/wii-u/

The highest selling non-Nintendo published/developed game on the Wii U is Ubisoft's ZombieU at circa 830,000 units sold worldwide....  This was considered a failure by Ubisoft. In fact, it was stated that it 'was not even close to making a profit'.

http://au.ign.com/articles/2013/07/08/zombiu-wasnt-profitable-no-sequel-planned

It only gets worse from there. Bayonetta II has sold a respectable amount but nothing in correlation to the amazing acclaim(ie 10/10s on major gaming publications). I would wager Bayonetta II cost alot more to produce than ZombiU... I would say Bayonetta II has yet to make a profit either...


Black OPs II, Ghosts, Tekken Tag 2, Assassin's Creed Black Flag, Injustice, Batman Arkham City/Origins, Mass Effect 3, Deus Ex Human Revolution, Splinter Cell Blacklist are all AAA games and all received good to excellent reviews but none of them have sold more than 300,000 copies worldwide.. What chance does a forgotten 'fad' franchise that has been dormant for many years have??



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vivster on 06 March 2015
Materia-Blade said:
vivster said:
Why release any game to a low install platform?

To sell, I guess. Then, do you think ps4 and x1 shouldn't be getting any game when they launched, right? Low isntalled bases.

Nope, because it is rightfully expected that they will increase their initial install base a lot. Also because they know that the people who bought that console actually buy 3rd party.



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kitler53 on 06 March 2015
Turkish said:
Mummelmann said:
I think they're in for a surprise if they think Rock Band 4 will do very well on PS4 and One; fringe customers are gone from home consoles, there is no sense chasing this demographic in this sphere any longer and they'd be better of making games for mobile devices.


I think you'll be in for a surprise of how well this title is going to do, the series was popular with everyone, not just casuals, it's not a game like Just Dance whose main audience are non-gamers. Also it's been a long time since the last rythm games came out (5 years) so the fatigue people had of too many music games coming out is gone.


i dunno turkish.   it was popular with eveyone but i'm not sure the fatigue as worn off.  i'm going to buy RB4 because i want something i can play on my next gen consoles but of the rest of my band,.. 1 guy quit video games and the other 2 still take digs at how bad the RB/GH thing got and refuse to break out the old games when we're together.  i suppose i'll have to ask by my gut is they still won't play with me in RB4.

it'll sell something but it could be a title that struggles to break a million.



160rmf on 06 March 2015

So no ps3 and x360 version? what is the excuse? I guess it isn't possible doing on these hardware, the game is too demanding, the hair movement of the band isn't going to look too realistic on last gen hw.
At least is nice to make backwards compatible with old instruments, now it's time to take off them from the basement, clean the dust and hope that they're still working.
This game is going to do great /s



 

 

We reap what we sow

Mummelmann on 06 March 2015
teigaga said:
Mummelmann said:

That's why I call them fringe and not casual customers, these are the inbetween customers that buy more games than casuals but less than hardcore, the ones who buy simpler fare from time to time to get a break from bigger games and perhaps have fun with friends. The ones who got hooked on wordfeud and similar, competitive games like Quiz Battle on mobile devices, all the while still buying every odd console or PC game as well, and the same that made up the chunk of the user base for games like Buzz, Singstar and Rock Band. Of course, the majority of Quiz Battle and wordfeud gamers don't care much for regular games. Look at Nintendo's Brain Training games for another good example of how these customers have changed habbits.

Fringe customers are neither here nor there but there are better, not to mention a whole lot cheaper, alternatives now on mobile devices and perceived value rules the day. It's not like Rock Band is cheap with all the instruments anyway. This is also why Wii Fit U was a horrible idea despite the success of the first two games; there are now better and miles cheaper alternatives on mobile devices. This is probably the biggest indicator we have right now of what these customers are doing, while Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus had well over 20% attach rate; Wii Fit U has slightly more than 5% at this point, this figure will shrink as the lifetime sales of the console increase (likely ending up around 2.5-3% when all is said and done).

Developers are still dealing with how they go about catering to a splintered market and these changes are still fairly recent. Expect a lot of games to fall on their asses before things change much.

I could be wrong, who knows? I guess the sales of Rock Band 4 will tell at any rate.

I'm not saying that you're wrong but simply that the waters haven't been tested thus far on PS4/X1 (like they have for Wii U and its casual/non gamer audience). We have evidence that the blue ocean demographic or casual gamers have put down their wii motes but not that the fringe gamers are no longer active. I always presumed they're partially what allows FIfa, Assassins Creed and COD to sell rediculous amounts each year, they're the type that might pick whatever the next hype thing is without knowing too much about it (Destiny, maybe Star Wars BF3 this year) . All we know of the PS4/X1 is that their hardware sales are really healthy and software sales  even more so. Thats bodes well for the range of audience they're capturing, now everything arriving this year is next gen exclusive and prices are about to fall again the chances are even higher that these fringe consumers will be here in large enough numbers by years end.


This is also true; the PS4 and One are still young and we don't fully know what kind of audiences they'll attract and subsequently; which games will be able to move on these platforms. I can state that I find it very unlikely that the title in question will do well on these platforms, but I don't yet have any data to enable me state it as fact. As far as the OP and topic goes though; the Wii U has had more time to prove itself and has failed at almost every turn so the decision to leave Nintendo out of this one is understandable at the very least. I'm actually a lot more puzzled at the exclusion of the PS3 and 360.



IamAwsome on 06 March 2015

According to VGC numbers, Rock Band 3 sold just over 2 million across four platforms. At this point the Rock Band audience isn't on any console..