I don't see how Haze is niche... isn't it just a bad game?

If the games make a profit, they are doing great... from what I recall, that is the case for NMH and Okami Wii.

and if these games are making a profit, I just can't understand how some game companies selling more games with lower production values can't make one...

Haze also killed Free Radical because of its poor sales.

I hope you realize that Okami on the Wii only has American numbers while Okami on the PS2 only has Japanese numbers. Not only that, but you're just using this site's numbers and assuming that certain games didn't sell anything. Clover Studios made Viewtiful Joe which even got its own cartoon series. And Madworld was advertised to hell, which is a luxury that their previous games never got.

 I saw a commercial for it just five minutes ago but i wouldnt say it was advertised to "hell", just advertised "well".

Compared to previous games from Clover, it was. The only thing published by Sega that I've seen advertised that much in recent memory was Condemned 2, which had nearly endless commercials.

I've never seen a commercial for condemmed 2 but I see the ocassional commercial for house of the dead.

That's not that surprising. There are a bunch of games I've never seen commercials for mainly because I wasn't watching much TV at the time. I don't think I even saw a single Halo 3 ad.

I did my part, I own Okami, NMH and Madworld. It's too bad no one else seems to though(I mean the mass market, not you people).

An interesting point ... but it needs better numbers.

There are no numbers on VGC for Killer 7. But Suda has said it is his best selling game.

There are only Japan numbers for Okami PS2 (and only NA and Japan numbers for the Wii version). But even Sven has said the Wii version outsold the PS2 version.

And given the advertising -- at least in the US -- it would not be difficult to classify Madworld as an early disappointment, though that could change with time (legs).

Mike from Morgantown