Who's to Blame for Nintendo's Missing Wii Games? We Are

Really, man, you shouldn't be allowed to write articles anymore... 1. I feel like you've dug up threads on the forums from 2008 or 2009 for inspiration on material and talking points. Really, your whole argument is based on the whole "casual" vs. "hardcore" dichotomy we've been done with on VGChartz for a long while - that kinda of tunnel-vision is archaic now. Especially since Move and Kinect have released and developers begin to understand and respect the complexities of the expanded market gamers. 2. These three games not being localized in the Americas (for the time being at least) seems to have only given you an excuse to rant about how particular titles on Wii didn't sell. You made your third paragraph totally irrelevant by admitting that those games you mentioned had nothing to do with JRPGs and then ignore the fact that ARF was third tier and ToS:DotNW was just a spin off. We can't count Zelda because it's first part apparently and you just completely ignore how well Monster Hunter 3tri did. I just don't think you had a real grievance here honestly - I think you were only itching to bash Nintendo, the Wii, and Wii owners and these three games only served a cover to allow you to do so. It just comes across as an angry and bitter diatribe in the vein of something Daemon Hatfield would've written.

Sure. Our fault. How convenient. Not a word about lack of advertising, no demo, gaming journalism bashing... Of course, bad customer, it's your fault. Then now explain me the PC, PSP or PS3 support. Another example of the decreasing quality of VGC main articles...

I guess it is true, Nintendo can do no wrong, it is always someone elses fault. Now 200-400k isn't good enough for a game to get published here, yet out was good enough in years past. I guess according to this articles author and NOA zero sales is better than 100k. Horrible excuse.

All of these games sold better or equal in the US than other territories, even the JRPGs sold... The article uses arguments that do not actually support the point. I get your meaning, but if a Jrpg turns in a profit at 150K sales in japan... how can it not turn a profit by a US port when it is translated for EU anyways? Even 30K sales would turn a profit there, so really, there is no logic behind the non release of these games, and definitely not past game sales.

So the easy thing would be to make your damn consoles region free. Then those who really want the game could simply by a foreign version they could understand.

And who's to blame for Vgchartz editorials going downhill? We are...

I'm sorry but xenoblade is better than all of those games. Noone gives a ***** about Conduit. You think Conduit is a Hardcore game? It's a friggin FPS. FPS are not "hardcore" or niche. If it isn't selling a lot it means it's average and peopel don't care for it. Mad World is a 4 hour game. Muramasa is aNICHE title which sold quite well anyway Nintendo are just stubborn. Xenoblade is in a different league to those other games. Red Steel 2..again, it wasn't that good, decent but not a system seller.

Rule 1 of business: the customer is always right. Never blame them

Did you even consider the fact that NoA has been doing this for over ten years now? They've ignored localization with more titles than NoE on the GBA, GCN, DS, and Wii all. Additionally, NoA's been ignoring localization for a variety of games this entire generation, including a number of titles that would have released prior to every single title on your list.

What a horrible, poorly written article.

This article would have a case if all the games mentioned were not mediocre, incredibly short, or never in popular genres to begin with. For every game like this, you have a Tatsunoko, a No More Heroes, a Monster Hunter, and Epic Mickey, or a House of the dead that was actually promoted and got the warranted sales.

The Conduit, critically well-received? WTH?

Hey, I bought the Conduit, and it was pretty bad. From the reviews I read, Conduit 2 was more of the same. I tried to find Murumasa in stores, but could never find it. I ended up getting a used copy off of ebay.

This article is FULL of contradictions. It also doesn't mention that these games are being localized in Western markets, just not in the US. I don't think a true fan of the game would mind very much getting a European Wii for imports. I have had to do that with most systems in my lifetime for the games that I wanted.

Whoever did wrote this article clearly hasn't done any homework at all. Games sold worldwide almost always sell higher in North America than Japan or Europe. Muramasa selling over 200k was fantastic for what was expected. Symphonia 2 sold as well as Vesperia though clearly short of Symphonia, but that was an enigma. Madworld flopped because it wasn't that good, neither were NMHs. Conduit is a HD-fps pretender. And ARF was critically destroyed by reviews based solely on voice acting. Please do your homework and not write amateur articles. NoA is full of arrogant foigs led by Reggie who won't sell a non-franchise/casual game. Xenoblade, Last Story and Pandora's Tower would not crack 500k here, no one expects that. But it would certainly do better than the "commercial success" statement of your article which is what?... 100k? That's good???

There are problems with this article, it seems to tell half the story. If you want to use the argument that those other game didn't sell well here so the Rainfall games can't come out here, then what you really need to say is Nintendo needs to just go all casual all the time and give up. All those games that didn't sell well here did worse in Japan, Europe, or both. Check the numbers on this website to see that for yourself. Also, the games have already been translated into the languages needed for North America: English, Spanish, and French. Nintendo just needs to print the games and ADVERTISE THEM. Yes, many of those game mentioned in this article had little to no advertisements. Finally, there is the future. If Nintendo shows they have no interest in releasing AAA "hardcore" titles, why would anyone get Wii U? For the 3rd party support? Ppl get PS360 for that.

Oh Really? Because you know a game like The Conduit which got 7/10 scores is suppose to sell as well as Dead Space which got 9/10's? These three Japanese games are of a different level compared to those games you mentioned. The Last Story is only really comparable to Lost Odyssey, and it's very possible that that game sells just as well as the 360 exclusive JRPG. XenoBlade isn't as big as Monster Hunter or Dragon Quest, but it could get the same figures. I think both of these games should get at least 300,000 sales in the US alone. That's pretty damn good. We all know these games will be 8-9.5/10 quality games. The last Japanese game with those ratings sold 1.5 million (Monster Hunter), and that's a less recognized franchise in North America. Common man, It's not like Nintendo has a packed year full of exclusives already coming this year. How hard is it to import The Last Story and XenoBlades from UK, and change regions? I'm sure they will want some $$ for their work, but do it!

In this editorial: Jake Weston says, "Fuck you!" to gamers and insists that game companies can do no wrong.

I think the problem is that developers stopped making/pushing traditional RPG's/JRPG's in America in favor of the FPS genre. North America has been overrun with FPS games so much so, that the genre has even bled over into other genres ie (Fallout). Making it so that the base experience in almost 90% of all games made is shooting. Whether it be a gun, or a phaser, over the shoulder in third-person persp, or in first-person persp, the gameplay is the player shooting at the enemy. Even action/adventure/platformer games like Uncharted and InFamous have the shooting mechanic at the core of the gameplay mechanics. So the top games, and top franchises that are pushed on us month after month, and regurgitated in sequel form, year after year are some form of shooter or FPS. So the gamers that used to play games for the genre defining experience that they were, now can't get that anymore....without either a little or a lot of "shooter" thrown in for good measure. Leaving the gamers that enjoy a non-shooter based experience having to turn elsewhere to find that enjoyment (PC or Japan). My point is, that developers have brought in this market of kids and adults that just wanna shoot shit in the face with a big ass gun and that's the market now. So that's what sells, so that's what gets developed. They need to bring back games that are more than just shooting shit in the face, and wait the time it take to bring back all the MILLIONS of RPG/JRPS/MMORPG fans that left the consoles and went to PC. The number of consumers that want that experience are out there, they just need to be catered to in the right way, and right now console game devs aren't doing that in NA.

The sales numbers cited aren't bad for games that had zero promotion, zero advertising, zero support from Nintendo. The people that bought them knew about them months in advance. Everyone else.... well, you can't buy something if you don't know it exists! Secondly, it's kind of patronizing to paint every Japanese game with such a wide brush. Just like US games, not all of them are created equal. Should we be denied Skyrim just because Hunted: The Demon's Forge was a colossal flop? "We" are not to blame. We did all we reasonably could. Word-of-mouth only carries so far. Simply put, Nintendo has been fat and lazy this generation and now it's coming back to bite them in the ass.

For the people criticizing conduit and mad world, they both got decent to great scores.

None of those numbers are too bad. Here, let's take a look: Disgaea 3: 220,000 Dragon Quest VIII: 630,000 Persona 3: 220,000 Persona 4: 350,000 Star Ocean 3: 520,000 None of these JRPGs went platinum but they all received or are due for a new installment. Disgaea 4 will be hitting our shores next month, Dragon Quest X has been announced for the Wii, Persona 5 is in development, and Star Ocean 4 has been released with US sales of 440,000. The reality is that Nintendo of America really just doesn't care enough to localize games that aren't long running franchises like Mario and Zelda. Reggie was probably planning on blowing off these games and dismissing them as generic JRPGs that would end up in a bargain bin like many PS2 JRPGs. What he failed to predict was that the Wii's overall lack of quality JRPGs would lead to greater attention to those oversea titles, especially with all three of them released in a very close timeframe. I don't think we should give up hope yet. With the game being localized in Europe, I predict a US announcement is inevitable. NoA is a very careful company that moves slowly but we should definitely expect them to make the right move when the time comes.

Yes I agree with this article, it is the American Gamers fault. They only by Shooters and Casual Games so they can't really blame Nintendo or can't really be upset that nothing else than Shooter or Casual Games come to the US market. If Nintendo really could make money with this games in America than they sure would bring this games to the US, but nobody cares about such JRPG games in the US. American people need to change their buying behavior and their attitude in general. American people should not only care about bullshit like war, shooter games, religion and the total insane tee party. They need to open their minds and should rather listen at liberal intelligent people like barack obama, and Americans sould look how tolerant Europe is. We in Europe are interested in other culture and in other people, Americans only care about their selves, they not even care about their closest neighbours. Americans have definitely problems with their attitude in general.

LMAO!! Are you shiiting me?? Those games he mentioned, Madworld was lame, Red Steel 2 was good but that required a whole nother periphirial that had to be played with and has no online which is a death blow for a FPS(Bioshock, notwithstanding), Muramasa is spoken completly in Japanese, what were a bunch of Americans going to buy that, they hate subtitles in games. I cant understand why people keep defending Conduit, those games were mediocore pieces of crap made by a meh dev team. You would be better off getting a GC FPS, cheaper and better. Its funny how he didnt mention GE, that game did good cause it did not suck

I must be a really complex paradox for the author, as I own Just Dance 2, and Monster Hunter.

Terrible article, are niche and c tier games supposed to sell well? by the way, most of the games you cited sold a lot more than they deserved.

A lot of people don't like the Wii system because Nintendo has a reputation for being childish. This has been the case for many years, long before the Wii. The Wii just made it stick. A lot of gamers think they're "too cool" to be seen with a Wii console. There's your problem...

This article fails to address the reason the JRPGs are failing and instead wants to question the quality before facing reality. Piracy has consumed the Wii much like the PSP in NA but of course the wii has a huge casual market that does not know the first thing about piracy. The 360 is not called the shooter box for nothing, I fail to see where jrpg fans like me were suppose to think the 360 would become the jrpg console when FF13 was announced since the PS3 was out. We were all holding our money for the PS3 and its future jrpg catalog. How wrong we were, developers decided to choose every console BUT the PS3. And now we are here with only SE making a list of HD quality jrpgs for the ps3.

How is it a gamer's fault for refusing to buy shitty 3rd rate games? I don't owe 3rd parties or sub-par games a goddamn thing.

Just to show how much of a bullshit this argument is I'll simly point a case of Ghostlight - company which runs their bussiness on bringing psp/ds/ps3 jrpgs to Europe. Somehow it is profitable for them while NoA don't even bother for their own 1st party titles.

This article is FULL of contradictions. It also doesn't mention that these games are being localized in Western markets, just not in the US. I don't think a true fan of the game would mind very much getting a European Wii for imports. I have had to do that with most systems in my lifetime for the games that I wanted.

Commercial success in Japan? Quite the contrary.

Although I understand what the writer is saying here... Have you checked what games like Muramasa and Tales Of Symphonia : Dawn Of The New World have sold in Europe? Arc Rise Fantasia was never even released over here (unfortunately I might add). I think NoE made a gutsy move by announcing Xenoblade and the others for Europe and judging by the feedback from Xenoblade's release (reviews and first sales) it appears to be a good business decision as well. Ohh... and I would still like to see ExciteBots over here :-)

200k is enought to validate a US release.... its not like the game cost 20+m to develop. Seeing as its already been localised for europe the cost of releasing in the US will be tiny

I saw Xenoblade, a JPRG, getting great reviews and this made me even consider getting Wii..But nah. I don't know would these titles even sell on Ps3.Jprg:s aren't that big like in last gen...And it saddens me, something like Final Fantasy XIII has only sold millions this gen from JPRG:s.And the game sucks!

The writer seems to have forgotten that DragonQuest and Pokemon are JRPG's... Besides. You only mention two RPG's that didn't sell well on the Wii. Madworld, Redsteel 2, and the Conduit aren't RPG's. I doubt that Nintendo looks at the action genre and says "Well, these action games didn't do so well, so we might as well not localize Wii JRPG's."

All the games you listed were really really bad. Well except Muramasa, but that was no masterpiece apart from its visuals. And definatly not a game that was expected to sell well.

All the games you listed were really really bad. Well except Muramasa, but that was no masterpiece apart from its visuals. And definatly not a game that was expected to sell well.

are u serious??? okay first of if NOE sees the potential in these games than a North American release should have been a no brainier especially considering that JRPG's sell better here than in Europe( hell even sometimes better than japan). Secondly not every game needs to sell millions to be successful. just look at Atlus and how they handle the persona series and Catherine. there games may not have sold huge numbers but many of there titles still have proven to be successful and show that niche games can sell if marketed right.

Wait, no long ago you were telling us that niche games can sell taking the example of Catherine which goes for a ltd 200k, and now you're saying that there's no point releasing JRPGs because they don't top 200k in NA. Coherence, anyone? Furthermore, you seem to forget that Xenoblade has just been released in Europe, which is a much less favourable market for JRPGs. NoE is putting resources to support it and it's working (the game is sold out in many places). Final point : many PS3 niche JRPGs made it to NA depsite low sales expectations. Both Hyperdimension Neptune and AR Tonelico were localised (unthinkable some years ago). Disgaea hardly top 200k (save for the 3rd one that did) but the series has been localised for years now. Atelier Rorona created a surprise by selling twice as much as in Japan, and Totori is coming in its wake. Therefore I think that the "profitability threshold" argument is just wrong. It's up to publishers to give a chance to niche games and to conceive them so that they can make a profit even with modest sales. Nintendo surely finds it easier to make cash with Mario party and the like than with Xenoblade, it only shows that they're not interested in small profit or addressing gamers.

Yes, because WE are the ones who make and release games. Brilliant.

This is why Mario Kart Wii is still the number one release in America. It's because it's the only game that us stupid Americans like. Blame us, the dumb Americans that don't buy "real" games as the reason that real games don't come over here. About these critically well-received that you mentioned, let's look at them shall we?: Madworld: It's extremely short and repetitive. Red Steel 2: It's controls are extremely good, but for some reason multiplayer was completely abandoned. Add to that that the game pretty much treats the shooting as less important than the sword fighting and you have a game where you just swing your arm around for a dozen hours. After the game is finished, there is no reason to replay it. Muramasa: 260,000 is not that bad considering the budget of the game and how niche it is. It was well made (the graphics are beautiful) but once again, that word repetitive comes to mind. The Conduit: This game might as well be called Generic Shooter # 735,854, 903. Yes, the controls are phenomenal in their customization and everything runs as smoothly as butter, but the character models and story were extremely generic. Metroid: Other M: I could write an entire thread about what's wrong with that game. I really don't want to go into what everyone has already heard ad nauseum. It just isn't a good game at all. The Conduit 2 was a high profile sequel? Sorry, but it wasn't. This wasn't a sequel to Halo or anything. The Conduit was a third party game that got some attention because High Voltage actually tried to make a good game for the Wii and they were extremely good at promoting it. High Voltage is a small developer and anyone that expected a lot out of this game or their sequel was off of their rocker. Kudos to High Voltage for getting the word out and doing as well as they did. Core games like Super Mario Galaxy, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and Donkey Country Returns sold millions. I wonder why that is? Could it be that they're great games as opposed to the other ones that I talked about above? BTW, I personally own ALL of the games that I have mentioned besides for the Conduit 2 so I don't fall into your shallow generalization of American gamers and their spending habits. Looking at this post, I should have just made a satirical thread and seen how many posts I could have gotten. Oh well...

Two words: Bull ****. The reason these games didn't sell well was because they weren't marketed properly and the publishers had unusually high expectations. A title that easily refutes this is Atlus' Demon Souls and now Catherine. Start with a limited quantity to spark demand and build up more with proper marketing other than word of mouth. That way, even niche titles can survive....

Two words: Bull ****. The reason these games didn't sell well was because they weren't marketed properly and the publishers had unusually high expectations. A title that easily refutes this is Atlus' Demon Souls and now Catherine. Start with a limited quantity to spark demand and build up more with proper marketing other than word of mouth. That way, even niche titles can survive....

Please stop writing articles, it's a shame Vgchartz hasn't enabled a dislike button.

Perhaps we as gamers are to blame for the ok sales instead of great sales. (Not me personally, as I own most of the games mentioned...) However, if Nintendo fails to deliver these games in America then I as a consumer will loose confidence and trust in Nintendo as bringing quality games to a platform and you can be certain I will not be purchasing their next console until after it already has many exclusive games I want. So who's fault will the failure of the next console from Nintendo be? It will be nothing but their own for not supporting the customers of the current console that helped make it the most popular this gen.

Whoever wants to downvote this article, upvote this comment please.

I just don't understand, how come Last Story and Xenoblade were "Succes" in Japan if it only sold 150k there and on the other hand we have MadWorld with "Abysmal" sales for 450k on America. I know they are different markets but i always thought Japan was a more important and massive market than Americas. Just Saying

I bought Other M, and I wish that I hadn't. Nintendo needs to know that even if a game is "hardcore", it can be a bad game that people don't want to play. This of course is difficult to hold up when casual games with average scores in the range of 5.0 - 7.5 continue to be the Wii's best sellers.

Madworld don't received good critics, most reviewers said it was boring. The sales for muramasa are good for this kind of genre. The conduit sales are great for such a low cost shooter. conduit 2 is far from beeing a "high profile" game. Really high profile games like Call of Duty, Goldeneye etc. sold many units. I think the writer of this article should have done some research and some thinking before writing.

It is so sad that Nintendo don't realize that they are shooting themselves at their leg cuz if their plan is to bring back hardcore gamers with WiiU, then how can they convince them when what they are doing right now is not pleasing the hardcore. They have to rethink their attitude towards the hardcore if they want to succeed in that era cuz if they don't start now, when will they ever start?

The Conduit is a HORRIBLE franchise. Well Received my ASS. Same goes to Madworld.

"This is showing them that the market simply doesn't exist for "hardcore" games on the Wii, especially when titles like Just Dance 2, Wii Fit and Wii Sports Resort continue to sell like hotcakes in North America. " I really don't think it's fair to compare sales of games like Just Dance to sales of core titles. That being said, core titles like L.A. Noire, Portal 2, Dragon Age II sell a little over a million multi-plat in the US. The difference is there between that and 200K or 50K. As to why or what needs to be done kutabacchimae mentions good points. Advertise them.

Most hardcore titles such as Madworld and The Conduit have been extremely 'meh' in my experience. Definitely not up to the caliber of their competitors on other consoles/PC.

Um... you are bringing up games which come in the 200-500K range when none of the three Rainfall games even managed to push 200K in their home territory.

Allow me to show you all the many, many ways you are wrong. Lost Odyssey sales in the US are 450k, in Japan its barely past 100k. Arc Rise Fantasia sales in the US are 100k, compared to Japans barely 60k. Muramasa sales in the US are 260k, compared to Japans 115k. Now, I can keep doing this, because essentially there is one fact true of the every game you listed. The US version of the game sold just as well, if not easily at least twice as better, than the Japanese version. You'd know that too if you actually bothered to do more than just link to the games you are using as an example, specially if you are supposed to be a member and writer for the same site you are linking to. It just makes you look ignorant, if not just downright stupid. Next time you want to play the blame game and point a finger, how about you make sure that finger of yours actually has the muscle to extend itself, much less keep itself pointed. And bonus question, why does Japan keep making "JRPGs", if according to sales, they sell even worse in their native region than they do elsewhere?

Nintendo brought 10 games to the market in 2010. Most were core games from a variety of genres. Out of those 10 games only 2 out sold their casual party game Wii Party. Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Donkey Kong Returns. So that leaves Sin and Punishment, Kirby, Metroid Other M, Samurai Warriors, and others failing by comparison. If I was Nintendo I wouldn't waste any more money on high profile games this generation. I would just do what I need to do to get by. Consumers let other things besides game quality to decided if they are going to purchase a game or not. Like if a game's character takes order from a man, or the character no longer sucks things up.Those things effect if people will buy it instead of if the game is fun. Don't trust the consumer they are too fickle.

its funny they bring up lost Lost Odyssey, had it the user base wii does it would have done fantastic, and 450k on one system is pretty good

Some of those sales in America are good not bad, I never thought that Tales sold 200,000 that's a good result, and in Japan those titles didn't sell as much also, so why not release the games everywhere, at least if they don't sell millions, they will make a market for future releases from the franchises in other markets as well. I say it's only Nintendo's fault

What the hell? >_< Ugh, my head imploded has. There is no excuse whatsoever for NoA's passiveness. Xenoblade and The Last Story are both well-made, well-recieved Nintendo games. Yeah, NINTENDO games. What kind of message are American Nintendo fans getting when NoA gives the middle finger to their own bloody games?

I bought Xenoblade, but it's sold out at my local store and there's 2 or 3 left on Amazon. So it's till consumer's fault ? or editor's for creating supply constrains ?

Is no one noticing the comments on most articles here these days? Really, it's not an isolated problem anymore, most of these are just really, really bad.

Yankees are obsessed with the crapbox that's why.

well if NoA dont release it here here what will happen: 1- many will mod they console + get rom just for those game (that be all lost sell for nintendo) 2- many will soft mod they console and Pre order it from UK (that will increase NoE sale and make NoA look shitty like they being lately) thx to jaybrowny fil aimé

Nintendo has done a poor job advertising Wii games that aren't casual games. If The Last story comes out in NA I will buy it. Done!!!

Okay well maybe some of us our busy working and studying we don't have time to check up the internet for games that have no hype on the internet or on the television. And I've seen some of your previous articles as well. @Kenology's right you shouldn't be able to make articles anymore. And why bring conduit into this? It's a crappy game which very few amount of people like! And Metroid is a dead franchise with very little hype accept it!

For the people criticizing conduit and mad world, they both got decent to great scores.

no its Nintendo's Fault!!! Maybe if they'd release these games people would consider WII a decent console......its mediocre as it stands

I knew this was something bound to happen for a console that acquired the casual market around 2008-2009. It seems that newer games are not defining any more. The author's statements apart, we see Wii-Sports, Wii-fit and M Kart have accumulated mammoth figures over these years. But their newer iterations can't retain the 100 K+ weekly figures like before. Gamers are probably finding their old library pretty much enough and you can't blame them for that. Instead Nintendo's advertising has faltered, I'd say. Kinect and Move failed to deliver as expected, but still things continue to move forward with continued advertising. And maybe who knows that out of boredom, someone's still taking an effort to wiggle the Wii-mote once in a while.

ACTUALLY He's right. this is absolutely true, it's how capitalism works. We the hard-core gamers failed to buy any of the hardcore games. near the end of their life cycle why would Nintendo risk it for games that history suggests will not sell? sure we the companies should have promoted those games better, but honestly if you are into games as heavily as I would assume you all are YOU KNEW these games were coming! I used to read the magazines cover to cover, and surf the internet for hours in search of game info, the hardcore knew and they didn't care. and don't give me that Madworld didn't get good reviews crap. 81 is the metacritic score, Gameinformer (who are Wii haters) gave it a 9. oh, the Zelda and monster hunter tri have some thing these title don't: they are established franchises that sold millions before the Wii, but the 3 missing wii games are all untested IP's. The sad truth is if you want good games on your system that means you have to buy games politically. I have supported hardcore wii games, I have no more heros, Red steel 2 (both kick ass actually) and madworld (good but could have used co-op). another example of game we all should have bought but didn't (me included) little king's story, which got fantastic reviews (metacritic 87) but no one bought. there are bunch of others we should have bought but didn't. sure we all bought golden eye and call of duty but the truth is we flat out ignored anything that was remotely original or new. so yeah lay off nintendo, it sucks, but they have no reason to believe us when we say we will buy these games. hell most people probably didn't even know these games were coming out until we found out they weren't