Ok, this could be a case of sour grapes from a man whose game - No More Heroes - simply did not sell well on the Wii in Japan. It could also be the first developer of 'hardcore' or non-family focused games to call the Wii as he sees it.
Either way, No More Heroes and Killer-7 developer, Giochi Suda (AKA Suda51) is not a happy man. It's being reported that Suda-san has been surprised by the target audience for the Wii:
Erm... colour us a smidgeon disbelieving, but has the man entirely ignored the last year's worth of press and also the PR build up from Revolution to final Wii release?
Now we get to the nub of the matter - sales. Here the developer truly lets rip, apparently savaging Nintendo both at home and abroad:
Very sour grapes at a title that didn't sell? Delayed reaction to the console's clearly stated focus?
Or when signing up, was Suda actually lead to believe by Nintendo that hardcore gaming was still a focus for the company and its massive-selling system? Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales and marketing, Cammie Dunaway, only this weak appeared to see the hardcore as deserving 'treats' rather than being central to the Wii's gaming inventory.
If the point is that only Nintendo titles are selling well, is that not simply that Nintendo is creating titles that Wii owners are happy to play? This admission from Suda does, however, firmly highlight the widely held assumption that the Wii's natural home is the family sitting room.
A cursory glance at its latest US release list would also indicate this.
Source: cvg
Either way, No More Heroes and Killer-7 developer, Giochi Suda (AKA Suda51) is not a happy man. It's being reported that Suda-san has been surprised by the target audience for the Wii:
"Actually I was very surprised about the reality about Wii, because before I was making this game, I wasn't expecting that Wii would be a console targeted only for non-gamers. I expected more games for hardcore gamers. The reality is different to what I expected."
Erm... colour us a smidgeon disbelieving, but has the man entirely ignored the last year's worth of press and also the PR build up from Revolution to final Wii release?
Now we get to the nub of the matter - sales. Here the developer truly lets rip, apparently savaging Nintendo both at home and abroad:
"Whilst the sales weren't as high as I hoped, other titles for Wii aren't selling so well either. Only Nintendo titles are doing well. This isn't just because of the current situation in Japan, as this is happening outside Japan."
Very sour grapes at a title that didn't sell? Delayed reaction to the console's clearly stated focus?
Or when signing up, was Suda actually lead to believe by Nintendo that hardcore gaming was still a focus for the company and its massive-selling system? Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales and marketing, Cammie Dunaway, only this weak appeared to see the hardcore as deserving 'treats' rather than being central to the Wii's gaming inventory.
If the point is that only Nintendo titles are selling well, is that not simply that Nintendo is creating titles that Wii owners are happy to play? This admission from Suda does, however, firmly highlight the widely held assumption that the Wii's natural home is the family sitting room.
A cursory glance at its latest US release list would also indicate this.
Source: cvg
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Comments
deleted 17 Jan 2008 12:52
1/10
I Disagree.
Nintendo games sell well because they make full use of the controller in the correct way, but, I believe any company that also does this will sell games well, (now I have no figures to go off BUT) Didn’t Resident evil 4 sell very well?, also I believe these are some best selling Wii games in the US at Christmas
- Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
- Super Mario Galaxy
- High School Musical Sing It! with Microphone
- Lego Star Wars
- Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
How many are Nintendo games? And with the exception of High School Musical they are all good games that are rated highly
Also I would like to see the figures for Zak & Wiki and Resident Evil 4 Again highly rated a I suspect will both become/are good sellers
Nintendo games sell well because they make full use of the controller in the correct way, but, I believe any company that also does this will sell games well, (now I have no figures to go off BUT) Didn’t Resident evil 4 sell very well?, also I believe these are some best selling Wii games in the US at Christmas
- Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
- Super Mario Galaxy
- High School Musical Sing It! with Microphone
- Lego Star Wars
- Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
How many are Nintendo games? And with the exception of High School Musical they are all good games that are rated highly
Also I would like to see the figures for Zak & Wiki and Resident Evil 4 Again highly rated a I suspect will both become/are good sellers
king skins 17 Jan 2008 13:15
2/10
Hasn't this always been the case with games on Nintendo hardware? Where 3rd party software never sells very well and its the very rare exception for a 3rd party game to sell well.
The DS is exactly the same, so was the GameCube and N64.
The DS is exactly the same, so was the GameCube and N64.
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OptimusP 17 Jan 2008 13:40
3/10
king skins wrote:
Hasn't this always been the case with games on Nintendo hardware? Where 3rd party software never sells very well and its the very rare exception for a 3rd party game to sell well.
The DS is exactly the same, so was the GameCube and N64.
The DS is exactly the same, so was the GameCube and N64.
Except for the NES and SNES, but for the reason that third-parties then actually made good games for the those systems in comparison on the other combined with Nintendophiles being spoiled by Nintendo, they sniff out crap a mile away.
Which makes the Wii even more non-understandable because crap also sells on the Wii. The thing is, a violent game like No More Heroes doesn't sell at all in the Japan, they never did (except Metal gear). besides, Suda is clearly whining, NMH sold a bit more then Killer 7 did in Japan and that game was released on the GC and PS2 at the same time. Killer 7 was just so niche in the first place (like Viewtifull Joe which bombed on the PS2 even more then on the GC).
No More Heroes is actually perfect for the Wii since its full of former GC-owners, they're the only ones that would buy something like NMH in the first place. On the Xbox360 and PS3 it would just bomb because of the demographics on those consoles. A Niche-game like NMH never sold good on the PS2 and Xbox (see Viewtifull Joe, Killer 7 and all those quirky SEGA-games that all bombed on the Xbox)
ThorsSti 17 Jan 2008 15:40
4/10
No More Heroes is just a s**t game! I played it for 5 hours now and already feed up with it. The guy should look at his own game and ask himself why the game didn't sold like he expected.
James 17 Jan 2008 18:49
5/10
Nintendo's plan could back-fire on them, the problem is their target audience of 'non-gamers' well non gamers aren't going to buy that many games are they?? put yourself in a non-gamers shoes, you buy a wii, play wii sports and think wow thats not bad, you don't know much about games or what's good, you don't buy magazines, you probably saw the advert for mario galaxy and bought that, but mostly your wii sits gathering dust as you don't have time to play it.
perhaps Nintendo should start shifting towards the hardcore gamers that have been feeding it all these decades....and refuse to authroise any more ports an minigames (seriously who the hell is going to buy a 360 game like cod3 etc ported to the wii with tacked on control? it's pointless) I'm not even going to speak about the EA trash on there.
Nintendo need to start spending, buy some good devs and set them to work on some real innovative exclusive wii games.
perhaps Nintendo should start shifting towards the hardcore gamers that have been feeding it all these decades....and refuse to authroise any more ports an minigames (seriously who the hell is going to buy a 360 game like cod3 etc ported to the wii with tacked on control? it's pointless) I'm not even going to speak about the EA trash on there.
Nintendo need to start spending, buy some good devs and set them to work on some real innovative exclusive wii games.
Albert 17 Jan 2008 23:07
6/10
I also Disagree
Wii games sucks! (Take a look at last Rayman 2 or Resident Evil) Nintendo games (like SMGalaxy) sells wright because they are very good, and has a lot of quality. Other companies are just making games for Wii, without care about the final result, people is not idiot, they buyed a very good entertaintment system, but they also request good games. Look at last simpsons, could be a good game but is unplayable, camera flies randomly and controls doesn't even work (come on EA, the game is unplayable).
Wii has a lot of power but nobody cares about using it, they only want to create the next "brain training" a chip game to sell a lot. I would like nintendo asking quality games to companies (microsoft does it for 360, and Sony well PS3 doesn't exist in Europe because is too expensive)
I purpose to start thinking in gamers who paid for a Wii (like me), and want to play good games (I'll buy SMKart because there's no other interesting thing right now). I don't buy third party games because there are no good games (why not a port of MGS3 for Wii, MGS1 used to work for PS1 isn't Wii good enought?)
Companies are making games for Wii and PS2 at same time, Wii is more (MORE) powerfull than PS2, why they don't develop games for Wii ?¿?¿?¿?
Well, nothing more to say
Wii games sucks! (Take a look at last Rayman 2 or Resident Evil) Nintendo games (like SMGalaxy) sells wright because they are very good, and has a lot of quality. Other companies are just making games for Wii, without care about the final result, people is not idiot, they buyed a very good entertaintment system, but they also request good games. Look at last simpsons, could be a good game but is unplayable, camera flies randomly and controls doesn't even work (come on EA, the game is unplayable).
Wii has a lot of power but nobody cares about using it, they only want to create the next "brain training" a chip game to sell a lot. I would like nintendo asking quality games to companies (microsoft does it for 360, and Sony well PS3 doesn't exist in Europe because is too expensive)
I purpose to start thinking in gamers who paid for a Wii (like me), and want to play good games (I'll buy SMKart because there's no other interesting thing right now). I don't buy third party games because there are no good games (why not a port of MGS3 for Wii, MGS1 used to work for PS1 isn't Wii good enought?)
Companies are making games for Wii and PS2 at same time, Wii is more (MORE) powerfull than PS2, why they don't develop games for Wii ?¿?¿?¿?
Well, nothing more to say
OptimusP 18 Jan 2008 07:49
7/10
Resident Evil (4 and UC) was fun in my opinion, besides also showing that third parties are learning how to have people aim with the Wiimote.
Also, the PS3 has a bigger sell-trough in Europe on a monthly basis then the 360. For example in my country (Belgium) the Wii only marginally out-sold the PS3 in 2007 while the Xbox360 was way behind.
In France the PS3 and Xbox360 are tied in terms of total sales. The huge majority of Xbox360's are being sold in the US, in Europe the 360 is only received luke-warm, wouldn't know why. Maybe we Europeans are more prone to Sony gear or don't like to shoot stuff as much as the yanks.
Also Microsoft doesn't disprove games for its consoles, it only demands all of the games to be in HD and have Xbox Live support. Sony demands the same thing, how crap the rest of the game is both don't care.
Some are hoping that Nintendo's upcoming Wii Community channel (don't know the exact name) will help the non-gamers pick out the better games by comparing what other people bought or are advising on this channel. These non-gamers have been very prone to jump on these channels like flies on dogpoop so it could make a difference, albeit small in the end.
Also, the PS3 has a bigger sell-trough in Europe on a monthly basis then the 360. For example in my country (Belgium) the Wii only marginally out-sold the PS3 in 2007 while the Xbox360 was way behind.
In France the PS3 and Xbox360 are tied in terms of total sales. The huge majority of Xbox360's are being sold in the US, in Europe the 360 is only received luke-warm, wouldn't know why. Maybe we Europeans are more prone to Sony gear or don't like to shoot stuff as much as the yanks.
Also Microsoft doesn't disprove games for its consoles, it only demands all of the games to be in HD and have Xbox Live support. Sony demands the same thing, how crap the rest of the game is both don't care.
Some are hoping that Nintendo's upcoming Wii Community channel (don't know the exact name) will help the non-gamers pick out the better games by comparing what other people bought or are advising on this channel. These non-gamers have been very prone to jump on these channels like flies on dogpoop so it could make a difference, albeit small in the end.
Absinthe-Review.net 18 Jan 2008 23:18
8/10
ThorsSti wrote:
No More Heroes is just a s**t game! I played it for 5 hours now and already feed up with it. The guy should look at his own game and ask himself why the game didn't sold like he expected.
Can you really take seriously the opinion of someone that can't spell "fed"?
And where in the hell would he have played it for 5 hours prior to its release?
deleted 18 Jan 2008 23:21
9/10
The Absinthe Review Network wrote:
ThorsSti wrote:
No More Heroes is just a s**t game! I played it for 5 hours now and already feed up with it. The guy should look at his own game and ask himself why the game didn't sold like he expected.
Can you really take seriously the opinion of someone that can't spell "fed"?
And where in the hell would he have played it for 5 hours prior to its release?
he is just pointing out the guy is "feed up it didn't sold" ;)
Absinthe-Review.net 20 Jan 2008 21:45
10/10
Ha ha, yes how could I have missed this/?:)