Wii 'Inhospitable Platform For Third-Party Publishers?'
While the gaming community has been waiting for Nintendo to start publishing more Wii games that appeal to core-audience gamers - in addition to Nintendo's recent history of publishing games for their family-friendly, let's-get-nongamers-to-game crowd, some are asking if third party publishers have a home on the console at all.
Cowen and Company analyst Doug Creutz hashed out the disappointing numbers:
"The Wii version of Madden 09 sold 79 per cent less units than the PS3 version and 87 per cent less units than the 360 version, despite a larger console installed base and an improved Metacritic rating."
"We continue to believe that the Wii is a relatively inhospitable platform for third-party publishers."
In other dismal news, Creutz went on to note that THQ hasn't had a top-ten title for three months in a row, and that Activision Blizzard had only single-digit-growth over last year. In addition, Take-Two sales are down 53% because of BioShock's 2007 release (I don't quite compute that last bit).
How does the Wii fare for third party publishers? Madden seems like the exact wrong game to use as a metric for the Wii, since it's such the opposite of the Wii's child- and woman-friendly cutefest. But then again, that may be why it's useful - to show how the Wii fares against its competitors when all the Wii-friendly culture is scraped away.
Thoughts?
Wii "inhospitable platform for third-party publishers" [GamesIndustry]
tiny dancer
Posted to Hot Stuff, Miscellany on 12 September 2008
· Comments (12)
Other stuff like this: inhospitable, nintendo, third party publishers, wii
I'm proud to own a system that Madden sells poorly on.
Has Take Two had any blockbuster releases this year? With all the people who snapped up BioShock in 2007 it's likely that Take Two posted larger than normal sales last year and they're down this year relative to last year's performance.
The Madden games in the US are the perfect game to test the 'generic' gaming consensus, they're big selling, consistently pretty much the same year on year, and they're of a mainstream sport in the US.
It's like comparing Fifa 09 sales here in the UK, in fact, I would wager it'll show a similar trend.
It's worrying that people view the Wii as hostile to develop for, whether that's true or not is utterly debatable, but people thinking it is 90% of the battle lost.
I wouldn't be proud to own any system software sales are poor on, the fact EA's sports franchises sell poorly on Wii don't bode well for future development, given EA's enormous upturn in recent months that's a very, very bad thing for Nintendo.
I'm sorry, but using Madden of all things as a staple as to whether or not something is worthwile to publish on is a huge load. Most people who play sports titles, get this, tend to actually more or less just play sports titles. While this is not ENTIRELY true, it is for the most part true. They are an entirely different breed of people who play video games.
Not only that, but because Madden has a standard core gameplay that is expected people are generally looking for other sorts of upgrades every right, namely graphics and players/teams. They probably also want to be able to play it on a controller that they have been playing it on since the inception of the sports video game.
I think this falls outside the average gamer, it's partly because of the graphics of the wii, and partly because of the control scheme for that type of game. That doesn't mean that the Wii isn't hospitable for third parties, just not for Madden.
As someone who has a bit of experience on this very subject, I can wholeheartedly confirm that Madden is possibly the worst game to base comparison on. The Wii does a terrible job mimicking experiences that can be easily found elsewhere, but shines when designed with only that system in mind. This sounds obvious, but in practice can be difficult to accomplish. In the case of Madden, you're looking at a game targeted at an audience that is best served by a core system to begin with (360/ps3). Frankly, Madden, through design and expectations from it's fans, is poorly served by what make Wii an interesting platform. There's little that Wii could really add to the established formula and those things that could be interesting are outweighed by the technical disadvantages of the system.
Still, there's still plenty of opportunity for third parties on Wii. Designers just have make a game that...
- ...acknowledges the needs of the typical Wii gamer. [Sorry, hardcore gamers. This means you come in second place for the most part.]
- ...is designed specifically for the controller *and* system.
- ...is made within a sensible scale/budget. [This cannot be stressed enough]
- ...does something different!
An excellent example of all of these principles would be EA's Boom Blocks. It's not the standard "AAA" game and didn't fly off shelves in its first month of sales, but because it was made with a reasonable budget and connects with that elusive "casual gamer" crowd EA's happy with the sales.
I agree with anyone who says that the Wii is a inhospitable platform for third party games not designed for it, but I still think there's plenty of room for intelligent developers/publishers looking to connect with a nontraditional audience through a new set of interactions. The same old tricks won't work with this audience. They need something new.
I agree with the others - this doesn't prove that the Wii is an inhospitable platform for third party developers at all. All it proves is that it's an inhospitable platform for Madden - which isn't saying much. No offense to Madden, but the type of people who play Madden don't usually own Wiis in the first place.
I think it's unfair and unreasonable to put Madden on this pedestal of determining a console's worth to third parties. There are plenty of other third part developers that are doing fine on the Wii - even more so since Nintendo has taken a back-seat in game development for the last few months.
I'd be hard pressed to believe this wasn't some MS/Sony PR ploy to frighten third parties into halting their support of the Wii. I question Doug Creutz' knowledge of the industry as well as his motives.
-Age
I for one, disagree with the comments here. As a game store employee, at least half of the people who buy Madden from our store are boys less than 18 years old which- correct me if I'm wrong- fits quite snugly into the Wii's target demographic. Besides, on Metacritic, Madden 09 scored higher than Mario Kart Wii, Mario Super Sluggers, and Wii Fit.
I think the fact that third party games don't sell on the Wii was best proven by the fact that more kid-friendly third party titles like Boom Blox and Zach and Wiki (Both wonderful games) sold abysmally. More Japanese 'core' titles like Okami and No More Heroes have yet to sell a million copies- even combined. Resident Evil 4 seemed to sell quite well, but that was during the launch of the Wii.
Has the course of time shoehorned the Wii into it's own kid-friendly demographic? Surely there was a time when people with good taste owned the system?
The problem, I believe comes from Nintendo's business model. While the PS3 and XBox 360 loose money on every console sold (Where the PS3 costs roughly 700-800 dollars to make, and Microsoft has to replace each XBox an average of two to three times) the Wii costs Nintendo (I don't have the actual numbers to back this up and couldn't find them, please excuse me if this is in error.) about a hundred dollars per console. While other consoles must rely on first party titles (Like Gears, Halo, et. all., and Ratchet, Uncharted, and Heavenly Sword, et. all.) to make any profit, Nintendo doesn't have to ship out a single game. Therefore, all they have to do to profit is make the system desirable to those who don't own one- they have no interest in making either developers or customers happy.
Sorry my two cents was so long... u.u
(( By the way, I hate Madden and have never owned one, I have, however, owned a Wii. Please don't think I'm trying to defend Madden. ))
Really the only thing I have to say is that if we want to do the ridiculous thing of comparing one awesome game sales to another, let me just point out that Guitar Hero 3 sold best on Wii and it didn't even have stereo output to begin with. So... there. It's all about the market, and the market for sports games is on 360 and PS3, which is unfortunate, because the Wii has better versions, gameplay wise, of some of them. Such as Pro Evolution Soccer, which came out earlier this year.
To say it's entirely inhospitable is just ludicrous.
You know Madden 09 for the Wii was the first Madden or serious sports game for that matter that honestly interested me.
However seeing it in the PS3 and 360 I can understand why seniors of the franchise would probably wouldn't go for the Wii.
Also with so many other good games coming up I as a Wii owner decided to save my pennies on other titles, and another wiimote. Playing zombie games is more pleasant when you share the experience with your family and friends :).
Third parties need to stop making junk, and ports need to stop being so expensive. Okami is $20 on PS2.
I'm going to disagree with Kit Fowley here and agree with the others. I know what you were getting at however but...
If a gamer wanted a madden game, they would never have thought to buy it for the Wii - especially if they have one of the other two consoles in hand. There are just some games that you would never get for the Wii if the other two consoles have it because its just more familiar. The demograph might be right, but the game isn't.
Like someone else has mentioned, the Wii doesn't do well mimicing the traditional standard games - and one that Nintendo tries to distance itself from to avoid comparision.
Well, Kit, Although I don't work at a game store anymore, I was an assistant manager at EBgames for 3 1/2 years. So if you're simply using that as a reason why you're answer is better than anybody else. I null your point. Although I saw some kids get the game (the game at this point would refer to previous Madden titles), the vast majority of the people I saw get the game were adults who tended to only pick up sports games (which one could include the WWE games). Seriously, but things vary from region to region.
MuneTeika:
Nosir, I don't think my answer is better than anyone else's, I'm merely offering my own perspective on the idea at hand, that being that 'third party games do not sell well on the Wii'. I accept your point, the rest of my debate below makes no mention of the subjective age of the individuals buying Madden. As a matter of fact, I agree that EA has almost no right to make a claim like this, although I would still like to debate the point itself- Do third party games sell on the Wii?
MME:
You have an incredibly valid point, however with Nintendo refusing to draw comparisons between their system and what everyone else is used to working, it leaves third-party developers in an 'off' place. Nintendo has notoriously refused to support or aide third-parties, which is all but evident in the fact that Lucasarts were never informed of the Wii Motion Plus prior to E3. ( http://kotaku.com/5036801/lucasarts-totally-pissed-over-wii-motionplus )
But besides all that, what games do sell well on the Wii? Mario Kart Wii with over 6.42 million units sold, Mario Galaxy with 6.1 million, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl with about 5.6 million. Even Guitar Hero Three is up there with 2 Million (But nowhere near the first parties.) This is only an opinion, but what part of any of these games hindered them from being on the Gamecube (For instance) aside from technical capabilities? I feel ( I'm using an 'I' statement to denounce that this is only an opinion.) that these games do not make the best use of the Wii's controls, although few games have. (Aside from perhaps Boom Blox... Zelda and Metroid did rather well.) I felt much more comfortable using the retro controller or Gamecube controller for SSBBrawl and Mario Kart... Looking only at these numbers (Which, not including Wii Sports and Wii Play, because they were top selling for being packaged with the system and a controller, respectively, are the top three highest selling games on the Wii.) It seems like gamers are not looking for anything new. It looks like Wii owners are buying the same old Mario and Zelda games that they have been for 4 generations of Nintendo consoles- That is, when they do buy games...
In conclusion, while EA might not be the best qualified to say that third-party titles do not sell on the Wii, ( My Sims was your best shot? Really? ) It's still a fact that the best selling third party game on the system is Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games with just over three million units sold, but does that even count? It's Nintendo licensed...? The runner up is Guitar Hero 3 with 2 million. That means that while Nintendo racks up over 6 million on Mario Kart Wii, and over 4 million on Legend of Zelda, the closest third party competitor can only rack up 2 million on a 29 million strong install base?
Is this because of the quality of competitor's titles? Advertising? I don't know what to believe when a game as charming ( and fitting for the system ) as Zach and Wiki ( For instance ) can't even ship 1 million copies.
Yes, I agree, EA quit whining, but at the same time... If they made something great do you think it would sell? End rant.
--Cheers again!
--Kit