It's a common theory that mature games just don't work on a Nintendo platform. Both the DS and the Wii have had some rather big M-rated titles join their libraries, yet fail to rack up the immediate success that was expected. Nevertheless, Sega is still committed to giving mature Wii gamers some blood n' guts, believing that slow-burn sales are still good for business.
"House of the Dead: Overkill was a profitable title for us," says European development MD Gary Dunn. "Whilst it had a rather sharp tail at full price, they do bubble away at a lower price point for a long time. You get your money back and a bit on full price, but over the years, if we do the final product return on investment, profits come from the lower price point.
"You have to push boundaries and explore. I think whilst MadWorld commercially didn't sell what we were expecting I wouldn't say it's game over for mature Wii titles from Sega. We're taking a look at the resources we have now. We've got money to invest in development, we're just considering where to invest it next."
Hats off to Sega for delivering something more "adult" on the Wii. The firm's been putting out some solid stuff recently, going some way towards making up for a few years of rubbish. Here's hoping the publisher can continue to provide the Wii with something a little less twee than the system's main library.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
6:20 PM on 06.30.2009
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Note to developers, an M-rating can be many things, don't just focus on blood, gore and cursing.
Then GTFO and stop commenting if you hate it here so much.
@Nanbu:
I'll agree with you, but there have still been games that went beyond that. No More Heroes spent its time being satirical. The House of the Dead: Overkill pointed out the silliness of those cliches rather than simply embracing them like so many other mainstream games (I'm looking at you Gears of War).
@Platypus: I'm sorry, what?
go suck a fat one.
@ Kyousuke Nanbu
your absolutley right.
It's certainly what I want though. I love all three of those games, and it's all because of their sense of humor, something you don't see as much of on the PS3/360. Other than MGS4, I can' think of one of retail PS3 game that has made me laugh.
That said, Resident Evil games aren't funny either, and they've turned a huge profit on the Wii. I guess that's evidence "serious" M-rated Wii games can also sell, as long as the consumer believes in them.
I don't really care about the hardcore debate, the problem I have with most M-rated Wii games is that they lack substance.
NMH and Mad World are incredibly repetitive brawlers and HoTD while hilarious is short and bound to get repetitive(course you can say this about most guncon type games).
I simply think devs can do more with the M rating that just what they've done.
Look at GTAIV, its the tamest M-rated game ever BUT the M-rating is used to tell a gripping story, they can do that with the Wii easily.
Who's arguing that?
That makes no sense. GTA wouldn't be the popular game that it is right now if it weren't for the mature, controversy-laden, air of deviousness that surrounds it.
I think he meant that past GTA's would take a comical, almost satirical slant to its "mature" stories whereas GTA4 went too far away from the fantasy into "reality" (note: I have not played GTA4).
Anyway, this does touch on something I have been thinking about for a while - is the "Mature" ESRB rating a bit misleading because of what the word means versus consumers expectations FROM a M-rated title? Or should folks recognize that the "M" is talking about content and not context?
Zing.