Publisher undeterred by disappointing sales of MadWorld and The Conduit
More adult Wii games will be release by Sega despite lacklustre sales of titles such as MadWorld.
At least that's according to the publisher’s Western COO and President Mike Hayes, who told Wired that the Wii’s massive user base makes it a lucrative market for adult games, and that he is currently looking into MadWorld’s poor sales.
“MadWorld sales were very disappointing, but was that to do with the platform? Was it that people didn’t like the art style? Or that people didn’t like the way the game played through? It could be many things, which we’re obviously researching,” said Hayes.
“It’s difficult because it was a critically acclaimed title; it was extreme but good. 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.
“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.
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“What we can say is that we’ll still do mature games for the Wii market because it has an install base of some 34 million in Europe and America. So even if you took half of those where they’re not into those core games, you’ve still got eight million consumers to go for.”
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Madworld
I think it was too early for Mad world because its sooo good. Everyone I’ve asked doesn’t really know much about it. This is strange because I read about it in develop and edge. As far as I’m concerned there was quite a bit of hype. But how come it hasn't hit those people???
Anyway my point is that the game rocks but the promotion and hype doesn’t seem to have worked outside of business channels. There is whole group of people that used to play Streets of Rage on the Mega Drive and would be craving an upgrade, if they knew it existed.
That’s how I feel anyway.
Hardcore?
Madworld and House of the Dead Overkill are both very fine games and Sega should be applauded for its bravery, but I do hope they aren't getting 'hardcore' and adult rated content confused with one another. I would class Little Kings Story as more hardcore than either of these, although come to think of it that didn't sell too well either so I don't know what my point is.
Mature Content or Immature Content?
While I believe Sega deserve kudos for trying to push hardcore games on the Wii, I think they missed the mark with Madworld. In this case, I think that many gaming journalists were swept away by the hype. Madworld has a gorgeous visual style and is exhilarating in small doses, however play it for more than an hour and it is extremely repetetive and (dare I say it?), becomes boring - the bosses being the exception. Add the extreme hardcore violence (was "ass shanking" really necessary?) and the immature, purile commentary ("those happy pills work better if you grind them up and inject them into the folds of your scrotum" or the distasteful "no means yes and yes means anal") which was passed off as satire, and I'm actually surprised there hasn't been more of a backlash. I like to consider myself a hardcore gamer, but I don't believe that "hardcore" is necessarily equated to over-the-top violence, profanity, and bad-taste. Don't get me wrong, I'm not some wowser who's against adult content in mature games. But much of the content in Mad World while extreme, was very immature in the manner it was handled. I think that Mad World crossed the line and alienated many of the hardcore audience it was designed to capture. So it's little surprise that it sold far less than was expected.
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