Sega sent word today that its Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games for Wii and DS has surpassed 6 million copies sold since launching worldwide in October 2009. Of course, the Olympics in Vancouver are already well underway, and Sega intends to leverage the event with more marketing.
"With the Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremony on February 12th marking the start of the Games themselves, Sega has big plans to support the title across the globe with increased marketing activity," the company stated. "New television campaigns for the game are planned for North America (running from February 1st to 28th) and other major European territories including France, Benelux, Austria and the Nordic countries. As Olympic Winter Games fever hits, Sega will also be participating in events celebrating the Games around the world in cities such as London, Washington DC and San Francisco."
Regarding the sales success of the title so far, Mike Hayes, CEO for Sega America and Sega Europe, commented: “The original Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games was a huge success for Sega. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games is one of the leading third party games for Wii and DS and we were confident the title would have longevity within retail. The start of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games is a perfect time to ensure Sega is at the forefront of the consumer’s mind when it comes to recreating that Olympic Winter Games feeling in living rooms everywhere.”
13 Comments
February 18, 2010
Ok so this has sold 6 million world wide and Olympic Games has sold 7 almost 8 million. A game based off a event going on right now. That has been advertise like no business. Also it's a 3rd party game on the Wii. In total a 3rd party franchise that has sold 13 to 14 million world wide.
I wonder who many 3rd parties games on the HD console have done that. Other than Modern Warfare?
Waiting for 3rd party needs to sale better on HD console article!
James Dim man!
February 18, 2010
This Mario and Sonic stuff is one of the few third party franchises to really excel on the Wii. It's an exception, whereas on HD consoles like 360/PS3 you routinely have games selling in the millions.
February 18, 2010
How ironic that SEGAs most successful game on Wii has MARIO in it 15 years ago i woulda slapped someone in the face if they even fathomed this ever happening lol
February 18, 2010
February 18, 2010
Anthony, yeah the little boy inside me still sometimes chuckles at the fact that Mario and Sonic appear together.
February 18, 2010
I think this whole 3rd party games dont sell on wii things is true...but more blown out of proportion than people would like us to think, a couple of things that you have to take into account is a game doesnt have to sell 1 million units to make a considerable profit considering how inexpensive it is to develop for the wii in relation to PS3 and 360.
According to Vgchartz.com (estimated sales based off of NPD and other sources) the following are games that have sold well on wii these are just the miliion sellers from 3rd parties not even considering the other games that have turned profit without having to meet 1 million units sold.
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games SEGA: 7.54m
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock ACTIVISON: 4.38m
Carnival Games MIDWAY: 3.55m
Guitar Hero: World Tour ACTIVISION: 3.37m
LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga LUCASARTS: 3.36m
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games SEGA: 3.0m
EA Sports Active EASPORTS: 2.73m
Sonic and the Secret Rings SEGA: 2.20m
Game Party MIDWAY: 2.17m
Deca Sports HUDSON: 2.17m
My Fitness Coach UBISOFT: 1.69m
Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 UBISOFT:1.68m
Resident Evil 4 CAPCOM: 1.67m
Rayman Raving Rabbids UBISOFT: 1.66m
Rayman Raving Rabbids: TV Party UBISOFT: 1.61m
LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures LUCASARTS: 1.60m
MySims EA: 1.51m
High School Musical: Sing It! Disney Interactive Studios: 1.49m
Big Beach Sports THQ:1.48m
Lego Batman: The Videogame Warner Bros. Interactive: 1.46m
Sonic Unleashed Sega:1.46m
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed LucasArts: 1.45m
Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip Ubisoft:1.45m
Call of Duty: World at War Activision:1.42m
Cooking Mama: Cook Off Majesco:1.42m
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz Sega:1.40m
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 Electronic Arts:1.38m
Just Dance Ubisoft:1.37m
Rock Band MTV Games:1.36m
Active Life: Outdoor Challenge Namco Bandai: 1.35m
Call of Duty 3 Activision:1.33m
Game Party 2 Midway Games: 1.32m
Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles Capcom:1.32m
Smarty Pants Electronic Arts:1.29m
Hannah Montana: Spotlight World Tour Disney Interactive Studios:1.28m
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 All-Play EA Sports:1.28m
Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Party Konami:1.27m
Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels LucasArts: 1.20m
Red Steel Ubisoft:1.19m
The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return Sega:1.17m
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 Konami:1.13m
Monopoly Electronic Arts:1.12m
Ben 10: Protector of Earth D3 Publisher:1.11m
MySims Kingdom Electronic Arts:1.11m
Carnival Games: Mini Golf 2K Play:1.11m
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Activision:1.08m
The Beatles: Rock Band MTV Games:1.07m
Jillian Michaels' Fitness Ultimatum 2009 Majesco: 1.04m
Boom Blox Electronic Arts:1.03m
Disney Sing It Disney Interactive Studios:1.01m
Monster Hunter Tri Capcom:1.01m
FIFA 08 Electronic Arts:1.00m
Heres a shocker Madworld which initailly sold poorly is aproaching half a million in sales...20 thousand units a month doesnt sound like much but it adds up when its consistent.
As for No more heroes part one is also nearing 500,000 copies, which for a suda 51 game is astonishing none ofhis games have ever been blockbusters regardless of great reviews.
So lets not cry and believe to much of the hype companies are surely making good money and selling through copies of their games. It just takes a bit longer on wii... I do see mini games in there and casual games right there along other games considered hardcore.
There are 76 titles on Wii that are million sellers including 1st, 2nd and 3rd party games.
91 million sellers on 360.
and 49 million seller on PS3...So after learning this i think its safe to say. Sales arent as bad as it seems.
February 19, 2010
grgthththt
February 19, 2010
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games is a perfect example of how to succeed on the Wii.
Firstly, it has Mario related characters (which appeal to a large, family friendly demographic) in addition to Sonic related characters, whose appeal is almost as large.
Secondly, it's an official Olympics game coming out in a timely fashion and the Olympics is a very mainstream, family-friendly property.
Thirdly, it has a sports/mini-game set-up, which is easy for consumers who like titles like Wii Sports and Wii Play to get on board with.
In conclusion, it's a perfect game to appeal to the Wii's prime demographic of casual, family friendly consumers; “core” titles (which have been trending downward since 2007 on the Wii) are a completely different matter altogether.
February 22, 2010
and the other 75 million sellers?
February 26, 2010
And the others are mostly not “core” titles; the only real exceptions on that list are the Resident Evils, Monster Hunter Tri and House of the Dead which are pretty big franchises in their own right (with the latest RE and HotD titles having disappointing returns on the Wii, mind you) and Red Steel (beneficiary of the launch and awful game) – the rest have family/fitness appeal (yes, Star Wars is a popular, family brand too).
That stat also skews things like price point – Nintendo sales-wise comprise about half of the total money made from games. And the top 15 or so best selling Wii titles (excluding some Sega Olympic titles that also feature Mario characters) are all from Nintendo. It's also a somewhat deceptive stat that might exclude some PS3/Xbox 360 releases that sell over a million copies in total, but less than a million on each platform.
March 4, 2010
It seems to me that no matter what, Mr. Radd seems to like to hold up the, ifs, ands or buts, when it comes to Wii games selling as he might not expect. Nintendo among other third parties have confirmed that 54 of the 76 Million sellers on wii are from thrid parties. So Mr. Radd has to say that NEW ips dont sell well on wii to justify his core games dont sell well on wii, seems interesting to me. Also its not deceptive to exclude CUMALITIVE sales across all platforms when the whole point is Games dont sell on A,B,or C console of choice.
The Following games DONT count for the following reasons....
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock ACTIVISON: 4.38m
Guitar Hero: World Tour ACTIVISION: 3.37m
Guitar hero doesnt count because you can play with friends in the same room so its not hardcore enough.
Sonic and the Secret Rings SEGA: 2.20m
Sonic is in the game so it doesnt count
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed LucasArts: 1.45m
Starwars isnt nerdy enough and is now a family game never mind that this one isnt the lego starwars and its rated teen.
Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip Ubisoft:1.45m
He won the gold medal so hes a house hold name...Wiat this came out before this years olympics..Its a snowboarding game and kids like snowboarding so its a kids game
Call of Duty: World at War Activision:1.42m
This is a popular franchise and doesnt count because its established, but modernwarfare 2 is different cuz it not on wii yet but if it comes out on wii then its an estbalished franchise and then it wont count.
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz Sega:1.40m
The original games started on GameCube so this isnt a real Wii game
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 Electronic Arts:1.38m
This is Golf and not so golf games on wii dont count because golf was on wii sports
Rock Band MTV Games:1.36m
See guitar hero for comment NVM that THIS WAS A NEW IP.
Call of Duty 3 Activision:1.33m
This is Call of duty 3 so it doesnt count becuase part one and two existed before it.
Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles Capcom:1.32m
The Name sold this game not any other fact.
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 All-Play EA Sports:1.28m
See previous Tiger woods comment
Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels LucasArts: 1.20m
This game is based on starwars and doesnt count because its starwars.
Red Steel Ubisoft:1.19m
This game only did well because it came out when the wii launched....and if part two does well...then its because its not a new IP.
The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return Sega:1.17m
There is a number 2 and three here so that helped this game oh and its house of the dead. so that doesnt count.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 Konami:1.13m
This game doesnt count because soccer is a very popular sport in many countries and thats the only reason this game sold...
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Activision:1.08m
The Beatles: Rock Band MTV Games:1.07m
See other rock band comment.
Monster Hunter Tri Capcom:1.01m
This ia third monster hunter game and Japan loves monster hunter so this game doesnt count.
FIFA 08 Electronic Arts:1.00m
See pro evolution comment.
Honestly its exactly how it comes off. these games did well because 9 times out of ten they were good games and stood along side more "casual games". Simply put Wii games not selling well is only paryially true. they dont sell well or huge numbers when they launch, they have longer tails and sell consistent numbers, slowly but surely they build up and sell well past what people might hve expected, because the game journalist like many gamers are short sighted and have short attention spans, we are always looking to the next release and forget about a game that launched six months ago, by that time the units have passed 250-500 thousand units. and nobody saw it coming, because the people who are buying these titles are busier playing these games and arent the people who read sites like this.
Simply put 3rd party games (Not including 1st party games) Casual or not, New Ip or not, Hardcore or not have sold more Million sellers (54) on wii, than all of PS3s million sellers combined (49).
March 4, 2010
we need an edit button lol so many misspellings :/
March 9, 2010
lol seriously