Ignition: Muramasa sales 'in line with expectations'

by JC Fletcher on Oct 23rd 2009 1:00PM

Muramasa: The Demon Blade publisher Ignition revealed to Gamer Investments a rough estimate of the NPD sales total for its Wii sidescroller, describing the game's September performance as "in the ball park of 35K," with a margin of "15-20%."

It might sound low to us, but marketing director Melody Frieda said that the total was "in line with expectations and we're happy with how it's performing to date." She said that positive reviews should help keep sales up through the holidays. The company sees even better potential for the title in the long term: according to Frieda, Ignition is "quite confident that Muramasa will be a revered cult classic like its sister property Odin Sphere," which went on to be released under the PS2's "Greatest Hits" line.

Source

Tags: ignition, ignition-entertainment, marvelous, muramasa-the-demon-blade, Nintendo, npd, vanillaware, Wii

Reader Comments (46)

I liked this game. Good action-filled battles with beautiful art. I hope the developers continue to make more games with the same style.

Don't sales for games usually go down pretty sharply within a week or two after release and steadily decline from there? If its an impulse buy, I could see gradual continual sales I suppose but probably not planned purchases so much. I'm not entirely confident it will go from 35k sales to 1,000k sales to become a 'greatest hit' wii equivilent.

Games that attain cult status (like the afore mentioned Odin Sphere) tend to have slower, long term sales than the big blockbuster games that make the bullk of their sales right out of the gate.

Here's hoping people give this game a chance, because it is fantastic.

Wii games tend to follow a different pattern. Their game sales tend to be a little more constant.

There is no organized greatest hits collection for Wii. No Players' Choice this gen period, sadly enough.

Seriously, this is appalling... Developers and publishers shouldn't need to lower their expectations by THAT much. 35'000 units sold in the US across September and no major retailer stocking it for us here in the UK? I feel sorry for the developers... All their hard work into making such an awesome game and only 35'000 people in the US were willing to buy it.

They might as well forget the Wii and port the game to PSN/XBLA... At least then the audience will pay attention to it instead of ignoring it so they can buy another half a million copies of Wii bloody Fit.

The PAL release for the game isn't until next year, which is why no UK retailers are stocking it.

That's not what I mean... http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=377697

As soon as I read this...
"Seriously, this is appalling... "

I knew this...
"They might as well forget the Wii and port the game to PSN/XBLA... At least then the audience will pay attention to it instead of ignoring it so they can buy another half a million copies of Wii bloody Fit."

...was coming.

It's quite predictable, really.

I really wish they would make a game for an HD console. I'd like to see how they could push the system.

This game could have been positioned a premiere game on the XBLA/PSN services, instead of an underperforming Wii title.

Considering how top titles on XBLA like Shadow Complex and SF2 can move hundreds of thousands of units, and it costs less to distribute than a retail rollout, I'd say Ignition made the wrong choice here.

HD sprites are not easy to make. Look how long it took for the Street Fighter HD sprites to be made, and that was by Capcom. Now imagine a small publisher like Vanillaware trying to create those with their budget.

Stop making logical sense, Geist.

@Geist
I'm pretty sure the sprites were hand drawn.
That means they'd already be much larger than 1080p.
They could easily downscale them.

This is one that I'd definitely like to pick up one day, but am not allowed to until I finish (or even start in some cases) the stack of Wii games I've accumulated over the past 6 months. Still, it's soooo pretty (for not being in HD.)

Legs could develop for the title, at least through the holiday season, so it could end up in a rather good spot.

It just seems like it's always widely reported when a Wii title underperforms out of the gate, but nobody cares when it goes on to perfectly respectable (or even rather exceptional) sales.

Can't be too disappointed when expectations are so low. Games like this would certainly benefit by going multi platform, IMO. It feels like a waste to be a Wii exclusive. *sorry* Wii lovers

And yet Odin Sphere was a platinum hit on the ps2.

seems likely that they bet on the wrong horse, and shoulda went with ps3 internationally, or at least as a downloadable title.

PS2 had a really low threshold for platinum hits. I think it's 250,000. This will probably end up doing roundabouts just as well.
...the chances of that increase significantly, I imagine, if Nintendo would finally friggin' roll out a Greatest Hits line...

Platinum hit status was not wholly dependent on sales. Odin Sphere sold around 500k, on a userbase over 2x as big. Muramasa is at 140k on a userbase half as big, and has only been out a month in the US (it's JP sales are pretty much done, but it hasn't come out in PAL yet)

Nintendo still wants me to pay 50 dollars for Super Mario Galaxy. so unless i get super lucky and find it for 40 dollars, i don't see them doing a greatest hits line.

i'd love a hits line up.. but think about what it would consist of
wii sports
wii play
wii fit
mario kart wii
mario party
mario and sonic at the olympics
mario galaxy
smash bros brawl
zelda (seriously, this is a LAUNCH title and it is still the same price)
metroid prime 3
generic game party game
generic sports party game
carnival games
wii skii
EA sports active
*several decent ubisoft games

I want to get Galaxy, and Zelda. The rest i got (which is metroid, and brawl) and the rest i wouldn't touch unless i was 8. I want it so i can get a few 3 year old games at a real price.

"Nintendo still wants me to pay 50 dollars for Super Mario Galaxy."

Nintendo will ALWAYS want you to pay full price for their games, no matter how old they get. I'm not sure if that's ever been different in their history...

In Australia Nintendo games drop in price a lot.
Galaxy was $80 when I picked it up at the Boxing Days sales in 2007, and now you can find it for $60 or even $50 on sale.
Same applies for Brawl, Paper Mario, Twilight Princess, DS games, everything...

While it would be great for every game to sell millions, not every game needs millions to be profitable. Something like a GTA, Halo would need millions to make a profit because of huge production costs. I'm sure Muramasa's costs aren't even close, so therefore they could have lower expectations for what will bring in a profit. There's a lot of planning, budgeting, pricing done before the development teams even come into the picture to see if the project is even worth it in the first place. Now if it went on to sell millions then of course its great. But making a game like this, you know is not going to be a crazy huge seller, especially in the first month.

Unfortunately, people, especially businesses, usually tend to have the mentality that everything must be a mass-market blockbuster or it just doesn't count anymore. Personally, I'm quite tired of it.

Congrats to the publisher for having realistic expectations, their feet planted solidly on the ground, and thus being satisfied with the results.

No, most publishers generally have fairly solid expectations ahead of time. There haven't been too many publisher meltdowns about poor sales. Extraction is the exception. Deadly Creatures was the last one i can remember.

Mr Khan - I would say the issue here is that many publishers won't even touch a game if they don't expect blockbuster sells. We don't hear stories of meltdowns because they won't take risks anymore.

Also, while the publisher may keep going, I for one seem to be seeing plenty of smaller devs getting shuttered after "lackluster" sells.

You know what would help them sell more? Sell the game in Canada. It's not even for sale on Amazon Canada.

Well it's certainly on sale in Canada. Picked it up at a Futureshop, also saw it at Blockbuster and EB.

Odin Sphere was f***ing awesome, with the unfortunate downside of manic depression. (Oh, I'm sorry, maybe you didn't play Mercedes route.)

Looking forward to having my soul crushed again.

...Everything I enjoy makes me sad, actually.

Not clear what you mean by manic depression - Mercedes book was the most original and entertaining part of the game. It was like having a splash of Contra in a game that had been all Guilty Gear to that point. Exactly what was great about Odin Sphere (that Muramasa doesn't have, though it makes up in other areas) was the character variety.

Plot wise, not gameplay wise.

OMG BoomBlox bombed!!! LOL.. EA Shoulda put that shit on a real console.. Now we'll never see aBoomblox 2 !!!!

"Real console" eh? The Wii is different, it IS a console, get over it.

NEVER!!! You soccer mom!

Uh, we did see a Boomblox 2. It was awesome and built upon the first game. Not sure what you're talking about.

Look Geist I clearly remember when Boomblox dropped and it was proof yet again that 3rd party wii games don't sell and that the wii is a fad and also doomed. You're not calling the internet a liar are you? Just look heres your proof...

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/16/boom-blox-a-bust-at-retail-sells-only-60k-units/4#comments

That still doesn't cover the fact that there IS a boomblox 2. ...which you said there wasn't.

And I'm one of the people that full-heartedly agree that a good number of the charm that Boom Blox gave were the motion controls.

VOTE REBULICAN!

LOL TwEE.
You win at the internets!

(And BTW it ended up selling 1,000,000...)

Why does this game have such a terrible localisation? It's ridiculous.

Maybe one day I'll stop reading Muramasa as Makaimura and stop disappointing myself so bad.

One day...

yeah boom blox boomed so hard according to sites that want sorry $ony to regain their place so much that it sold a million copies worldwide!!! Actually I shouldn't say sorry $ony as I might finally have a game in U2 I would like to play on the system for a while. My PS3's been relegated as an overpriced Blu-ray player in my house since I haven't really found a game I'd like to play on the system until U2 came out!!! Oh here's the link: http://www.vgchartz.com/games/game.php?id=13684®ion=All that shows how much boom blox sold!!!

oh another good thing my PS3 is marginally better than my Wii is streaming Naruto episodes online but it is only marginally better!!!

Speaking as a Wii user who does not own Muramasa, I am not a Wii owner who does not WANT Muramasa. I simply have other things on my plate.

Sit back and relax guys. People on the Wii aren't dying to have the newest, flashiest hardware; and we're not dying to have the newest games either. We can wait. That's why our games sell crap at first and stretch out, instead of a big boom at the beginning and then off a cliff.

Ignition: Muramasa sales 'in line with expectations'

Reader Comments (46)

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 1:08PM Geist said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 1:08PM EngadgetSoFunny said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 1:11PM spambot said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 1:14PM Geist said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 1:36PM Mr Khan said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 1:15PM Wintrale said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 1:25PM atomicstrawberry said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 2:25PM Wintrale said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 2:25PM samfish said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 1:14PM Fox318 said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 1:14PM copa said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 1:17PM Geist said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 3:50PM Co said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 10:17PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 1:25PM baby sea tuna said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 1:33PM Mr Khan said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 1:36PM President Taco said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 1:45PM HighFiveJesus said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 2:29PM samfish said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 2:46PM Mr Khan said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 3:16PM HighFiveJesus said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 5:31PM blahblah55 said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 10:14PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 1:55PM rpny said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 2:08PM Rirath said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 2:52PM Mr Khan said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 4:59PM Rirath said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 2:03PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 3:19PM Geist said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 2:44PM The Blank Mage Returns said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 2:45PM The Blank Mage Returns said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 3:49PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 11:41PM The Blank Mage Returns said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 2:58PM TwEE said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 3:24PM Gate Stormer said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 3:25PM TwEE said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 3:32PM Geist said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 3:54PM TwEE said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 5:50PM blahblah55 said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 8:08PM TwEE said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 10:20PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2009 10:22PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 24th 2009 5:34AM Railgun said

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