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Wii Music sells under 81,000 in Oct.

By Tor Thorsen, GameSpotPosted Nov 14, 2008 12:55 pm PT

[UPDATE] Despite a symphony of hype, the last of Shigeru Miyamoto's "Big Four" nontraditional titles hits a sour note at US retailers; Dunaway says game is "evergreen."

When the NPD Group released its October sales figures yesterday, one title was noticeably absent from the top 10--Wii Music. For weeks, cash-flush Nintendo has been heavily hyping the title, the last of the "Big Four" nontraditional properties--along with Wii Sports, Wii Play, and Wii Fit--conceived to appeal to nongamers. It even brought out legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto to show off his latest creation to the US press.

Got a spooky chamber organ in that orchestra?

Unfortunately, it seems not even a media blitz aided by the charms of the creator of Donkey Kong could spark Wii Music fever. According to raw NPD data, Wii Music sold just under 81,000 units in the 11 days after it went on sale on October 20. The number is merely a fraction of the 687,700 units Wii Fit moved domestically in a similar period when it went on sale on April 19.

Though many will blame the discordant live jam session at Nintendo's E3 2008 conference for Wii Music's lackluster debut, there are two more likely reasons. First and foremost, the rhythm genre is saturated, with Rock Band and Guitar Hero duking it out for supremacy as Rock Revolution, Ultimate Band, and others struggle to catch up.

Secondly, Wii Music is the only one of the Big Four that isn't bundled with hardware. Thanks to being packed in with the normally $39.99 Wii Remote, the $49.99 Wii Play continues to sell well, moving 282,000 units last month. The Wii Balance Board's unique appeal helped Wii Fit sell 487,000 units in October at $89.99, while Wii Sports sold 803,000 units--by virtue of being packed in with the $249 Wii console itself.

Naturally, Nintendo executives tried to put a brave face on things. "We're predicting that it’s going to be an evergreen title," Nintendo executive vice president of sales and marketing Cammie Dunaway told MTV. "And if you look at titles like Brain Age, it's about the same as what ‘Brain Age’ did during it’s first few weeks and went on to sell 2.5 million copies. Wii Fit certainly had a larger launch than that. But I think that people are starting to understand Wii Music."

735 Comments

  • metaldeath87

    Posted Jan 16, 2009 8:03 pm PT

    So will this statement be retracted or corrected, as Wii Music sold nearly a million copies in December and can now be firmly put in the "successful" category? Isn't it great how I was right about everything, and all of you loser were wrong? Damn, I'm good.

  • Yaunie13

    Posted Jan 8, 2009 4:16 pm PT

    Wii vs. PS, personally Wii has its benefits and PS has theirs, you can't really say Wii is bad and you can't really say PS is bad. Just because one game sux doesn't mean the whole system has to suck... Believe me Wii has made some fun and interesting games. The game is fun no matter how shallow it is. There's only one challenging part about it which is the drum part. They're smart...buy the balance board for the best part of the game. There's a little more to Wii Music than some people may understand... I hope you see what I mean d(^o^)b

  • craigofadown

    Posted Nov 30, 2008 4:44 am PT

    I own a wii and a PS3 and the bottom line is, wii just can't compete, no big releases lately and graphics worse than a lot of ps2 games (seriously), the current sisuation isn't promising.

  • YoJim8obaJoe

    Posted Nov 26, 2008 12:36 pm PT

    Naturally, Nintendo executives tried to put a brave face on things. "We're predicting that it’s going to be an evergreen title," Nintendo executive vice president of sales and marketing Cammie Dunaway told MTV. "And if you look at titles like Brain Age, it's about the same as what ‘Brain Age’ did during it’s first few weeks and went on to sell 2.5 million copies. Wii Fit certainly had a larger launch than that. But I think that people are starting to understand Wii Music." Yes people are starting to understand Wii music,understand it for the crum it is

  • lionheart234

    Posted Nov 26, 2008 4:04 am PT

    even though this game didnt sell that well..... it still has alot of potential.... thats why nintendo released it on the wii, when i first saw it i thought it was rubbish but then i saw the adverts and and reviews and it changed my view about it..... plus x-mas is coming so theres still time for it to sell

  • lightning_kf

    Posted Nov 24, 2008 8:56 am PT

    Ouch.

    Well what did they expect?

    I think it's truly time for them to actually give their mascots who are suffering for attention for so long their chance to shine instead of banking on a bunch of soccer moms.

  • CreatureRising

    Posted Nov 23, 2008 5:26 pm PT

    If there was a Music Game where they gave you a Guitar (with strings and such) and it showed actual Notes on the screen that would be so Revolutionary Maybe GH couldnt catch. Now now I am a little Cooky but i do play Actual Guitar and if they went over Basic Lessons.. Now i dont know how that be Bad

  • Lisandro_v22

    Posted Nov 23, 2008 9:31 am PT

    wii music is a joke it tottally ruined the little credibility that nintendo still had

  • LK9988

    Posted Nov 23, 2008 7:49 am PT

    Ah, such a awesome article Gamespot! Hopefully this will teach Nintendo a lesson about their games and the core audience they abandoned to maybe come back to them.

  • diggyman

    Posted Nov 23, 2008 4:15 am PT

    Has anyone else heard about the Wii HD rumor? Google it... Anyway, they need to make something happen, and soon. Well, maybe not. Nintendo has a huge ammount of brand new "I don't know jack about video games" fans. They seem to be making a lot of games to keep them happy. They make very simple, 'pass the time' games like wii music and the game noobs (god bless em) can jump in and enjoy. Those new guys are money, money, money. While it seems the veteran Nintendo gamer sits and waits to be recognized a little more often. Oh well...

  • Infernal_Hazard

    Posted Nov 23, 2008 3:32 am PT

    Somehow I feel Nintendo has lost its way, its been probably 6 months or more since I bought a Wii game, even longer for DS. I just find NOTHING appealing with what Nintendo's doing these days. Heck I wish I'd gotten Twilight Princess for GC instead of Wii...I'm sick of having to constantly fling my sword with the wii remote and numchuck...and thats half the game (correct me if I'm wrong). Wii Music...god that's just a horrible headache I never want to play or hear.

  • Somebody89

    Posted Nov 22, 2008 12:15 pm PT

    That usually happens when a game sucks.....

  • crudmanIV

    Posted Nov 21, 2008 7:29 pm PT

    Good lord, this is so refreshing to see a page full of negative wii comments. I think chaosbrigade summed it up with what he said. Wii is something you get your friend to buy, so you can play it at his house until you get bored of the gimmics. They just don't try hard enough to make good games. Lindbergh2007 lol.

  • NoseWeed619

    Posted Nov 20, 2008 2:58 pm PT

    Ha Ha. They deserve it. Wii Music is a failure of a game...

  • garland51

    Posted Nov 19, 2008 5:55 pm PT

    It looks like that people are starting to wake up about the Wii. I'm quite surprised at the 35 million or so gullible Wii owners, thinking that they're going to get hardcore games. Instead, they've been fed on junk, except for 1st party games. Gimmicks such as Wii Music, Wii Fit, etc., not to mention the fact that most of the 3rd party lineup on that system just happens to be ports of PS2 games & remakes (it's like a repeat of the PSP's lineup). Get what I'm saying? While it's true that most of the 3rd party games on PS3 are shared with the 360, at least they're brand new. The point is, the Wii ain't nothing more than a overhyped, hardcore, gimmicky piece of junk. I'm so happy that I chose a used 60 GB PS3 over it. Like I said earlier, Nintendo needs to go back to their roots, & give gamers what they want. REAL games.

  • Darkman2007

    Posted Nov 19, 2008 3:14 pm PT

    i dont see the point in this game

    1)its not reallly a game (MGS is a game)
    2) if i wanted to play an instrument, i would learn to play it, its more challenging, this game is kinda lazy

  • widdowson91

    Posted Nov 19, 2008 5:31 am PT

    Nintendo need to release more first party games for the Wii, like Mario and Zelda. But these games should have the option to play using the classic controller because the Pointer and Nunchuk are brilliant on games like Wii Sports and Mertroid Prime 3 Corruption, but on games like Mario or Zelda.... erm, no thanks.

  • dark_k

    Posted Nov 19, 2008 4:01 am PT

    It really depresses me when I go to a game store and see numerous copies of carnival games or other crap shovelware titles on the shelves in the places where more deserving titles should be and with Nintendo burrowing deeper and deeper into the casual market with titles such as this I can see a rise to even more of these 'games' if that term can be used. Its a shame really as despite the relative unpopularity of the gamecube I always found games that I had an incentive to play. I also agree with Hillsy that the time spent on these 'Wii...' games could be beter spent elsewhere such as like he said a new fzero game or in my personal opinion a new sidescrolling metroid game (wiiware anyone), or atleast if they remain gungho about the 'wii...' games give them a longer development period and really flesh out the games, like Nintendo always used to do with their most hyped titles...

  • TehUndeadHorror

    Posted Nov 19, 2008 2:46 am PT

    Just came out at a bad time =/ Kinda unfortunate really.

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wii music   000   nintendo   nontraditional   october   wii   10--wii   81   absent   been
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