Network now...NEWS
NPD: Dead Space Extraction Sells 9,000 In September
EA's on-
Developed by Visceral Games, the Wii exclusive title is a prequel to survival horror Dead Space, which launched in October 2008 for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC to critical acclaim and had sold around 1.4 million units as of May this year.
While Extraction hasn’t enjoyed a strong start, EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich told us that the title’s early sell through wouldn't come as a surprise to publisher EA.
“Electronic Arts didn’t market Dead Space Extraction as much as it does with other titles. And the success or failure of a Wii title usually correlates directly to marketing spend. If Electronic Arts spent little on marketing, I am sure the sell through was no surprise to them. So I do not believe sell through was a disappointment to EA.”
We contacted EA to for comment on the game’s opening week performance, and to find out how the game has been performing at retail during October, but received no response.
“Given Wii games tend to have a flatter sales curve, I don’t think 20,000 plus units is out of the question for October and maybe we get a holiday bump in November and December,” Divnich suggested.
EA said previously that the performance of Extraction would influence the company's decision to create mature-content games for Wii in the future, and Divnich implied that the publisher’s decision not to heavily market the title may have been based on the poor performance of other mature-rated Wii games released while Extraction was still in development.
“Most games have a 12 to 24 month development schedule and over a year ago the industry was under the assumption that mature-rated games could succeed on the Wii. Unfortunately, as we progressed and witnessed the sales results from games such as MadWorld, it became pretty clear the market size for games with mature-content was extremely small, much smaller than any other home platform. The truth is most core gamers who gravitate towards mature content likely own more than just a Wii.”
Despite being well reviewed, Extraction also made a weak debut in the UK following its early October release, failing to crack the all formats chart top 40. It’s currently floating somewhere outside of the Wii top 40.
One game that fared better in its opening week was Sony’s Gran Turismo. The first PSP entry in developer Polyphony Digital’s 52 million unit-selling franchise released on October 1 on UMD and as a digital download for PSPgo.
While NPD was unable to provide digital sales figures, the racer hit 18,000 UMD sales in the States between launch and October 3.
The UMD version of Gran Turismo entered the UK all formats chart at number 12 earlier this month.
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Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court 30 Monmouth Street Bath, UK BA1 2BW
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As good as House of the Dead 2 was (mainly because Sega are the masters of arcade games) I don't think these one-the-rails shooters work too well nowadays, and people want more.
The main complaint I would have regarding shooting games on the Wii in general is that the POINTER on the Wiimote doesn't have a decent enough range to the sensor.
Imo the problem is that if these big developers start to show the real strength of Wii controll methode in first person shooters, maybe, just maybe the shooter fans will jump platform to Wii, and whilst in this respect they stand to profit(lower dev cost plus actual turn over) i doubt it is a more profitable solution to remaining "focused" on the HD twins on the account of continuity of sales through DLC. They probably see it has self defeating to concentrate on the Wii due to lack of heavy weight memory storage for down load content. Now that leaves Nintendo to hurry up and get this "holographic memory" storage solution up and running......( three hundred terabytes of info in the size of a suger cube...google it!)
It's actually quite a good game, folks - flat sales, aside.
And Dr. Wily: if there were NO hardcore Wii market, why do they all come out of the woodwork and bitch whenever they think they're being overlooked. The demographic is absolutely THERE - it just needs to embrace the games on the console, NOT whine that another eight exercise or casual game has come out for every one they'd actually play.
As for the DS, well - it's pretty much a RPG fan's system with a ton of other stuff I don't buy, a yearly Castlevania update and a side dash of everything else. Casual games are of course, going to do well on both platforms, but I can look at my current Wii and DS library and not gripe that they have any junk in them at all.
I don't think Wii owners should be the blame for this. Dead Space is all fine and dandy, and even if this is a good game (I just bought it), it's clear the Wii was an after thought when it came to this IP. A light gun game being branded as a "guided first-person experience"? Really?
No matter how good a light gun game is... at the end of the day, it's still a light gun game.
At least Umbrella Chronicles had the 'RESIDENT EVIL' brand name to carry it over a million sold worldwide.
Mom and Dad are casual/extended demographic players... they buy the party/waggle games.
Little Timmy is hardcore and spends his allowance on his XBOX and pirates for the Wii.
Those that want the games to be available wont tell you that they want it for free, or simply want more nintendo IP... even if the culture is not as bad as i portray, i think a common argument is for the Wii being the inferior console or that it is for kids/grandparents and therefore not cool... and who wants to brag in school about having the latest uncool wii game
This is exactly it. The Wii has missed its window to appeal to - and I hate this term - 'hardcore' fans. Gamers wanting non-family friendly fare will undoubtedly have not just a Wii but one of the big two consoles, so why would they bother with a 'proper' game on Nintendo's console when there are hundreds of other similar titles vying for their attention on 360 and PS3?
Well, for one, there isn't a single rail shooter for the Xbox, and there is one on the PS3, which is quite expensive, and difficult to get hold of.
The Wii on the other hand boasts several examples, and comes with the remote as standard. if you want a shell to make it more like a gun, this is pretty cheap. Thats why the genre has has something of a revival on the Wii.
Agreed on all points, and it might be worth pointing out here that I really enjoyed Extraction, much as I enjoyed Ghost Squad and The Umbrella Chronicles.
But your average gamer, I'd guess, doesn't really give two hoots about the on-rails genre when compared to FPS or adventure games. Given the chance to shoot something, the mass market would far rather do that on a high-spec console, and with more control than rail shooters can offer.
Obviously fans of rail shooters will own Wiis, and buy the likes of Extraction. But the cache of these games isn't enough to persuade most people to invest in them when they could be playing the likes of ODST or Among Thieves. Even The Conduit - a game specifically built to appeal to Joe Halo - didn't exactly set the world on fire in terms of sales, suggesting again that the Wii might not really have a userbase to support these kind of titles.
I think the problem with on-rail shooters is that they are inherently short. O.K there is replay value most of the time but most dont run much longer than a few hours. On rails shooters lack the scope of self improvement offered by FPS games.
Personally i love playing rail shooters but i would be more inclined to pick them up cheap or rent them due to their length.
it does not matter if Dead Space Extraction wasn't heavily marketed cause anyone who's a "hardcore" gamer was already aware of this game, maybe this harsh lesson will finally teach 3rd parties to stop wasting time & money on a demographic which does not exist on the Wii or the DS
So many a hardcore gamer was aware of Dead Space on PS360 last year and it still sold below expectations. Seems like it's a lukewarm IP to me moreso than it being the Wii audience's fault.
blah. I actually want to play this, too, but my budget is reserved for higher profile games >_<
If you enjoy rail shooters, you absolutely should buy this game.
I don't really. This would be an exception.
Who does? An on-the-rail shooter in this day and age?
Million selling House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return and Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles say hello.
If you don't like rail shooters, what exactly is it about Dead Space that appeals?
Um... I dunno. Not much really, I've never played Dead Space.