The Conduit Life-to-Date Sales Updated

The updated Life-to-Date sales of the Nintendo Wii exclusive game, The Conduit.

[EvilTwin]

"Disappointing sales."

Disappointing to who?

Not to Sega.
http://www.endsights.com/ne...

Not to HVS.
http://news.vgchartz.com/ne...

The publisher and developer both felt this title wouldn't sell like Halo, and it hasn't. They expected sales commensurate with a small-budget indie shooter, and that's what they got. They ARE both hoping for it to have long legs, but we won't know about that until next year and after the holidays.

Still, about 300,000 copies already is probably enough to turn a profit for a little outfit like HVS.

But this is what happens when IGN hypes the hell out of a game. Anything short of blockbuster status is then viewed as failure.

[Saaking]

There's 50 million wiis. This is great and should have sold more. I'm sure Sega is satisfied, but it really should have sold more.

[Elven6]

Those sales figures aren't very good, just think about the development costs alone. Also factor in that not all copies would have been sold at the original price point. The Wii is a console that has over 50 million units sold worldwide, The Conduit should have sold more.

But I doubt this will stop Sega from trying again...

[Smacktard]

It should of sold more? The game's not really that good. Better games have sold worse. THOSE are the games that should've sold more.

Saaki, you're a perfect example of today's "hurr hardcore gamur" Hype > actual quality (according to you and your type, I mean)

[Elven6]

Of course the game isn't that great but given the amount of hype and the number of Wii owners, less than 300k is a bit disappointing. Even if only a small fraction of Wii owners are "hardcore", it should still be enough to ensure titles such as The Conduit, Dead Space, House of the Dead: Overkill, MadWorld, No More Heroes, etc do better than they are.

[ozstar]

BK NB should have sold more, RC PS3 should have sold more, they didn't.

[Smacktard]

HotD: OK did well.
No More Heroes did very well, and was Suda's best-selling game.
MadWorld was a very short game, and I really regret paying full price for it.
The Conduit deserves the sales it got. Gameplay > Hype. Maybe Wii owners realize this?
Dead Space failed because of over-saturation of rail shooters on the system. nothx.

[krouse93]

Honestly tho 480p models are much cheaper to make then Next gren 720p or 1080p character models or buildings or whatever you need to render in that res.

It is just MUCH cheaper to make a Wii game VS a PC PS3 or 360 game. So they probably had a decent profit from this game.

[EvilTwin]

Elven6 -- Wii games cost a quarter to a third as much as PS3/360 games:
http://www.joystiq.com/2009...

NMH turned a profit with 400K copies. This is about 100K short, made through an equally small developer, and it has been on the market for a shorter time.

Plus, it has only recently gotten a price drop on Amazon. At my Wal-Mart and Gamestop, it's still $50.

Saaking -- I don't think Okami even cracked a quarter million copies on PS2, with an install base of...what, 140 million? Ico, Psychonauts and Metal Arms also sold comparable numbers.

And as much as I like Conduit, it is nowhere close to being in the same league as Ico or Okami.

These are pretty decent sales. NMH and Boom Blox sold comparably. Give Conduit a year, and it could probably hit those types of numbers, too. It's just now getting a price drop, to boot.

Wii games don't open huge. Successful Wii games sell consistently over a long period of time. Even Mario Galaxy didn't open like Halo or GTA:
http://news.vgchartz.com/ne...

[Mahr]

"Of course the game isn't that great but given the amount of hype"

Overhype. Which the game did not come even remotely close to satisfying.

"the number of Wii owners"

Is functionally irrelevant.

"Even if only a small fraction of Wii owners are "hardcore", it should still be enough to ensure titles such as The Conduit, Dead Space, House of the Dead: Overkill, MadWorld, No More Heroes, etc do better than they are."

Except that's not how businesses work. A game can move all the units it wants, but at the end of the day, the only thing that matters to the people who produced, programmed, and published the game is whether it made money or not. Because that's what determines the whole 'staying in business' thing.

The question is not whether these things are selling like hotcakes, the question is whether or not producing these games is cost-effective and whether or not continuing to produce games in the same vein is justified. That is *the* standard of success within the industry, and probably should be from the consumer standpoint, seeing as how that's what determines if a sequel will ever be greenlit.

The practical distinction of course is that High Voltage Software will get to continue to peddle poorly-designed slogfests in an economy where other studios with far more talent are going under. As such, the chances for Gladiator AD and The Grinder coming out are significantly stronger than say, Timesplitters 4 or Star Wars: Battlefront 3.

[ChickeyCantor]

@gold,

Even if its in 480P( resolution got little to do with the model since some games this gen are rendered in 640P right?), Models are always made in high polycount/resolution and then to be broken down to fit the platform.

The NORMAL MAPS that were used came from a model with a higher polycount.

If you see one of the diaries at Gametrailers you can see that some models look way better on their monitor than in their Wii game.

[SL1M DADDY]

*reads article again*

Oh, no they aren't. Sorry, but trying to spin less than 300,000 in sales for a console with an install base of 50 million seems a bit of a stretch. This game should have sold far more although after having played it myself, I found the game rather bland, even for a Wii game.

[EvilTwin]

SL1M -- Conduit is about 100K short of NMH, which turned a big enough profit (it's actually Suda's biggest game) to get a sequel.

It was a small budget game from a small developer. Anyone expecting Halo-esque sales was dreaming. It sold about as well -- or better -- than games like Okami or Psychonauts. And those games were on a system with a MUCH bigger install base (which kinda shoots a hole in that talking point).

[Gabe EatsWell]

Sad, this game deserves more love just like No More Heroes.

[bigrudowsky]

wii games dont cost too much to develop so im sure they turned a profit on it.

[Shnazzyone]

This brings up a good topic... where is my animales des muertes already. HVS has been teasing that title for an eternity now. But let's do the math. 300,000 X $50 = 15 million dollars in sales. Not too bad sounding to me. Remember, it's a new IP. Not many games companies get high expectations on those titles. Not to mention development costs are much lower on wii. Making it perfect for new ips and new ideas.

[sak500]

maybe they should have bundled it wii. Anyone wanting high sales should bundle it with wii otherwise the wii buyers will not want anything other than wii fit thinking it will help them lose 400kgs.

[ozstar]

Possibly bundle The Grinder with Black Wii's?

Might be a good idea for Nintendo to start thinking about this, and not only just as a MH3 bundle.

[cheapndirty]

After I get my Wii on Black Friday I am planning on getting this and Call of Duty Modern Warefare Reflex.

I am thinkin that development costs on this were probably around 3-5 million dollars. They at least broke even, and maybe made a small profit.

[Kisama]

Well, I think the commercial could have been better. I believe that showing the human weapons would have gotten more intrest, maybe. Also, it really isn't hard to pirate wii games. If I had a modded wii and a DVD burner, I would have no reason to buy games anymore.

[Gr81]

What a cop out argument, what a WEAK argument. The game is decent, it has addicting fps online mp which Wii has lacked throughout this gen and is revolutionary in it's control customization which is now a standard among forthcoming Wii shooters (Red Steel 2, COD4, Grinder). The sales are fine as well. Thank Goodness on Wii you can sell modest numbers and not go bankrupt.

[ChickeyCantor]

Yeah im happy HVS has put some effort in making the control system a standard.

Well i just hope they could focus more on the game itself(if there is a sequel) now the engine is more feature rich.

[EvilTwin]

Okami is the game that I always think of when anyone mentions a console's userbase. It's been on the two best-selling consoles of the past two gens, and hasn't even cracked half a million.

As for Conduit, it really did do a lot right.
The controls and customization? Great.
The graphics tech? Great.
Online? Pretty good, especially for a first effort.

It just got dragged down by a disjointed single player (you could really see the limited budget there), bland art style and too much focus on corridor shooting.

Fun, but flawed.

[ChickeyCantor]

The game isn't bad at its core, but it only got good in the last few levels.

I hope there is a sequel, but this time around they do more open levels.
Online is fun though.

[mastiffchild]

Sidar-as you well know I was all behind HVS and their push to make The Conduit a reat Wii shooter. Sadly, outside of the controls they failed, and failed pretty hard. THe story os woefully underdeveloped and even compared to some weak PS2/Xnox to Wii shooter ports the AI is terrible!

The MP is okay as long as everuone in your game lives, like, on your street but a few people from further afield and it just cirls up and dies in seas of lag not seen since the SSBB online debacle. Which IS sad as some of te modes are well thought out even if they are fugly as all hell-which, again, isn't god enough when HVS themselves pushed the looks of the game constantly.

Big disappointment for me all told and though I applaud them for their efforts on trying what they did but, in all honesty, they just didn't make even half the game they promised. Better luck next time HVS.

[ChickeyCantor]

Thats why i said the last few levels were at least the best out of the bunch. It was as if they actually put some effort in the later levels compared to the first ones.

Story wise its not so bad, the problem was that you had to listen to all podcasts/radio stuff not to mention the writings on the wall. Most people skipped these parts.

Keep in mind though the game was under development while the engine was also. So i do think they will get a much better game next time around(if any)

[EvilTwin]

Mastiff -- I sure got some frustrating lag on Worldwide matches, to the point where I simply stopped playing them.

But whenever I stick to Regional play (which I don't imagine means a radius of a few blocks), it's been just fine.

That said, there's no reason to spawn in a wall a quarter of the time. And the online cheaters were rampant for awhile.

[N4g_null]

Wow that is actualy pertty good for them. I hope this makes them try even harder.

The single player could have been better I guess with more scripted events and story along with meaningful characters in game. Yet they have a great start and it is actualy still fun to play.

Here is to Hoping the grinder is even better.

[Yoshiii]

not a bad really