THQ has put out a number of interesting little titles on the Wii, including Deadly Creatures and de Blob, but a new interview with CEO Brian Farrell seems to indicate that the publisher isn't satisfied with its Wii software performance, and that previous Wii exclusives like de Blob are looking at future multiplatform status.
"Deadly Creatures was a fun experience. Critically well-reviewed. Didn’t find much of an audience and I think more of the core-gaming audience is on 360 and PS3. I know Nintendo doesn’t like that message," states Farrell. "I’m a huge fan of Nintendo personally, but that’s just not where the audience is or the audience there is fairly limited. The old guys like me and maybe you will still play the core stuff -- all the stuff we love about Nintendo on the Wii. But we don’t branch out and play some of the core experiences on the Wii. If we do, we go HD and play on PS3 or 360.
"de Blob started its life on Wii. We’ve not announced anything yet, but obviously with a great brand like that -- people love that character -- taking it to other platforms, the game mechanic can be done. Actually, I prefer it on a normal controller. We’ll be branching it out to other platforms -- that’s a great brand to build."
So, looks like de Blob will be hitting Xbox 360 and PS3 some time in the future, as THQ joins the ranks of other publishers who feel a bit burned by their rush towards the Wii. Not that the Wii isn't worth exploiting, but it's become clear that certain games simply don't belong there, and it's good to see that publishers are getting realistic about that.
End Bosses: THQ's Brian Farrell [IGN via GoNintendo]
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:
9:40 AM on 02.17.2010
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Finally a Western Counterpart to all the Katamari Games!
Really? Thanks for the heads up.
So Jim, how is this proof 3rd Party's abandoning the Wii? Didn't Disney say the opposite to this last week, that they're moving away from the HD consoles towards the Wii? If you read the whole article and don't just pull out a couple of quotes from it, its quite the opposite actually. They said that their casual/kids/family games are doing extremely well on the system, so their not abandoning the Wii what-so-ever. They're just finding what fits on the system and going with it!
Funny thing - Wasn't it actually out first on the PC?
The game sold over 700k copies back in early February 2009 despite being a fairly niche title.
No matter where you go, that's a hard sell, good game (as it was) or not. Core market mysticism isn't necessary.
h
Yea, de Blob was originally a free downloadable PC game made by a couple of college students in Utrecht. THQ bought the rights to the game and turned it into de Blob.
The students eventually formered a development team under the new name, Ronimo Games. They made Wiiware's Swords & Soldiers.
I've been spending quite a lot of time on my Wii. Beat No More Heroes 2 three times already and unlocked all of the content in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. I'll be spending more time with TvC and Team Fortress 2 on the PC while I wait for the release of Red Steel 2, Monster Hunter Tri, and Team Trauma.
If they want to truly convince people that the games that are prevalent on the PS360 won't sell on Wii, then prove it and actually put a high quality AAA title with high production values on the console. Put your money where your mouth is.
I guarantee they wouldn't have dared try to start this series on the other two consoles.
Also, good post Jim, no trolling.
Et tu Zxyliac?, NMH2, SH:SM and TvC frown at you
I hope that's a hint at HD Deadly Creatures. I'd totally buy that in HD, I loved it on the Wii.
Never tried De Blob, though. I might give it a go...
Also, "de Blob" sold more copies than the "Wario Land" 2D game for Wii, with the latter having far more promotion, higher first-day sales when comparing the two, so that says a lot as to how the Wii audience took quite kindly to the game.
- No More Heroes & No More Heroes 2
Ubisoft, you failed miserably to promote both of these games.
- Dead Space: Extraction
I'm sure EA won't forget to market Dead Space 2.
- Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
Konami, remember this game of yours ?
- Zack & Wiki
You know there's a problem when websites like IGN put more of an effort into promoting a game than the publisher.
- Okami
Capcom's marketing plan: "Why bother?"
De Blob will hopefully do well on 360/PS3, fitting in nicely with other similar puzzley games. A demo will no doubt go out for it on those formats, so little advertising will be needed beyond the usual. And the best part for THQ, is that they could sell the game as DLC, with updates and such.
As for Deadly Creatures, it was a cool enough concept, that they should really consider building upon. Having hard drive access and DLC options would be good for that too. Throw in a level creator, online play and sell it like Trials HD, it could be really awesome.
And failing all that, I'd still love Jo Madueira to get to work on a Battle Chasers game. Joe Mad is the key to their future fortunes, and it good to see him working in games.
I'd play this if they brought it to PSN.
And just a quick point. I'm not sure where Jim read that De Blob is coming to ps3/360... because as far as I can tell the person interviewed did NOT state that.
Multiplatform includes DS and PSP.... and if rumors of a de blob cartoon might be true... then the DS is definitely the best place for such a title. So again... we just have good old jim trolling the wii. Good job Sterling.
Sure, Deadly Creatures flopped*. But it was in no way highly reviewed (a 72 metacritic score, with no especially recognized reviewer above 80), and...I can't think of many games with a 72 metacritic score that aren't based off movies that are selling on PS3, anyway.
*I don't know quite where the threshold for flop is these days, especially for THQ, who seem to think everything that doesn't sell 3 million copies in a week is a flop.
When these consoles initially launch.. there is literally NO audience there. Yet game developers make games anyway. You know what happens? The audience GOES THERE to the platform for the games. Where you had no audience, you essentially created an audience thanks to your compelling product. I don't understand why THQ seems to think it's the opposite. Chasing some imaginary hardcore gamer to some other platform.
One would say, "well yes when the consoles launch there is no audience but customers know what TYPE of product will be there due to prior generations. As such, customers won't go to wii for certain games because of the gamecube and it's lack of support" At that point... guess who the blame comes back to. Right back to THQ. Past or present, they still haven't gotten it yet.
I would love to see Deadly Creatures ported to HD consoles, bugs (the glitchy kind) and all.
Really. Seriously. HONESTLY.
Who actually thinks Deadly Creatures bombed because of the platform, that it would have magically sold better on HD consoles?
@trsspidey
This.
The reason the 360 and PS3 are the "hardcore" consoles is because third party developers made them that way, not because they were intrinsically "hardcore" or supported a "hardcore" userbase.
It's more like a "self-fulfilling prophecy".
Lol. WII BASHING, I AM, not. I'm hardly bashing the Wii, TRS. The Wii and Nintendo are doing that to its hardcore audience quite well on it own (as Nintendo counts its money, Scrooge McDuck style). Little help for the third party devs that did stick around obviously isn't enough, if any, and its a law of diminishing returns if you back it, for any hardcore games now.
Can you count the devs that have bailed on Wii development in the last 12 months, TRS? Its not just, THQ, so that should tell you something, if you can read between the lines of such news, that not all is well on Wii. No harm in my telling it how it is, TRS, even if it burns your ears of disagreement. You can feel free to make all the excuses for Wii and Nintendo, so you can sleep well at night, but beyond DS, I'm personally done with them, and it does not surprise me many devs are voting with their feet too, for their own reasons. Even if I owned a Wii (its the last buy on my console list this gen), my view would be the same on this subject. But I digress, its not about me.
By the way, multiformat doesn't have to mean all consoles, all it has to mean is two or more. Single format is one console (home and/or handheld). Multiformat is two or more consoles. If a game covers all formats, we usually say all formats instead. Thats how I approach it, anyway.
Much bigger potential audience on Live and PSN, than on Wii. Good luck, THQ. I'll look forward to the demo of De Blob, and the sweet Darksiders one too. And hey, if spreading your games, can work out for Sega and Sonic 4, why not De Blob?
Yes, but when it comes to bash on the Wii without any basis, even more so. Yes, i'd also love to see DC get the HD treatment, one of two things would happen:
1) If just coated in HD paint it would fail miserably as expected.
2)If they actually fixed the problems, bugs and added better gameplay it would prove that the game was unfinished and it didn't fail because it was on the Wii but because it was a half baked mediocre game.
@Cowboy TTop: "Lol. WII BASHING, I AM, not. I'm hardly bashing the Wii, TRS. The Wii and Nintendo are doing that to its hardcore audience quite well on it own (as Nintendo counts its money, Scrooge McDuck style)."
Funny, last i checked it was Nintendo that consistently brought the best games on the system, save a few recent exceptions (that 3rd parties still fail to give proper publicity budgets)
"Little help for the third party devs that did stick around obviously isn't enough, if any, and its a law of diminishing returns if you back it, for any hardcore games now."
Like Capcom? yeah, they sure lack experience and need the help to overcome the noob mistakes they make.
"Can you count the devs that have bailed on Wii development in the last 12 months, TRS? Its not just, THQ, so that should tell you something, if you can read between the lines of such news, that not all is well on Wii. No harm in my telling it how it is, TRS, even if it burns your ears of disagreement. You can feel free to make all the excuses for Wii and Nintendo, so you can sleep well at night, but beyond DS, I'm personally done with them, and it does not surprise me many devs are voting with their feet too, for their own reasons. Even if I owned a Wii (its the last buy on my console list this gen), my view would be the same on this subject. But I digress, its not about me."
Wow, so 3rd parties are hurt that we didn't buy the shit-on-disc they release on the Wii? now i sure feel bad ¬_¬. It's ok though i'm sure THQ did sell at least 2 millions of Darksiders copies even when publicity budgets were poor, after all it was a 9 game released on both HD consoles... oh wait!.
"By the way, multiformat doesn't have to mean all consoles, all it has to mean is two or more. Single format is one console (home and/or handheld). Multiformat is two or more consoles. If a game covers all formats, we usually say all formats instead. Thats how I approach it, anyway. "
Agreed for once.
"Much bigger potential audience on Live and PSN, than on Wii. Good luck, THQ. I'll look forward to the demo of De Blob, and the sweet Darksiders one too. And hey, if spreading your games, can work out for Sega and Sonic 4, why not De Blob?"
You know what, i swear to God i wish THQ had the balls to do that, let them release DC on XBLA and PSN, DeBlob might sell, it was pretty good, not fantastic, but good enough, DC on the other hand... but they never will, it would fail and that failure would prove that it was laziness that killed that game, not the Wii, they'd rather bite their ass than admit that.
yes yes its still gloom and doom for the wii. Companies are clearly ending support if you pretend that nmh ,tats vs cap, mh3, nba jam, sega allstars racing, sonic 4, etc havent come out and wont come out.
We've heard this song and dance for years now and you know what? Lasy story, xenoblade, monster hunter, dragon quest epic mickey and many more titles are still coming.
Just because you cover your eyes and ears while babbling about developers leaving the wii doesnt make it true.
No matter how much it hurts your feelings, developers are still definitely working on wii
titles.
With EA:
Their idea of great third party games that Wii owners want are Dead Space Extraction, a great game, yes, but an on rails shooter (and we've seriously had enough of those things), Boom Blox (okay, the first was good, but seriously, EA?), Need for Speed Nitro (a stripped down racer that's lucky to have sold at all...)
Capcom gives stuff like Resident Evil Darkside Chronicles, then complains if it doesn't sell (notice that their other non niche 'proper' games, like RE4: Wii, TvC and Monster Hunter 3 DO sell).
Sega gives us House of the Dead: Overkill (ANOTHER on rails), MadWorld (the world's most niche title) and The Conduit (really?)
Activision seems to have got it right to an extent... at least they treat the Wii as an EQUAL SYSTEM. The problem with these other companies is they treat the Wii as if iut'll burn them if mishandled. Here's an idea: make great games that GAMERS WANT (key words), and actually have them ADVERTISED. Maybe then, they might even sell!
Yeah, I know, astonishing, isn't it?
Always.
Agreed to the fullest.