He doesn't actually use those words, but the implication is there. He chooses his words carefully, like in the reply "72k for launch week isn't that good." But the tone of the rest of the article makes it clear.
Yes, it isn't that good, but that does mean it's still at least somewhat good, especially since the budget of the game wasn't that high (being an SD game and all), and the fact that Wii game sales are not front loaded.
And that's what he, and "Those who argue against so-called "hardcore" games on the Wii" keep ignoring. You
can't go by the first week. Metroid Prime 3 opened around the same time as Bioshock, and had half the opening week. Both games have sold around a million and a half copies. Bioshock sold more, but if you went by the opening week, MP3 should have sold only around half as much.
Of course waiting for the July NPD numbers, or the July and August numbers, would be the proper way to jusge the legs of a Wii game, but that flies in the face of the instant gratification mentality of many gamers. They have to have news now, and if not, they decide what the news is right now. You can't decide reality before it happens.
While true that this is "not a glowing success for the game's launch week", Sega
isn't just looking at the launch week. Sega has had most of it's games on the Wii start with less than impressive numbers, even the mega seller "Mario & Sonic at the Olympics" had an opening of less than 100K in the US.
Of course it's hard to say if the legs of this game will be that good, but
that's why we wait.
Sure it's not the great opening Wii fans wanted, but declaring it a failure to show these games can sell just means you are jumping the gun.
1. I could tear that apart, but I'll just state assumptions like that have no basis unless there is actually some kind of survey at the very least.
2. Irrelevant to this blog post.
And its true that yeah, the games do sell more with time, but because the majority of the Wii install base doesn't give a flying fuck about games like the Conduit, it won't sell and hasn't sold to great success.
Wii games often keep selling a year past their release, though this is usually Nintendo games. Some games like No More Heroes and Resident Evil 4 have had legs as well, and I know all the House of the Dead games at my store have been selling out for ages and we keep getting more new.
For this first week the Conduit was out in North America, PAL regions still had not seen a release date. I think if you look at the end of July game sales it will be more telling of the first month's sales for the game.
The Conduit is not the best shooter I've ever played, but its a good one. I've been playing it for the past few weeks nearly every day and have been having a great time and there never is a shortage of people online, so the people who would want to play it do in fact exist.
@Lord the Night Knight
Have you picked a copy up yet. If so, any chance you would like to play together online? I would like to get Conduit players of Dtoid together. Some FNFs down the road would be great.
I've said my peace on The Conduit too often, but essentially, I gave it a chance, and I found it to be the most generic thing I've ever played in my life. It was more generic than Halo, which is saying something, minus the fun, no split screen, and a fraction of the online community.
My prediction is that The Conduit will plateua soon, and be declared a failure by everyone else but Nintendo, who will spin the situation by championing it as "finally delivering to the core audience, and revolutionizing IR controls". I also predict that The Grinder will do leaps and bounds better than The Conduit both critically and commercially, and a number of reviewers will overlook it's flaws because "it's Left 4 Dead for the Wii: which is awesome!". Hell, if House of the Dead Overkill can get good reviews, I'm sure The Grinder can.
Point being, Jim got snarky in the comments because The Conduit was built up as the be all end all of FPS games in general (not just the Wii), and was greeted by less than expected sales and a number of 4.0-6.5 reviews scores. Also, the Wii is the funniest (and easiest) console to rag on.
:(
Let's learn from the Joker. Why so serious?
What I'm saying is that Nintendo was billing it as such. Even during E3, Reggie's eyes widened and made a huge deal about The Conduit delivering hardcore action to the Wii, and revolutionizing the FPS genre. It's also the developer's job to hype a game, but some of the statements they made were borderline rediculous:
"And we have a lot of Wii-specific weapons with the alien technology and the Trust technology that you just couldn't do on a 360 or a PlayStation 3".
If it wasn't hyped as much no one would have cared if it scored/sold poorly. I just think the whole situation is hilarious.
It's not a good idea to even pay attention to people like Reggie. Since when did Reggie know anything other than what he was told? He's Iwata's American lapdog, and I doubt he's one that Iwata's even very proud of.
I know. I'm not taking it all that seriously, I just feel like a lot of gamers expected so much from it, and the PR for this game was borderline slanderous at times. Heck, even I believed it, and championed the game in a past blog! If anything, I think this is another "Spore alert" hype lesson.
Dude, show me statistics that disprove my theory. You made a blog for the sole purpose of discussing The Conduit's sales, now "tear that apart". Don't just dismiss my opinion because it conflicts with your views.
Honestly, tell me who is going to buy this game? The vast majority of shooter fans with 360 or PS3 have no reason to buy this when we are already playing games such as Killzone, Warhawk, Halo, Gears of War, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2, Call of Duty...the list goes on and on and on. Other than the gimmick of playing with a Wiimote, there is no feature that will pull a shooter fan away from these games for any significant time. No one wants to put up with the hassle of Friend Codes or the generic game modes or the fact that it's only 12-players online. A major reason why I bought Battlefield 1943 was for the sheer number of people on my Friends List who were playing the game while I have no clue who I know owns The Conduit already. Most of this isn't the game's fault as it all comes back to the limitations of the Wii. It just can't be helped.
Now that's not to say that a person heavy into CoD4 won't pick it up, but don't expect a mass exodus. You can't really compare this to MP3 as the Metroid series dates back about 20 years ago, with the Prime trilogy wrapping up on the Wii. Mario & Sonic at the Olympics had the benefit of not only using two extremely popular franchises but also being a mini-game compilation of sports. The game was destined for success. The Conduit is a mature new IP on a console marketed to a completely different demographic. Sega was playing the lottery picking this game up.
That is why I feel bad for the guys at High Voltage. They have a lot of passion for what they do but they're fishing for minnows. If you compare The Conduit to just Wii games than it's a stand out, mostly because it has no real competition. But it's impossible to look at the game while forgetting what's on the other two consoles. So don't expect the "legs" to pick up steam until this game is marked down to $20.
/negative guy