Sega: It's not game over for mature Wii titles

Sega's recent targeting of a mature audience on the Nintendo Wii has been successful in the long-term, with the publisher telling GamesIndustry.biz it has more budget for similar adult content on the format.

[SpoonyRedMage]

Just keep bringing the awesomeness Sega.

[Xander-RKoS]

I think the two titles were just never destined to become the super blockbuster hits some of thought they could be. Madworld has a pretty art style...but it was short and over the top, a niche title at best. Overkill was a rail shooter...and I know a fair number of people that won't bother with a game simply because it's a rail shooter and not an FPS.

That being said, I'm glad that the games worked out in the long-run.

[EvilTwin]

True. A black & white, beat 'em up isn't exactly commercial/blockbuster territory right now, and there's a glut of rail shooters on Wii.

But still, it looks like MadWorld has sold 230,000 copies:
http://www.vgchartz.com/gam...

...while HotD:Overkill has sold 310,000 copies:
http://www.vgchartz.com/gam...

Conduit looks like it might have pushed 100,000 already:
http://news.vgchartz.com/ne...

These aren't "hardcore flops." They aren't Mario-level blockbusters, but they're making money and turning a profit.

[Seferoth75]

Your first mistake is using Vgcahrtz as a reference. They are not 100% accurate. Nintendo announced like 80 million sellers in the US 3 months ago. They only lists 43 and still only have 50 or so. Vgchartz is just an estimate not an exact number.

[N4g_null]

True VGchartz is not always accurate I don't think nintendo said they had 80 million seller though more like 20-30 on the Wii. That may have changed though.

What is funny is how stubborn the hardcore are now. They praise the game yet want it on the HD consoles yet don't buy it on the Wii. I hope they realize people don't make ports of games that are not successful and they don't port them to more expensive systems. On top of that this would mean possibly double the cost yet not real gain from porting.

Basically if it wasn't for Wii gamers hardcore game would eventually implode. Due to cost on both sides. Yet some thin tells me these are only fanboys trying to get a flame war started.

[EvilTwin]

Seferoth75 -- Yeah, estimates aren't always 100% accurate. But I don't think you're going to look at one of those games and subtract 100,000 sales or something.

[TrollSlayer]

overkill would have sold much better if it wasnt for house of the dead 2 & 3 return. it really stole overkills sales. ah well, the money still goes to sega i guess. glad to hear overkill was profitable, i love that game. probably the bets thing for sega to do is to pick up the grinder. possibly gladiator has well although im not sold on that game

[TheColbertinator]

Keep going SEGA,your doing fine

[ArcticWolfUK]

wii should just stick to kiddy games imo

stick the good games on ps3/360/pc where they'll get appreciated

[deshon09]

and every thing should be fine

[maniacmayhem]

Why bother wasting money with these gem titles?

Just make them for the 360/PS3!

[-MD-]

Agreed.

[ape007]

but I agree and since sony and ms hve motion tech coming soon,there's no better thing to do than going next gen

great next gen HD graphics that push the boundaries of game design and gameplay(depend on the developer,skill+gfx=win)

amazing online on xbl,[sn

achievements,tropies

DLC

and

sales

sega,please go next gen

why sticking with a WEAK,that has CRIPPLED ONLINE and has the LEAST chance of selling well

?????

[Cajun Chicken]

Good. I love Madworld, great game.

[TrollSlayer]

i dont get this idea that wii games are equal to downloadable titles on HD consoles. you could play through the game in 3 hours but that doesnt take into account all the cut scenes, 4 player games, bonus content, hardcore mode and such which take up space.

also please stop the nonsense that wii doesnt have any hardcore gamers. you say wii owners wont buy overkill because grandmas hate swearing yet house of the deads return sold over 1 million on wii and overkill is already a profitable title. as for madworld, PS2 was supposed to have all the hardcore gamers yet madworld on wii outsold godhand on PS2. iirc okami wii outsold the PS2 version. the belief that the HD consoles have all the hardcore whiulst wii just has grandmas is a myth

[maniacmayhem]

You said:
"as for madworld, PS2 was supposed to have all the hardcore gamers yet madworld on wii outsold godhand on PS2. iirc okami wii outsold the PS2 version."

Are you seriously comparing GOD HAND on PS2 to ANYTHING!? If that's the case let's compare God of War to MADWORLD. How about anything that sold GREAT on the PS2 to anything on the Wii. And from what I heard (i may be wrong) Okami on the Wii didn't do so great either.

You said:
"you could play through the game in 3 hours but that doesn't take into account all the cut scenes, 4 player games, bonus content, hardcore mode and such which take up space."

From what I've seen of the new House of the Dead they are using in game graphics for the cut scenes instead of CG or animation which does not take up a whole lot of space. And speaking of space do you honestly think THAT game couldn't be downloaded to a 360 or even a PS3 hard drive? Especially since you can swap out your hard drive for a super large size hard drive.
Also "4 player games, bonus content, hardcore mode.." do the games on Live or PSN not have most if not ALL of this content? I don't see your point here.

You said:
"also please stop the nonsense that wii doesn't have any hardcore gamers. you say wii owners wont buy overkill.."

Uuum, looking over my post, I never said Wii owners wouldn't buy it I actually said it would probably sell better on the other platforms.

[Product]

@maniacmayhem

You do know God Hand was made by the same people who made Madworld right? Cause I don't think you did...

Your trolling is getting in the way of your research.

[N4g_null]

maniacmayhem madworld is not about greek mythology and it has rap in it as part of it's style not even good rap either. Black and white was cool when sin city did it how long has it been since then? You do realize no one went to see the spirit which used a similar style. This is what the publis will see but people who have the game know that madworld designs where off the chart.

Oyeah Okami did out sell the PS2 version on the wii. Yes and suda51 has his highest selling game period with NMH. So your point was? You only point that you seem to be trying to make is that TrollSlayer is wrong some how some way which isn't really proving your point is it with out facts.

Also his point about making Wii games downlaodable would devalue those games when they where made for full retail price. It is not about would they run or not. Why do you guys only think about a few fanboy topics at a time?

One reason why you don't see a game from Jaff the creator of twisted metal is because his first game bombed. You guys expect full featured disk games as downloads and no one can keep that up unless that just keep rehashing stuff.

[maniacmayhem]

@ Product
"You do know God Hand was made by the same people who made Madworld right? Cause I don't think you did...
Your trolling is getting in the way of your research."

No I didn't know that, all I know is that GOD HAND wasn't the best game and probably didn't sell for that reason and that reason alone. And How am I trolling? You people throw that word around an awful lot around here. It's like your go to word when you feel threatened.
And sorry if I didn't research who made what. I believe it is because I seriously don't give a F#ck. But please do all the googling for me.

-----

@ scissor_runner
"maniacmayhem madworld is not about greek mythology and it has rap in it as part of it's style not even good rap either. Black and white was cool when sin city did it how long has it been since then? You do realize no one went to see the spirit which used a similar style. This is what the publis will see but people who have the game know that madworld designs where off the chart."

Uuum, ok, I'm not sure what this has to do with the original convo but ok.

----

"Oyeah Okami did out sell the PS2 version on the wii. Yes and suda51 has his highest selling game period with NMH. So your point was? You only point that you seem to be trying to make is that TrollSlayer is wrong some how some way which isn't really proving your point is it with out facts."

I think you need to re-read the whole convo as it relates to this post and other conversations above. The whole point and the discussion was that mature games do not sell well on the Wii and would PROBABLY do better on 360/PS3. Again i say PROBABLY.

----

"Also his point about making Wii games downlaodable would devalue those games when they where made for full retail price. It is not about would they run or not. Why do you guys only think about a few fanboy topics at a time?"

Devalue? How? A game that is downloaded instead of sold in a store devalues it? Sorry if I don't understand your statement, but correct me if I'm wrong. Warhawk which is available on PSN and in stores, is there a difference in its value? How would a game made with all the bells and whistles only for download be devalued? Again I think you missed Slayer's point, from what I got from his statement is that those games on Wii couldn't be downloaded because of stuff like cut scenes, 4 player games, bonus content and hardcore mode.
One fanboy topic at a time...sure.

---

"One reason why you don't see a game from Jaff the creator of twisted metal is because his first game bombed. You guys expect full featured disk games as downloads and no one can keep that up unless that just keep rehashing stuff."

I think one reason that game bombed was because it sucked (IMO). Castle Crashers on XBL did great despite its many bug problems. I consistently enjoy Everyday Shooter for my PS3. I also play Bomberman, Mega Man 9 and other downloadable games. So I don't really see your point and who are "you guys" or the "fanboys" please direct those statements at them.

[Gr81]

You want your cake and eat it too? So God Hand didn't sell because it "probably wasn't the best game and didnt deserve to sell" Yet Madworld on Wii was supposed to go triple platinum.

[the miz]

Where did he say MadWorld was suppose to go triple Platinum?

[N4g_null]

So maniacmayhem how much do you think the game would sell for on the PSN. if it is not retail value then it is devaluing the product. I'd like to see them sell GOW3 from the PSN.

[Shnazzyone]

as time goes by it is becoming obvious that the wiis sales numbers ate going to mirror the similar path DS has taken. DS has many many awesome hardcore titles and very rarely are they number 1 with a million sold in the first week. But time and time again it is proven that over time these games become immensely profitable for the developers.

Nintendo gamers buy games more slowly and seem far less likely to buy on release. Chances are on a majority of HD titles their sales for the first week are the biggest the games will ever see immediately followed by dramatic drops in sales for HD exclusive titles. Take killzone2 first month that thing was on fire making up to # 3 in npd. then poof it was gone. All the people who would buy it had bought it.

Nintendo these things just add to the formidable library and these games make a profit over time. Hardcore titles rarely hit the top ten but man they do sell. Sega apparently kinows that now and it seems they will keep pumping it out. Thank god some publishers still have a spine and aren't all going the graphics slut route.

(loving the conduit BTW. solid 88 in my book)

[EvilTwin]

Well put. The DS analogy is perfect. Remember when everyone said Chinatown Wars was a failure?

http://www.vgchartz.com/gam...

580,000 copies sold now, and it's consistent from week to week. That's for a top-down GTA game, when everyone wants a 3D version.

The same thing happened on Wii for No More Heroes:
http://www.vgchartz.com/gam...

Initially, it was a failure. But it keeps working its way to half-a-million status.

Everyone wants the brass ring, and to put up first week sales like Halo 3. But games that produce respectable sales through a slow burn are anything but failures. HotD: Overkill and MadWorld sold respectably, and it looks like Conduit is going to do even better.

[kissmeimgreek]

this is good news. this makes me believe that since sega is familiar with the wii architecture ad knows how to make good mature gmes, theyll help turn the inevitable wii into a real console war player helping nintendy see how profitable the hardcore market is. get ready for the return of nintendo fanboys.

PS: that was speculation and hopefullness

[Seferoth75]

So after all the crying from fanboys Sega comes out and says everything is ok.. Yet people still want to argue out of ignorance.. Please kids, tell me all the 5 hour black and white brawlers that sold on PS3 or 360?

Hell let's flip this around. How many developers have gone under on Wii? None, but you cant say that about the HD consoles. And the ignorance of acting like a 50.00 game can be put on PSN for 20.00 bucks... Just so moronic it isnt even worth commenting on.. Hell release on Wii for 20.00 and see what happens.

The only light gun game even made for HD bombed so not sure why people think it would sell.Other than they just dont bother to get the facts straight. Which is the most common problem with Wii haters.

[EvilTwin]

Console fanboys don't ever make much sense. Each console has its own strengths. Brawlers like NMH or MadWorld have a niche on Wii -- either black and white or cel-shaded graphics (more art style than polygon pushing), and gesture controls. They're unique, and wouldn't feel right on the 360 or PS3 (much like how Bioshock just wouldn't have felt right on Wii; that game needed the superior graphics for its overall feel).

[FinalomegaS]

sega fighting the good fight.

looking forward to more, they might pick up grinder also.

[hatchimatchi]

i like what sega is doing, but the fact that they have to come out and say that "its not over for mature titles" shows that the wii does have a software problem. Hopefully it gets better within a few years.

[TrollSlayer]

@ manicmayhem

im comparing godhand to madworld because there both similar titles from the same dev. and no okami didnt do amazingly. thats what im trying to say. that games from this developer seem to not do too well whatever platform there games are on

you do know that downloadable games arnt limited by the HD but by restrictions placed on them by microsoft and sony. the game would have to be lauched as a full game, and how many full games are that are download only?

well you seemed to imply the fact that the game didnt sell on wii because grandmas wont like it whilst HD console owners love bloody games. looking at estimates on vgchartz (if you have more reliable numbers then by all means tell me them) house of the dead 2 and 3 return sold over 1 million copies. do you really see a market for lightgun titles on the HD consoles?

[maniacmayhem]

Right on Slayer,
I do know there are restrictions but I don't think a reason for Sony or MS to do this is because of the full game content it has. MS is about to roll out their 360 games as downloadable content, PS3 already does this with SOME of their titles. I don't think they would bully Sega to release this in stores if it wasn't necessary. The point i was making is a game like that could be easily ported to other systems and even made as a downloaded game only.

And please don't get too focused on the Grandma statement, it wasn't really the point i was trying to make. Forgive me.

If there is a good light gun game made then yes I think it would sell pretty good. Maybe ... maybe not, I honestly don't know. You would have to go ask Pachter for that information. ;)