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The conventional wisdom about the Wii is that it's an awesome platform for Nintendo, but not for third-party developers trying to cash in on its popularity. In laymen's terms, it comes down to all the soccer moms and grandparents buying a Wii and maybe the odd Nintendo game, and that's it.
One of the most disappointing signs of this is Gamedaily's story on the sales of the excellent Boom Blox. Based on NPD figures, only a paltry 60,000 copies sold in the US. Gamedaily did the math: that's six tenths of one percent of Wii owners. It's a bit scary that Boom Blox didn't do better. It's got Electronic Arts' publishing muscle, Steven Spielberg's name on the box, enthusiastic reviews, and overwhelmingly positive word-of-mouth. What went wrong?
Well, if I knew the answer to that, I'd be writing this from a vast estate in the Caribbean. Gamedaily cites an NPD analyst who blames EA's marketing department for failing to get the word out about the new IP. I seriously doubt she wrote that from a Caribbean estate, so I'm going to take it with a grain of salt. The fact of the matter is we live in an unjust world where tripe like Carnival Games gets to ride the party train with a young Sharon Stone while Boom Blox is stuck in the mope car with Woody Allen.
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By budgethero at 11:37 AM ON 06/17/08
i'm not sure if video games has an old folks home for old games that we want out of sight. certainly have a "good-but-underappriciated-if-at-all games home". which will always puzzle me. panzer dragoon (orta), beyond good and evil, and shamefully numerous others are agreed by almost completely all who played them to masterpieces. but for those who barely considered playing them, they pretty much don't exist. looked at all together, its literally a crying shame. what goes on in the mind of a potential buyer that looks at these games and says "no". huu, i kind wish these games got a sundance or a cans festival at least for the people who like them to see they are not alone and games like them to get recognition befitting the work and heart put into them.
By Dean at 6:03 PM ON 06/17/08
I very nearly bought it, but it's $50 when most other Wii games are $40. On a platform that sold in part because of its price point, you have to keep the price in mind.
Instead I got Lego Indiana Jones for the same $50, and I got it on the 360 so I got HD and achievements.
By Tom Chick at 6:51 PM ON 06/17/08
Dean, you are part of teh problem!!1! But maybe now that it's sold so poorly, EA will mark down the price and you'll be able to find a $40 copy. Oops, too late, you're already playing Lego Indy instead.
By Justin Fletcher at 3:11 PM ON 06/19/08
I could see Boom Blox becoming a late bloomer, though. I don't think a lot of the word of mouth has gotten around until recently. I, for one, had no interest in checking out a review on Boom Blox until now, let alone picking up a copy for $50. But now my interest is piqued, and I'd bet its at least on more gamers' radars than last month.
Boom Blox might not be a smash on par with ET, but I don't think we can call it a Sugarland Express just yet.