By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Nintendo - Are 500k sales a success on Wii?

BengaBenga on 28 December 2008
shakarak said:
yushire said:
shakarak said:
I would say so. i worry though about a game like conduit.

High voltage has about 120 employees. They created the quantrum 3 engine, and this game that we know of has been in development for about a year and a half. The only other games I'm aware they have been working on are those three wiiware games (ign previewed the Animales game back in June). So you can tell that i'd say 75% of the workforce works on the conduit. If that game does not make 1 million worldwide it's obvious that it wont turn a profit. ALso consider they are not publishing it themselves and that a portion will go to sega.

Does anyone know what the average pay of a senior engineer, game designer, artist, sound engineer and so forth are? Just take that into consideration and It's going to be tough for the conduit to make bank.

 

 Only 120 emplyees?!! Only 2 years to make?!! HA! thats nothing compared to Halo2 with over 300 manpower and cost 40 million to make and is on the original xbox. And with the manpower and money spent I bet the game takes atleast 3 years  to do. j/k

but seriously, the conduit will be fine!

 

Yeah but is conduit going to sell almost 3 mil in the first week?

 

My point is that the Conduit is going to have a hard time turning profit unless they blow past a million.

 

I think that it will blow past a mil and settle around 2 mil worldwide.

 

You overestimate the development costs of The Conduit. Sure the game looks good, but they don't have to make high-def textures for example. An average HD shooter is definitely more expensive as the Conduit and I'm certain not a lot of average HD shooters need to sell more than a million to break even. Halo and Resistance maybe.

1 million break even would mean a development budget near that of Lost Planet. I'm sure High Voltage didn't take that risk.



Around the Network
Valkyria00 on 28 December 2008
BengaBenga said:
Valkyria00 said:
Resident_Hazard said:
Going by numbers of Wii's sold, 500,000 is not a very impressive number.

But, going by cost of development, financial return, and general "successful sales" numbers, 500,000 is pretty good.

No More Heroes' numbers of just under 400,000 is considered pretty successful on the Wii. It's also considered very successful for a Suda51 game since it's his best-selling ever.

We all know the majority of Wii owner arent the people buying the 2 games I listed above.

Which is why I just wanna know if its good financially for 3rd partys. After all all they care about is the money and as long as they make it they'll keep supporting it. Games on Wii dont need to be sell 1 million to be a success which I think is pretty damn cool. The media will talk shit but hey the companies made money and they dont see them as failures I guess which is a good thing

 

 

Surely the majority of any console audience won't buy any game, since 50% attach rates are extremely rare, but I guess you mean that only a very small part of Wii's audience actually would care about these games.

I wonder who bought 1.5 million copies of RE4 or 5 million copies of Zelda. There clearly is a "hardcore" gaming audience on Wii. I fully expect the Conduit to sell a million.MadWorld is far more niche, but should approach 500k.

On average we can say that about $20-$30 per sold game goes to the publisher, which means for a million selling game some $20 -30 million revenue. An average Wii game should be around 8 million to make, high budget ones like the Conduit maybe $10-12 million.

So on average I'm sure 400k will be approximally the break even point for average budget Wii games, 1 million for HD games. Obviously there's lots of space around that. NMH will be a lot cheaper, while MGS4 a lot more expensive. 500k sales on a Wii game will be some 10-15 million in Revenue, that's a decent return on invvestment.

True. Why do people always tend to analyze my statements too much though >.<

And thanks for the lessons in numbers.

 



Ari_Gold on 28 December 2008

remember most wii games have huge legs when they hit $19.99 or $9.99, just look @ no more heroes or Zach and Wiki. I think 500 k is a success for any game, but they don't bring enough profit.



pap64 on 28 December 2008

Like its been said, 500,00K is nothing to sneeze at. This number is even more impressive if the title was niche or received very little coverage from the media and depended on word of mouth. It definitely depends on the game, though. If a game like MSG4 only sells 500,000 in its lifetime then its a flop because they spent a lot of money on it and it made no profit.



GhaudePhaede010 on 28 December 2008

A game like Conduit is fine. Those guys, and all of us know, the game will reach more than one million sales... and if they just put out one commercial... Also, 500k being considered a success is completely based on the game.

For example, a game like, Blast Works reaching 500k is successful. A game like GTA IV only getting 500k would be a massve failure. So keep in mind that there is no decisive answer, just a game by game basis.



01000110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01001001 01111001 01101111 01101100 01100001 01101000 00100001 00100000 01000110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01000101 01110100 01100101 01110010 01101110 01101001 01110100 01111001 00100001 00100000

Around the Network
colonelstubbs on 28 December 2008

Considering the userbase of the wii, games should on the most part be doing a few hundred thousand with ease. If they arent, thats a problem



I hope my 360 doesn't RRoD
         "Suck my balls!" - Tag courtesy of Fkusmot

yushire on 28 December 2008
shakarak said:

 

Yeah but is conduit going to sell almost 3 mil in the first week?

 

My point is that the Conduit is going to have a hard time turning profit unless they blow past a million.

 

I think that it will blow past a mil and settle around 2 mil worldwide.

 

Sorry, but even 3rd party as HVS arent dumb to make a game cost as HD games to make a point. They still want to make a profit with this game you know. Thats why I think fan of this game is overhyping this game maybe it will have better graphics than COD WAWii but seriously thats it...



end of core gaming days prediction:

 

E3 2006-The beginning of the end. Wii introduced

 

E3 2008- Armageddon. Wii motion plus introduced. Wii Music. Reggie says Animal crossing was a core game. Massive disappointment. many Wii core gamers selling their Wii.

 

E3 2010- Tape runs out

http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/march2009/ICG_Tape_runs_out.jpg

thx1139 on 28 December 2008

For a large amount of titles on the Wii hell propably less than >100,000 is a success. Hell maybe >50,000 could be a success. So many of the budget shovelware titles barely need to make it into 6 digits to be successful. The Wii is the king of the budget shovelware titles this gen.



Its libraries that sell systems not a single game.

yushire on 28 December 2008
thx1139 said:
For a large amount of titles on the Wii hell propably less than >100,000 is a success. Hell maybe >50,000 could be a success. So many of the budget shovelware titles barely need to make it into 6 digits to be successful. The Wii is the king of the budget shovelware titles this gen.

 

Even your post is negative, I DO agree with you. But there are still good games on the Wii you know...



end of core gaming days prediction:

 

E3 2006-The beginning of the end. Wii introduced

 

E3 2008- Armageddon. Wii motion plus introduced. Wii Music. Reggie says Animal crossing was a core game. Massive disappointment. many Wii core gamers selling their Wii.

 

E3 2010- Tape runs out

http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/march2009/ICG_Tape_runs_out.jpg

PSaiki on 28 December 2008

Depends.
If No More Heroes reach 500k lifetime, Suda would feel as one of the happiest man on earth.
If SMG had sold 500k, I guess Myamoto would feel very disappointed.