MTV News posted a story how EA says that Boom Blox sales have met expectations. The rest of the article has analyst quotes and other talks about how if Boom Blox doesn’t sell, no third party games sell on Wii. Boom Blox is ‘the test’.
Of course, that is garbage. Journalists and analysts don’t make up any test. Rather, the market makes the tests and it is for the journalists and analysts to take.
I’ve been critical of EA in their stupid ‘casual games’ division and the dumb decision to market Boom Blox to twelve year olds (instead of, like, everyone which is what Nintendo does for its expanded market games), I feel sympathy for the crew behind Boom Blox. Their poor game has become a football to be kicked around for arrogant analysts and hardcore to make their ridiculous assertions that since Boom Blox wasn’t a ‘major hit’ when it came out, it means all third parties will fail.
First, if it WAS a ‘major hit’, I would have been very worried as would EA. Expanded market game sales are not frontloaded. Carnival Games originally did around 50k I believe when it was introduced to the market (and it was cheaper). The big unreported story on Wii software is that there is significant leg action, or ‘slow burning’ sales. Instead of sales going off into the abyss as they do with most Core games, the sales are consistent and often go up. How can this be? One major reason is that people who want the game cannot get the console, and once they do get the console, they buy the game. Another is that only enthusiastic gamers would realize about Boom Blox when it launched. Also, it is absurd that one game becomes the de-facto of whether third party games sell on Nintendo systems.
Hey, hardcore, remember the DS? The handheld you now adore? How is the third party situation on that? Exactly.
Whenever someone says ‘third party games don’t sell on Nintendo systems’, apparently handheld systems are in another universe or something. With third parties abandoning the PSP, a better question to ask is, “Can third party games sell on Sony systems?” It is a good question as games on Sony systems have to compete with Blu-Ray and tons of other non-gaming features.
There is a comment on that page that says the constant saying of ‘third parties don’t sell on Nintendo’s system’ is FUD. He could be quite correct. Third parties are obviously jumping to the Wii as the system sells insanely. I can see companies like Microsoft try to trumpet the ‘third parties can’t compete with Nintendo’ line. The DS is full of third party support and the Wii will be too.
If a Wii game sells well:
“OMG! Only casual games are on the Wii!”
If a Wii game doesn’t sell well:
“See!? Third parties don’t sell on the Wii!”
If a Wii game sells well and is considered ‘hardcore’:
“Only Nintendo games sell on Nintendo!”
…but if it isn’t Nintendo title…
“Well, the game isn’t REALLY hardcore. It is actually a CASUAL title!”
If a Wii game doesn’t sell well and is considered ‘hardcore’:
“See! Only casual games sell on da Wii!!!11!!!!”
It’s an endless circle. Don’t argue with those who talk this way because the problem with arguing with idiots is that people cannot tell the difference.
Here is an ‘article‘ about why gamers hate the Wii. Yup, more Boom Blox = All Third Party Games. Read the frightening comments and you will understand why if I cut and paste hardcore comments into my articles, no one would believe me. They would say, “Stop exaggerating the hardcore!” So I tone down the ‘mad’ hardcore in the articles and people still get offended. More people should be reading what these crazies are writing.