Nintendo Sales | Square Enix, Capcom, Sega, Namco - Poor Start for All on Wii in Japan [news]

Ive got an idea, why dont Capcom and co stop releasing low budget clones to finance their bigger hitters and they'll prosper like they once did in the early Nineties.

Are any of these games actually any good?

( Edited on 15.12.2007 16:17 by Ski )

My question is, are these titles recieving strong promotion over there? I know about Chocobos Dungeon being highlighted, but what of the others?

I think they're saving their marketing spend for SF4. I cant imagine Nights had any promoting going on, I thought it's loyal fanbase wouldve come through when this sequel was released, maybe everyones waiting for xmas.

We Love Golf is supposed to be very good out of those, at least. NiGHTS has had some favourable reviews, and I've not heard opinion of Chocobo's Dungeon yet.

- Chocobo's Dungeon got something like 35/40 in Famitsu and is meant to be really impressive, mixing traditional RPG elements in to make it a lighter dungeon crawling experience.

- NiGHTS is the weak one of the bunch, but it has a loyal following and many presumed it'd start better than this.

- We Love Golf is developed by Camelot, the team behind Golden Sun, Mario Golf and Mario Tennis. For those that don't realise as well, Camelot made Hot Shots Golf for Sony (now looked after by Clap Handz, a breakaway group of former Camelot staff). We Love Golf is being advertised as 'by the makers of Hot Shots Golf', and since the HSG series is a multi-million selling one in Japan, this SHOULD have done better. By the way, We Love Tennis and We Love Baseball are already trademarked...let's hope moderate sales don't put them off finishing them.

- Soul Calibur II did well on both GC and PS2 in Japan, but SCIII flopped on PS2, so the performance of SCL isn't too surprising.

- Shikigami is a hardcore/niche game; a vertical shooter that was also released on 360 on the same day. Still, 500 sales is pathetic.

Which Wii games have sold well in Japan (besides the obvious ones)?

Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition?

Wouldn't it be a reasonable assumption to say that console gaming, in general, is on life-support in Japan?

Unless it's on h/held the Japanese just don't appear to be interested.

well most of them are bad .... Chocobo's Dungeon look ok but not that good and NiGHTS but i will be geting them

It's not rocket science. If the games are good they'll sell. For Sega Mario & Sonic has done well, although I'm surprised NiGHTS hasn't done better as it's quite good imo. For Capcom Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles has done well, as has Resident Evil 4 on the Wii.

If the games are good, people will buy them...it's really not that complicated surely..?

Certainly not true. There are many fantastic games that sadly get overlooked due to 1.) Small shipments; 2.) Lack of decent advertising.

Chocobo is, from all reports, a fantastic game, as is We Love Golf. Both deserve great success on Wii...

It's not rocket science. If the games are good they'll sell.

I wish I lived in your magic fantasy world.

I am happy with the low sales of Soul Calibur Legend

If good games sold, then super mario galaxy would be top every week, even after christmas

Fantastic games sometimes dont sale well (Eternal Darkness, Beyond Good and Evil).
But awfull games almost always fail.
===========
", We Love Tennis and We Love Baseball are already trademarked...let's hope moderate sales don't put them off finishing them."

Lets hope it DOES.
I want my Golden Sun :p
Poor sales for sport makes RPGness look like a better investiment

( Edited on 16.12.2007 10:58 by Darkflame )

For people's reference, here are the Top 20 best selling Wii games so far, with first week and total sales included:

1.) Wii Sports - 176,880 | 2,152,373
2.) Wii Play - 171,888 | 1,707,132
3.) Mario Party 8 - 282,389 | 904,535
4.) The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - 145,068 | 541,218
5.) WarioWare: Smooth Moves - 63,086 | 520,479
6.) Super Paper Mario - 156,055 | 493,937
7.) Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors - 302,066 | 482,086
8.) Super Mario Galaxy - 256,341 | 451,845
9.) Pok

Soulcalibur Legends may be no target for its audience, since it adds mediocre graphics (again) and a gameplay like Shaolin monks. It's something different and so Japanese tend to dump it. They seem not to be to fond of new games in known surrounding - which is a shame.

Nights... well... I am not so shaken by this game myself. is it actually any good? Is it better then the average average game blown out by The Sonic Team (A team, that only lives because of their reputation of a 2D game)?

Chocobo Tales... Well. That's a shame, but maybe the DS version was sold too few a months back.

Wii love Golf... Hey, that's CAMELOT, guys! Buy it!
But there are too much golfing games out on Wii - I think. Pangya, Wii Sports... and... well... Pangya2?

What's Shikigami no shiro?

No no no! Far too many people are making the same mistake, Laurelin. Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales was out-sourced and developed by h.a.n.d. (who is also doing Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days on DS). It has nothing to do with this game, bar the fluffy yellow bird main character. It was created as an entirely new spin-off series from the FF world.

This Wii game is the third in the Chocobo Mysterious Dungeon franchise that started on PSone ten years ago (the first sold over a million in Japan). This particular game is being pushed as the 10th Anniversary project of the franchise and is developed in-house at S-E.

As for Shikigami no Shiro, you can read more about it in the interview I posted tohe other day: http://www.cubed3.com/news/9212/

Back on the Chocobo Wii topic, S-E is helping to promote the game more by revealing special codes that unlock new job classes for Chocobo...I think the one I read about on Famitsu.com was about a Dancer Chocobo job title. There's also the official soundtrack that is being released on 23rd January. So hopefully this will be pick up in sales and at least make it to the 250,000 overall.

( Edited on 17.12.2007 15:17 by jesusraz )

good to see mario keeping up there

Ski said:
Ive got an idea, why dont Capcom and co stop releasing low budget clones to finance their bigger hitters and theyll prosper like they once did in the early Nineties.Are any of these games actually any good?( Edited on 15.12.2007 16:17 by Ski )

...or Brain Training! ROFL

When Shikigami no Shiro is released in the States I'm buying 50 copies and giving them away to other Wii owners... Not really, but I can't believe the 360 version sold more than the Wii version. I want that game so badly.

I hope Chocobo's Dungeon sees a release outside of Japan.

If Chocobo's Dungeon continues to underperform (only sold about 44-45% of its initial stock :roll then S-E will have to look elsewhere to recoup its losses. And if it does well it'll definitely come over...win-win situation (for us), I reckon

I wonder how much No More Heroes has dropped this week. The Media Create Top 30 is released in about six hours time, so we'll at least get to see if it can get a Top 30 placing. I doubt it, though, probably dropping to about No.42 or something.

hmm Low sales of Tales of innocence

Most of these games will no doubt sell much higher in Western shores anyway.

Well after the initial internet forum disappointment of Galaxy sales it's now the 4th best selling Wii game and has sold well each week since it's been out in Japan.