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[Wii] Release Date Mentalism

rgraves

By rgraves,
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rgraves

rgraves

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I've just taken a quick peek at the US Wii release list. Picking out some of the titles that have caught my eye, I get this:

Grand Slam Tennis - 16 June 2009

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 - 16 June 2009

Let's Tap - 16 June 2009

Ghostbusters - 16 June 2009

The Conduit - 23 June 2009

Little King's Story - 23 June 2009

Overlord: Dark Legend - 23 June 2009

So, that's 4 games on 16 June and then 3 more on 23 June. 7 decent-looking third-party upcoming Wii games all being released within 7 days of one another (and with the first-party behemoth that will be Wii Sports Resort just a month after).

Why on earth do publishers do this? They must know that there will be casulties in a pile-up like that? What possible benefit is there to that kind of scheduling for them? Surely a savvy move would be to pull one of them up to say a week earlier and grab some dollars/WoM before the others hit?

It's like crazy movie scheduling gone even more mental. Javelin.

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Rudderless

Rudderless

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But there is only one decent game in that list, so what is the problem?

You've played them all then, have you?

I can confirm, having played two of them extensively and a fair bit of one other, that there'll likely be at least three decent games on that list.

Back on topic: yes, it's stupid. Let's Tap will probably get lost among that lot unless Sega can sell it to the expanded audience (could possibly be a surprise party hit if people like the novelty of the controls). Got a funny feeling The Conduit might do quite well. Not amazing numbers, but I think it'll outperform the likes of MadWorld and HOTD: Overkill.

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scottcr

scottcr

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Another way to look at it is that it gives the impression of a lot of support from 3rd parties. Lots of good games, that have received decent investment and are certainly not shovelware - all appearing at the same time. Says good things about the Wii as a gaming platform.

perhaps

personally - it drives me nuts. I don't have the time nor money to buy all the games I want when I want... so I end up leaving them, forgetting about them and then something else comes out. For example, couldn't afford MadWorld at the time it was released... now I can, but Little Kings Story is out and frankly, I want to play that more. MadWorld goes unbought.

SHOCK

Here's a prediction.

Ghostbusters will sell most on the Wii.

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Rudderless

Rudderless

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Rising Star released Little King's Story the same day as Pikmin 2 in the UK.

In fairness, it outsold Pikmin 2, though I wonder if some bought the latter and missed out on LKS - which would have improved its initial chart placing and thus its store prominence. Hopefully the overwhelmingly positive word-of-mouth (I've not encountered anyone who hasn't liked it yet) will have an effect, though it seems not to be appealing outside Wii's comparatively small 'hardcore' (we really need a new term, don't we?*) demographic.

*Enthusiast?

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rgraves

rgraves

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Here's a prediction.

Ghostbusters will sell most on the Wii.

That may have happened given some space to work with, but I really think it's going to get totally lost in the Grand Slam Tennis/Tiger Woods PGA Tour/ MotionPlus explosion now.

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AK Bell

AK Bell

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I was recently doing some research into Wii graphics.. and honestly, Overlord is one of the most amazing Wii looking games I've seen.

I'd much rather play that than Conduit.

I don't like self-promotion but this is starting to bug me now. Tak and the Guardians of Gross is a nice looking game and it's a shame no one has played it to know this :D This may just be pride talking but have a look at the Wii version video at www.blitzgames.com (and not look at the the PS2 screens that were given out to review sites). The cartoon licence and a PS2 version stopped us adding a bit of art detail in the character models but I think the enviroment holds up against the Overlord screens thanks to some nice effect work (like the water) and talented artists. HOTD:Overkill also looks nice and used our tech :wub:

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scottcr

scottcr

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That may have happened given some space to work with, but I really think it's going to get totally lost in the Grand Slam Tennis/Tiger Woods PGA Tour/ MotionPlus explosion now.

I think it's suitably different... the Motion Plus could 're-energise' the Wii, new purchasers want to buy new games with their shiny console... they'll probably get one of the sports games and I'd say Ghostbusters is a good one to get too. It has a brand that everyone knows, has a good look about it and could prove to be very popular. They probably want to piggy back on the release of Motion Plus driving new console buyers.

Motion Plus is also likely to re-awaken the lapsed wii gamer, casuals who haven't played it for a while... again, they'll see Ghostbusters on the shelves and may fancy a bit of that as well.

I think it may actually do it some good...

I don't like self-promotion but this is starting to bug me now. Tak and the Guardians of Gross is a nice looking game and it's a shame no one has played it to know this :D This may just be pride talking but have a look at the Wii version video at www.blitzgames.com (and not look at the the PS2 screens that were given out to review sites). The cartoon licence and a PS2 version stopped us adding a bit of art detail in the character models but I think the enviroment holds up against the Overlord screens thanks to some nice effect work (like the water) and talented artists. HOTD:Overkill also looks nice and used our tech :wub:

The Carny level in HotD looked great.

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Warszawa

Warszawa

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In fairness, it outsold Pikmin 2, though I wonder if some bought the latter and missed out on LKS - which would have improved its initial chart placing and thus its store prominence. Hopefully the overwhelmingly positive word-of-mouth (I've not encountered anyone who hasn't liked it yet) will have an effect, though it seems not to be appealing outside Wii's comparatively small 'hardcore' (we really need a new term, don't we?*) demographic.

*Enthusiast?

It's just such a niche title though. It would need Nintendo's marketing machine behind it to sell "well" but there's been no advertising at all which is a bit of a shame, but kind of suggests that the publishers think it would be an extremely hard sell regardless - Personally, I think a small but well-timed set of TV ads could help it sell above expectations, which are apparently 124k for Europe, 120k for the US and 45k in Japan. I do hope it manages to get there or thereabouts. If Harvest Moon DS can sell 800k (US & EU combined) it would be a terrible shame if this failed to meet their modest expectations.

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Sprite Machine

Sprite Machine

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personally - it drives me nuts. I don't have the time nor money to buy all the games I want when I want... so I end up leaving them, forgetting about them and then something else comes out. For example, couldn't afford MadWorld at the time it was released... now I can, but Little Kings Story is out and frankly, I want to play that more. MadWorld goes unbought.

Then buy Madworld next? I don't understand how that's a problem. Your time is finite, regardless of the order the games are released in. As for 'forgetting' -- erm, write it down? :wub:

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scottcr

scottcr

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... and by the time Madworld can be bought, there'll be motion plus games to buy...

games should be like films though, re-released over time, always available. Madworld will slip off the shelves and the only place I'll be able to get it if I get round to it will be ebay.

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rgraves

rgraves

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I don't like self-promotion but this is starting to bug me now. Tak and the Guardians of Gross is a nice looking game and it's a shame no one has played it to know this :D This may just be pride talking but have a look at the Wii version video at www.blitzgames.com (and not look at the the PS2 screens that were given out to review sites). The cartoon licence and a PS2 version stopped us adding a bit of art detail in the character models but I think the enviroment holds up against the Overlord screens thanks to some nice effect work (like the water) and talented artists. HOTD:Overkill also looks nice and used our tech :wub:

That actually looks pretty good fun!

It's just such a niche title though. It would need Nintendo's marketing machine behind it to sell "well" but there's been no advertising at all

Actually, I deffo saw an ad for it on the EuroGamer pages yesterday. Not much, but something...

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Sprite Machine

Sprite Machine

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... and by the time Madworld can be bought, there'll be motion plus games to buy...

But, again, this isn't a problem with when it's released. You're simply prioritising what you want to play. If it was released alongside those motion+ games rather than before, you'd still buy those instead, so it makes no difference.

games should be like films though, re-released over time, always available. Madworld will slip off the shelves and the only place I'll be able to get it if I get round to it will be ebay.

Or Amazon, or the forum, or Gamestation, or plenty of other places, most likely cheaper than it would have been on day 1 anyway. How is this an issue?

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Eighthours

Eighthours

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I don't like self-promotion but this is starting to bug me now. Tak and the Guardians of Gross is a nice looking game and it's a shame no one has played it to know this :wub:

Given the name, is that surprising? Seriously, names are important. They leave an instant impression. Yours leaves a bad one. Your game could be amazing, but the name alone almost guarantees low sales.

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Stolly

Stolly

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I don't have the time nor money to buy all the games I want when I want... so I end up leaving them, forgetting about them and then something else comes out. For example, couldn't afford MadWorld at the time it was released... now I can, but Little Kings Story is out and frankly, I want to play that more. MadWorld goes unbought.

I bought Little King's Story instead of RE5, the very game that inspired me to shell out on a PS3 in the first place :wub:

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mushashi

mushashi

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Given the name, is that surprising? Seriously, names are important. They leave an instant impression. Yours leaves a bad one. Your game could be amazing, but the name alone almost guarantees low sales.

The name can't be that off-putting, this is the 4th or 5th game in the series, somebody must be buying it for them to keep on greenlighting new ones. :wub:

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