jheco05 said:
Looks very promising... But then again it get discussed a lot here but doesn't sell well. Like NMH and Zack and Wiki. |
I am not picking on you (really!) but one thing that is starting to drive me crazy is reading that Zak & Wiki isn't/didn't sell well! Perhaps not in comparison to Halo 3 or Lost Colonies or SSBM, but next to other games that had zero marketing budgets, wholly new IP and far from run-of-the-mill genres? I think we need to reign in out-of-whack expectations a bit, so buckle up!
A Rant About Over-Blown Expectations *or* How We Should Be OK with Games that got no Respect (with the wider audience)
Zak & Wiki: it's a very nice game. I love it, thought it was fun, pretty, etc. and I think a lot more people absolutely should give it a try, BUT it's a classic graphic adventure game (dressed up nicely) with a wacky cast of characters that's also way, way too hard for the non-gamer audience that would be attracted to it (read: kids). Between these three 'issues' and its initial price ($50!) nobody who's on the fence about it (and I'm mainly talking about people that don't live and breathe gaming blogs/boards) is going to give it a chance. It's just too weird and too unfamiliar and, unless it caught lightning in a bottle (something like Snakes on a Plane which, despite being pretty awful, did far above and beyond what anyone could have expected, seemingly by magic), it's going to have to be happy with being a cult (though I think this verges on sleeper) hit. Also, and I need to re-stress this: it's a graphic adventure game, a genre that's been a fetid corpse for a decade, even with the 'in' crowd (us). Outside of Sam & Max and Broken Sword, can you even name a game in this genre since the turn of the century? Maybe the last Monkey Island?
Another point to make, and this is very important because I see this all the time from lots of traditional gamers who don't understand why Carnival Games is selling like mad but not 'game I love that got snubbed at retail': when you spend all your time amongst hobbyists (of anything, not just games) it tends to skew and warp your perspective vis-a-vis what should be reasonably expected of any piece of entertainment. I mention this because you note that everybody around here talked it up (and, hell, everywhere else gamers hang out) and, due to that, it fed into expectations that it could never meet. If I had to guess, the MBAs at Capcom USA (if they read the various gaming media at all) were probably thinking "are these guys nuts?"
That leads me to its sales numbers and a pet peeve: because we have become so numb to the litany of the latest mega-hit DS game selling millions and millions of copies, every other 360 game hitting one million units, Wiis selling unprecedented numbers of units, the gaming-gone-Hollywood boffo box office first week mentality, and skyrocketing gaming budgets that are more akin to films than traditional gaming development that we've completely lost sight of the fact that a game can, actually, sell far, far less than one million units and still be considered a success. This is even more true when you take into consideration not only the likely budget behind the game but the marketing spend that goes along with it. Heck, did Z&W even have a marketing strategy outside of heavy Internet advertising at all the places that were already pushing the game (IGN and co.)--talk about preaching to the choir (see Okami for another example of this).
Now, sure, if you have a mega-hot movie license and you spend as much on marketing as you do on actually building the game (or you routinely spend 10 million+ on 360/PS3 titles), then it's fair to point and laugh at its inability to out-perform a complete non-entity such as Zak & Wiki. I just don't think it's entirely justified to harp on a game that was never likely going to be a smash hit and, in fact, sold at least as well as Capcom expected (which probably factored heavily into their anemic marketing)--anything more than that, from a publisher's point of view, is gravy.
The same goes for No More Heroes: it has the same basic problems that Z&W has in that it's terribly odd-looking (not ugly, just unusual), low-budget, and, if you read the reviews at Amazon (I find that place invaluable because you get a much, much better look at the inside of a non-traditional gamer's head) there seems to be a lot of confusion about what exactly it is: beat 'em up? GTA clone? Suda 51 freak-fest? So if some of the people that bought it are a bit confused by what they received, you can bet the folks shopping at GameStop or Wal-Mart that were sorta-kinda interested in the box/name aren't going to have a clue and will, instead, grab Carnival Games ;)
So, while it's easy to blame the 'casuals' (read: core gamer looking down on the average Wii owner while all the real gamers are on 360 or PS3) for failing to recognize a great game (or games) I think it's important to take away two things from all of this:
1. They both actually did fairly well when you take everything into account (genre, budget, marketing, etc.), and forget the idea that every game needs to sell a billion copies to be a success, especially on Wii. I'm not sure what Ubi expected from NMH, but I'd be pretty certain they didn't figure it would ever be a million-seller (again: what marketing budget?!)
2. Had either of these games appeared on 360 or PS3 they would have performed, at best, as well as they did on Wii and likely worse. Since they'd be more expensive (figure $60 mainly due to an increased production budget and maybe more marketing because of increased competition) and would still suffer the same limitations that 'hamstrung' them on Wii. They'd also have to contend with an audience that's more pre-disposed to Halo 3, GTA 4, etc. and would lose some of their uniqueness due to interface changes.
To buttress this second point, let's look at an example of what should have been a hit title on 360 that has the same issues as Z&W: Viva Pinata. Both games had oddball art styles, both games fit into non-traditional genres, and both games were a bit too complex for the non-core audience that would be primarily drawn to them (read: kids). So even with its own cartoon and 1st party support* the game flopped. In comparison to Z&W it's actually far, far worse given that it went out with much, much higher expectations (from Microsoft and its various partners on the marketing push, which I think included Happy Meals or somesuch). It's racked up decent sales to date, but only because it's been out for 18 months, selling at 1/3rd its original MSRP and still has the support of a daily cartoon. So don't think that it 'failed' because the average Wii gamer can't appreciate 'real' games, unless you also believe 360 owners don't.
The moral of this (grossly over-long rant) is that not every game needs to sell like GTA4 or SSBM or even 'insert game that sold a million units'--as long as it does well enough for the company that produced it to make a profit (and hopefully garner a sequel) and was well-received by those that did play it. It also means Conduit shouldn't be written off until (obviously) you see some impressions of it, what the marketing** looks like before it's released and how receptive the overall Wii audience (that would not include us) is to FPS' in general.***
Note to jheco: I realize I got a bit side-tracked from your original comment and sorta conflated a whole bunch of other stuff I've seen mentioned here and there, but thanks for spurring me into this literary diarrhea--feels good to get it all out there ;)
*Incidentally, I find it laughable that Rare complained that it was left out in the cold, marketing-wise, due to Halo 3--if only Z&W and NMH had it so bad!
** Incidentally, the marketing spend is a good barometer for what a publisher expects of an original IP and is a good reality check if the hype-o-meter seems to be off the chart on gaming sites/boards but your non-gaming or less 'core' friends have no idea what you're talking about. For example, back in the day, most of my friends were what 'casual' gamers used to be: the guys that, nowadays, buy Halo, Madden, GTA, etc. by the millions and, during the 16-bit era, bought Madden/NHL/NBA Live each year and the occasional platformer that no one could escape knowing about even if they tried (Sonic, Mario, etc.). Now these guys had *no* idea about a game called Gunstar Heroes which received, in its time, about as feeble a push from Sega as Capcom gave Z&W (If you're not familiar with, it was a side-scrolling run 'n' gun a la Contra and (just like Z&W!) it received almost undying praise from the gaming media). It came out, 'flopped' (essentially attaining sleeper/cult status just like Z&W!) and had been the 'beneficiary' of about the same level of marketing support as (wait for it!) Z&W. Looking back it's painfully obvious that it was never going to reach the heights that the hardcore gamer hype train had built because, due to lack of marketing, nobody knew it existed. It had to rely on the hardcore gamers of the day and the random person at the store that picked up the box and was willing to part with $50 for a cartoony Contra--not exactly an easy sell and pretty much a good parallel for Z&W (and, heck, any under-marketed anything that got high marks from inside-the-fishbowl fans).
***Clearly Red Steel and Metroid Prime sold well--one being a launch title, the other a strong IP--but the few other efforts (mainly ports/spin-offs from prominent HD series) not so much. I take solace in the fact that, discounting the launch status of Red Steel, clearly somebody out there wanted to play an FPS on Wii (that aren't set in WWII, the most played-out setting in the history of FPS/games).
I am a Gauntlet Adventurer.
