combustible knowledge

Sega is finally creating a Sonic game that most people would buy and enjoy with Sonic the Hedgehog 4. But, ever with the Sega/Sonic curse, the company has to do something idiotic in retaliation to doing something great. Instead of releasing the game as a full product where most everyone can buy it off the shelves and enjoy it, they cripple it by making it episodic and cut their audience in half by making it download only. I guess Sega has not taken notice of the phenomenal sales Nintendo is having with the retro-inspired New Super Mario Bros Wii…

With all the bitching third party developers about not being able to sell their games on the Wii, the NPD numbers showing 3.8 million people buying the system in December alone makes them look even more foolish. Nintendo sure knows how to sell their stuff. Why can’t these other companies?

So many third party publishers, from Capcom to Sega, have been very vocal on the Wii, making excuses as to why their games don’t sell on the system. What saddens me as a former Sega fanboy is that the company has become a shell of what it used to be. The older Sega, with its extensive arcade experience, was on par with Nintendo when it comes to creating games that were universally loved in my humble opinion. They would be trying to create the next new great experience rather than whine why they can’t match Nintendo in sales. Instead, Sega, like most other third parties, release secondary tier titles on the Wii and expect consumers to lap them up. Very insulting.

Anyway, the comments following the Gamasutra article gave rather insightful suggestions to these whining third parties:

Joseph Jezak:

If Zack and Wiki was to be sold on the 360 or PS3, (certainly an option with the new motion controls which are to be released this year) would anyone expect better sales? If not, why then should we take Zack and Wiki as a barometer of the direction the Wii market is headed? If so, what makes the game more appealing on 360 or PS3? I’m not aware of similar games for these consoles and suspect that if they do exist, they’ve done no better than Zack and Wiki.

To be clear, I suspect that the game itself is just not appealing to any large user base, for a number of reasons, including but not limited to:
1. The childish graphics contrast sharply with the difficult nature of the puzzles. What demographic is Capcom targeting?
2. “Adventure Puzzles” like this game have declined in popularity. Does anyone think that a modern “Myst” would sell well today? How about a “Myst” with cartoon graphics?
3. What kind of marketing push did this game receive? I suspect that again, if it got one at all, it was directed at the wrong demographic.
4. While I thought the game was a fun throwback to older adventure/puzzle titles, the constant death resulting in a reset of the entire level made my girlfriend not want to play the game at all. Perhaps this game mechanic reduced the acceptance of the game into the expanded audiences that the Wii favors and limited word of mouth sales.

In the same light, Dead Space Extraction also failed to find a market. Why? After the game’s announcement, there where howls of protest from many message boards filled with the “hardcore” gamer this game was supposed to target. Many were expecting a 3rd person game similar to RE4, or perhaps an FPS tailored to the Wii controls. Instead, we got a light gun game, a good one, but still a light gun game. Interest amongst the *core audience* palpably dropped. Did EA focus test this game at all? Even a casual focus test would have revealed the disinterest in the core demographic for a game like the one we got. Is anyone really surprised that this game did poorly?

So why are 3rd parties under performing on the Wii? I suspect there’s a few reasons:
1. The audience has been taught over the past few years to distrust games that have not been produced by Nintendo. Through the process of flinging poo at the wall and seeing what sticks, the 3rd parties have poisoned the well.
2. Comparing 3rd parties output on PS2 versus the Wii, or even the PSP versus the Wii shows that there has been a distinct lack of effort on their part to improve this situation. Related to this is the distinct lack of advertising for 3rd party Wii games when compared to PS3/360.
3. The gaming press has ignored minor Wii releases and discounted them compared with minor PS3/360 releases. Whether this is a result of 3rd parties not releasing information about their games or the gaming press reacting in the same manor as the general Wii audience is debatable. In any case, there is rarely the hype seen around even higher profile 3rd party Wii releases as compared to minor 3rd party PS3/360 releases.

In any case, I don’t have any solutions. 3rd parties have acted extremely irrationally this generation and will now reap what they have sown. Hopefully better decisions will be made in the next generation.

Ian Fisch:

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if you want to target hardcore gamers on the Wii, you need to make games that they can’t find ANYWHERE else.

Why would I play Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles on the Wii when I could play Resident Evil 5 on X360? Why would I play Monster Hunter Tri on the Wii when I could play Bayonetta on the PS3. Why would I try to play Tatsunoko vs. Capcom on the awkward Wii controller when I could play Street Fighter 4 on a stardard PS3 or X360 gamepad.

Look at what Nintendo does. They release games that are BEST in their class. There’s no 2d platformer on ANY system as good as New Super Mario Bros Wii. There’s no 4 player fighter on ANY system as good as Super Smash Bros. There’s no 3d platformer on ANY system that’s as good as Super Mario Galaxy. 3rd party publishers need to learn from Nintendo.

Joseph DiFrancisco:

Third-Party Publishers, its simple: create high quality non-niche titles with the comparable size teams and budgets which you currently spend on your “next generation” platform titles. Its quite obvious that Wii owners want quality games and not the side-story and niche titles that they keep getting (Nintendo has really been the only developer releasing high quality games for the Wii, which is why their titles have been so successful).

All this advice should be heeded by the third parties as it is their customers who are speaking up.