Z&W = 400k
BB = 400k
It's good to me...
| Ghutto said: Z&W = 400k BB = 400k It's good to me... |
I think a lot of people are under the impression that a game has to sell a million copies for a pubAllisher to see it as a success ... To a certain extent there is a truth to this when you're talking about big budget high profile games; and depending on the game their expectations (or sales needed to break even) could be much higher than 1 million.
Although a game like The Legend of Zelda can take a team of 40 to 60 people working 18 to 30 months to develop on the Wii (as an estimate $6 to $15 Million budget) a lot of smaller projects that are developed may be handled by a 10 to 20 person development team that is working for 12 to 18 months (as an estimate $1 to $3 Million budget). These smaller projects will often break even off of sales in the 150,000 range, and if they make it to 500,000 units they are amazingly profitable; if you assume $20 per title makes its way to the publisher/developer sales in the 150,000 range translates to $3 Million.
Edit: On a side note, I know of a ("Casual" game) developer who is hiring like crazy because they're moving away from the PC towards WiiWare/XBox Live Arcade/PSN ... There teams are between 9 and 12 people, and they typically finish a game after 6 to 9 months; even with the small ammount of money they will collect per copy of a game they sell (I would guess in the $5 range) they expect to be amazingly profitable for the next couple of years.
People just see going platinum as an achievement and milestone and I think that is starting to get miscontrued as a necessity. I think most titles on Wii, aside from the big budget titles like Zelda and Red Steel, ect can simply go gold and be considering a successful title. Hell soemtimes just shipping over 250,000 can be a success for the developer considering how much effort some of them put into it.
Point is Wii titles vary a lot considering what kind of game it is and how much effort the dev put into it... just like different costs of movies. Same for PS360 really. It's just the average cost on Wii games compared to PS360 has to be a lot less.
Last updated: 10:10 am
September 23, 2008
Posted: 3:49 am
September 23, 2008
Developing original hits for the Wii video game console has proved elusive for virtually every publisher not named Nintendo, but THQ Inc. CEO Brian Farrell is looking to change all that with his company's latest offering "de Blob."
The game, which hits stores today, ranks as the highest-rated title for the Wii on influential review site metacritic.com, a major sales mover for the industry, and is generating raves from noted gaming reviewers like IGN.
THQ executives are expressing "sky's the limit" expectations for it as a result, and the industry will be closely monitoring for signs that third-party publishers can cash in on the Wii's popularity.
So far, Wii hits from third parties have been scarce. While Nintendo is racking up massive Wii console sales, it's often left out of the equation when major studios develop blockbusters.
UBS analyst Ben Schachter flagged the issue earlier this summer, noting, "There are many third-party Wii exclusives that have come and gone with minimal reaction from the market."
Nintendo's share of software sales for the Wii is more than 50 percent driven by homegrown hits like "Mario Kart" and "Wii Fit."
"There's a leaning process that's going on at THQ and among other publishers about what are the success factors you need to get right with building a game for the Wii system," said Brad Carraway, THQ's vice president of global brand management.
In "de Blob," a competitive puzzle game, players use blob shaped paint balls to color in a gray cityscape, taking advantage of the Wii's unique motion sensor remote controls.
The game is part of a rising tide of ambitious Wii original's from third-party studios.
What happened? Judging by US figures for first 5 days, not much at all.
“When we make some new announcement and if there is no positive initial reaction from the market, I try to think of it as a good sign because that can be interpreted as people reacting to something groundbreaking. ...if the employees were always minding themselves to do whatever the market is requiring at any moment, and if they were always focusing on something we can sell right now for the short term, it would be very limiting. We are trying to think outside the box.” - Satoru Iwata - This is why corporate multinationals will never truly understand, or risk doing, what Nintendo does.
Tha legzzz :)
It may sound like an overused and lame excuse, but it worked for Boom Blox, it worked for Z&W, hell it worked for almost every Wii game, since the majority has had an underwelming debut.
Also debuts could be way higher, but wrong/weak advertising or no advertising at all are preventing games from opening with higher numbers. Anyways this game launched along many other strong titles this week, so I expect it to remain stable or even rise next week.
Just my 2 cents.
Proud poster of the 10000th reply at the Official Smash Bros Update Thread.
tag - "I wouldn't trust gamespot, even if it was a live comparison."
Bets with Conegamer:
Pandora's Tower will have an opening week of less than 37k in Japan. (Won!)
Pandora's Tower will sell less than 100k lifetime in Japan.
Stakes: 1 week of avatar control for each one.
I'm sick of legs. Why can't these great games at least have decent openings on a user base of almost twice the HD consoles'? Are they not hyped enough? Are Wii owners lazy? I'd really like to know....
The worst thing is all those people who bought Force Unleashed have now spent their 50$ and got a shitty game out of it.
Its the modern film box office crap fest all over again
“When we make some new announcement and if there is no positive initial reaction from the market, I try to think of it as a good sign because that can be interpreted as people reacting to something groundbreaking. ...if the employees were always minding themselves to do whatever the market is requiring at any moment, and if they were always focusing on something we can sell right now for the short term, it would be very limiting. We are trying to think outside the box.” - Satoru Iwata - This is why corporate multinationals will never truly understand, or risk doing, what Nintendo does.
Just to clarify, Z&W and Blox sold more than you people seem to believe.
Boom Blox has already sold 500K units, and Zack and Wiki has sold 430K.
Boom Blox is still selling more than 10K each week, so with a nice holiday boost, I see it comming up to 2/3 of a million by the end of the year. 750K is nicely within reach.
Zack and Wiki is only selling at around ~ 3K each week, so I guess it will stop at somewhere around 500K.
http://www.vgchartz.com/games/userreviewdisp.php?id=261
That is VGChartz LONGEST review. And it's NOT Cute Kitten DS
The legs won't keep Blue Tongue employed especially in light of the high expectation levelled on them by Ubisoft's boss. Maybe industry recognition will do it or a cartoon.
And besides there won't be a sequel to ZW and their might not be a sequel to BB, its not how business's work these days.
“When we make some new announcement and if there is no positive initial reaction from the market, I try to think of it as a good sign because that can be interpreted as people reacting to something groundbreaking. ...if the employees were always minding themselves to do whatever the market is requiring at any moment, and if they were always focusing on something we can sell right now for the short term, it would be very limiting. We are trying to think outside the box.” - Satoru Iwata - This is why corporate multinationals will never truly understand, or risk doing, what Nintendo does.
| Phendrana said: I'm sick of legs. Why can't these great games at least have decent openings on a user base of almost twice the HD consoles'? Are they not hyped enough? Are Wii owners lazy? I'd really like to know.... |
Because 'core' gamers are the main group that gives a game a decent opening and many of these great games don't appeal to their 'mature' tastes.
Casual gamers don't usually go out of their way to pre-order or buy games the day (or week) they come out. They pick them up when they are next passing by EBs, or weeks to months later when their friends recommend the great game they picked up. While advertising will bring their attention to the game sooner, unless its an established brand, most of them won't go out of their way for it, but will look for it next time they are out game shopping.
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