NPD results for June 2009 were not positive, with sales down year-over-year in all categories. With the biggest year-over-year decline in nearly a decade, the month did not turn out to be the best time to launch The Conduit. The Wii-exclusive FPS title managed only 72,000 in sales, putting it out of the Wii's top 5 titles and at number 25 for the month overall.
According to Edge, The Conduit failed to have much impact in the U.K. either, debuting at number 29 overall. The High Voltage Software developed game was the latest attempt by Sega to breach the core Wii market, with House of the Dead: Overkill having sold 45,000 in February and MadWorld managing only 66,000 sales during March 2009.
We have to really wonder at this point: is this just a bad time to launch a new core IP on the Wii, or is the market just not there?
2 Comments
July 17, 2009
The odd thing is that at the local Target this week, they didn't even have the game on their inventory list -- and none of the staff in that dept. knew about it.
Likewise, not a single copy on the shelf at BestBuy.
Sounds to me like Sega's got a distribution problem more so than the game itself having problems.
July 17, 2009
I haven't picked the game up yet but I've noticed the so-so reviews it's gotten. I think that, despite how much the core gamers complain about the lack of core games on the Wii, they just don't support them enough to justify putting them there, atleast not exclusively. Think of how many copies Madworld, House of The Dead: Overkill and The Conduit would have sold if they were multiplatform. Thats something for Sega to put some serious thought into before announcing any sort of exclusiveness for their next new IP.