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Wii Third-Party Struggles Highlighted by May NPD
Wii Third-Party Struggles Highlighted by May NPD
Gamedaily - June 13, 2008
Submitted by mrahaju (9) at 3:28AM PST on June 14, 2008
If you're a third party making a game for Wii, you better have a solid plan of attack. Even Boom Blox from EA and Steven Spielberg, which got very positive reviews (8.6 on GameRankings), was nowhere to be seen in the top 20 and only number nine in the Wii's top 10 chart.
The NPD Group has just told us that Boom Blox sold a paltry 60K units and was ranked #25 for the month of May. We are more than surprised by this lackluster performance.
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2Stever89 posted on Industry News at 3:50PM PST on June 14, 2008. RE: Wii Third-Party Struggles Highlighted by May NPDIt's really too bad for Boom Blox, which is a great game, but killed before it had a chance because EA thought it best to advertise it to 8-12 year olds, which was just plain stupid, since the game caters to a range of ages. But without proper advertising, it did exactly what that analyst said, "it just got lost in the shuffle."
Also, besides GH3, there haven't been a great deal of 3rd party games that have had the right ingredients for the high success that Nintendo's games have achieved. And those are: appealing to wide range of users, advertising, and finally (here's a surprising one) - a good game. Most 3rd party games fail in the advertising part right off the bat.[ Lurker ] [ Level 15 ] [ Rank: 683 ]bids
1vGInfidel posted on Industry News at 12:56PM PST on June 14, 2008. RE: Wii Third-Party Struggles Highlighted by May NPD@pilias_simber,
There was only 3, Guitar Hero from Activision at No.8, We Ski from Namco Bandai at No.13, Game Party at No.17. Considering it was We Ski and Game Party's first month and they achieved probably on the wrong side of 100k, and the only other game is Guitar Hero, i would say that as a whole the Wii's software dominance is almost entirely through first party. Very few third party games have sold in large numbers on the Wii so far and none have achieved numbers any where near those Nintendo first party have.[ Oracle ] [ Level 22 ] [ Rank: 150 ]bids
1lstormy10 posted on Industry News at 12:12PM PST on June 14, 2008. RE: Wii Third-Party Struggles Highlighted by May NPD@pilias_simber,
Or the superb success of Guitar Hero 3 compared to its success on the other platforms.[ Oracle ] [ Level 20 ] [ Rank: 294 ]bids
1pilias_simber posted on Industry News at 10:17AM PST on June 14, 2008. RE: Wii Third-Party Struggles Highlighted by May NPDbids
1mrahaju posted on Industry News at 3:33AM PST on June 14, 2008. RE: Wii Third-Party Struggles Highlighted by May NPD@mrahaju,
My own experience : My husband suggested that our family buy Boom Blox, and I just said no. We still have our Tetris DS, and I feel that for puzzle type of gaming, that game is still adequate.
I am still puzzled of the fact that my son have been playing his "Puzzle Quest" game for hours & hours (I think it is probably 40 hours+, with at least 2 replay that I am aware of, once as Warrior, once as Mage).
Not to mention the fact that my husband has played Advanced Wars DS for 100+ hours, and Advanced Wars : DoR for 130+ hours. But since they are playing it at home, I have no complain (better play at home than spending their time out of home)[ Oracle ] [ Level 23 ] [ Rank: 9 ]bids
1mrahaju posted on Industry News at 3:30AM PST on June 14, 2008. RE: Wii Third-Party Struggles Highlighted by May NPDUpdate 2: Although EA has yet to comment, we've now heard from NPD analyst Anita Frazier, who suggested that Boom Blox just got lost in the shuffle of great games that have been released recently.
"It's still really hard for new IP to breakthrough the noise in the market, and there has been a lot of noise so far this year. Between Super Smash Bros. Brawl, GTA IV, Wii Fit, Mario Kart and the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 4 (to name a few), there have been some really high profile game releases. The game was really well reviewed so I'm suspecting the marketing just didn't break through the clutter to the extent that they were hoping for," she commented.[ Oracle ] [ Level 23 ] [ Rank: 9 ]bids
21mrahaju posted on Industry News at 3:28AM PST on June 14, 2008. Article: Wii Third-Party Struggles Highlighted by May NPDIf you're a third party making a game for Wii, you better have a solid plan of attack. Even Boom Blox from EA and Steven Spielberg, which got very positive reviews (8.6 on GameRankings), was nowhere to be seen in the top 20 and only number nine in the Wii's top 10 chart. The NPD Group has just told us that Boom Blox sold a paltry 60K units and was ranked #25 for the month of May. We are more than surprised by this lackluster performance.[ Oracle ] [ Level 23 ] [ Rank: 9 ]
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Well, since there was no main series third party game yet released on Wii (other than Guitar Hero III, and those sports game, like Tiger Woods, Madden etc), this situation will not change in the near future.
Expecting new IP (like Zack & Wiki or Boom Blox) or spin-off (like FFCC games, RE:UC) to do well / compete closely against Nintendo heavyweight (like Zelda:TP, SSBB, Mario Kart) is like asking for primary school children to go against world holder champ.
The only game that can go against those heavy weight are GTAIV & CODIV (combining all platform), WoW. Even RE5, FFXIII, Gears of War 2 did not come close to SSBB or MK:Wii sales (proven by simEx prediction of those mentioned games).