Recently, IndustryGamers published an op-ed declaring the third-party core Wii market insubstantial, a sentiment backed up by analyst Michael Pachter. Speaking to Wired, Sega West President and COO Mike Hayes fielded a question about MadWorld and core titles on the Wii in general.
"It’s difficult because it was a critically acclaimed title; it was extreme but good," responded Hayes. "The thing that we’re saying is, Sega would be extremely arrogant to have a title that didn’t do as well as we thought on a platform and then say, 'Those kind of games don’t sell on that platform.' I think if you take our slew of more mature games — House of the Dead: Overkill did really well in Europe, and for some reason even though it’s a big (intellectual property) it did less well in North America. So that’s kind of like a win and a miss that’s kind of come out neutral."
"MadWorld sales were very disappointing, but was that to do with the platform? Was it that people didn’t like the art style?," he added. "Or that people didn’t like the way the game played through? It could be many things, which we’re obviously researching."
When asked about The Conduit, Hayes said, "We actually regard The Conduit as a success. We shipped 300,000 units, sold through half of those and now it’s at the point where it’s selling consistently at a time when Wii sales are generally depressed in the marketplace. So what does that tell you? We still kind of don’t know."
"What we can say is that we’ll still do mature games for the Wii market because with an install base of some 34 million in Europe and America (maybe half of whom don’t own Xbox 360s and PS3s)," he continued. "So even if you took half of those where they’re not into those (core) games, you’ve still got 8 million consumers to go for. So I think the sheer scale of the Wii allows a shooter, or a mature game, to be a niche but a successful niche. And because the development costs can be less on Wii, that means you can sell less to be successful…. We can take more risks on the Wii."
"You’ll see more games in that genre coming from us," he added.
Hayes was also asked about delaying Bayonetta into early 2010, a period becoming saturated with titles like BioShock 2, Splinter Cell: Conviction and Red Steel 2. "What we don’t want to do is move, then say we’re launching on Jan. 29th — that would be crazy. We want to make sure that we stagger that period after Christmas. Hopefully, as publishers, we’ll be smart in the points that we release and don’t create another November in February. But I acknowledge your point’s a very good one."
"When we moved Bayonetta, that wasn’t due to the economic situation," he added. "It was because it looked like we’d launch in November and in the West, you don’t launch new IP at that busy time of year. So we moved it to what we think will be a quieter period in the new year. And I think that other companies are saying they’re moving titles just because of the economy, and I think their development directors are quite delighted that’s being used as a reason."
While the third-party core market on the Wii does not appear to be large, the bar for success on the platform appears to be lower than on the PS3 and Xbox 360... assuming Hayes isn't just trying to put a good face on the sales of certain Sega-published Wii titles.
