Launched along side TP. i dk, How about they advertise for once. Theres just not enough mainstream press for 3rd party Wii games and they die because of it

They could have but looking through the eyes of 2006, would Capcom rather have the lay of the land in September on PS2 or go head to head with one of Nintendo's biggest franchises during a Wii launch? In hindsight it seems like it could have been a good idea, but back then it probably looked a bit like software suicide. I personally think Okami's art style and having the main character as a wolf holds the title back from selling well, so no matter where they put it, it'll just never quite catch on. That's just my take on it though as someone who bought it for both consoles. Look at the most artistic games of last gen and find me how many flopped compared to how many soared high on the charts.

I wouldn't say absolute garbage.  It wasn't great... but it's better then a lot of FPS i've played this generation.

It was just really mediocre with a swordfighting minigame when the comercials seemed to promise free wheeling swordfighting action.

Any game would automatically improve in sales due to being a launch title. Since there are so few launch titles, it is very easy to grab visibility. At this point in the cycle, you have to compete with all the already released games, and all the games that launch around yours.

That said, it still might have had a very tough time competing with Zelda Twilight Princess.

I think it would have hit a million as a launch title.

In the OP I said:

"If only Capcom had forseen the success of the Wii... :("

Obvious they had their doubts about the Wii, hence why the game is a ps2 title (despite the controls screaming "Wii!").   However, this thread is hypothetical.  Had they for some reason made the game a Wii launch title, how would it things turned out?  

Also, we didn't know that TP would become a Wii title until E306, after Okami's release in Japan.

And I don't think the art style and playing as a wolf were the main things that held it back. The lack of knowledge about the game (advertising) in addition to those things is what held it back.  Had it been "The Legend of Zelda: Okami" it would've sold gangbusters.  After all, the Wind Waker had a cartoony artstyle, and Twilight Princess went the wolf route, and both sold extremely well.  It's because people know more about Zelda, while people knew next to nothing about Okami.

Of course, had it been the only other really good Wii launch title, word of mouth probably would've helped quite a bit, making up for some of the lack of advertising.  People would've bought it because there was nothing else to buy.  Then they would've told their friends, etc.

Okami wasn't advertised? I saw it advertised in Game Informer for like four months straight with page inserts and the back cover. In fact Capcom held the back cover for their releases that entire year. I don't know how well that means it was advertised, but I thought it was done decently.

Of course the Legend of Zelda: Okami would have sold gangbusters, but that's because Nintendo built that series up over the last 20 years to make it to what it is now.

Here's the real question though. If Nintendo didn't release Twilight Princess at all and Capcom released Okami at launch how would it do then? In that case I could see a clean three million because it would take up the "critically acclaimed" title spot, which bodes well for that one launch game.

It mightve sold better but I dont think it wouldve reached 1mil.

Okami already had more recognition on Wii than it did on the PS2 and Wii owners bitching about 3rd party or core games still havent bough it.:P

People just dont like Okami for whatever reason.

 Well, I was still considering the art style and the other factors.