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Capcom Reveals Weak Zack & Wiki Sales, Talks 'Tough' Wii Market
by Staff [PC, Console/PC]
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January 8, 2010
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Despite high ratings and its status as a media darling, Capcom's Zack & Wiki: Quest For Barbaros' Treasure sold only 126,000 units in 26 months -- "abysmally," according to senior director of communications Chris Kramer.
"If you're not Nintendo, it does seem harder to make money on the Wii today compared to the PS3 and the Xbox 360," Kramer says. "It's a very tough market to crack and is ever-shifting."
Like many publishers, Capcom's stock rose in 2007 based on its investment in software development for the explosive Wii. But a new Gamasutra feature illustrates how numerous third parties are still challenged to find success on Nintendo's platform.
Kramer recalls that at the time of the Wii's North American launch in November, 2006, simple casual games and party titles did so well that they soon saturated the market. "Now, I don't even know what the market is," he says.
"Third-party publishers are having a hard time determining who the Wii audience is," Kramer adds. "You can no longer say it is solely casual gamers or that only E-rated games own the space."
Publishers like Electronic Arts, with Dead Space Extraction, or Sega, with Madworld and House of the Dead: Overkill have made bold moves into core territory on the Wii and have met with mixed results.
Sega's Constantine Hatzopoulos recently said the company was so "stunned" by Dead Space Extraction's sales figures that it will "probably not" try further M-rated content on Wii. Capcom itself had to stress its stance as a multiplatform publisher after Capcom France's Antoine Seux criticized Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles' weak 16,000-unit performance on Wii.
Says Kramer, "For any sort of solid statement you want to make about the platform or the audience, there are enough opposite proofs to show that it is extremely scattered and chaotic."
In the full Gamasutra feature, focused on the continuing challenges for third parties on the Wii platform, we talk to publishers and analysts to examine several angles of the complex picture.
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Its so disappointing to see only 126k over the last two years, so I understand Capcom's POV...but on the other hand, I hate the argument that studios are tired of making "mature" games that dont sell on the wii when they have other games that do better on PS3/360...well, stop making ON RAILS gimped versions. You cant compare RE Chronicles sales to RE5, or Dead Space Extraction to the "real" Deadspace on 360 (even though I was really surprised by the DSE game's quality).
Its like saying you made a sexy convertible that sells extremely well, and then making a station wagon version of the same car and being disappointed because people didnt like it as much.
I think HOD:OK, DSE, and Madworld were great games..but by the time they came out Wii owners had such a bad taste in their mouth for dumbed-down 3rd party games that hardly anyone was willing to give them another chance.
Z&W had some amazing puzzles, but even more puzzles that were completely arbitrary, and totally impossible without ridiculous levels of trial and error. It was an extremely hardcore game through and through, and only a dedicated, long-time gamer could ever hope to complete the game.
Yet the box art, the tone inside the game, etc. was completely ass-backwards. It was built to appeal to a demographic that was entirely unable to actually enjoy the game.
Nintendo wins time and time again because it knows how to strike a middle-ground. Mario characters are ridiculously cute and cuddly, yet anyone will play Mario games without reservation. Whether it's because of decades of history that Capcom doesn't have as mascot for, or something in the art style that simply appeals to everyone, Capcom completely missed the mark in every single way.
So, the audience on the PS2 was not scattered and chaotic? Where is the connection between games like eye toy or Sing Star and GTA SA and Shadow of the Collossus and Kingdom Hearts? All these games were highly successful, they all targeted successfuly a completly different audience.
Why aren't 3rd party publishers able to target different audiences, like Nintendo does, Wii Fit is aimed at different people as Super Mario Kart Wii and that is aimed at different people then Wii Sports Resort, but all these games are selling very good.
personally this is my favorite Wii title and i really appreciated the work Capcom had been packed in to this one, with all the lovely worked out details.
hehe, i also tried to sell this to all my friends and was already surprised back then that many couldn't be attracted for some reason.
at first it is a new IP and also the game itself is rather difficult to properly promote.
and as i learned in my social environment, this title is destined to work only for a smaller group :)
maybe.
but i expected more, if i remember well, IGN had running quite a campaign for it.
while i did not follow it closely, i must admit that i have not noticed much of advertising in EUR.
does this kill now any dreams for a follow up? : |
I say unfortunately because I would say roughly 95% of all Wii owners do not read Metacritic, IGN, nor any of the other resources for gamers. These outlets are simply not a factor.
In addition, developers would be wise to think of the Wii as the family equivalent of a board game or a pack of cards. They are not that fun played alone. Games without multiplayer are not going to have a chance.
Take a look at the top-selling 50 games, and apart from the exercise titles, nearly all of them can be played with a group.
There's no doubt Nintendo has the big bucks for advertising and a solid franchise with Mario, Zelda, and Metroid. But if game developers want to unlock the secret code for the Wii, they would be wise to simply think of one word and one word only - multiplayer.
Wii is pronounced We for a reason.
Third-party developers should just use this "tough Wii market" as an opportunity to challenge themselves and learn how to make better games.
EDIT: Er, I was not maligning Zack & Wiki here, my family loves the title. =)
Instead we got Spyborgs, which is a very generic and horribly un-satisfying beat-em up. I have no idea who it was targeted to (teenage boys maybe?).
There is a distinctive pattern of everything either being the inferior "Wii version", like a rail shooter, or serious, tangible quality issues, or in this case, flat out botched marketing & execution.
I think you can sum up all that with "not taking it seriously", and the results of not taking it seriously are just recycled into rationale for not taking it seriously.
I get tired of the argument by certain publishers that only Nintendo can make money on the Wii. Perhaps that's because Nintendo knows how to market and design products for targeted audiences as well as the masses? I think Capcom needs to hire new marketing and product development departments for the Wii market.
I gave up understanding the Wii (or what would "sell" on it) a long time ago... And what gives me the creeps about our industry is that all game journalists also seems to be completely clueless.
Just kidding, it is interesting that you talked about kids and adults:
- Kids, not the madden-need-for-speed kid, but the very-young-still-playing-cops-vs-bandits-kids
- Adults, not the porn-and-blood-enabled-fps-playing-25-30-years adult, but the I'm-a-responsible-boring-dad kind of adult.
We have absolutelly no clue about what this guys want to play, we never did!
I mean, do you know what games your own father would play if you gave him the Wii remote?
My father would try to use it to change the channel.
This means that Nintendo fans only bought the Wii to keep on playing their revitalized Nintendo titles. Otherwise they ignore the 3rd party games being rolled out.
Then you have the people that jumped on the motion control band wagon and they buy those tacky fitness titles. Just like the infomercial products are successful. But there is no crossover with those people to 3rd party titles. Similar to the fact that people that buy abdomen crunching devices don't actually invest in real exercise equipment.
Gamers aren't gaming on the Wii except for Nintendo titles. Otherwise they turn to the better console.
So what is the Wii. It is a Gamecube with tacked on motion controls. Nothing really did well on the Cube either did it--other than Nintendo's titles.
Where is a title like Wii Music recognizable as a classic. The title sold 2.5 million copies, which is lightyears away from something like Wii Fit or Wii Sports (which aren't recognizable as classics as well), but I think every 3rd party publisher would love to sell this many units on any of the 3 systems.
At least the EA Sports Active title sold well, so it isn't true, that there is "crossover with those people to 3rd party titles".
The Cube had a terrible 3rd party support, cause almost all companies in the US decided for a reason I never understood to support the XBox more then the Cube. The market for the XBox was flooded with titles that went to the reduced price bin instantly. Never got that, I think MS demanded almost no royalties, so that the developement became much much cheaper. This is the only thing I can think of, but this situation isn't comparable to today, cause the developement costs are much lower on the Wii.
You say
"So what is the Wii. It is a Gamecube with tacked on motion controls. "
That's not true, the Gamecube was a not so successful console in a market dominated by the PS2, the Wii is the best selling platform of it's generation. It doesn't matter what is inside a console, it matters, how this console is sold, to determine what it is.
I find fault at our inability to identify the wiis' market. Developers still shovel out exercise games and repackage exsisting tradional game values to the wii, which when in competition to other already exisiting familar faces loses out every time. Taking a quick look at the top fifty the top selling traditonal game (hard core/ non-party etc) which isn't a long running francise or movie game is.... none.
http://vgchartz.com/games/index.php?name=&keyword=&console=Wii®ion=All&develo
per=&publisher=&genre=&boxart=Both&results=50&order=Sales
The closest to suit the example of new IP not spawned from exisiting movies or game series would be Red Steel chillin' out at spot 59. The traditional concept of games cannot concurrent comfortably exisit on the wii. A new approach needs to be taken.
The leigon of "traditonal" gamers since the PS2 era who I would assume follow existing established series for fandom or nostalgias sake or review scores. Which reflects quite well with the PS3 top 50.
http://vgchartz.com/games/index.php?name=&keyword=&console=PS3®ion=All&develo
per=&publisher=&genre=&boxart=Both&results=50&order=Sales
Dear video game industry, this is what Wii owners want. The same thing we get in a summer blockbuster movie. It should be fun and entertaining from the instant it starts. It should have a theme that can be easily understood from a 30 second commercial. These 30 second commercials should actually be made (here's looking at you Capcom). It should be rated G/PG/PG13. Why? Because if I want the super-violent zombie killer, I'll buy it for my PS3/360. When movie studios want a truly massive summer hit, they shun the R rating. I don't read Gamasutra, Game Informer, or anything else gaming related. I do watch football, American Idol, and the Olympics. I listen to Radio. WHOA!! STOP!! advertise my game on RADIO?! How will the buyer see my graphics? I OWN A WII. I OBVIOUSLY DO NOT BUY GAMES BASED ON GRAPHICS!!!! (pardon the tantrum,please) I just need to know your game is out there, that it's fun, and get what it's about quite quickly. I'll do the research and buy your game if I know it exists and it sounds like fun. I'm quite fluent in Amazon.com. Check the sales results, you'll see.
Nintendo sells millions of games on word-of-mouth. Word-of-mouth does not show the potential buyer any graphics. Word of mouth says "Get game "x"!! It's so much fun!! We played it for hours!!"
And guess what, I'll buy it.
My latest game for Wii that I bought, I had never heard of. And I go to gaming sites!!! It took one recommendation and one play session at a family gathering. That night Ubisoft sold 5 copies of JUST DANCE to members of my family and friends. Ubisoft has a winner on their hands. They get it. People in the industry laughed when Sega said they would sell 4 million copies of Mario & Sonic at the Olympics. Who's laughing at that title's sales now?