Ranking system is not the same as a leaderboard.  I'm at rank 10/24 right now though.

I wouldn't be surprised if they don't have a leaderboard because Nintendo wouldn't provide the infrastructure though.  Nintendo seems to think that competition isn't fun these days...

My mistake.  so... there is no leaderboard.

^

No.  But its pretty obvious these devs would like to deliver things like that in the future but were constrained by the Wii or didn't have the time/budget to deliver with The Conduit.  It doesn't matter because it delivers a fun game with great controls and solid online play for the Wii.  Something even Nintendo can't consistently do.

I fully expect The Grinder/The Conduit 2 to be much better than The Conduit and if they make more FPSs for Wii 2 or go multi-console, they could be the next Epic or Bungie.

The Conduit sort of reminds me of Killzone 1 in that it isn't getting the greatest reviews but people still like it, and in the future this dev has the potential to make a AAA title given more money/talent.

Don't forget Week 1 sales will be NA only, no Europe release until July 10. So it will probably be more like:

Week 1 130K
Week 2 50K
Week 3 100K
Week 4 65K

Something like that, I am not making a prediction just trying to illustrate the likely trend. I have heard Podcasts estimate total sales worldwide to top out at 350K by year end, I think that given a 100-130K, it has a shot of 500K or higher.

Also, I own it, I have been playing it and it is a lot of fun. I think depending on where you come from, a 7.0-8.5 is an appropriate score range. Some of the reviews have been overly harsh and punitive really. I think it is a superior title to WAW on Wii.

It should be more, it deserves more.

Your thinking is about the same as mine only I don't think it will tail off immediately since people will be saving their July money for Wii Sports Resort.  So I said 300k 750k-1.2m ltd.

Also, I agree with your impressions.  With its flaws, anything much over a 8.5 is too high (IGN over-rated it a bit), but anything below a 7.5 is too low.  Normally, I wouild exclude The Edge because they rate everything low (except Prototype WTF?) but I think a 4 is low even on their scale.  This is not a below average Wii game.

whatever the sales maybe, the conduit threads always guarantees at least 50+ posts

BAM!!! Thats it, I couldn't think of it, but yeah thats on the MONEY!

I realize I'm really late getting to this but whatever.

Yeah I do.  Wii is the system for families.  I know a lot of moms don't want to get their kids a game like CoD because it's war and you're shooting people.   Also there's swearing and torture etc not to mention the rating.

Now if little Jimmy sees his friend playing Conduit, and reviews can bash it all they want and I'm not disagreeing with them but the game is fun, so when Jimmy goes to his friends house and plays it, he'll come home and ask his parents.  They see it's rated T, see it's shooting Aliens and think, okay, that's fine.

By the same token, if Dad wants a game, but he knows his little kids will be watching, he'll get Conduit over CoD for the same reasons (even if it is just to applease the wife), not to mention Conduit is just better in many ways (but not in some others).   Then if his friend comes over, who also has a Wii...

Wii games sell very strongly on word of mouth.  Conduit isn't a great FPS by todays standards but it is solid, fun and accessible which are key for the Nintendo market.   If Carnival Games can sell 3m (largely by being out first and having good word of mouth), I don't see why Conduit can't follow in it's footsteps just on a different front.    Very fortunately for HVS, the game has zero competition for the family crowd in it's genre.

If you are right this could be a 2-3 million seller but I'm gonna stick with my more conservative estimate.  Although, I have already told my casual Wii owning friends who have Wiis and like shooters to get it, so there is some anecdotal evidence you are right