With Ubisoft, Capcom and Sega, three major publishers are announcing a shift of focus away from the Wii console. Most recently, Ubisoft announced that their casual titles on DS and Wii failed to generate the expected revenue and, as a result, the company would favour developing core games for Xbox360 and PS3.
Despite relatively robust sales for Wii casual games, and particularly the success of Just Dance, sales in the casual segment are expected to be down for the full year by around €160 million, representing a drop of around 50%.
Further market concentration towards AAA high-quality games. Ubisoft has demonstrated its ability to react to this trend through the success of Assassin’s Creed 2, which has achieved sell-through sales topping 6 million. However, not all of the Company’s games have reaped the full benefits of the measures implemented, with James Cameron’s Avatar™: The game and several non-casual Wii titles reporting lower-than-expected sales. (...)
We intend to continue to refocus our development resources on our major franchises and on the Xbox360 and PS3, the two consoles which are expected to see sales growth in games for gamers in 2010. Ubisoft has already demonstrated its capacity for success in the high-end games market thanks to Assassin’s Creed 2, with sales 40% higher than for the first title. The 2010-11 line-up – which is stronger in franchises for Xbox360 and PS3 – reflects our refocusing efforts and should enable us to both win market share and enhance our profitability.
Previously, Sega announced that they will "probably not" consider any more mature titles on Wii while Capcom more broadly notes that "the future is the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360." The commercial failure of games such as ´Dead Space: Extraction´ or ´MadWorld´ is quoted as a catalyst for the move.
This story corroborates my previous comments that the Wii has failed as a vehicle for mature games, at least as far as third parties are concerned. ´Monster Hunter Tri´ and ´Red Steel 2´ may be the only third party Wii titles for some time, it seems.
Sources: Ubisoft, Nintendo Everything, MTV
Thanks to: Joystiq, Joystiq
It's mainly the fault of 3rd parties for making games that no one wants and then being surprised when they don't sell. It doesn't really matter to me if the companies say they are moving on to focus on the 360/ps3 cause I own more than 1 system. Plus, I only buy nintendo systems to play zelda.
ReplyDeleteWow, I don't know what's more pathetic. The fact that these three third parties made some of their WORST GAMES EVER (particularly UBISoft) for the Wii, or the fact that this was when they were "focused" on it.
ReplyDeleteGeez, if that was what to expect when they were "focused" on the Wii, I can't imagine the tripe they are going to make now. UBISoft might actually have to put more effort into making their Wii games WORSE.
Oh well, Nintendo will just keep stacking billions while they continue to make excuses. Nintendo games are too kiddy or too casual, too niche or too mass market. They make too many games or not enough. All while Nintendo reaps the rewards of being the most popular developer/publisher on the the two highest selling consoles, DS and Wii.
BTW notice that UBISoft said that the DS's sales are slowing. Are they high, DS sold more in 2009 than 2008. Maybe nobody wants to buy their Petz shovelware. And if they want to blame DS and Wii owners for not buying their crap, they can piss off.
I find it interesting to see these companies backing out from the Wii. They claim the system doesn't sell, but fail to account for the major double-standards.
ReplyDeleteSee Capcom: Darkside Chronicles has currently moved about 300,000 copies (on informal estimates), and is deemed a failure. However, Bionic Commando, a much bigger, far more expensive game, sold less than 200,000 copies on either HD platform, and it's conveniently ignored by anybody.
See Sega: House of the Dead moved over 500,000 copies (informal estimates), and Sega openly stated numerous times that they were pleased with the sales. MadWorld moved over 300,000 copies, Sega stated they were pleased in April.
However, both titles are now deemed a failure in the eyes of many. However, Sega's also published Stormrise (60,0000 on PS3 & 360), which nobody mentions.
See EA: EA moved just shy of 200,000 copies of Dead Space Extraction - a game that saw zero marketing and massive backlash from the major userbase. It's seen as an incredible failure, even though the game likely saw a profit, or will see one in the very near future. However, nobody seems to even consider that EA also released:
Saboteur (240K [360], 170K [PS3])
Brutal Legend (530K [360], 380K [PS3])
Godfather II (590K [360], 490K [PS3])
It's doubtful that any of these actually made their money back, aside from possibly Godfather 2.
Meanwhile, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Reflex - a port of a 2 year old game - is currently charted at about 670,000 copies. This is despite the fact that the game was marched out to die. No advertising, no gameplay shown, only HORRIBLE - laughably bad, even - screengrabs presented to the public, and a release date on the same day as Modern Warfare 2. The game was made to be a direct port of the HD game, with as little sacrificing as possible. This is AFTER Infinity Ward went on record, saying that the Wii was "unable to provide a cinematic experience we want to deliver", and after numerous people went on record saying that Mature-rated games don't sell. The problem is that most of these publishers' "mature" titles were niche offerings, or absolutely off-putting to a large number of people. However, when presented with a real, mature (pun intended) product that doesn't skimp on polish or features, people will clearly buy it.
I'd like to see a full, realized game like Assassin's Creed, or Bioshock, or Mass Effect hit the market. Give it a good budget and a decent amount of marketing, and see how things work. If the game doesn't pan out, THEN feel free to cry that the sky is falling. However, to flee upmarket before even giving a real try? That's just showing where the companies' biases lay.
On top of this, there's a massive double-standard on the Wii. A game does 400,000 sales, and it's considered an absolute failure. However, a PS3 game like Demon's Souls moved 600,000 units and it is considered a sleeper hit. People were proclaiming it a "hit" when the game crossed that 300,000 threshold. There is clearly some faulty logic on a number of levels, here.
3.8 million wiis month record all time
ReplyDeleteDS 3.3 million second highest month sales of all time
wii fastest growing userbase in history
ds fastest growing handheld userbase in history
AND AS NINTENDO REPORTS HUGE NUMBERS AND NEW SUPER MARIO SELLS HUGE NUMBERS AND 6 OF THE TOP 10 USA CHARTS ARE NINTENDO PUBLISHED EXCLUSIVES
ITS CLEAR THERES ONLY ONE REASON ALL 3RD PARTYS TALK ANTI Wii PROPERGANDA
ITS FLIGHT
THERE CASUAL BIRDMEN COPYING FLOPPED THEN THEY DESIDE TO BACK AWAY FROM Wii AND RETREAT INTO NICHE MARKETS AND DESTROY THEMSELFS
EA ARE HEADING TOWARDS BANKRUPTCY
UBISOFT OPERATE AT LOSS SEGA DONT PROFIT ETHER
THE INDUSTRY IS AT WAR WITH NINTENDO AND NOW IS IN FLIGHT MODE RETREATING FROM ITS ENEMY
NINTENDO WILL OWN 2010 AND 3RD PARTYS WILL HAVE MAJOR CASULTYS
NINTENDO IS DISRUPTING THE WHOLE INDUSTRY IN TO A SMALLER AND SMALLER FORCE
BLUE OCEAN AND DISRUPTION HAVE DECIMATED THE ENEMY'S OF NINTENDO
GAMING IS NOT ABOUT A INDUSTRY OR A BUNCH OF IDIOT 3RD PARTYS ITS ABOUT GAMES
NINTENDO CLEARLY UNDERSTANDS THAT
cod mw2 all formats battered by mario sales
ReplyDelete10 million units sold nintendo published titles in usa top 10
nintendo are the games industry
think of all 3rd partys and microsofts x360 and sonys ps3s as portable disc playing walkmen
ReplyDeletethink of nintendo as all mp3 players and ipods
thats what is happening a total and utter creative destruction of the insane inept games industry
jesus everyone believes EA are heading to doom and there entire stock value is below 4 billion and getting smaller
nintendos stock value is like 60 billion
wake up to a games industry doing a detroit ITS DIEING
wii is sad...very sad.....i feel sorry for all hardcore gamers who expected a solid line up with their purchase ....wii has been an immense let down for traditional gamers ever since it launched........
ReplyDeleteif it werent for the casual stuff they're good and which ultimately safed them nintendo would be finished...
DECEMBER NDP
ReplyDeleteTOP 20 SOFTWARE 7 MARIO TITLES IN THAT 20
7 HD TITLES IN THAT 20
YES MARIO HIMSELF MATCHES THE ENTIRE HD GAMES IN THE USA TOP 20
NOT WII NOT DS NOT WII AND DS
MARIO THEMED GAMES ALONE MATCH THE AMOUT OF HD TITLES BOTH SYSTEMS IN TOP 20
AND NINTENDO DOESNT OWN RIGHT OK WHATEVER
ANTI GAMING HD FANBOYS
all big 3rd party's are operating at loss
ReplyDeleteboth hd twins operate at loss
nintendo operates at insane profit
but there doomed right LOL @ SONY TARDS
Madworld was good
ReplyDeletemad world a black and white 4 hour game got the expected sales BUT MR PS3 FAN AND MISSES XBOX SAY IT SHOULD HAVE SOLD MILLIONS
ReplyDeleteHOW MANY MILLIONS DID BLACK AND WHITE 4 HOUR GAMES SELL ON HD TWINS HHMMMM
ZACK AND WIKI A POINT AND CLICK GAME WAS ACCORDING TO MR PS3 FANBOY AND HIS FAT UGLY WIFE MISSES XBOX FANBITCH
STATED IT SHOULD HAVE SOLD MILLIONS
HOW MANY MILLIONS DID POINT AND CLICK SELL ON THE HD TWINS
I REST MY CASE 2 VERY NICHE TITLES GOT HEALTHY NICHE SALES
AND WOULD HAVE GOT THE SAME TYPE OF SALES LEVEL ON PS3 AND X360 COMBINED
BUT THIS IS USED BY IDIOT HARDCORES AS PROOF Wii is casual
ok so madworld gets ported to ps3 will it sell thousands or millions
its thousands any every sony tard knows it SO STOP MAKING UP BULL SHIT HARDLY COREZZZ
OH DS GTA CHINA TOWN WARS WAS CALLED FLOP AND A PROOF OF CASUAL NINTENDO ITS SOLD ALMOST A MILLION TO THIS DATE
THE PSP VERSION ONLY SOLD 70K YES THATS RIGHT 70,000
BUT ITS DS WHOS CASUAL WEN INFACT IT OUT SOLD THE PSP VERSION OVER 10 TO 1
OWNED
cod mw 1 reflex 2 years old and no marketing its sold 600k and is still selling well
ReplyDeletecod world at war wii sold 1.5 million and it got gimped
resident evil 4 wii edition sold 1.5 million
resident evil cronicals is in japan top 3 this week
but core doesnt sell on wii THE INDUSTRY IS A CORRUPT FRAUD
AND NINTENDO IS WASHING AWAY THIS STUPID HARDCORE BULLSHIT WITH DISRUPTION
"Without badmouthing people, a lot of the games they've been complaining about are rail shooters and a rail shooter wouldn't have sold no matter what platform you put it on because it's a rail shooter and that's a niche genre that had its heyday back in the Dreamcast era." - lead designer of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Sam Barlow
ReplyDeletei think a game like assassins creed or alan wake would sell on wii if it was exclusive. Titles like sin and punish,muramasa,Mad world, dark chronicles, house of the dead, the conduit, dead space silent hill etc are either:style over substance,on rails, niche,remakes and or low production values stuff that can't mess with ps360 stuff. And Red steel2 goes in the wrong direction with its stylized visuals. The first one already had a nice look, the tech just couldn't keep up. They should have concentrated on updating the engine while keeping the look intact. Add a little blood, better cutscenes(maybe a rendered intro and outro)improved sword mechanics and voilà you got a winner: a ruff and rugged exclusive east meets west shooter as the name suggests. It just doesn't look right in its current state imo... Last but not least my most wanted wii titles are: metroid m, epic mickey, mh3(which scored a perfect rating in famitsu btw),zelda next, galaxy2 and retros undisclosed project.
ReplyDeleteassasins creed built around wm plus and pointer would rocket the gameplay and controls and FUN a 100 fold a ps3
ReplyDeleteAND THATS THE POINT OF Wii
the industry is at fault not the wii or the wii customer
wake up to a giant lie sony microsoft fans
Lets face it ...nintendo gamers like nice 3d person action adventures like zelda first and foremost...3d parties need to figure that out and capitalize on it...cursed mountain was a step in the right direction but the problem was it lacked the high production values ,graphical edge over resi4 and proper advertising campaign needed to really stand out and get the attention it wants. If you have played god of war2 you know how good games can look on inferior hardware and wii is much more powerful than ps2. You can create beautiful games on wii if the lighting in galaxy or the environments in mh3 are any indication....just don't make ports,remakes,low production values stuff,on rails shooters etc ...that stuff doesn't work...don't expect that stuff to sell...it won't ....don't be silly...if it ain't resi4 quality it won't sell....it's as easy as that....
ReplyDeleteJust to let you know: I played ´Mass Effect 2´ for the last two weeks or so and it's an absolutely phenomenal game, I must say. Now that it's out for everyone to buy, you should all go check it out.
ReplyDeleteOn the Wii front, I have been very impressed with the graphics in ´Overlord: Dark Legend´ (god knows why it scored so low) and ´Tatsunoko vs. Capcom´ looks pretty swish and plays well, too.
Again please correct me if im wrong but it's very puzzling to me how to this day not one single 3rd party dev has managed to deliver a truely solid 3rd person action adventure/fps game that isn't either a port like okami,cod,etc, a remake like silent hill ,a style over substance offering like mad world or no more heroes, a low production value title like cursed mountain, conduit or sin and punish or on rails like resi dark chronicles, hotd or dead space ....you get the picture....the only title I can think of right now that doesn't fall under one of those categories is mh3....and that one isn't even out yet in western territories.....
ReplyDeleteFal, watching my ex's brother play Mass Effect 1 put me off the 2nd as it had so much dialogue thatI rarely ever see him in gameplay and even that was a bit bla bla but ok.
ReplyDeleteIs it any better or much the same but with updated grphx?
Hi Grandmaster.
ReplyDeleteI am ever so sorry to have to admit that I never really played the first part much. Sure, the sequel contains loads of dialogue, too. But I like the interactivity via multiple choice answers. And the cutscenes are lush. Facial animation is very, very good.
Anyway, I'm going to write a post about the Apple iPad now, maybe play some Overlord later. Again, stunning graphics on a title I never expected it from. I am using that truly phenomenal VGA Wii cable from VDigi, though.
over the last 9 months nintendo cleared in net profit 2.1 billion dollars
ReplyDeleteestimated war chest of cash 15.8 billion dollars
the console war is won
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