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Forums - Sales - VGChartz way overtracked Zack & Wiki - Z&W was a commercial failure

z101 on 29 January 2009
shio said:

Taken from Capcom's Vice-President of Strategic Planning & Business Development:

"It did not sell 500K units or anywhere near it. I still don't understand where you're getting 500K.

To the best of my knowledge, the 300K figure quoted by IR included European orders from Nintendo who published the title on our behalf in that territory. Nor did it do the volume it did do at anywhere near frontline pricing (in the US anyway).

And what you think was a cheap game to make, wasn't. Great games almost never are."

 

Let's face the facts: Svensson is not quite a supporter of the Wii. Truly it seems he is one of those marketing guys who don't know how to handle the Wii and like others got a slap in the face from the bosses because he don't saw the success of this console in advance. He always said Z&W will be a failure and he don't want to be wrong.

Perhaps they try to make more money out of Z&W by lower the sales figure so they pay lower taxes :)

The sales figures of Z&W we know are much like bloom box and other long legs games.

 



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famousringo on 29 January 2009
mike_intellivision said:
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

 

Good summary.

Obviously, I'll be disappointed if it turns out that Zack & Wiki was a failure. But at this point, I just want to know what the freakin' score is.

I'm pretty sure we never will though.



"The worst part about these reviews is they are [subjective]--and their scores often depend on how drunk you got the media at a Street Fighter event."  — Mona Hamilton, Capcom Senior VP of Marketing
*Image indefinitely borrowed from BrainBoxLtd without his consent.

Yakuzaice on 29 January 2009
nordlead said:
Rhonin the wizard said:
Star Scream said:
Found this quote from Sven:

"Lastly, Okami Wii is not on track to outsell the PS2 version. The worldwide Okami Wii number might get to the US Okami PS2 number at some point though. "

Ouch, that's harsh...

According to this as of March 2007 the PS2 version sold 270,000 units. And from Capcom's financial report for the first half of fiscal year ending March 31, 2009, the Wii version sold 300,000 units.

lol, Sven himself was talking about that 270k figure

Well that lends credence to what I said ages ago, that the 270k figure was most likely not worldwide.

Since the NPD and Media Create had...

In the Media Create top 500 2006, Okami sold 142,676.
In the 2007 list the "PS2 the Best" release sold 50,890.
For the US, NPD had it at 86,676 in September.

 



mike_intellivision on 29 January 2009
MontanaHatchet said:
Don't forget the Viewtiful Joe kid's cartoon too!

 

I would think that would have brought some money in terms of royalties to Capcom -- without there having to be any direct expenditures.  Which makes you wonder how Capcom "lost money" on Viewtiful Joe.

 

Mike



      


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FishyJoe on 29 January 2009

I don't get it, why is there so much discussion over this relatively minor title?

It had a mediocre budget and didn't sell so well, is that so earth shattering?



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noname2200 on 29 January 2009
FishyJoe said:
I don't get it, why is there so much discussion over this relatively minor title?

It had a mediocre budget and didn't sell so well, is that so earth shattering?

It is the cornerstone of third-party Wii success: the fact that Capcom USA's marketing VP says it was a commercial failure is proof-positive that third-party Wii game cannot sell, and will not sell. The curtain has been pulled back, the emperor has been shown to have no clothes, the Scooby gang has pulled off the "monster's" mask and revealed that it was the gravedigger all along. From this day forward, there will be No Joy In Mudville.

Any questions?

 



exindguy on 29 January 2009
noname2200 said:
FishyJoe said:
I don't get it, why is there so much discussion over this relatively minor title?

It had a mediocre budget and didn't sell so well, is that so earth shattering?

It is the cornerstone of third-party Wii success: the fact that Capcom USA's marketing VP says it was a commercial failure is proof-positive that third-party Wii game cannot sell, and will not sell. The curtain has been pulled back, the emperor has been shown to have no clothes, the Scooby gang has pulled off the "monster's" mask and revealed that it was the gravedigger all along. From this day forward, there will be No Joy In Mudville.

Any questions?

While I personally don't care about the great Z&W controversy of '09 (unless it pertains to the factuality of whether a game that has multiple sequels/spin-offs can somehow be considered a failure), I must say that's certainly a reasonable and entertaining response.




BMaker11 on 29 January 2009
exindguy said:
BMaker11 said:
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.

 

You see that part where I put "as an example". That means that that one instance isn't necessarily representative of everything, but is a factor in said argument. I didn't say "because Zack and Wiki sold poorly, the Wii doesn't sell core games", I always said "The Wii barely sells core games, just at games the like of Zack and Wiki", to which Wii fans would shout "What're you talking about? It did well for what it was/it made a profit/etc." Now, this is showing that those statements were obviously wrong.

 

 



makingmusic476 on 29 January 2009
Phoenix_Wiight said:
no offence, but from all this stuff that capcoms been saying, they seem like dicks now.

rather, sell outs. definitely sell outs, and i hate that.
thats the only reason RE turned into a shooter, they wanted money.

theyre still giving me great Ace Attorney games, so I'm okay with that, but it's just a little annoying. i don't know why i'm supporting dead rising:ctyd

 

I'm not sure why they changed the RE series like they did, but I don't think it was for money.  RE4's increased sales in the West coincided with heavy decreases in Japan.  RE4 between the GC and ps2 versions combined didn't even sell a million more RE3's sales on the ps1 alone.



Kasz216 on 29 January 2009
nordlead said:
ok, after re-reading (and following some links), I don't know how much i trust sven. He doesn't even believe the numbers that are quoted from capcom's own press releases on how much Okami Wii sold....

Yeah.  He's never been a Wii fan.