Capcom are right, if you make a good game, people will buy it.

Which is why nobody bought Bionic Commando, and why Dark Void is at 33 in the charts in it's debut week in my part of the world.

"This is the most important point in the whole thread. Far too many of the "good" games on the Wii are very niche and not likely to sell, and yet their sales are given as the reason why "good" games don't sell on Wii."

While when those games sell just a little on the HD systems and PSP, they are understood to be niche.

That is indeed a good point, but that goes right back the point of how 'casual' games are outselling 'hardcore' games in the first place.  It should be implied that we're specifically talking about games that are both good and target the 'core' market.  And if he wasn't, then he was also missing the target.  Its easy to make a game that will sell a million on Wii.  Most companies have done it by now, from EA to Konami to even his own multiple times.  What's NOT easy is to make a game that targets the 'core' market...and sells a lot.

And what none of these people are trying is making a game that targets that core market, and then hyping it/advertising it.  What they're doing is making two types of games....one casual and then one 'semi hardcore'.  And they only advertise the casual game, because they know that will be the sure fire seller.  The public is responding by buying the game they know is out there and they will like.  The casual games like My Sims Agents, Blom BLox and Guitar Hero.  And skipping over the 'semi hardcore' game that has less effort and advertising behind it.

"What's NOT easy is to make a game that targets the 'core' market...and sells a lot."

Make a game like the hit HD games, and with most of the features intact (CTYD didn't). It worked for Call of Duty twice, and is on track to do it a third time. It worked for Monster Hunter 3. It worked for Resident Evil 4 (which if not on the HD systems is like those games).

"And what none of these people are trying is making a game that targets that core market, and then hyping it/advertising it. What they're doing is making two types of games....one casual and then one 'semi hardcore'."

Oh, so you also meant the point I just wrote?

I'm going to agree with Mike_intellivision but up it a bit

Make it a good game
Make it a unique experience
Make it a game your audience is interested in
Make sure they know about it

The infamous Psychonauts and Okami are testiment to this. Great games, unique, people knew about them, they just weren't the type of games people were looking to play.

TvsC looks to be an excellent game (I'll own it shortly) but it's hardly unique, even on Wii, and I doubt most Wii owners will care, sadly, even if they did know about it. Really this game should be an easy million seller. Anything less is a shame.

"True, but then again you don't know their standard. What if they mean selling well = profit? Not necessarily multimillions in sales. A lot of games that haven't "sold well" on the Wii have undoubtedly made some profit."

And some are still going by the HD line of profit minimum (or just lying that it's that way to make Wii sales look worse).

It should because of how good it is, but because of the genre it is in, that is very difficult. No game in the Vs Capcom series has ever sold that much.

Even headlining fighters like Soul Calibur 4 (1.15m PS3/1.35m 360) and Street Fighter 4 (1.62m PS3/1.39m 360) just pass the mark, and those are deeply established and promoted.

TvC got good promo too, thats why the preorders went up nearly 400% Week over Week (2.8k to 11k) and sold 33% of the amount of preorders already made (were 33k, now 45k). It should have a great first week over ~60k.

It's a sad state of affairs when we're calling 60k 'great'.  600k is great.  60K would be 'great' for a little known, niche title from a small developer which is not the case here.

TvC wouldn't really have any way of managing a 600k first week LOL It could manage 600k over time though. Besides, the ads only came on the 21st of January, 2 days after the preorder numbers were recorded.

If it was prominently advertised for three weeks and got a full minute spot several times during the AFC/NFC Championships like Mass Effect 2 did....maybe it could've managed something a little closer.

I bought Bionic Commando for $19.99, and i think the game is pretty fuckin awesome, the game itself isn't AAA material in the HD consoles, but if it were on the wii i could see it being one of the best games for the system. I can't wait till Dark Void drops in price as well, will pick that game up.