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Wii "Inhospitable" for Third Parties
Following the release of August U.S. software sales data, Doug Creutz, an analyst with Cowen and Company, said Friday that the Nintendo Wii isn't exactly the best venue for non-Nintendo publishers.
"We continue to believe that the Wii is a relatively inhospitable platform for third-party publishers," Creutz said, citing relatively weak sales of Madden 09 on Wii.
NPD Group said Thursday that the Xbox 360, PS3 and PS2 versions of Madden 09 captured the top three spots on the sales U.S. sales charts by units. However, the Wii version, supposedly targeted towards a wider audience, ranked ninth, with just 116,000 sold versus the Xbox 360's 1 million.
"The Wii version of Madden 09 sold 79 percent less units than the PS3 version and 87 percent less units than the 360 version, despite a larger console installed base and an improved Metacritic rating," Creutz said.
But third-party Wii games haven't been completely absent from the NPD charts. Guitar Hero III, Rock Band and Lego Indiana Jones have performed respectably on the platform in recent months.
And despite Creutz' concerns, third-party publisher support for Wii isn't lacking, according to major specialty retailer GameStop.
Tony Bartel, EVP of merchandise and marketing at GameStop, told Edge recently, “What we’re seeing ... is an exponential increase in the number of games coming to Wii over last year.
"I think last year, publishers were waiting to see if it would hold on and now everyone’s convinced. Now everyone’s jumping in.”
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Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court 30 Monmouth Street Bath, UK BA1 2BW
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sure the Wii has sold alot but these poor Madden sales just furthur show that the userbase is not made up of traditional gamers, alot of 3rd party publishers have already known this, that's why the PS3 & 360 are getting most of the real games while the Wii continues to get more minigame collections
Not for long. The minigame fad is slowing off. We are seeing quite a few more well developed games that are closer to what hardcores want.
So, lemme get this straight...
This guy Cruetz wants us to believe that Wii 3rd party games don't sell based solely Madden '09 All Play's performance!?
This is a textbook case of OVER-GENERALIZATION - a few isolated incidents being used as evidence of a general pattern. This is also called CHERRY-PICKING. (This same tactic was tried with Boom Blox months ago, remember!?)
This type of thing has to be based off of just more than ONE game! I'm glad EDGE cited a few other 3rd party Wii games that have been in the NPD top 10 in recent months (Guitar Hero III, Rock Band and Lego Indiana Jones) which puts this theory flat on its face.
Now, in typical anti-Wii fashion, I expect folks to whine, bitch, moan, piss the following:
- "but toes tree gayems are teh casualz! Teh hardcorz stuffs not are sellings!"
- "John Maddens alown is enuff to proof that Wii donut sell third party gayems! DURRR!!!"
I agree with the comment that its assinine to base the performance of one game across the board but there is truth in it; Madden 09 is just the best example of all.... See take the sales of say Bully to give you a better example; it first came out on PS2 exclusive and all and sold well. Awesome even considering the fact that it topped the sales charts for months. Then the whole exclusivity stigma wore off. Its was ported to Xbox 360 and Wii to simular numbers on the former and the shock, lower than expected numbers on the ladder. So Kris Graft has the gist of it but to convince non-believers im guessing we need a big ass chart with all kinds of gnarly data. Also i wanna add that its crap just saying because most gamers who own a Wii also own another console so that can explain the drop off. No. The Wii has a huge installed base, that doesn't make sense at all. Take the sales of the PS3 and Xbox subtract each one and you still have more people with a Wii in their living rooms than any other console. Remember we're the minority, us Xbox 360 and PS3 owners. Sony did a better job at selling software with a huge installed base just throwing that too out there.
Now on to the part of the program that features my shockingly dramatic and overblown reaction... Noooooooooooooooo! Tell us all something we don't know. Its been how many months that third party publishers have jumped on the Wii-Wagon purely for the bucks? And no matter how hard they try, making the game accessible, more fun, shoring up the controls, whatever they do its not enough by the end of the day.
For the most part the console is being over and misdeveloped for and bad ports dont scream buy me and shell upwards to a 50 just on a wing and prayer. However this doesn't explain what happens to good games selling poorly; this is what happens with casual fans in the equation. They aren't constant with their gaming so what do they care. What does a middle aged man or a old geezer care if say Burnout Paradise hit the Wii. They just got it for the Wii fit games and to appeal to the yuppies and or little impressionable kids.
Unless the ports get better and Nintendo actually does something to help the situation out poor 3rd party sales will be the norm. Period. Point Blank. End Of Story.
"...its crap just saying because most gamers who own a Wii also own another console so that can explain the drop off. No.The Wii has a huge installed base, that doesn't make sense at all."
It makes perfect sense. Let me try and explain.
Let's say there are 20 million Wiis in the world. And let's say a multi-platform game comes out that half of all Wii users want to buy (which is VERY unlikely, as how many games do you know sell 10 million copies but for easy math, we'll pretend) Half of 20 million is 10 million people that want to buy it. But let's say of those 10 million people, 5 million of them have a 360 or PS3 and want to buy it for that console instead (not that hard a number to imagine, considering how many 360s and PS3s have been sold). That just cut the number of Wii sales in half. So, even though it has a bigger install base, the opposing consoles cut into it's sales.. Let's look at Madden 09 and imagine how many of the 1.7 million people that bought it for the 360 and PS3 also have Wiis in their living rooms and DIDN'T buy it for the Wii? I'd wager a fair amount of them.
NPD provided evidence showing that Wii 3rd party game sales aren't bad, but rather the exact opposite. Didn't you see that graph last month!?
I think Madden is a poor example of this, for 2 reasons:
#1-Madden doesn't appeal to your "typical" Wii gamer. It's like saying "we think a vegetarian restaurant is an "inhospitable" place to sell sirloin steak." Look at more Wii-typical 3rd party games like Guitar Hero or Carnival Games and they sell well. Wii users are not the Madden target audience, and expectations as such are unrealistic.
#2-Being a multi-platform title, the people that do own a Wii and ARE inclined to buy Madden, probably also own a 360 or PS3 and would buy it for that system as well.
Making such a generalization, based on 1 games' performance, seems a little assinine.
It's good to see that 360 and PS3 still have one thing going for them. They have the big pockets of hardcore gamers who actually WANT to buy new titles. The Wii can't win every battle. Its Achilles heel is the fact that the User base it caters to are less likely to run out and purchase new non-gimmicky titles like Madden.