Why is it that hyped up ps360 games like Army of Two, Burnout, or maybe Valkyria chronicles sell under expectations but totally unhyped Wii games easily sneak to large numbers without anyone noticing?

 I want opinions.

What? Army of two sold like 800k (PS3 + 360) just in the last month, according to NPD.

Children.

Or supernatural causes.

There are a lot of casual party games on the Wii that internet nerds dismiss as garbage. Wii Sports is laughed at and couldn't break 80 average review score on Gamerankings, but is the top contender for generation defining video game. The new market is speaking through sales rather than internet messages so there is no accomapnying noise when a hit game makes its way to them. They just quietly buy the game and ignore the core gamer clusters that provide 95% of internet hype.

Word of mouth. People are always ragging on "casual" or "minigame" titles when in reality they're fun and well put together titles that appeal to wide audiences.


Infact, I think it's quite telling that a lot of these games achieve massive sales based on word of mouth while publishers are in a marketing blitz war to get their hardcore violent games to sell the same amount.

Yeah like uhh, uhh, Carnival Games, and that other one, uhh, what was its name?

And you have to remember that reaching a million isn't always a matter of a few weeks' sales. Burnout is a game that can easily reach a million on both platforms, it just needs more time to sell, and maybe a holiday season. Same for Army of Two (but not Valkyria Chronicles, games rarely ever see a revival in sales in Japan).

IMO it is not really about the hype. Hype towards a game is usually shared amongst as many people would say 'gamers' and by now I think it is realised that most of the Wii's audience is 'casual'. As expected casuals tend not to even know games before release even well knowned ones let alone hyping them. So I find it, basically that sales for Wii are contributed mostly to a name brand or casual appeal. I'm sure some of you agree. Mebbe...

Hyped up games can easily sell 1 million, with no problem,
some unhyped wii games sell up to 1 million is cause they have incredible legs, theres always a new gamer ready to pick up that game

Word of mouth is right. For example:

My cousin bought Carnival Games a few weeks ago. My uncle had told him that HE heard it was a good game at work, so he forced my cousin to get it. He didn't enjoy it as much as the rest of the family did.

This is half a year after it released.

Of course, Carnival Games also has a pretty good marketing budget, with commercials running Saturday and Sunday mornings.

Game Party has lots of marketing in the UK.

Cultural brandnames. Carnival games sold well simply that so many people in the mainstream understand the basis. Carnival Games as a name is the basis of the party genre description. Thus people see it and they refer back to things like Wii Play and Mario Party 8 and think it similar. Thus the mainstream buys it as if they were like "sequels".

Same reason for something like Smartypants with the trainer games. Games like High School Musical sell cause its a cultural phenomenon. That would have sold well on any system it was on.

They are only underhyped to the core gamer who understand what it is. But to the mainstream who aren't surfing the web 24/7 make most of their buys by hype, friends and family, and what they see and read on the box at the store.