Don't forget the Viewtiful Joe kid's cartoon too!

I don't know if this has any significance to this debate, but I just found some Japan sales data for Viewtiful Joe (GCN):

http://garaph.info/softwareindividual.php?gameid=1240

94k as of the end of 2003.

edit - Oh, and Okami PS2 sales data for Japan:

http://garaph.info/softwareindividual.php?gameid=2427

148k as of the end of 2006.

PS: This site is awesome btw, it was also where I found the Fatal Frame games sales data (without it I think some people would be saying Fatal Frame 4 was also a bomb).

lol, should I mention the bobblehead dolls, too! ;)

Hey, nice find!

They should Re-Release Z&W

its been over a year since release.

cost is ..printing the disks and packaging..

there are ~20 million more wii owners now.

To be fair, Z&W did a hell of a lot better than Banjo-Kazooie.  I think the reason it's a  surprise and disappointment is that Zack & Wiki was a much better game than Banjo-Kazooie.  However, with the dev budget, marketing budget and very popular prequels that Banjo-Kazooie had one would expect it would have done more than just 140k units.  Especially considering Microsoft's presale expectations.

To me it doesn't matter -- I loved Zack & Wiki and I thought Banjo wasn't worth keeping.

But will stores stock it?

They sure didn't the first time around.  How will Capcom convince them this time?

Here in my opinion is why these comments have brought such a reaction.

1. The statements don't make sense -- Viewtiful Joe had four games across four platforms (3 GC, 2 PS2, 1 PSP, 1 DS) we well as a anime/cartoon show. If you can't make money doing that, you have problems with your corporate model (or you are trying to lose money for tax reasons).

2. The statements contradict previous statements by Capcom. So by definition one of them must be wrong. (And some of the previous statements came from Japan).

3. The numbers being stated don't match the previously released data from Capcom.

4. The numbers switch bases -- sold to stores (which is generally where companies make their money) to sold to consumer.

5. While it is nice to have someone from a company participate in forums, Sven's attitude is generally ranges from coy to condescending.

5a. Sven (and Capcom) also does (do) not seem to a fan of the Wii -- judging from the continual "test" statements.

5b. Both sets of statements came from people who used to report on the gaming industry. Sven seems to have forgotten that he is no longer to be extorting high-tech things for Next Generation. And this would make me concerned if I was an investor -- for example the history of broadcasters taking over US professional sports teams is abysmal (see this year's winless Detroit Lions).



So -- back to the original post topic.

Is Zack & Wiki overtracked. Probably to some extent.
Did it make/lose money? That is unknown, nor is it really known what Capcom wanted it to do (lose money for tax purposes).
Does this mean that third-parties cannot succeed on the Wii? No. It just means that Capcom appears to be clueless.

Mike from Morgantown

So...everytime I talked about lacking sales in core games for the Wii, and used Zack and Wiki as an example, and then when I got jumped by Wii fans because they said things like "this was a commercial success. It made profit, low dev costs yadda yadda blah blah"....they were WRONG the entire time, and I was right?

Hmmm....I wonder what else I've been right about in the past?

If your entire argument hinged on the success (or lack thereof) of Z&W as prima facie evidence against the viability of 'core' titles on Wii, you probably need a new argument so don't let it go to your head.

Eh, what the heck, I've got thirty seconds to spare. Let me know when you're ready.

See also: exindguy's response, which is what I was going to go with but which I was obviously beaten to.