@Twestern, your not missing out on anything. I know you are the type guy that will probably buy one sooner or later anyway; I bought mine too early, don't make the same mistake. I am sure there will be great games for it though, since it is dominating HD in JPN.

@the topic: How can this be at 350 posts when almost none of you have played the final retail version?

For those that have, and say they like it: I hope you're right. I am buying this instead of Warhawk (for now) because I like dragons and don't play much online multiplayer. To me, this game is about graphics. I never really had an eye for frame rates, so I don't think that will bother me. I know it's strange coming from me (Mr. I love my Wii); but some times I like to play a game for the escapism. This seems like it should do it. I guess I would rather be flying around on the back of a dragon, than managing a Hotel or going to college.

 around 25 million USD I belive...

ouch... level 5 is gonna have financial trouble, assuming sony-level 5 split it 75%-25% (rare these days for the publisher to foot 100% of the bill). i imagine level 5 is gonna have trouble absorbing a $7 million hit.

 Red Steel was featured very prominently in the pre-launch Wii commercials and the DVDs they gave away at Best Buy to promote the system... In the ads Red Steel looked like an awesome must-have game so I bought Red Steel and Zelda with the system. I was incredibly disappointed in RS (the controls sucked) and I traded it in a few weeks later to buy some old Gamecube games.

I have to agree with damkira that Red Steel was hyped very much. I cant believe how you can fail with 25m$ budget game Factor 5 really screwed up this time. They should have let several reviewers play the game before they shipped it and then change the stuff the reviewers hated. That is why you have previews but I have not seen any preview that said that Lair was bad or complained about motioncontrols. I knew that this game would not sell much but I never thought it would fail like this I thought 7/10 at worst.

Factor 5 is the dev, not Level 5.

And, from my understanding, the dev costs could be as much as 40 million altogether.

@Yojimbo
All we've seen are reviews, which are admittedly lackluster. We have no idea how sales will pan out yet. I'm guessing it'll be a bit frontloaded (possibly 100-200k first week) and drop off quickly.

oh yeah, factor 5, not level 5.

level 5 is doing well! if it were a listed american company i would totally buy their stock.

 Do you even have any proof at all ?

 That's just development cost isn't it?  There's at least another 3-5 million in advertising.  TVspots, magazine adds, being featured at Gamestop, all that cost a crap load of money.

 Did you just accept that it is Factor 5, but then immediately say Level 5 again?  Ok...just checking.