Excellent article. I've noticed that Wii sequels tend to underperform the original games (another dramatic example is Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles), and this article helps make sense of that pattern. I hope some third-party higher-ups see this.

I was just trying to keep the alliteration going.

"Mercurial masses" is something like "fickle people." The connotation is different (it's less insulting to the masses, for starters), but the idea is the same.

Wow I'm surprised. A very well written article that was generally fair on all fronts. Instead of putting personal opinions in on the matter, he analyzed the data and drew a conclusion from it. Then any opinions he might have had still recognized that the data existed. I must say it is unusual nowadays to read an article from someone in the gaming media on sales and see it so well done haha.

Now I'm not completley in agreement. I do think that sequels are a strong market and one that people can still profit on the Wii and other systems. Only thing is, developers have to stop seeing sequels selling purely off brand alone. That they'll see the "2" behind it and think well I liked the first one so obviously they'll pay more for the second one.

To see success in a sequel you need to do a few things. First, make a game that vastly improves upon the second one... no one wants to buy the same thing over again... especially if maybe they didn't like the first one all that much. Or if it is going to be something that is eerily similar or expansion then give it a budget price (aka Wii Fit Plus at $20 but actually most sales came of the bundled one but that's different). Second, you have to market it vastly... even more so than the first. The people know the brand exists, market it so they know to pick it up. Just like hardcore gamers, there'll be some who will know it exists, but most need to see a commercial or advert. Finally, just make sure that you are advertising the selling points of the game. Once again, brand alone doesn't sell sequels... knowing that they are getting a full experience with loads of new content sells sequels.

Other than that I think the best quote was this:

"But Divnich makes a compelling point: If software makers are not following the Nintendo-style model, they have very little room to complain that they’re not seeing Nintendo-style results."

That's absolutely perfect. We always question why 3rd parties can't get Nintendo like sales, but do they have Nintendo like quality and Nintendo like marketing. I mean you can't just say you want to be something and that be enough. If you want to see Nintendo like success, you need to show Nintendo like initiative. I've seen very very very few publishers do this on any Nintendo platform since the SNES. That's a long time ago. And minimal on the Wii bar a few I won't start to name. They won't achieve 20 million sellers, but they could definitely tap into that userbase much more than they are doing now if they gave the effort that Nintendo does with every last one of their big projects.

That was a pretty well thought out article.

this is evident in Tiger Woods golf.

08 sold the best then 09 then 10.

Even though 10 has WM+ no general consumer is awear of it. To them it is another Tiger Woods game. This is where advertising of the Game plus WM+ would of worked well.

I would give this man a pat on the back.
One of the best "Wii is not doomed and won't be" articles.

Very well made article, with many points, but damn thats one hell of a read for just an internet article.

Anyway, realistic points for a change, after reading that IGN article today I started to lose hope in journalism but yeah it actually talked about Ubisofts plan instead of going "ZOMG HD SHIFT!" I like that a lot since that seems to be what a lot of other sites said, also I agree with the third parties sales bit, if you want to sell like Nintendo, you might want to design, develop, polish, and market like Nintendo.

Whether or not its the best written article out there, it was quite refreshing really. And to be honest i do agree, games Nintendo do are miles ahead from 3rd parties which is why i never understand how Nintendo are considered lazy. If anything ONLY their games are boosting wii sales, and it shows how much Nintendo do in order to succeed. For me, at the current moment, they're the only company that thinks outside the "box" regularly.

Why isn't this article on the front page instead of that predictable and crap one? :(

Resident Evil: Chronicles was a Capcom Test Trap to trick wii owners into buying it with the promise of more RE 4 like games but they decided to give wii owners another on-rails game while HD got RE5. Some call it sad sales and some call it justice but they're one in the same.