Mature Titles Not Faring So Well On Nintendo Systems

[triverse]

GTA: Chinatown Wars has barely broke 89,000 in sales for the month of March. Falling very short of the projected sales that Take 2 and Rockstar had thought it would sell (recently the companies forecast sales at about 200-250,000 units).

Gamesinustry has the full details on GTA Chinatown Wars.

In a related note, sales of House of the Dead: Overkill have been far below expectations, garnering about 45,000 units sold in it's debut month, along with the recently released Madworld. Madworld has only been able to sell approximately 66,000 units in it's opening month of March.

Of the nearly 1000 games listed with the ESRB website, only 26 are rated Mature.

Head over to Gamasutra for the full article on Madworld and House of the Dead: Overkill.

[Thor]

Well GTA is not a good game to gauge that by. To be honest neither is House of the Dead. GTA for DS looks like complete crap and house of the dead has kind of a niche audience.

[E-Day]

GTA is getting praise from every magazine and site that has reviewed it. It may not look that pretty, but apparently it's an excellent game.

[triverse]

GTA is getting praise from every magazine and site that has reviewed it. It may not look that pretty, but apparently it's an excellent game.

That is what is so funny about it, everyone loves it but the consumers. No one is buying it.

[meppi]

GTA for DS looks like complete crap

Wowowow, wait a minute.

I'm normally the very last person that will go out of his way to defend a GTA game, or buy it for that matter.

Tried all the PS2 games (by actually buying them) and sold them all again since I get extremely bored of them after only an couple of hours.

Guess the games aren't for me, all the technical glitches bother me and the gameplay is very rough at times, I'd even call it broken.

BUT, after seeing several movies of the DS version and noticing how they went back to the 2D roots of the game, well more or less anyway.

And also seeing how I got a great deal on it (€23 instead of €40), I decided to buy it and give it a chance.

If I don't get along with it I can always give it to a buddy.

Only got the game yesterday and its f-ing amazing so far. Not sure if it's the top down perspective that does it for me but I'm enjoying it much more this way.

And technically, even though everything is in 3D, it's all very pretty and most of all runs smooth like butter.

Took one of those high-speed motorcycles and raced through the streets with lots of traffic and things going on at breakneck speed and there wasn't so much of a hitch in the framerate.

I'm very impressed with the game. I only hope it can keep my attention this time around...

[Thor]

I think that is why I have a problem with this game. My wifes cousin showed me the first GTA and raved about it and I played it and hated it. But then when Driver came out I loved that. And of course GTA III and well that was much better than Driver. Though I have never beat a GTA game in my life I do enjoy them for a while but I too just get bored with them and sell them. I've bough every 3D GTA game I don't know why because I know I'm going to hate it after about a week. But... back to subject the 2D roots make this game look even more less appealing to me. Eventually I'll try it out but I doubt I will buy it.

[meppi]

Ah, well that explains a lot really.

I don't know why but GTA bores me to tears after only a couple hours, yet the DS one I have no problem with.

Must be because it's more alike to 1 and 2, even though it incorporated quite a lot of content from the 3D games.

Talking about Driver, I loved that game back in the day!

Never got it myself but borrowed a mate's copy for several weeks. Really must grab myself a copy when I go hunting again on ebay.

[triverse]

The 3D GTA's bore me too, I have the collectors set of the first 2 with expansions and play those regularly and enjoy them quite a lot. I don't know, there is something about the 3D ones that just turns me off.

[Hidinger]

The 3D GTA's bore me too, I have the collectors set of the first 2 with expansions and play those regularly and enjoy them quite a lot. I don't know, there is something about the 3D ones that just turns me off.

I just really hope Nintendo doesn't bag all Mature games because of these two. I really don't think those are two good games to gague stuff by. Lots of people are just bored with GTA now and are skipping Chinatown Wars because of that. Resident Evil is also on its 9th incarnation and everyone is getting kinda bored of that too. Lets see some new mature titles and I bet those sell pretty well.

[triverse]

I am trying to gather up sales info for the 25+ mature titles on the Wii and so far, they are not good.

Here is a site that seems to have numbers for most games. I am not just going by one site though, I am trying to find other info on the sales but it is tough to find.

http://www.vgchartz.com/

[Thor]

I think that is why I have a problem with this game. My wifes cousin showed me the first GTA and raved about it and I played it and hated it. But then when Driver came out I loved that. And of course GTA III and well that was much better than Driver. Though I have never beat a GTA game in my life I do enjoy them for a while but I too just get bored with them and sell them. I've bough every 3D GTA game I don't know why because I know I'm going to hate it after about a week. But... back to subject the 2D roots make this game look even more less appealing to me. Eventually I'll try it out but I doubt I will buy it.

Or Driver 2 that was a good game too. I loved hitting jumps with the car and jumping out and just watching the car go flying. But Driver 3 was total crap.

[Areala]

I think, through no fault of their own, Nintendo would have a very hard time catering to the kind of crowd that buys M-rated titles, especially now that the Wii is out.

Nintendo, this generation, made an amazingly wise move and decided not to compete with Sony and Microsoft. Rather than getting involved in the system specs pissing contest with those other two companies, Nintendo was quietly happy to sieze upon the largely-ignored casual gaming market and capitalize on people who didn't even know they were gamers. These are people who wouldn't even own a game system, save for the fact that Wii Sports can literally be played by anyone with one functional arm.

Nintendo went back to what made them successful with the NES in the first place: they are selling it almost more as a toy in the US than as a gaming system, while Sony and Microsoft are waving around data about who can push more polygons and who has a better online experience. Nintendo reached out to the 75% of the world that are casual or non-gamers, and snared them hook, line and sinker with the DS and the Wii. But casual gamers don't go for more complex titles usually. And many casual adopters of the DS and Wii are younger children or families who purchased the system for their whole entertainment. These aren't single 18-30-year olds for the most part, they are mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles, even grandparents, who want something simple to play, to enjoy for a little while, and then put down and go back to real life. They don't want to get involved in the control scheme of a Resident Evil, they don't want the foul language of a Grand Theft Auto, and they aren't interested in the 90+ hours required to invest in a game like Fallout 3. And they don't want their children, nieces, nephews, and grandchildren doing it either.

[painkiller74]

Ah, well that explains a lot really.

I don't know why but GTA bores me to tears after only a couple hours, yet the DS one I have no problem with.

Must be because it's more alike to 1 and 2, even though it incorporated quite a lot of content from the 3D games.

Talking about Driver, I loved that game back in the day!

Never got it myself but borrowed a mate's copy for several weeks. Really must grab myself a copy when I go hunting again on ebay.

Yep Most GTA games bore the crap out of me also, but Chinatown Wars and Vice City have kept me captivated. Vice City was the first GTA that I liked. GTA4 is as boring as it gets. I think the setting of Chinatown Wars and Vice City is what drew me to them.

[triverse]

Kotaku has some more information on GTA Chinatown Wars on DS/DSi sales numbers for March (4,684 copies per day with 19 days on sale) and April (2,642 copies per day with 28 days of sale). In perspective there are 827,000 new DSi owners now (the article was posted on May 18th 2009 but gives no date for the DSi sales number).

[gblock]

On amazon.com both HotD: Overkil and Madworld are $29.99 with free budget shipping.

Have HotD and it's awesome! Been looking forward to getting Madworld, and now that it's a budget price, I'll be picking it up too.

[STGuy1040]

I hope Nintendo doesn't eliminate Mature titles from their line-up. Madworld was fun to play, and GTA on DS wasn't bad, but the idea of being fed shovelware for the lifespan of the system makes me green in the face. I purchased a Nintendo WII knowing it wouldn't have the same level of mature titles, but at the same time, I wasn't expecting to see a endless selection of party games with little replay value either. I concur with the sentiment about the WII being a casual gamer's paradise; there's plenty of simple games in the Wii's library to keep those people entertained.

Will mature titles vanish from the Wii entirely? It may happen but only time will tell. I remember reading online somewhere that casual gamers were outraged by the release of Madworld, stating that it tarnished the Wii’s innocent image. Umm, yeah.

[E-Day]

I hope Nintendo doesn't eliminate Mature titles from their line-up. Madworld was fun to play, and GTA on DS wasn't bad, but the idea of being fed shovelware for the lifespan of the system makes me green in the face. I purchased a Nintendo WII knowing it wouldn't have the same level of mature titles, but at the same time, I wasn't expecting to see a endless selection of party games with little replay value either. I concur with the sentiment about the WII being a casual gamer's paradise; there's plenty of simple games in the Wii's library to keep those people entertained.

Will mature titles vanish from the Wii entirely? It may happen but only time will tell. I remember reading online somewhere that casual gamers were outraged by the release of Madworld, stating that it tarnished the Wii�s innocent image. Umm, yeah.

Don't worry. They're adding some of their own. They said they were going a more mature route with the new Metroid game.