Under the impression that Wii owners are essentially casual gamers, happy with Wii Sports, Wii Fit and Mario Kart? Not according to Sega. Despite "disappointing" sales of the stylised and violent Wii title Madworld Sega president Mike Hayes is refusing to blame the platform itself.
It's difficult because it was a critically acclaimed title; it was extreme but good. The thing that we're saying is, Sega would be extremely arrogant to have a title that didn't do as well as we thought on a platform and then say, "Those kind of games don't sell on that platform." I think if you take our slew of more mature games — House of the Dead Overkill did really well in Europe, and for some reason even though it's a big (intellectual property) it did less well in North America. So that's kind of like a win and a miss that's kind of come out neutral.
So what does this tell us about "hardcore" games on the Wii?
Sega recently released mediocre first person shooter The Conduit for the Wii. The popular genre is rarely seen on the Wii and Hayes feels the game has done well.
We actually regard The Conduit as a success. We shipped 300,000 units, sold through half of those and now it's at the point where it's selling consistently at a time when Wii sales are generally depressed in the marketplace. So what does that tell you? We still kind of don't know.
Despite the relative failures of Madworld and The Conduit – 300,000 units shipped? Let's wait for official sales figures – Sega seem committed to core games on the Wii.
What we can say is that we'll still do mature games for the Wii market because with an install base of some 34 million in Europe and America (maybe half of whom don't own Xbox 360s and PS3s)…. So even if you took half of those where they're not into those (core) games, you've still got 8 million consumers to go for. So I think the sheer scale of the Wii allows a shooter, or a mature game, to be a niche but a successful niche. And because the development costs can be less on Wii, that means you can sell less to be successful…. We can take more risks on the Wii.
Interesting and candid stuff from Hayes then. Most gamers will be pleased Sega are at least trying to bring more "mature" games to the Wii but how long can it go on for? Will another sales failure or two be the end of it?
What do you think then? Can hardcore games – shooters etc – work on the Wii? And if so why are Wii owners not buying them?
