i have kind of been expecting de blob to be the next Zack & Wiki, or Boom Blox - quality title that is appreciated by gamers like on this forum, but largely ignored by the general public.

I just saw something that has excited me a little bit - in my local JB Hi-fi catalogue, theres a big pic of it in the "Pre-order these hot games" section! i know it may not mean much and its only one place that makes no difference to WW sales, but its promising - i never saw ZW or Boom blox in any catalogue even when it released - let alone a few months before

I guess it's mostly a question of whether THQ promotes it properly and whether they have good retail support or not. Both those titles had marketing issues and a hard time promptly appearing on retail shelves in adequate numbers.

Even if it doesn't take off, I doubt de Blob cost much cash to develop, so THQ will properly be pleased with 300-500k units.

That doesn't really mean that it's selling well, just that it's gotten decent preorders. Either that, or they're lying. It is yet to be seen whether or not it will actually be 'hot'

I'd go with ringo on this one. It only depends if the title is marketed properly. Zack&Wiki was promoted only by IGN in practice and the only marketing for Boom Blox from EA, seems to be their bad PR considering the title. I don't think THQ lets it "slide" like Capcom and EA did.

Well if they don´t market it..it will only reach not higher thatn 500k..But if marketed well and it gets good reviews..Vola we have hit in our hands

I think it's the type of game that potentially could do well on the Wii as you can tell at first glance it's head and above the average shovelware (as in a few of THQ's titles recently).

I have a feeling they will advertise it correctly and it will do well, once again I stress the Wii needs demos to give these games a chance.

Well according to the latest IGN preview of the game, it is indeed shaping up as one of the few high-quality, third party exclusive Wii games. Sadly though quality does not ensure sales, so this game will definitely require significant investment by THQ in advertising as well as significant retailer support.

Here's a link to the IGN preview:

http://au.wii.ign.com/articles/887/887265p1.html

Honestly, I think a lot of people need to rethink what is successful when it comes to games ...

Zack & Wiki, Boom Blox and De Blob are (probably) all fairly low budget games by previous generation standards which means that they (probably) break even off of a very low sales number like 125,000 units. By the time these games stop being carried on store shelves they will have (probably) sold at least 400,000 units (to retailers).

If you have covered the development and marketing expenses, and made enough profit on top of that to fully fund the development of a similar title, you're game has been a smashing success. To put it into perspective, games like Halo, Grand Theft Auto and Metal Gear Solid (probably) have to sell 5 to 10 million copies (to retailers) before they're that successful.

THQ seems to be embracing the Wii pretty well; they cannot afford to develop so many exclusive titles for the system (DeBlob, Deadly Creatures,etc) and not advertise them at all.

Nevertheless, I fear Deblob will still not top 500k; nothing bad, but not extraordinary either.

I concur with the above.

The problem a lot of good Wii titles suffer from (Z&W, Boom Blox) is they really need to be played to be enjoyed. Once people try them they love them but there's nothing to encourage the initial purchase.