Why do 3rd parties complain about sales?

[Mendon]

Several developers in the past have complained that their game sales on the Wii lag in comparison to sales on the other consoles and they fault consumers for this. But after this morning, I have to wonder: how do these developers expect to make sales if they don't ADVERTISE the games?

 

For example, there are two Wii games coming out this week..... Oregon Trail and Jaws: Ultimate Predator.... that I just learned about today. Until this morning, I had read no stories about these games, had seen no advertising for these games, and if I hadn't stumbled upon them while browsing Amazon I wouldn't even know they exist.

 

And to compound the confusion, neither game even has a product description within the Amazon listing:

Jaws: http://www.amazon.co...pd_rhf_ee_p_t_2

Oregon Trail: http://www.amazon.co...pd_rhf_ee_p_t_2

 

If I don't even know a game is being released, HOW can I buy it? And if I can't even read a description of what the game is about and/or what type of game it is, why SHOULD I buy it?

 

 

Question: are these "low sales" claims by game companies really legitimate or do the the companies bear a lot of the responsibility because of their poor marketing plans?

 

Just curious about your thoughts.

 

 

Mendon

Edited October 30, 2011 by Mendon

[PsychoKittyNet]

Well, a lot of it is on the devlopers. There is so much shovelware on the Wii that in order to be noticed, they have to do somethng to stand out. If they don;t why would I buy their games?

[ComputerSpaceFan]

Personally I have not understood the third party situation on Wii ever since Chris Hecker said it was two GameCube's duct-taped together back in 2007. Back then, Wii stood toe-to-toe with XBox 360 and PS3 and very soon after it dominated the gaming landscape.

But it seems that developers simply agreed that Wii was just not worth trying to figure out. Nevermind that the console was capable of gorgeous graphics like Metroid Prime Corruption, third parties barely ever bothered to try anything above N64 designs.

 

And then what do you know? No one buys their games! Surprise surprise!

 

Here we are many years later and Wii has a taint on it worse than six day old sushi. It's getting so bad that even first party titles like Wii Play Motion are not selling. Okay admittedly I don't have any hard numbers to prove that but I don't see the title on store shelves so either it's an amazing success (doubtful, we would have heard) or no one wants mini-game collections anymore. And from the early reviews I doubt Kirby's Return to Dreamland is going to fare much better.

 

I'll be very interested to see how Skyward Sword does.

 

ANYWAY (sorry this became a real rant, didn't it) I totally agree, third parties have a weird love/hate relationship with the Wii and I am honestly baffled they bother making games for it anymore.

 

By the way, another title coming that I doubt anyone has heard about is they are making a Wii version of Need for Speed: The Run. Will it be any good? No. But at least they are going through the paces of throwing out a Wii version which is both nice to see and a little odd if you ask me.

[Phredreeke]

Several developers in the past have complained that their game sales on the Wii lag in comparison to sales on the other consoles and they fault consumers for this. But after this morning, I have to wonder: how do these developers expect to make sales if they don't ADVERTISE the games?

 

For example, there are two Wii games coming out this week..... Oregon Trail and Jaws: Ultimate Predator.... that I just learned about today. Until this morning, I had read no stories about these games, had seen no advertising for these games, and if I hadn't stumbled upon them while browsing Amazon I wouldn't even know they exist.

 

Perhaps they're not advertising cause they're assuming sales will be low anyway (because it's on the Wii)? Then sales bomb because they haven't been advertising. A vicious circle.

[cimerians]

Issues I have with publishers for the Wii:

 

- Shut up and make better games.

- Dont make ports of 360\PS3 games. Make original games or market them differently and unique to the Wii and its strengths.

- Pirating. They should know lots of people out there pirate the crap out of Nintendo.

 

The reason they dont advertise what they are releasing is because 99% of the time the game is mediocre or just utter crap. Why spend money advertising when they can make money off a game

just by shoving it on Wal-Mart and discount store shelves and make a quick buck off of "casual" or "un-informed" shoppers?

 

They shouldnt complain. They need to make better games for the Wii. There's a ton of utter shit out there. Compare a high priced piece of crap Wii game and a solid fun game for the iPad\PC that costs a few bucks. Why would I spend 20-30 bucks on Jaws when I could get a MUCH cheaper and possible MUCH BETTER game on any other system?

 

They are full of shit.

[godslabrat]

It's wierd. It's like the common sense that would apply anywhere else in the industry gets thrown out the window as soon as the Wii becomes involved. It's this magic system where you don't have to put the best programmers on a given project, and you don't have to advertise your games to make people aware of them. Also, whereas with other systems, you cry about how hard it is to program for them, on the Wii you whine about how the architecture is familiar (if a bit dated). Then when Nintendo makes a decent buck releasing solid games from their long-time franchises, you get to whine about how unfair that is. After all, they put forth a better effort, and reaped a better result-- can you imagine that?

 

Personally, I wonder if Nintendo's slowness to adopt subscription and DLC-heavy games is the real reason developers aren't giving them much love. The idea that games are a one-time sale and not a source of perpetual revenue is very distaseful to modern publishers. So rather than take the time and money to develop a Nintendo game that Nintendo fans want, they blame the system. (just speculation)

[cimerians]

It's wierd. It's like the common sense that would apply anywhere else in the industry gets thrown out the window as soon as the Wii becomes involved. It's this magic system where you don't have to put the best programmers on a given project, and you don't have to advertise your games to make people aware of them. Also, whereas with other systems, you cry about how hard it is to program for them, on the Wii you whine about how the architecture is familiar (if a bit dated). Then when Nintendo makes a decent buck releasing solid games from their long-time franchises, you get to whine about how unfair that is. After all, they put forth a better effort, and reaped a better result-- can you imagine that?

 

Personally, I wonder if Nintendo's slowness to adopt subscription and DLC-heavy games is the real reason developers aren't giving them much love. The idea that games are a one-time sale and not a source of perpetual revenue is very distaseful to modern publishers. So rather than take the time and money to develop a Nintendo game that Nintendo fans want, they blame the system. (just speculation)

 

 

I absolutely agree. Common sense...out the door when it comes to the Wii.

 

Nintendo gets it....I cant understand why many others don't get it.

[ComputerSpaceFan]

I absolutely agree. Common sense...out the door when it comes to the Wii.

 

Nintendo gets it....I cant understand why many others don't get it.

 

On that subject, anyone read the article from Iwata discussing Wii Misperceptions? Some interesting thoughts in there.

 

What I don't think Iwata understands is that ever since Carnival Games struck gold and Call of Duty 3 struck turd, third parties drew the conclusion that success on the Wii was strictly limitted to casual titles. And to be honest, E3 2008 didn't help matters much with Myamoto and "Sanjaya" playing fake musical instruments and looking like fools.

 

How can Nintendo not accept some of the blame when they pursued the casual crowd so actively and third parties never saw any success except when making casual titles?

[cimerians]

 

How can Nintendo not accept some of the blame when they pursued the casual crowd so actively and third parties never saw any success except when making casual titles?

 

They know how to make some fine good games but I'm not going to let Nintendo off the hook either. Iwata is so full of dogshit its beyond foul-smelling.

 

Wii Sports is the perfect example of a casual game. They packed it in with the system!!!

 

To me they abandoned the Wii fairly quickly. One Mario Party game, one paper Mario game, one Kart and two Mario games. We are lucky to even get a second Zelda. Metroid is weird. It went from one developer to the guys who did Ninja Gaiden at Tecmo.

 

I don't even know what Nintendo is really aiming for. I can only see trouble in the future if they don't really get on the ball with their next system....with publishers and with a viable online solution. The VC store is and always was a joke.

 

There's a lot of bullshit coming from many different directions when it comes to the Wii. It's unbelievable.

Edited November 1, 2011 by cimerians

[cimerians]

Not only do games not get annouced but they get delayed.

 

This is retarded:

 

"Nintendo 'intentionally delayed' 3DS games to 2012"

 

www.destructoid.com/elephant/index.phtml?a=8423

 

So they SLASHED the price of the 3DS nearly in half because it failed to sell well and then he says they intentionally delayed games because they want them to sell later? Iwata also took a pay cut.

 

This guy kills me.