Miyamoto Struggling to Sell Wii Music

By Jorge Ba-oh 02.11.2008 13

Miyamoto Struggling to Sell Wii Music on Nintendo gaming news, videos and discussion

Wii Music hasn't been as strong as Nintendo has hoped with its recent release.

Unlike many of the other casual projects from Nintendo, Wii Music hasn't been the first to tear up the market and get it right. Though there have been many music games in the past, the most mainstream efforts have been Activision's near-household name, Guitar Hero and a growing appreciation for EA's mass-instrument fest, Rock Band.

The appeal with these games is the progression in skill, high scores and being able to show off your skills to friends and the world via YouTube and the like. Now Miyamoto reveals the problems Nintendo face with selling the game, and making it appealing to a market already dominated by Heroes and Bands.

Anybody who has played it has responded very positively to it. One thing that I'm really struggling with is, what did we do in creating Wii Music that made it so difficult for people to understand until they actually get their hands on it?

Since hitting the Japan it's sold fewer than 100,000 copies. Despite the fairly low sales, for a key and well marketed Nintendo game, the company are hopeful that the hidden strengths and the growing number of people getting their hands on the game itself will propel it to success.

In my mind, if you're the kind of person who taps your hands on your desk when you're listening to music, or humming to the song, you'll find this game interesting.

  • More development discussion with Wired Blog

    • Box art for Wii Music
    Developer

    Nintendo

    Publisher

    Nintendo

    Genre

    Rhythm

    Players

    4

    C3 Score

    Rated $score out of 10  7/10

    Reader Score

    Rated $score out of 10  5/10 (22 Votes)

    European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date Out now   Australian release date Out now   

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    Modplan Man is offline. Modplan Man 02.11.2008#1

    The game sold just under 100,000 in its first week reaching number 1 in japanese charts. Miyamoto has also explicitly stated he hasn't expected the game to sell 1000,00000,0,0,0,0,000000000,0,0,000000000000,0,00000000000,0000000000,,00000000000 on day one (may be exaggerated), calling it a slow burner.

    He made these comments before the numbers were in, during a US press event too.



    ( Edited 17.07.2013 06:37 by Guest )

     
    J4K is offline. J4K 02.11.2008#2

    Smilie

    ( Edited 17.07.2013 06:37 by Guest )

     
    J Tangle is offline. J Tangle 02.11.2008#3

    In my mind, if you're the kind of person who taps your hands on your desk when you're listening to music, or humming to the song, you'll find this game interesting.

    That quote can be used for GH and RB as wellSmilie. IMO Wii Music goes against the basic formula of games. The formula being to have a clear objective to follow. Although Miyamoto said the objective of Wii Music is to experience playing music with an instrument of your choosing; Without any goals to drive those experiences they become less than a novelty and more a of a gimmick.Smilie

    ( Edited 17.07.2013 06:37 by Guest )

     
    knighty is offline. knighty 02.11.2008#4

    J Tangle said:
    In my mind, if you're the kind of person who taps your hands on your desk when you're listening to music, or humming to the song, you'll find this game interesting.

    That quote can be used for GH and RB as wellSmilie. IMO Wii Music goes against the basic formula of games. The formula being to have a clear objective to follow. Although Miyamoto said the objective of Wii Music is to experience playing music with an instrument of your choosing; Without any goals to drive those experiences they become less than a novelty and more a of a gimmick.Smilie

    Exactly my thoughts.

    In my mind, if you're the kind of person who taps your hands on your desk when you're listening to music, or humming to the song, you'll find this game interesting.

    I'll keep doing that then, I don't need crappy quality music that's not my choice to do that.

    ( Edited 01.12.2012 02:35 by Guest )

     
    Stulaw is offline. Stulaw 02.11.2008#5

    Wow, to be honest i'm suprised that they're suprised.

     
    Fenton is offline. Fenton 02.11.2008#6

    I dont want to play some bullshit music game.

    I want headshots.

     
    Darkflame is offline. Darkflame 03.11.2008#7

    The problem with the software is it dosnt know what it is, and dosnt market that fact.

    WiiSports, WiiFit, MarioKart, heck, even Zelda....you can get a good feel for what the gameplay consists of.

    Even in \"non-games\" like Nintendogs, or Eletroplankton, you can see what the \"toy\" is.

    But music hasnt been made clear at all what you do, and thats a problem.

    As gamers we can point to its flaws in gameplay, but imho, thats its flaw from a marketing point of view.

    \" Although Miyamoto said the objective of Wii Music is to experience playing music with an instrument of your choosing; Without any goals to drive those experiences they become less than a novelty and more a of a gimmick.\"


    I dont think so actualy.

    Lots of great games dont have goals, as such.
    And you dont need somethings strictly as a game to be interesting.

    If WiiMusic was like...say...a easy to use composing program, I think a lot more fun could be had with it.

    Goals and progression helps games, but you dont always need a \"game\" to have fun.

    Sometimes you can just play with Lego.
    WiiMusic should be like Lego, imho.

    ( Edited 03.11.2008 03:28 by Darkflame )

    http://www.fanficmaker.com <-- Tells some truly terrible tales.
    Last update; Mice,Plumbers,Animatronics and Airbenders. We also have the socials; Facebook & G+. 
     
    ohm is offline. ohm 03.11.2008#8

    Good news, maybe this will at least slow down the process of churning out games like this.

     
    Mandown is offline. Mandown 03.11.2008#9

    Yeah it's great news.

     
    erv is offline. erv 03.11.2008#10

    Great news.

    I don't buy into all of these casual type games. I play electric guitar all day and nothing developed so far beats that experience - it never will. Might be different if you don't play any instrument though.

    But let's get a gaming mind back to directing great games. Makes sense, eh...?

    Sells some, too. Or so I hope.

     
    J Tangle is offline. J Tangle 03.11.2008#11

    Darkflame said:
    If WiiMusic was like...say...a easy to use composing program, I think a lot more fun could be had with it.

    Goals and progression helps games, but you dont always need a "game" to have fun.

    Sometimes you can just play with Lego.
    WiiMusic should be like Lego, imho.


    Yeah I agree you got a point thereSmilie, but I don't think it's only that. If you look back at Mario Paint, Nintendo showed what the art crowd really wanted on both sides of the spectrum and they did the basics with sugar on top (great fly swatting mini game). On one side you got imagery with the drawing and painting, if you couldn't draw there is a coloring book to use. On the other they had sound where you could create music, if you can't create music(It was not fun creating music) there are three sample tracks to listen toSmilie...

    Smiliewait a minute... I think I just found the problem, Nintendo doesn't know how to make music based games, but I guess thats why it was called Mario Paint.

    The thing about Wii Music is it's so simplified that to enjoy the experience of the different instruments from the game you would have to actually have knowledge of using those instruments to give the notion of "wow this is fun this really feels like playing a ________". The way RB and GH get around these problems are they setup challenges to go along with realistic play. So even if you don't have that before hand knowledge of using the real instrument you still get some of the frustrations that come with learning to use a musical device.

     
    JoshSL is offline. JoshSL 04.11.2008#12

    LEGO doesn\'t cost £40 and require an expensive white box with expensive white remotes to play with.

    So why did people buy the Wii? Wii Music should be a Wiiware game or a Channel if it\'s just a toy. It should most certainly not be full price.

    ( Edited 04.11.2008 12:54 by SuperLink )

    Twitter | C3 Writer/Moderator | Backloggery
     
    Darkflame is offline. Darkflame 05.11.2008#13

    Lego does cost 40 and over quite often, actualy :p
    [I have a huuuuggggee lego collection]

    The problem with Wii music is not that its a "Toy" but rather it does not provide enough functionality to be a good one.

    I understand them not wanting to make a rythem game...fundimentaly they have been done to death, and they lack the creativity Nintendo wants.

    However, Nintendo went too far the other way and really lacked focus.
    (in fact, in an interview miyamoto said it was one of the few times they made something without a clear goal)

    -

    Imho, Nintendo should have made it exactly like playing the instruments, merely simplified and it "cheats" to make the whole thing less skillfull.

    Its fully possible to have software detect and "correct" notes to fit a rythem.
    This is a common practice amongst singers, digital manipulation of the sound to make them sound more intune then they are.

    I think it would thus be possible to make an "toy" that let you play instruments, and layer the sounds together to make music.
    It wouldnt require the skill of real instruments, but it would aproximate the feeling.

    http://www.fanficmaker.com <-- Tells some truly terrible tales.
    Last update; Mice,Plumbers,Animatronics and Airbenders. We also have the socials; Facebook & G+. 
     

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