Rumor: WiiWare sales for third-party devs in the hundreds?

According to an interview with Sabarasa Entertainment (the makers of Protothea), they don't have sales figures, just a ranking of the sales of all Wiiware games (so maybe all games just sold hundreds, or maybe some were truly successful). According to them, Protothea was ranked 5th in sales back when it was launched, and is now 20th. They said they were pleased as Star Soldier R was last in sales since launch (too bad, Star Soldier R is hundreds of times more fun than that Protothea crap). Now that Nintendo is taking action against pirate WADs, it is possible sales increase.

Just wondering, when you talk about Nintendo fighting pirate WADs, is that what today's new update was about? Because I can't figure out what the update did, and I was hoping for some cool new menu features, but I haven't found any.

I'm seriously cheesed off by the lack of buzz around World of Goo. Everyone who has reviewed it has raved about it, but I haven't heard a single mention of it on podcasts, or editor blogs, or anything.

Compared to the massive orgy around Braid (a game that a lot of folks have dismissed since as being overrated), I don't understand what happened here.

People are so quick to point out pro-nintendo bias in the games media, but what's with the almost complete silence about one of the better-reviewed games this year?

I say eff that.

I havent been online with my wii since my Belkin router decided to reject my nintendo products a couple months ago, but the wiiware store seems so bland.. I know thats the look they are going for, but it turns me off..

Maybe if they had a grid of screens for each genre (kinda like that pic up top there).. each one playing a few seconds of the game. Youd scroll over the game and the title would pop up and if you wanted more info you click it..

A combination of factors, i think. The storage problem stymies impulse buys, and the lack of demos also prevents people from trying new ideas, add to that the fact that a lot of the games are shit, and you don't have a winning formula

The nice thing is its Darwinian in the right way. You're catering to a small crowd, so the best will claw their way to the top.

The lack of demos definitely affects my WiiWare purchasing. I've purchased nearly 10 WiiWare games and only ended up playing a few of them. Even though the reviews were good for the others, I just didn't find them entertaining. Without playing a demo you often can't tell.

I now buy WiiWare games very rarely because I don't want to waste more money. I'll continue to purchase LiveArcade games but WiiWare is (mostly) out for me unless they add demos. I find LiveArcade is also faster and easier to use.

The source is the recent Retronauts.

I'm not usually one to call out bias in the gaming press, but I don't take anything Shane Bettenhausen says about Nintendo seriously.

That said, Capcom and the Lost winds people have both said they're extremely pleased with their game's sales...Capcom said this, by the way, BEFORE MM9 was on PSN.
And the Lost Winds people have obviously made enough money to fund a sequel, so...

Surprise surprise! The quality games sell a lot better than the shovelware ones 90% of the time! I can't believe it!

If this is true, then the first-party games are also selling just some hundreds. Just look at the weekly rankings, Megaman 9, World of Goo, even My Aquarium, they're on the top, and that means Nintendo titles sell less [less than 100?].

I have to say what I think the 2 biggest issues are.

1. Storage: It's pathetic, everyone knows. This probably is stopping people from getting games because they have to spend an hour playing tetris with channels.

2. Demos: There is none.

Other then those issues, I see no reason why the games wouldn't sell.

MAYBE the menu system for Nintendo sucks, I don't know.

I call shenanigans on this rumor. I seriously doubt companies would be clamoring to get titles released on Wii Ware if it was some kind of dismal failure. Do you really think Tell Tale would continue making Strongbad episodes if they were only selling a few hundred copies? I think if the first episode had been that kind of flop they would drop the project.

Also, wasn't it announced that MM9 sold TENS OF THOUSANDS is just the first week or so after release? So this rumor is bunk, however I'm sure sales are not anywhere near what they could be if storage were not an issue and Nintendo made it easier to create an account and you could actually keep a CC on file or better yet, if you could log into your account and play your purchased games from any Wii (you just have to be logged in to play and can only be logged in at once place at a time)... if Valve can do it with Steam why can't Nintendo?

Those kind of changes would drastically increase my Wii Ware purchasing, because part of me cringes every time I think of how much I have invested in it already and how pissed I would be if my Wii died and I lost all of that content.

i believe there could be some truth to this rumor. for one, i loaded up on old NES, SNES and N64 games. by the time wiiware came out, i was loaded up.

i went out of my way to get a 2GB SD card so i would have room for mega man 9. but i'm lazy, and i haven't even mustered up the strength to swap out games to the card so i can download tetris. and i *love* tetris.

i wonder how many other people downloaded a ton of old games, ran out of space and said "why bother?"

Dear Wii Fanboy,

Please, PLEASE, do not take anything a 1up editor seriously. Go over there and listen to their 1up Yours podcast each week and you'll find nothing but contempt for the Wii and anything remotely positive about the Wii will be spun negatively. Hell, Shane was mad at Super Mario Galaxy because it made him love his Wii!! Clearly he wants to hate it! So yeah, 1up + Wii news = not a very pretty.

It wouldn't surprise me one bit if some of the crappier WiiWare shovelware titles had only managed to sell in the hundreds. Frat Party Games (or whatever it's called) IMMEDIATELY comes to mind.

I hope it's true. Maybe their creators will stop subjecting us to "games" like that.

Please, guys, rampant and baseless Nintendo bashing was one of the main reasons I STOPPED reading sites like Kotaku. Your second paragraph clearly shows that you know this is pure bullshit, why even bring it up? Heck, a bit of looking at the Wiiware popularity charts (such as the ones that Wiiware-world.com keeps weekly) would show you that even those really crappy WiiWare games have enjoyed modest success on the charts; possibly even comparable to the ones we rave about.

You know what the last time I called you guys out for printing any negative tone article,rumor,bathroom scribble about the wii I backed off when one of your writers defended his actions,but this time fuck it I'm done reading this hack site.

2 words Virtual Console. As much as I would like to try Wii Ware games, I can't bring myself to purchase the games because of the quality of the Virtual Console. I can't see spending money on a game that could be OK when I can buy a game that I know is good. I am waiting for christmas and I will get Dr. Mario and Tetris but that is because they are old games too, just made for Wii Ware.

It's been said before (/\-up there even) but w/o demos, I just can't pull the trigger for most of these games.

That, and I'm still having fun with Mario Cart, still need to finish Okami, God Hand, Shadow Hearts, and I'm still itching to play Killer 7, No More Heroes, and Resident Evil 4 again.

Hell, I still have not bought Sin and Punishment yet, and that's specifically a game that I know that I would enjoy.

How come people are saying games sold only hundreds when the online rankings has thousands (Star Soldier, Megaman, Bomberman, Pop), and many already have sequels on the work (Eternity Child, My Life as a King, Strongbad, Lost Wind).

Telltale even said thenselfs that they were very happy with the Wiiware sales, which were way above PC sales.

By the way, the Gonintendo article said the good titles are selling well (World of Goo), confirming my statement above. As expected, the bad games are doing poorly (good, stop trying to push Protothea, the worst port idea I have ever seen)

i think I can make a shitty game and expect to sell millions, DOH! i dont even want to imagine what product did they were offering in the wii ware.Anyone wanna guess?
Because it doesnt takes too many calculations to guess that megaman has already sold at least a 1 million on the wiiware alone(not counting ps3 and x360).