How to sell game on Wii? Well,a good name like Game Party - 800,000 units Sold!

Well, Midway got the name and its better than Carnival Games, and it will probably sell better than Carnival Games!

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/05/05/notes-from-midways-q1-earnings-conference-call/

Now, does the review score matter? Lets's look at it!

181	Golden Compass, The	2007	35
182	Showtime Championship Boxing	2007	35
183	Chicken Shoot	2007	27
184	Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal	2007	27
185	Jenga: World Tour	2007	26
186	Game Party	2007	25
187	Cruis'n	2007	25
188	Ninjabread Man	2007	20
189	Anubis II	2007	19
190	Balls of Fury	2007	19

Wow....is under bottom 10 of Wii's score according Metacritics.

Now, Look at what review did the reviewer say.

Maybe they are not accurate enough, let's look at what the public said about this game.

17 Reviews 5 star: (2) 4 star: (6) 3 star:   (0) 2 star: (1) 1 star: (8)     Average Customer Review (17 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   5 of 5 people found the following review helpful: Play with friends only.., 3 Mar 2008 By Jastan (Rochester) - See all my reviews Fun: A poor game that only just scrapes 2 stars if played with friends. I wouldn't bother if playing alone. The games : Darts - Controls takes some getting use to, but with some perseverance can be mastered. I would suggest trying high score firstly just to get used to controls before going onto other variations (301, 501, cricket) Air Hockey - Very fiddly controls make it almost impossible to beat the CPU player, again best played against a friend, even then the amount of silly own goals conceded can become frustrating.. Hoops - Basketball shoot with fiddly control system (done better on Party Carnival), basically the more hoops you shoot, the more tickets you win. Skii Ball - Roll the ball to try and hit the highest scores (Again control system and feel of game is better on Party Carnival). Ping Cup - Bit of a weird one. The idea is to through a ping pong ball into one of 10 of your opponants cups?! At first was virtually impossible (after trying to follow on screen instructions), eventually with trial and error I can now hit a few cups, but have yet to complete a game (I normally quit out after about 1/2 hour). Shuffleboard - A bit like curling on a table. Probably the best game here (again played with a friend as CPU player will beat you). The controls are fairly easy to master after a few minutes and can be quite fun. Trivia - Oh dear... All questions have strong American slant (unless you are really into US sports and TV then avoid), plus scoring system not well documented in instructions.. Poor. Obviously the developers couldn't be bothered to change the questions for the UK release! Borrow it if you must and try challenging a friend to Shuffleboard or Darts. Other than that avoid.. Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this) (Report this)   7 of 9 people found the following review helpful: Calm Down Dear - it's only a game !, 23 Mar 2008 By Wibble "Jo" (UK) - See all my reviews Fun: This is just a little bit of fun on a rainy afternoon, it's not for serious sports fans. The other reviews slate this beyond belief, giving it less than an hours play. It's light and easy enough for Granny to play, but enough fun for the kids to give it some welly ! The main thing is the all the games are set in calm atmostphere, so if like me you cringe at the constant squeals and irritating soundtrack of Super Mario Charged Football this sequence of team and individual sports has a soothing easy going feel to it. You earn tickets to unlock new games - however you only earn tickets in single player mode and this really is a family or group sort of thing. We started with darts, loads of options from 301 through to 701 or cricket style challenge. Easy enough to master the throwing motion. Unlockable game is baseball darts - we've not got there yet. Hoop Shoot - quite easy to master and a good 10 minute challenge. Ping Cup, the only infuriating game, throw the ping pong into one of the cups, hmmm we just couldn't get this right. Shuffleboard, we spent hours on this and it was highly addictive, curling is unlockable. Skill ball, it's okay feels a bit like bowling on wii sports, once you master it it's simple fun. Table Hockey - love this simple object of the game, made a little but harder with the slipperyness of the surface. Only thing we haven't played is trivia, didn't have time after 2 hours. For under £20 it's a good afternoons entertainment, not recommended for hardcore gamers. Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this) (Report this)   9 of 12 people found the following review helpful: Have a little patience, 16 Feb 2008 By Lorn "bragger93" - See all my reviews Fun: I purchased this item regardless of the bad reviews. I also read reviews on amazon.com which weren't so negative. I have to say that it isn't that bad once you learn to master the controls. Some describe the wii controllers as unresponsive but I found with perseverance you begin to improve rapidly. It is good value for money, good variety. I enjoyed all games, but found the table hockey a challenge as it is harder to associate yourself with the game. Compared to Wii Playground (which I purchased yesterday) it is a big improvement. Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this) (Report this) ›		Most Recent Customer Reviews stick with wii sports this game is rubbish. it is very hard to control, the quiz is about a lot of american sports, most of the games are boring and you have no real control over what you are doing... Read more Published 5 days ago by dmc Please don't make me play this again.. Quite simply one of the worst collection of games I have ever had the misfortune to play, Darts with a flawed control system, throwing ping-pong balls down a table into cups,... Read more Published 12 days ago by Mr. John R. D. Morrey Stop moaning! Ok so I've just bought a Wii, and got this game as I was looking for something to break the family in gently. Read more Published 22 days ago by Mark Regan FAB GAME! VERY COMPETITIVE GAME,ALL THE FAMILY OF 8 ENJOYED THIS GAME,MAKES YOU WANT TO PLAY CONSTANTLY UNTIL YOU IMPROVE YOUR HAND CO-ORDINATION,IT IS WORTH YOUR WELL EARNED MONEY. Published 25 days ago by Mr. B. Queen Great game for parties We thought it was a decent game, had us playing for hours, and will definitely play again soon. Not one for 1 player I think, and the american questions pop up on the quiz game,... Read more Published 26 days ago by J. Davies DON'T BOTHER! This game is chad! My kids, (4 & 8 years) played it once & that was about it. I bought it bundled with 'Carnival - Fun Fair Games' on a special.... Read more Published 1 month ago by IBAMAC What is the value of a game you play once or twice? Game Party is below par, far below par. The game is simplistic and the only plus is that a few of these mini games are quite fun playing with 2 - 4 players... Read more Published 2 months ago by M. A. Lely Good game for the price For under £15 this game is slightly addictive. The first couple of times i played on it i thought it was rubbish but the more i played it the more i liked it. Read more Published 2 months ago by Mr. Stuart Hawkin Waste of money I too made the unfortunate choice of purchasing this game. The graphics and games are poor with little to no enjoyment factor. I couldn't believe how limited the 7 games were. Read more Published 2 months ago by L. Jay Not As Bad A Game As Some People Make Out!! This game has been slated a bit unfairly in my opinion. First of all I found the darts much easier to play on this game than in PDC World Dart Championships 2008 which I bought... Read more Published 2 months ago by Justin

 

 

What is the moral of the story?

 

If you want your game to sell on Wii and doesn't care about the review, make the name Nice & Simple and must be related to party games, maybe somebody should make a game called Party Games later, not Game Party, it will probably the best 3rd "Party" selling title on Wii. Not Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure...& WTF is that, I have not idea, probably not party game, so... a not buy~

 

 

p/s: Not Ninja Breadman either(sacrasm), Consipirasy should learn from them!

 

 

 

And the funny thing is, Midway is still reporting losses.

They're hopeless.

Even better make a game called Carnival Party Games and that will boost the sales even more.

The sad thing is... this and Cruis'N almost pulled in as much revenue for Midway then UT3 and Blacksite: Area 51... with almost undoubtly a much lower development cost then Blacksite.

Guess it shows... if you can't make good games... it's better off to not even try. 

Well at least we know 3rd party games are starting to sell.

Apparently at some Midway event they stated that this game sold over a million. Obviously they didn't mean sold to customers but still that's disturbing....

It's really interesting how polarized those Amazon customer reviews are. Almost as many 4-5 stars as 1-2 stars, and no 3 stars at all.

Kasz216 said: The sad thing is... this and Cruis'N almost pulled in as much revenue for Midway then UT3 and Blacksite: Area 51... with almost undoubtly a much lower development cost then Blacksite. Guess it shows... if you can't make good games... it's better off to not even try.

Really? UT3 pushes over 400k just on PS3 and Im sure at $60 a pop that Midway gets at least 40-50% of those retail sales, which would be 12-13 million.

Everyone is overlooking the MAJOR FACTOR in these sales, and that is...

TV ADS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Hell, just the other Saturday morning I saw a Carnival Games commercial.

From what I hear, Game Party got a lot of advertisement in Europe, especially the UK.
That is why it is always in the top 10, ALL FORMATS(I think).

outlawauron said: Kasz216 said: The sad thing is... this and Cruis'N almost pulled in as much revenue for Midway then UT3 and Blacksite: Area 51... with almost undoubtly a much lower development cost then Blacksite. Guess it shows... if you can't make good games... it's better off to not even try. Really? UT3 pushes over 400k just on PS3 and Im sure at $60 a pop that Midway gets at least 40-50% of those retail sales, which would be 12-13 million.

I was refering to this...

http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=25822&start=0

It was comparing Europeon revenues, guess i shoulda been more clear.