In Brief: Sega on the future of “hardcore” Wii games

by Cory Birdsong on

Sega’s Wii release schedule this year has had a lot of blood.

Blood and guns. M ratings. That sort of thing. Only thing is, those games haven’t exactly set the charts on fire, despite being anywhere from “generically mediocre” to “pretty fun but repetitive.” Wired’s Game|Life has an interview with a Sega suit that touches on how they feel about all that. I will excerpt a few choice quotes, and bold words in there, so you don’t have to read very many words if you are lazy.

**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? Or that people didn’t like the way the game played through? It could be many things, which we’re obviously researching.
**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.
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 (hardcore games) coming from us.
So there you have it. Hopefully, they can be better than mostly mediocre next time around.