Nintendo's Kaigler: Hardcore Wii game sales could go long tail ... maybe

A lot of people who consider themselves "hardcore" gamers buy a 360, a PS3, or a PC before they would touch a wii. I used to own a wii and while the first part titles were very good, and so was No More Heroes, after that there is just nothing on the console worth playing, and the only game that has replayability is brawl. Dissapointing.

I haven't played Mad World or the Conduit, but while both of them looked cool neither of them looked that great. I feel like they were hyped because they were one of the very few "hardcore" games for the wii, not because they were good compared to other games on other consoles.

I keep thinking the words in her voice bubble are "DID YOU RIKE IT?"

I always bought Nintendo systems for Nintendo games.

3rd parties can struggle all they want.

And where the F are all the VC games???

The degree to which a game sells at the normal "blockbuster" curve of huge day-1 sales, then quickly tapering off has to be some reflection of the average age of the consumer. Older gamers have disposable income and go out and buy on day-1. Younger gamers depend on parents, holidays, or sudden influxes of cash in order to get ahold of a game. To the degree that the average Wii owner that is likely to buy a "hardcore" title on the Wii is younger (excluding older folks who bought it for Sports, etc), you'd expect more of a slow-burn with holiday bumps instead of the sugar rush day-1 sales of blockbuster titles. Or maybe not. Ask a game consultant.

I would just like games like brawl and galaxy and super paper mario to come down from 50 bucks a pop sometime very soon they have been out way to long to still be that expensive.

Of course she knows why. Anyone with eyes can see why games like these fail. For the most part, they're niche games. The Conduit is the exception, but The Conduit has other factors going against it (even if we discount the debatable concepts of quality)

She just didn't want to possibly offend SEGA. Though SEGA seems to be quite pleased with the fruits of their labor.

Forget The conduit (a meh game), people need to buy Little Kings story (amazing game).

This is not an opinion.. it's science!

It's kind of a myth that "core" 3rd party Wii exclusive games (i.e. Conduit & Madworld) only need to sell a couple hundred thousand copies to make a profit. It's also a myth that they have a better chance at profiting on this type of game than on a PS360 multiplat or exclusive title. Sure, if you make a low quality compilation of mini games (purr pals, redneck jamboree etc) then your development costs probably weren't more than 500K or 1 MIL and you can sell less than 100K and still turn a modest or decent profit depending on your expectations. But, there are high quality mini game compilations out there (carnival games) that have better everything and need to sell more.

I don't know what the development cost of Conduit or Madworld were but I'm fairly certain they were probably bigger budget titles than your average lackluster mini game compilation. There is a whole slew of programming challenges when it comes to the Wii - namely accurate and intuitive gestural controls and adding an integrated online component.

It's not like every game on the Wii costs 1 MIL bucks or less to make. For example, I would imagine Capcom has probably put as much development costs in to Monster Hunter as they have games like Lost Planet, Bionic Commando but probably less than Resident Evil & Street Fighter. I don't think there is a big coorelation between the platform and the cost of development. It comes down to familiararity with the architecture, price of dev kits, size of the development team and other factors.

PS360 developers can't really make low quality titles because they won't sell that well because there is a certain expectation of quality with the userbase of the machines and there isn't as big a market for those titles. Thats why you see so many games in similar genres on the PS360 because developers don't want to take a high risk game in an unproven genre. However, Wii developers can do that type of stuff because it's not vital that the game be high quality to be a million seller in every instance.

Finally, there is the issue of 3rd party software sales on the Wii. This has to be taken on a case by case basis and you can't really apply a blanket statement like those games don't ever sell good on the wii. But, you could probably say those 3rd party games don't have as good of chance of success as the first party titles do when it comes to the units sold. The Wii games do have this trend of longer legs but even that is mostly the first party stuff.

At the end of the day PS360 games are higher risk because of the higher expectation of quality but high risk means a chance of high rewards. The Wii has less financial risk on the average because there isn't the same expectation of quality due to the demographics. Therefore, I draw the conclusion that a high quality title on the wii is going to have a similar budget and development title to a high quality title on the Wii. I would imagine that a lot of PSN & XBLA games (Fat Princess, Trine, Braid, Flower, Castle Crashers etc etc) have equal development cycles and costs of low quality retail Wii releases.

Disclaimer: This is just my opinion and the conclusions I have drawn over the years. Sorry for the long post.

I was planning on picking up 'The Conduit' at launch, but due to awful reviews (About the game play, not the graphics) I decided to wait for the bargain bin. I don't know where they heard 'critical acclaim' but I sure never heard any.

The problem remains that 3rd party developers are not putting any effort into creating quality experiences on the Wii. This seems ironic to me because one would think that a quality 'hardcore' title on the Wii would sell more (due to a lack of alternatives titles on the Wii and install base), and be less expensive to produce than a similar title for other platforms.

I want to see Kaigler vs DSG in a face off.

I know a lot of hardcore gamers, and none of them really think of the Wii as something they want to play on for a "hardcore" experience. Of course, I hate this fact, but this is reality, and Nintendo needs to get real and quit the BS. I've had it with their crap. Heck, I don't even remember the last Wii game I bought. This whole "Wii is for everyone" was fun and all in the beginning, but now, gamers are getting absolutely fed up with their new ways. And they keep on saying Wii is for all kinds of people, but we all no this is a stupid and untrue statement. Wii has become something that rejects hardcore gamers for the most part. I want more games like Super Mario Galaxy, The Legend of Zelda, Mario Kart, and Super Smash Bros. And I want them coming at me always, not just occasionally. Gosh, Nintendo, I love you and your awesome. We have so many great memories that are unforgettable. But seriosuly, what happened? What the heck is going on? Why the betrayal. This has been absolutely ridiculous, and I'm sure a lot of other people agree. I think the Wii is a great system, but in terms of games and who you're leaning towards, lets get with the program and quit this madness.

I still don't quite understand why third party Wii titles can be so darn difficult to find. All the comments here touch on different opinions but I wonder if Nintendo has something to do with it? Maybe a LOT to do with it? I'm a new Wii owner, just over 2 weeks, so I'm just now experiencing this situation on the Wii but have had a DS since '05 and learned quickly where to order some of the titles I wanted.

My first experience with the Wii was with Little King's Story. I read it was to be released on the 21st of July so since I now live within 5 miles of every chain store you can think of plus two local game stores, I did not pre-order it nor even think about getting it anywhere but locally. I went into Best Buy and after a lot of looking around the guy talks to someone and comes back to me with, "No we don't have it in stock and we won't be carrying it at all." I was surprised....this was a Best Buy that had a HUGE Wii inventory. Every add on and bauble you could think of plus a huge game inventory. Luckily the TWO Gamestops (yes TWO...in one big mall) next door had it although I had to wait until that evening to pick it up from one of them as they'd not unpacked it when I stopped in.

I think I may be luckier than some because between the plethora of chain stores here, 6 or 7 Gamestops in my area plus a couple EBs and several locally owned game stores, and the ability to mail order I should be able to find whatever title I want. I did talk to the guy at one of the locally owned stores about the Wii and he said he has a huge customer base for Wii games so tries to keep up a good stock. He was closed when I stopped by looking for Little King's Story or I could have gotten it there. Of course, I COULD have ordered it from NewEgg for several $$ less PLUS free shipping AND no sales tax but didn't even think to look. Now that I'm back in civilization I'm trying to support some of my brick and mortar stores although deals like that one make it difficult.

As for what to call a gamer..........what a load of noise that topic generated in this thread. Gaaaawd.

am I the only one who thinks women over the age of 30 should have no involvement in the video game industry?

for games like madworld, and no more heroes, I see little to no adverts from the publishers, seriously, those games are so good, The problem with the good 3rd party games is they make no effort to make their work known. I am a veteran gamer, and I hear bout these games via blogs/sites very often, but for the casual gamer to which these games appeal to, how the %R$@ are they suppose to know about them?!

KAIGLER!!!!!

Sucks how original games like No More Heroes will only sell 10,000 while shit like Brain Age 2 will sell 850,000 at launch...

Denise Kaigler doesn't know why core games like The Conduit haven't sold very well? I'll tell her. It's because her company has alienated core gamers by catering almost exclusively to casual gamers, which has sent most of the core gamers packing to other consoles.

What language is she speaking in those quotes, and how much do you think they pay her to talk like that?

I can't believe the amount of un-fun people there are in the videogame industry. It's almost as if as soon as you bring money into the equation, any equation, all the freaks come out of the woodwork. And I don't mean the good kind of freaks. I mean boring nerd-drones.

But not even nerds, cos nerds are smart, as Milhous so succinctly pointed out to us all those years ago.

The adults who work at EB Games/Gamestop are even worse. Yikes!!!