Viva Pinata was a game targeted at children (even if it was a complex strategy game), so why wouldn't Microsoft bundle a game aimed at bringing in a new audience to their console. Halo Wars is not meant to grow the audience but to take advantage of the already built in audience.
I agree that Halo 3 would have sold less would it have had a different name, but the fact remains that the people I know (they have to be a small portion of the 5 million who bought the game, no one has that many friends, I am making an observation based on the data I currently have) bought it because they trust the brand, the know that it will deliver a high quality FPS, both single player and multiplayer. They don't buy it just because its Halo, but because it was a name synonymous with quality, much like people buy BMW or Aston Martin because they are brands whose name is synonymous with quality. But that doesn't mean everything that those companies make is successful, just the same here.
Like apujanata said, Halo doesn't have a proven track record and I don't see the brand carrying this game. Also, if they don't announce other Halo related things, public awareness of the brand will fade and it will lose much of its power to sell games. And I still don't trust the ensemble studios, who have never made a console game let alone a RTS console game, can somehow master how to make controls on a console work on their first try, especially with their quality slipping as of late.
Due to all of this I think this game will sell max 140DKP.
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Viva Pinata was a game targeted at children (even if it was a complex strategy game), so why wouldn't Microsoft bundle a game aimed at bringing in a new audience to their console. Halo Wars is not meant to grow the audience but to take advantage of the already built in audience.
I agree that Halo 3 would have sold less would it have had a different name, but the fact remains that the people I know (they have to be a small portion of the 5 million who bought the game, no one has that many friends, I am making an observation based on the data I currently have) bought it because they trust the brand, the know that it will deliver a high quality FPS, both single player and multiplayer. They don't buy it just because its Halo, but because it was a name synonymous with quality, much like people buy BMW or Aston Martin because they are brands whose name is synonymous with quality. But that doesn't mean everything that those companies make is successful, just the same here.
Like apujanata said, Halo doesn't have a proven track record and I don't see the brand carrying this game. Also, if they don't announce other Halo related things, public awareness of the brand will fade and it will lose much of its power to sell games. And I still don't trust the ensemble studios, who have never made a console game let alone a RTS console game, can somehow master how to make controls on a console work on their first try, especially with their quality slipping as of late.
Due to all of this I think this game will sell max 140DKP.