Oh boy, you showed me. I mean a niche game with block visuals. That's something with massive appeal.

Lol the "excuse" that every "hyped" Wii game gets as well, funny that...

Madworld didn't sell cause it a was a niche action game with B&W visuals (would have sold better on HD consoles of course lol)

Zack and Wiki didn't sell cause it was a point a click advenure!

Monster Hunter 3 despite selling a million bombed and should have sold PSP numbers would have done better on PS3

...Honestly games sell what they sell, its on a game to game basis, easy as that.

It's worth pointing out that, with the possible exception of Condemned and its sequel, the majority of those games are average at best.

HD is not a formula for success, not in the slightest. It's just circumstance, really. Because Wii development is cheaper, developers are willing to take more risks and occasionally fall flat on their faces. Thanks to the high development cost of an HD game, a dev will generally only make one if they know that the game is going to sell well, and has a shot at breaking a million.

most of the games that didn't sell big numbers on wii are either niche or suck.  I mean, that's the main reason they were put on wii in the first place.  3D dot heroes is a good example of a game that wasn't gonna succeed anyway, there's no need to blame the system for the game's problems.  There is a huge list of games that bombed on PS2, it happens all the time.

Avatar: the game is still selling.

yeah it's true but even the developer has come out and said they are dissapointed in the sales already.  They were probably expecting a blockbuster, most people on here probably knew it wasn't going to be one.

3D Dot Heroes isn't even out in the West yet. Give it a chance.

I take your point, but developers aren't going to stop looking for the 'silver bullet'.

Just like Hollywood movies, the goal for many big developers is clearly try and identify some magic formula to ensure success.

Of course, that magic formula doesn't exist, so what you see - exactly like Hollywood - is huge repetition of something that has worked - for example this kind of 2D mario, this kind of FPS with MP - until sheer saturation or evolution of the market causes a crash, then it's a panic until some new 'sure thing' is found which can be repeated until they eventually crash due to repetition and lack of originality.

And if you wait long enough, the trend swings around again and you can dust of the old templates.

I was hoping that Live/PSN would provide a great forum for mid priced games that could be more innovative and take risks, or support smaller genres that are otherwise overlooked - but while there are some great titles available I feel this hasn't been exploited enough.

Another issue that I see is that too many developers fight for the same supposed 'easy thing' - so for example there are simply too many fairly expensive FPS/MP titles around to all succeed, and of course the known 'brand' is likely to win out.

The result is of course expensive casualties, often compounded by the fact many of the 'wannabees' are simply subpar to the best in the genre, effectively resulting in a waste of time and effort.

Mind you, on the flip side, I also hate it when clearly great games are simply ignored by an audience that, for whatever reasons, simply isn't aware of them or too focused (somewhat ironically) on looking for their next fix of the 'same thing'.

Well for the most part Wii and HD consoles clearly appeal to a different audience.

The only thing this thread proves is not every core game is a success on HD consoles. It also ignores the huge appeal to core gamers.

the game was obviously made with the Japanese market in mind.