Sega still open to core Wii games

By Tom Magrino, GameSpotPosted Aug 13, 2009 3:04 pm PT

Company president and COO Mike Hayes says Nintendo's massive installed base allows even niche markets to be successful; The Conduit sells 150K worldwide.

Perhaps more so than any other publisher, Sega has taken risks on establishing a mature audience on Nintendo's family-friendly Wii. This year, the Japanese company has released three titles exclusively for the Wii that have catered to a more adult crowd: Headstrong Games' House of the Dead: Overkill, Platinum Games' MadWorld, and High Voltage Software's The Conduit.

Is this what Wii owners want?

However, despite agreeable review scores, none of the titles have been able to tap into the Wii's massive installed base, which stands at 52 million worldwide through June 30. Though Sega stated that House of the Dead "absolutely met our expectations," the title failed to crack the NPD Group's top 10 US retail releases for February. MadWorld and The Conduit had equally disappointing starts, debuting with a respective 66,000 and 72,000 units in the US.

Still, Sega doesn't appear ready to give up on finding the Wii's core gaming audience. Speaking to Wired, Sega president and COO Mike Hayes said that just because the three aforementioned titles didn't score breakout success doesn't mean that adult-centric games won't sell on the 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," Hayes noted. "So that's kind of like a win and a miss that's kind of come out neutral."

"MadWorld sales were very disappointing, but was that to do with the platform?" he continued. "Was it that people didn't like the art style? Or that people didn't like the way the game played through? It could be many things, which we're obviously researching." Hayes went on to note that Sega considers The Conduit a success, given that it shipped 300,000 units worldwide, about 150,000 of which sold through to consumers.

Hayes also said that Sega fully intends to continue releasing more mature games for the Wii, given that the platform's massive installed base allows even niche games to be successful. "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."

The Wii has a number of core-audience titles on the horizon. Conduit developer High Voltage Software is currently prepping The Grinder and Gladiator A.D. for Nintendo's platform, neither of which has a publisher yet. Other Wii exclusives include Electronic Arts' Dead Space Extraction and Capcom's Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, which are both expected later this year.

67 Comments

  • Marcster1994

    Posted Feb 3, 2010 6:11 pm PT

    The problem was is that you weren't advertising enough. You weren't making people WANT it.
    You just said,"Hey, we made a cool game!" And that's it.

  • GameShark9000

    Posted Oct 5, 2009 1:10 pm PT

    It's amazing how Sega is being so selfless during tough times. Hopefully this will encourge other companies to put in effort into a game that has a chance of saling instead of shovelware that is instantly going to flop.

  • Kenji_Masamune posted Aug 29, 2009 3:24 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Kenji_Masamune

    Posted Aug 29, 2009 3:24 pm PT (hide)

    "the game will likely end up finding an audience of over 300,000 gamers on Wii lifetime making it a moderately successful new IP"

    yep, so out of 50+ million wii owners, only 300k are old enough to kiss a girl. So let's stop the nonsense shall we? The wii isn't next gen, isn't hard core, and the 99% demographic is pre-teens.

  • johnnyauau

    Posted Aug 20, 2009 7:20 pm PT

    retroguy02, you might be right about it but I rightly feel if Nintendo just aim for casual gamers, we won't see third party support today. So for hardcore gamers, there still might be some risk to be taken with the development of games being setup near the end of this year. For me, I'm an all rounder. Its easy for people who own an Xbox360 and PS3 will look at the Wii and say "The graphics, online and replay value is inferior to our powerful console". On the other hand if Nintendo follows there lead, then we wouldn't have motion controls today they would've been repeating themselves again. So in other words, Nintendo Wii will be able to succeed as a next generation console than a hardcore and casual platformer and I guarantee the motion controls will be the next trend in the future. For Sega, I'm sure third party support wouldn't live without that company and many others. Sorry if I've overblown this subject but I do like to get the thoughts out of my head.

  • retroguy02

    Posted Aug 17, 2009 11:59 am PT

    I think the reason why Sega isn't doing so well despite making some good games (and more importantly, having the guts to do so) on the Wii is that it is aiming for the niche hardcore gamers on the Wii, and not trying to win over casual gamers, Wii's predominant user base. Most hardcore gamers who own Wii are already disgruntled with the shovelware lineup and are very skeptical of third-party games even if they look promising, and most have already switched over to a 360 or PS3 (me included, I have a Wii but play only on my 360). I think Sega needs better marketing to convert mainstream Wii audiences towards good games rather than aiming at a disgruntled niche audience.

  • hatieshorrer

    Posted Aug 15, 2009 2:12 pm PT

    If Im not mistaken in 1994-1996 gamers said the PS-X wasnt a core gamer console and after the N64 was released it would be a distant second I wonder where the Playstation brand would be today if companies like Konami and Squar-enix took advice from the so called core gamers.

  • Butchcassidy79

    Posted Aug 15, 2009 3:49 am PT

    I LOVE THE SEGA GAMES

  • BtmnHatesRbn

    Posted Aug 14, 2009 6:25 pm PT

    Strange reporting. Maybe everybody in Las Vegas, NV, loves those games. Everyone owns a copy.

  • ralphikari

    Posted Aug 14, 2009 5:18 pm PT

    Sega's bar is so low that Trinidad Limbo dancers have trouble with it.

  • VXLbeast

    Posted Aug 14, 2009 2:44 pm PT

    Go sega go sega! Finally, someone will take us seriously! Svrew all those shovelware companys, we will finally get real games.

  • angelGP32

    Posted Aug 14, 2009 1:41 pm PT

    150k sold is a success on the Wii, holy crap. That's a total turd bomb on any other system.

  • hannify

    Posted Aug 14, 2009 1:05 pm PT

    and gimme damn shenmue 3 sega!!!!!!!!!

  • hannify

    Posted Aug 14, 2009 1:04 pm PT

    Maybe because in Europe we don't legally have guns in most country and they do in america? Just a thought

  • ClaTheNinja

    Posted Aug 14, 2009 12:39 pm PT

    Nothing wrong with putting these games on the Wii. But you're only hurting yourself by not also bringing them to PS3, 360, and PC.

  • rgame1

    Posted Aug 14, 2009 11:30 am PT

    300k thats it? wtf? No more heroes shipped 300k in USA and 200k in PAL.

  • fon1988

    Posted Aug 14, 2009 11:09 am PT

    Madworld was fun at first, but I feel it lost it's oomph about a couple hours into it. The House of the Dead Over Kill was fantastic and I enjoyed every minute of it. Conduit's single player could of used some work but I continue to play the online frequently. Sega needs to continue this trend and make good quality, mature titles and they will tap into the core audience and make bucketloads of cash doing so.

  • NuKkU

    Posted Aug 14, 2009 9:32 am PT

    im suprised the conduit sold very well maybe because they advertised the heck out of it but i still think most if not almost all hardcore games cant survive on the wii

  • Rottenwood

    Posted Aug 14, 2009 8:02 am PT

    The problem with MadWorld is quite simple: it's not a very good game. It's gruesomely entertaining for about an hour, especially the commentary, and then it becomes pretty dull. Saying that you can't sell violent games on the Wii because MadWorld and The Conduit flopped is like saying that you can't sell soda because New Coke was a disaster. Make a good action game, and it'll sell just fine. Resident Evil 4 has sold, what, 4 or 5 million units across two Nintendo platforms?

    The trick is to use the Wii's assets to make the right kind of game, rather than making stripped-down versions of 360/PS3 games that instantly turn people off.

  • agehaelhaym

    Posted Aug 14, 2009 5:58 am PT

    Yeah, give me Jet Set Radio! I loved the DC game.

    House of the Dead: Overkill was fun and the Australian Bang Bang Box was a nice package.
    I loved MadWorld's art style but the game was kind of boring after a few hours.

  • X-RS

    Posted Aug 14, 2009 5:31 am PT

    JET SET RADIO!!!

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