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Codemasters CEO Doubts Wii Sustainability, Envisions 'Wii 2'

Xiaoki said:
According to Dalthien's Japanese Wii software charts:

Nintendo software sales - 9,623,641
Total Wii software sales - 12,596,014

Which means that Nintendo has 76.4% of Wii software sales in Japan.

So, tell me again why this guy is so stupid for saying that Nintendo games sell primarily on Nintendo systems.

Well, what are the numbers for the entirety of third party software sales on the PS3 and 360 in Japan? (Hint: not so good). So third parties aren't selling on any systems at the moment...why not "not sell" on Nintendo's? :p

And I don't really see why "percentages" are important (or "attach rates" either). The only thing that should matter to a publisher is the absolute number of copies it sells. If it sells millions of copies on a Nintendo system (not that any are selling near that number on the Wii...at the moment. Well, maybe GHIII is), should it cry because third parties are only 25-50% of the market on the Wii, as compared to selling less than 100K on the 360 in Japan but making up a greater percentage? (same goes with attach rate: what benefit is the 360's great attach rate in the US if no 360 owner wants to buy your game?) I'm pretty sure publishers care more about money in their pocket than statistics.
 
Xiaoki said:
According to Dalthien's Japanese Wii software charts:

Nintendo software sales - 9,623,641
Total Wii software sales - 12,596,014

Which means that Nintendo has 76.4% of Wii software sales in Japan.

So, tell me again why this guy is so stupid for saying that Nintendo games sell primarily on Nintendo systems.

Because if you try and sell shit next to chocolate, the chocolate will sell better. Capcom & SE are pretty much the only Publishers putting out top quality titles and they aren't doing too badly are they.

Also the guy is from Codies, how many games do they sell in Japan? your point would make a bit more sense if you had some western attach rates as it is mainly western publishers bitching about Wii sw sales(and 2nd tier ones at that).
 
Xiaoki said:
According to Dalthien's Japanese Wii software charts:

Nintendo software sales - 9,623,641
Total Wii software sales - 12,596,014

Which means that Nintendo has 76.4% of Wii software sales in Japan.

So, tell me again why this guy is so stupid for saying that Nintendo games sell primarily on Nintendo systems.

Nintendo games sell on Nintendo systems because Nintendo games are actually good games. Third parties have been getting shitty sales because they've been putting out shitty games.

Edit: for the most part anyway
 
at least, the success of colin mcrae dirt gives him some solid points. it was the first game in the series, which cracked the us charts btw. and i sure doubt, that the game (with similar visuals like colin mcrae 2005) would have the same success on the wii (which outsold the other two next gen consoles).
 
jgwhiteus said:
?? Is there such a thing as limits on software growth? For any system, I mean. The DS is more than three years old now, and it keeps on churning out million sellers at an alarming rate. If anything, software sales increase even more in later years as the userbase continues to grow, no?

I meant that technologically the systems growth is very limited. I don't think your going to see the jumps the other consoles made happen on the wii. Which is why i said after 2 years the software may become stale. Developers will have to be more creative than ever to get a good amount of attention.
 
Xiaoki said:
So, tell me again why this guy is so stupid for saying that Nintendo games sell primarily on Nintendo systems.

Mhmm...maybe (don't konw, maybe) because nobody said this ?
 
Xiaoki said:
According to Dalthien's Japanese Wii software charts:

Nintendo software sales - 9,623,641
Total Wii software sales - 12,596,014

Which means that Nintendo has 76.4% of Wii software sales in Japan.

So, tell me again why this guy is so stupid for saying that Nintendo games sell primarily on Nintendo systems.

Ok let me remind you. The guy is stupid because he thinks that this is the case because they are simply 'Nintendo Games' so they sell the most. What he fails to realize is that they sell because they are "good games" with sufficient marketing. It's unlikely that your game will sell if it's not very good and no one has heard about it. Nintendo games themselves, sometimes don't sell to their own market when the quality is low or when not marketed enough.
 
legend166 said:
It's similiar to the PS2, worldwide, if I'm not mistaken. In fact, it's beating the PS2 in Japan.

And by this I mean at the same point in their lifecycles.


Maybe they freak out because of the 360 and PS3 attach rate? I'm sure there are some stats they base their fear on.
 
Codemasters did publish 5 whole Gamecube games:

American Idol
Club Football
Colin McRae Rally 3
Second Sight
Shoot to Kill: Colombia Crackdown

As well as developing one N64 game:

Micro Machines 64 Turbo

(source http://games.ign.com/objects/025/025259.html)



Clearly they've put forth great efforts and earned the right to whine about competing with Nintendo.
 
Well I've been hearing this "Only Nintendo games sell on Nintendo machines" thing for years, what the hell do people want Nintendo to do?to stop making good games (95% of nintendo games are fun at least) so their crappy showelware sells?

If a third-party game is great and gets good marketing it's going to sell, with Nintendo software or without it.
 
BorkBork said:
Because the majority of people who purchase consoles do not buy games based on if they are first party or not. They buy games that appeal to them. Third parties are at fault for not providing compelling software to the userbase. Nintendo is. That's the problem.

This is very true yet there are people on these boards who blame the Wii userbase for not buying third party software. Thats so stupid.
 
BuzzJive said:
Codemasters did publish 5 whole Gamecube games:

American Idol
Club Football
Colin McRae Rally 3
Second Sight
Shoot to Kill: Colombia Crackdown

As well as developing one N64 game:

Micro Machines 64 Turbo

(source http://games.ign.com/objects/025/025259.html)



Clearly they've put forth great efforts and earned the right to whine about competing with Nintendo.

This isn't what I think it is....
 
evolution said:
I meant that technologically the systems growth is very limited. I don't think your going to see the jumps the other consoles made happen on the wii. Which is why i said after 2 years the software may become stale. Developers will have to be more creative than ever to get a good amount of attention.

But the Wii allows you to be creative. I could think of 10 interesting projects as am typing this stuff. Its so easy to make something interesting for the Wii if your a little creative and don't think in terms of traditional story based gaming.
 
evolution said:
I meant that technologically the systems growth is very limited. I don't think your going to see the jumps the other consoles made happen on the wii. Which is why i said after 2 years the software may become stale. Developers will have to be more creative than ever to get a good amount of attention.

And we don't want developers to be more creative!

Sequel please!
 
Leonsito said:
Well I've been hearing this "Only Nintendo games sell on Nintendo machines" thing for years, what the hell do people want Nintendo to do?to stop making good games (95% of nintendo games are fun at least) so their crappy showelware sells?

If a third-party game is great and gets good marketing it's going to sell, with Nintendo software or without it.


Its directly correlated to the quality of Third party support on Nintendo consoles that has droped since the N64. Third Party Sales vs Nintendo sales sure as hell werent a problem back in the SNES days.
 
BuzzJive said:
Codemasters did publish 5 whole Gamecube games:

American Idol
Club Football
Colin McRae Rally 3
Second Sight
Shoot to Kill: Colombia Crackdown

As well as developing one N64 game:

Micro Machines 64 Turbo

(source http://games.ign.com/objects/025/025259.html)



Clearly they've put forth great efforts and earned the right to whine about competing with Nintendo.
This game was never released for the Cube.
 
Imagine if Nintendo had gone third party. Only Nintendo games would appear on 360 and PS3 because no other developer would have wanted to compete.
 
evolution said:
I meant that technologically the systems growth is very limited.
And the DS isn't?
Ranger X said:
Maybe they freak out because of the 360 and PS3 attach rate? I'm sure there are some stats they base their fear on.
PS3's US tie-ratio is slightly higher than Wii's, but Wii's Japanese and worldwide tie-ratio is significantly higher than PS3's.
 
evolution said:
I meant that technologically the systems growth is very limited. I don't think your going to see the jumps the other consoles made happen on the wii. Which is why i said after 2 years the software may become stale. Developers will have to be more creative than ever to get a good amount of attention.

Well, one could argue that the Wii is technologically stale out the gate, so it won't be a problem... :p I mean, the Wii clearly hasn't been selling on its "OMG horsepower" appeal, it's been selling on the appeal of its controller and games. Pushing technological limits isn't what sells software (otherwise Crysis's sales would be much higher?) - creating an entertaining experience is what sells software. Nintendogs and Wii Sports aren't exactly pushing the DS and Wii to their limits, but they're selling millions of copies based on the experiences they provide. I mean, Mario Party DS didn't sell 1M+ in Japan because people were impressed by how it taxed the DS's hardware.

"Developers having to be more creative than ever to get a good amount of attention" is the way things SHOULD be - they should be working on innovative, immersive gaming experiences rather than recreating the same old, same old but with a bigger tech. "wow" factor. That just seems like a losing proposition to me. Look at this forum - people post screenshots of games that would have been considered absolutely amazing last gen, and they get met with a collective "meh" or nitpicked because you can see some pixelation. That's got to be disheartening to developers - they're in an arms race to create the most advanced games possible, but most won't make an impact sales-wise. So why not think of other ways to engage gamers?
 
Fio said:
It's funny how these CEO (or whatever) talks as if there is some kind of secret pact among Nintendo console owners to buy just Nintendo stuff.

I'm pretty sure he was basing what he said on overall sales figures. It is likely that he is right that historically 60-70% of software sold on Nintendo's platforms is first party.

Still, I can't believe the amount of hate the Codemaster's CEO has got here. He's got an opinion, that's all, and he's entitled to it.
 
Nintendo 1st party is going to eat like half the overall software market regardless of platform. Doesn't matter if Codemasters makes Wii games or not, they'll still be competing with Nintendo on some level regardless.
 
6odhhz9.jpg

"Codemasters vision of Wii's future... not all sexy-happy-fun-time; forums outraged, film at 11"
 
pswii60 said:
I'm pretty sure he was basing what he said on overall sales figures. It is likely that he is right that historically 60-70% of software sold on Nintendo's platforms is first party.

Still, I can't believe the amount of hate the Codemaster's CEO has got here. He's got an opinion, that's all, and he's entitled to it.

I'm sure the people you're talking about have opinions too.
 
Jokeropia said:
And the DS isn't?
I said earlier that if Nintendo follows the same strategy they should be fine. I just don't think it will last like it will with the DS. The competition the wii is facing is far greater than what the DS is against
 
joedan said:
Ok let me remind you. The guy is stupid because he thinks that this is the case because they are simply 'Nintendo Games' so they sell the most. What he fails to realize is that they sell because they are "good games" with sufficient marketing. It's unlikely that your game will sell if it's not very good and no one has heard about it. Nintendo games themselves, sometimes don't sell to their own market when the quality is low or when not marketed enough.
There are some good and heavily hyped games for the Wii that sold like crap in Japan.
Like No More Heroes and We Love Golf
Games that don't get a lot of media hype but still have good word of mouth usually find an audience eventually.
But not for games like Opoona and Dewey's Adventure.
Even not so great games from well known series' will sell on their name alone.
Didn't work for DDR Hottest Party and Soul Calibur Legends.

Don't give me crap about only Nintendo games selling because only Nintendo games are good because we all know that's a freaking lie.
 
norinrad21 said:
We don't really know what to do about the wii situation and we clearly are creatively bankrupt.


i don't know how to respond, so here's one everyone's heard a million times!!
 
pswii60 said:
Still, I can't believe the amount of hate the Codemaster's CEO has got here. He's got an opinion, that's all, and he's entitled to it.

Most people in this thread that have a problem with his opinion is based on:

1.) As Buzzjive mentioned, they are really in no position to criticize Nintendo as a viable platform for developers, as they have had minimal support on previous generation's consoles.

2.) He is portraying the same tired and incorrect argument that the userbase only buys Nintendo software, whereas that is clearly not the case for the Wii audience.

3.) He also throws some inane comments at Nintendo's targetting of older demographics. Not really something a CEO of a company should say if you wish to do business with a potential client.
 
Xiaoki said:
Don't give me crap about only Nintendo games selling because only Nintendo games are good because we all know that's a freaking lie.

There were some pretty big assumptions in your post. So I'm just going to assume you don't know what you're talking about.
 
pswii60 said:
I'm pretty sure he was basing what he said on overall sales figures. It is likely that he is right that historically 60-70% of software sold on Nintendo's platforms is first party.

It happens because, well, Nintendo make good games. Just that. Simple. As a CEO he should look what Nintendo does well and try to emulate it. Saying these type of worthless statement, blaming the consumers and Nintendo for doing good games sounds ridiculous.
 
:lol GO GO ARMCHAIR ANALYST TEAM. Unless you have total Wii sales for Europe/USA and the split between third/first parties then you really cannot argue with him.
 
Xiaoki said:
There are some good and heavily hyped games for the Wii that sold like crap in Japan.

Bringing up Japanese sales in this thread is pointless, Codemasters games don't sell well in japan
Like No More Heroes and We Love Golf
No More Heroes sold more 1st week than any other SUDA game(don't know much about We love golf)
Games that don't get a lot of media hype but still have good word of mouth usually find an audience eventually.
But not for games like Opoona and Dewey's Adventure.

Dewy's adventure had/has bad word of mouth.
Even not so great games from well known series' will sell on their name alone.
Didn't work for DDR Hottest Party and Soul Calibur Legends.
SCL has been getting slated from the 1st screenshots, did you really think it would sell well?
Don't give me crap about only Nintendo games selling because only Nintendo games are good because we all know that's a freaking lie.

you listed 1 game that I would consider had/has the potential to be good(NMH). I notice you didn't list RE4, RE:UC, M&S at the Olympics, DQ:Swords. Why?
 
pswii60 said:
I'm pretty sure he was basing what he said on overall sales figures. It is likely that he is right that historically 60-70% of software sold on Nintendo's platforms is first party.

Still, I can't believe the amount of hate the Codemaster's CEO has got here. He's got an opinion, that's all, and he's entitled to it.

And, of course, we're not entitled to our opinion on his opinion, right?
 
Cerebral Assassin said:
Bringing up Japanese sales in this thread is pointless, Codemasters games don't sell well in japan

No More Heroes sold more 1st week than any other SUDA game(don't know much about We love golf)


Dewy's adventure had/has bad word of mouth.

SCL has been getting slated from the 1st screenshots, did you really think it would sell well?


you listed 1 game that I would consider had/has the potential to be good(NMH). I notice you didn't list RE4, RE:UC, M&S at the Olympics, DQ:Swords. Why?

Good selling 3rd party games don't count when we're discussing 3rd party Wii sales. You should know this by now.
 
evolution said:
I said earlier that if Nintendo follows the same strategy they should be fine. I just don't think it will last like it will with the DS. The competition the wii is facing is far greater than what the DS is against
PSP was much more of a competition (sales-wise) for DS initially than either the 360 or PS3 ever was for Wii. PSP will also probably sell more lifetime than both those systems.
 
BuzzJive said:
Codemasters did publish 5 whole Gamecube games:
American Idol
Club Football
Colin McRae Rally 3
Second Sight
Shoot to Kill: Colombia Crackdown


(source http://games.ign.com/objects/025/025259.html)

My response would have been similar, except the ONLY one of those GC games that actually made it to the shops was Second Sight.

The rest were announced and then canned.

If it wasn't for the fact that I grew up on codies games & 2ndSight is one of the best action style games on the cube I'd probably laugh off this response.

The fact that their DS games border on shovelware and they've never supported Nintendo in the past means that this is more of the same from the modern code masters.
 
Honestly(And I know I'll probably get flamed in some way for this) I agree with him 100%.

*dons flame armor*
 
We all have narratives--about ourselves, about our country, and about our world. A narrative, by this definition, is what we believe will happen in the "long distance." Narratives are deeply held, and individual bits of data, to most people, lack the weight of a narrative. So most people tend to just ignore the data that doesn't agree with their narrative (cognitive dissonance) until the evidence is so overwhelming that it just can't be ignored.

Pertinent?
 
Miniboss1232 said:
And we don't want developers to be more creative!

Sequel please!

I give a shit whether a game is innovative or the developer is creative. The game must be fun, that's all I care about.
 
I thought it was pretty obvious, given the short life cycles of the GBC and GBA, that Nintendo will inevitably be introducing a Wii 2 within a couple years, especially when the technology gap is so huge between Nintendo and its competitors and that MS and Sony only need to release some accessories to mimic everything Nintendo's done with the Wii.

If Nintendo wants to still be a competitor in 2009 and 2010, they are absolutely going to need to release a higher spec'd Wii along with some new innovations.
 
Pellham said:
I thought it was pretty obvious, given the short life cycles of the GBC and GBA, that Nintendo will inevitably be introducing a Wii 2 within a couple years, especially when the technology gap is so huge between Nintendo and its competitors and that MS and Sony only need to release some accessories to mimic everything Nintendo's done with the Wii.

If Nintendo wants to still be a competitor in 2009 and 2010, they are absolutely going to need to release a higher spec'd Wii along with some new innovations.

GBC was a stupid GB with an improved screen, and GBA was about 6 years in the market.

GC and N64 had a short cycle because it sold like shit, it's not "Sony are so good with users, they keep consoles 7 years on market, Microsoft and Nintendo only 4 booooh".

The technology gap was huge when Wii was released, and will be huge forever, and it doesn't matter for it to keep selling like the DS did vs the PSP.

And Sony and MS would never match the Wii with accesories, it's all about the image you give to the people, the philosophy of your marketing and focusing on one aspect, releasing a Wiimote for PS3 or Xbox360 wouldn't do anything to the Wii.
 
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