I think the online hype will be more apparent with Mario Strikers Charged, which if I remember correctly, would be the first NA Wii online game. Although soccer may not be that popular in the region, it is not too difficult to assume that it would be more accessible to more people than BWII, genre, characters, and all. An online-enabled strategy game is still a strategy game, with a relatively unknown franchise at that.
I have a feeling that Nintendo is just trying to fix its own release dates, Halo 3 be damned.
The Halo 3 hype train will make successfully advertising any other game nearly impossible. WITH a good amount of publicity advertising BW II as one of the first online games on the Wii, this game could have gone places. But without, it seems like sales won't be able get that initial boost that it needs. Since the main draw of this game is being one of the first online Wii games, most of its sales will come early in its lifetime.
The two games are in different consoles, of different genres, and definitely catering to different audiences. BWII is a niche title to begin with. I don't think the proximity of Halo 3's release would affect the almost expectedly (relatively) low lifetime sales of this game.
It's basically a small-scale version of Battlefield for the Nintendo Wii, personally, I think it'll sell like hotcakes if not for the fact that it will be one of the first online games for the system.
True. However, while Advance Wars is turn-based and Batallion wars is more of an rts/fps combination, I still feel like they share a great deal of the same audience who follow the Nintendo Wars series.
I could be wrong, as I speak somewhat from personal experience: I was shown advance wars on GBA and went on to playing batalion wars and fire emblem and all of the related games.
I don't think comparisons to the Advanced Wars series are very reliable. The two series are too different and the raw mechanics of the Advanced Wars series were nailed down in the first game. Any advances (!) made in the series are just what you'd expect from any sequel and aren't necessarily caused by the development team getting better over time.
With each new game, they learn a little more about what works and what doesn't.
The DS version, Advance Wars: Duel Strike, has been named editor's choice on a variety of game ranking websites, and has had decent sales.
With that as an indicator of a recent product, combined with the mentioned online launch, there's a good chance that this will at least hit 1M units. I'm guessing it'll end up somewhere around 1.1-1.2
As you can see, it didn't do that well. I haven't been able to find it on any American sales charts, so I'm guessing it didn't do to well there either. Though, that's just a guess.
That said, most sources (Gamespot etc.) are guessing at a 2007 release, which would make it one of the first online games avaliable for the Wii. The developers seem to be focusing on the online component of this game. If online is done properly, I can see this game selling fairly well.
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I have a feeling that Nintendo is just trying to fix its own release dates, Halo 3 be damned.