The NPD’s sales report for the month of June doesn’t bode well for the highly publicized Sega shooter, the Conduit, a “hardcore” first-person shooter for the Nintendo Wii.
According to NPD, sales of The Conduit reached a mild 72,000 units during June. The NPD analyzed sales numbers from May 31 to July 4.
The Conduit is another of Sega's experiments with the Wii's slim, potentially growing hardcore base.
Does this send a message to Sega’s executive team, which is trying to crack the top-selling console’s large but casual base of gamers?
“In terms of top SKUs, The Conduit placed at number 25,” an NPD spokesperson told Edge-Online. He also noted the game didn’t break into the top five selling Wii titles in June.
It’s doubtful. Sega is still betting on Wii’s mature audience to broaden. Starting with House of the Dead: Overkill, which sold 45,000 units in the US after its release February, and following with the ultra-violent MadWorld, which debuted with 66,000 units this spring, was June’s The Conduit (72,000 units). The sales numbers of each game has slightly increased, but even by combining sales of all three, the sum total sales don’t add up to blockbuster status.
The Conduit's metascore was well below the vaunted 85% publishers aspire to.
Sega appears undeterred. It announced at E3 09 development of No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle, a sequel, and while we’re speculating here, you can bet there will be a MadWorld sequel.
Meanwhile, other publishers are following Sega’s lead by producing mature games on the Wii. EA is building a Wii-specific Dead Space version, Dead Space: Extraction, and Bethesda has stated publicly it plans making games for the Wii, whose estimated mature base is only 5%. Nintendo debuted its own attempt at mature games at E3 09 this year with Metroid: Other M, in development by renowned hardcore developer Team Ninja at Tecmo.
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July 18, 2009 at 7:07 am
[...] here: Does Sega's Conduit Send a Message? « GameInsano.com Bookmark It Hide Sites $$('div.d70').each( function(e) { [...]
August 4, 2009 at 6:26 pm
[...] The questions one must ask, and Sega has yet to answer, is whether its mature game strategy on Nintendo’s Wii system is paying off and has a future, and whether other games in its profile (fitness, Sonic, etc.) can continue funding mediocre results. [...]