*writers note: please know I own all 3 consoles, plus a decent gamingPC, so I'm not biased nor a fanboy*
Lets set the stage a bit, imagine you're a Publisher, planning to release a new franchise on Wii. You've got 2 offers from developers, 1 game a hugely aggressive and promising hardcore game ( think Project:H.A.M.M.E.R.) and the other a novelty "minigame" collection. The first game will set you back several millions of dollars due to the amount of work that has been poured into it and the other will cost you about a million dollars. Of course you start by doing some research about the market...
first we need some numbers:
Here is the list of games that have sold one or more million copies for wii ( in total ).
Source:VGChartz
See the full list here
and here we've got the top-scoring games for wii based on their reviews.
Source: Metacritic
Click here for the full list
So you'll probably notice a few thing immediately.
1. If you are Nintendo, your games will sell like crazy...
14 out of the 20 best selling games for Wii were published by Nintendo, sadly you are NOT nintendo, and there can only be one Nintendo.
2. High review-scores don't equal high sales, rather the other way around...
(Unless they are made by Nintendo)
only 1 game from the top 25 in reviews made it into the top 25 most sold games for WII, Guitar Hero 3:Legends of Rock. But 3 games that are in the top of the list for sales got madly bad reviews, yet they sold like hot buns with boobies on them.
Big Brain Academy -> MC Score: 68 -> Rank: 135 -> Sales Rank: 11
Mario & SOnic At the Olympic Games -> MC Score: 67 -> MC Rank: 146 -> Sales Rank: 7
And the most horrible game of all, hated by all core gamers:
Carnival games -> MC Score: 56 -> Rank: 235 -> Sales Rank: 12
So even though Carnival Games is considered to be a horribly bad game ( there are 234 better ones available on Wii alone according to the 'core-audience'), it sold close to 3 million copies.
another 2 nice examples of this are "Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition" and "Game Party".Though RE4:W is ranked the 6th best game for Wii (score of 91), it is only at the 27th location in regards to sales ( 1.76 million copies ). GP however is ranked as one of the WORST games for wii, with a rank of 332 and an average score of
25/100 (WTF!) it sold almost the same amount of copies as RE4:W namely 1.72 million.
So you're thinking about this game you want to release, and you've seen these numbers... What would you chose?
The "Casual" game obviously has the lowest requirements, I mean even if the reviews suck like hell, you've still got a good shot a selling a huge load of them. While the "hardcore" game is a wild bet, it can get rave reviews and still sell like crap ( Okami didn't even reach 1 million copies worldwide ). So in these 'hard economical times' you'll probably want to go for the 'safe bet' and bring out the "casual" game...
This is why we ( the core gamers ) need to step up to the plate... If Okami is mentioned on dtoid, it sounds like everyone has it, yet I rarely see it in people's wii-game-collections when they post their gamesetups ( I haven't got it either since I was making the same mistake most of us are making ) So I've just ordered it online to make up for it :-)). We have to start buying more games for the wii, there are some absolutely brilliant titles available on this system, yet none of us seems to be getting them, eventually all publishers are gonna start thinking the way you were just thinking... Most of us say whenever we can that our Wii is in fact just collecting dust on our shelves, while there is actually no need for that at all...
This weekend I've commited myself to play my Wii again, and started of by finishing some more chapters of Call Of Duty 3 ( bought COD4 for 360 and COD5 for PC ) though I once rented COD3 for 360 ( before it was decided that renting games is illegal in Belgium ) and I realised that it is in fact a better 'experience' on the Wii... Sure the gfx look like crap compared to the 360-version, but hell, planting explosives and handling the cranes or even driving are so much more fun in the Wii version! So I'll be getting COD4 or COD5 for wii as well, just to see the difference in playing experience ( and to support the "core-games" of course!) After that I played some "No More Heroes", another core-game that didn't even sell a million copies, and though I absolutely love "Devil May Cry" on the 360, the fights in NMH are just so much more enjoyable! Especially doing the finishing moves :-)
What started all this for me was a blog by
Phoenix Gamma about something
maddox said in an interview.... Specifically this bit:
I'm really fucking tired of people who play Xbox 360 and PS3 calling themselves "hardcore gamers." Look at the list of top 10 games on 360 up above. See anything in common? Those are the games that most people play on 360, and with the exception of Braid, they also happen to be the most popular, most heavily marketed, and most consumer-oriented games in the industry. It'd be like someone eating a meal at McDonalds and saying "I'm a foodie!" No, you're not. If you're into movies, you don't go out and see Jurassic Park and call it a day. You try to see movies that try new and interesting things. The types of movies that only someone who has watched thousands of movies could appreciate for doing something unique.
Similarly, if you're a hardcore gamer, you should be looking for new gaming experiences. You shouldn't be satisfied playing the same old mass market games. Not that these games are bad, but they're not for "hardcore" gamers any more than McDonalds is for hardcore foodies. If you're a hardcore gamer, go out and play Katamari Damacy, track down an old copy of Radiant Silvergun on Saturn, or play an indie game like World of Goo. These are the experiences that move gaming forward. Not blockbuster sequels like Halo 3.
Sure we all know maddox is the ultimate troll, but in a way he's right... Sure COD4 was awesome and all that on 360, but it wasn't nearly as new and refreshing as the controls on the wii-version of COD3, you actually have to throw your grenades in the Wiigame! now
that is a novel idea!
I fear however that if we don't start supporting these core-games a bit more in the future, they'll just die out, because for publishers all that counts in the end is MONEY, no matter how you turn it and since we like dissing the wii better then actually paying attention to some of the great things it delivers, eventually no core-games will get released anymore since they're just not financially viable!
So, if you own a Wii and another console, maybe consider getting a multiplatform game in the Wii-format next time, sure it won't look as spiffy, but a lot of the times, the experience will be more fun then it's more serious counterparts, and isn't that what it's all about in the end, the fun you get from playing these games? Trust me, contrary to what a lot of us claim, there are some great experiences to be had on that white-waggle-box!
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That was a really great point. Myself, I have been trying to track down a lot of old PS2 games that I missed before, and I have been buying a lot less COD's and buying more Katamari Damaci's.
People really need to start buying more World of Goos, Braids, and Gitaroo Mans. It makes perfect sense that if gamers want to see the medium grow, we are going to need to start buying these underrated gems.
I definately have to start getting more Wii games though. The only underlooked game in my Wii collection is No More Heroes. If all the Dtoiders who own Wii's gang up and buy each buy a few of the awesome games for they system, there will definately be more games like that being made. I'm sure of it.
That was a really great read. Thanks for making my Sunday a lot better. :)
I misread the first paragraph, and thought you were telling me to imagine I was the Punisher. So I was really confused by all your points, because I was totally focused on eliminating criminal scumbags and teaming up with Spider-Man. I should really get my medication refilled.
Great write up, man. Everyone that has a Wii should buy games like Okami and Zack & Wiki, if only to help the system live and get more good games. And these games are actually very good, so there's no reason not to.
wait gaming it illegal in Belgium?
The way things are here in the US I think you're going to see less developers taking risks. Plus, even when developers take risks, they aren't always rewarded for doing so.
I submit EA for example. They are known for churning out by the numbers sequels year after year. In 2008 they try something new. The develop new IPs. lets take Deadspace for example, it was a solid game and reviewed well however, they game didn't sell well compared to EAs factory pressed sequels. What projects developers take on reflects what the market wants. And while gamers wants games like Bioshock, Little Big Planet, Braid and Left4Daed, the money seems to be in the games that attract the core gaming audience and the casual demographic everyone is eager to attract.
I just hope the independent studios survive these touch times. its sucks with what happened to Free Radical and I really hope we don't lose anymore talented studios to the same cause.
above^^^ I meant to is renting games in belgium illegal..sorry
Is the Wii dying or something?
@megastryke: good games for the WIi are dying.
Read the article.
Well, there are a number of games that I'm already looking forward to over the next few months, so forgive me if I didn't know that the Wii was in any danger.
@MegaSTRYKE: yeah there are some games coming out that look promising, but 'The Conduit' is running the risk of being canned, project HAMMER was canned, lots of really really promising titles get canned
@D-NEZ, yes ever since the first of december 2008... The Belgian Liga For Copyrights decided that it was illegal and pushed to have it made into law... since there are no real gamedevs in Belgium, the push for this law came from Microsoft... its a fucking outrage...
so basically if a game has no demo, we're screwed since the only legal way to 'test' it is to buy it :-( The stores don't seem to mind since they see their sales go up...
@mistic
The Conduit is running the risk of being canned? Since when? Now you are stretching. Sega is doing publishing duties and the Nintendo figureheads, especially Reggie himself, are hyping it up. Let's pull on those reigns a bit, shall we?
@MEGASTRYKE
Sorry mate, indeed my mistake, it was this game, was already a week ago on the frontpage and it isn't running a chance of being cancelled, it is in fact cancelled:
here
Holy shit, mistic-
You're on the front page of Digg. It's sad that that's how I found this post, rather than through the Cblogs, but congrats!
I think you've written a solid entry. However, a sales wonk will say, "If the 'casual' audience is buying the majority of Wii games, then aren't they truly the 'core'?" Along with that goes the argument that there are more potential consumers who -aren't- hardcore gamers than those who self-identify as such, hence the market should evolve to their tastes.
Ideally, you're right. Gamers should vote with their wallets. Gamers should try to educate their more casual game-playing relatives, showing them what truly fun gameplay is. After all, if you're raised on a diet of McDonald's, ignorant of better food elsewhere, you'll think that food is simply supposed to be easy to get, easy to eat, greasy, and vaguely dissatisfying. Likewise, if your only experience of games is the current interpretation of light/casual fare, you may simply not know what wonders await beyond the realm of the cheap & easy!
Barring this sort of grassroots re-education and consumer support, I don't think the minds of those who publish will be otherwise swayed. Their goal is to turn a profit, and they'll follow market trends to do so, even if their strategy is reminiscent of the short-sightedness that led to the mid-1980s videogame crash.
Like I said, though, good entry!
I think the problem with the Wii is that developers have treated the system as a second class citizen from the get go. Too many developers haven't shown faith in the system, so why should the gamers show faith in developers that so obviously favour releasing games on the PS3 and 360? You have to ask questions like why is there no GTA on the Wii? Sure the graphics don't measure up, but there are 45 million Wii consoles out there. Why does EA and 2K Sports only give us some of their sports titles? Just use the case of Harmonix as an example. They release a shovelware PS2 port of Rock Band onto the Wii that the instruments aren't compatible with anything else and it receives a pretty lukewarm response. They put some elbow grease into making RB2 cross compatible with Guitar Hero instruments, making proper wireless instruments, figuring out proper DLC and now the game is selling at a faster pace then the original did. If developers put a full effort into delivering experiences comparable to that of the 360 and PS3 people will buy the games. While there have been some great games released for the Wii, I still think the developers have to show some faith in the platform by developing feature-rich games that don't come off as the redheaded step child of their console cousins.
1) The Wii and the DS are Nintendo systems specifically designed for Nintendo to make money off of.
2) Pulling fake sales numbers from VGchartz invalidates any argument you make with them. The VGchartz numbers are entirely made up and inaccurate.
@Grumblecakes - How do you know that? Can you back that statement up with a legit source?
The article was really great. I also have a better gaming experience on the Wii in comparison to the other systems when it comes to most games. You're correct in the sales of the poorly rated games. What I think it may be is the fact that Nintendo has brought in a whole lot of new gamers and these people are generally uneducated on how to go about looking for games that are worthy to play (and dump $50 into).
I think that the sales of these games will probably die down after so many titles. It does bring the unfortunate situation of encouraging developers to work less on quality titles when they see the same sales brought in by much lower quality titles. I'm a pretty poor guy but I'm also doing my part in making sure I buy those great games on the Wii and letting everyone know that there ARE quite a few excellent third party titles worth purchasing.
Hopefully, the "casual" gamer will learn to stop purchasing those titles and hopefully the "core" game will learn that there are plenty of good games on the system instead of bashing it every chance they get.
@thraxamer
well I mean 'core' as in 'hardcore'
@Grumblecakes:
1. yes of course, Sony and M$ didn't want to make money of the 360/PS3 :p
2. VGChartz numbers inaccurate? possibly not down to very last copy yeah, but more accurate then just pulling a random statement out of your ass without adding any sources...
@modsuperstar:
yeah, but I think a lot of gamers have been doing the same as the devs... as any 'real wii-gamer' ( like bustaballs here ) can tell you, there's a ton of tun to be had on the system, if only you look for it!