16th January 2010, 12:09 AM
Pretty weird set of things to see together, isn't it? I mean, it's nothing new, but the December sales reinforced this yet again.
On the one hand, the Wii crushed all previous December sales records that month, selling 3.8 million systems, by far the best ever for any system in a single month. Total sales for the year were down slightly from 2008, but thanks to December, not by much. NSMBWii is a massive hit and sold millions. Nintendo-developed Wii games were six of the month's top ten, and it was pretty much the same for the year.
But on the other hand, no third-party Wii games were in the top 10, and the sales numbers we know are mediocre at best; third-party Wii sales aren't all awful, actually, but they aren't stunning either. They don't come anywhere close to first-party Wii sales, and in many cases don't match third-party sales on the PS3 or 360 either.
Of course, a lot of that is the third parties' own fault. Why would it be surprising for rail shooters to not sell that great, honestly? It shouldn't be! Rail shooters are a niche genre! And yet EA (Dead Space: Extraction) and Capcom (the second Umbrella Chronicles game) seem surprised that their rail shooters didn't sell as well as they hoped, and might cut Wii support as a result. Third parties just aren't putting their better teams on the Wii, and then they complain when their B and C team efforts get destroyed by Nintendo, one of the world's best developers. Hmm, yeah, that's hard to understand.
But anyway, it's definitely odd to see the Wii sell so incredibly well, while third parties still complain so much and overall third party support on the Wii really probably hasn't matched the GC's support in terms of quality, much less the PS2 or something. It's got quantity, and vast amounts of shovelware, but quality... not so much.
But still, considering how great Nintendo's own games are, the system fully deserves to sell as well as it is, I think. Hopefully eventually some third parties will get a clue.
Oh yeah, and I'll get a Wii sometime this year for sure...
On the one hand, the Wii crushed all previous December sales records that month, selling 3.8 million systems, by far the best ever for any system in a single month. Total sales for the year were down slightly from 2008, but thanks to December, not by much. NSMBWii is a massive hit and sold millions. Nintendo-developed Wii games were six of the month's top ten, and it was pretty much the same for the year.
But on the other hand, no third-party Wii games were in the top 10, and the sales numbers we know are mediocre at best; third-party Wii sales aren't all awful, actually, but they aren't stunning either. They don't come anywhere close to first-party Wii sales, and in many cases don't match third-party sales on the PS3 or 360 either.
Of course, a lot of that is the third parties' own fault. Why would it be surprising for rail shooters to not sell that great, honestly? It shouldn't be! Rail shooters are a niche genre! And yet EA (Dead Space: Extraction) and Capcom (the second Umbrella Chronicles game) seem surprised that their rail shooters didn't sell as well as they hoped, and might cut Wii support as a result. Third parties just aren't putting their better teams on the Wii, and then they complain when their B and C team efforts get destroyed by Nintendo, one of the world's best developers. Hmm, yeah, that's hard to understand.
But anyway, it's definitely odd to see the Wii sell so incredibly well, while third parties still complain so much and overall third party support on the Wii really probably hasn't matched the GC's support in terms of quality, much less the PS2 or something. It's got quantity, and vast amounts of shovelware, but quality... not so much.
But still, considering how great Nintendo's own games are, the system fully deserves to sell as well as it is, I think. Hopefully eventually some third parties will get a clue.
Oh yeah, and I'll get a Wii sometime this year for sure...
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