News

Two major game developers / publishers are beginning to see just how "casual" the Nintendo Wii has become. Both Capcom and Sega are ruing recent poor sales of their more hardcore titles on the Wii console, forcing them to think again when it comes to developing mature titles for the system.

Sega of America development director Constantine Hantzopoulos said Sega will "probably not" release any more mature Wii games due to poor sales with MadWorld and The Conduit. He went on to say, "It was a space that was open and we took a gamble on it," he added. "It's like, 'wow there's no mature games on the Wii, is there an audience out there?' We did some research and it said that there was an audience out there." Not anymore it seems.

Capcom are also set to move their focus away from the Wii and more onto the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, as their hardcore titles have also failed to make an impact on Nintendo's machine. Capcom's recent release, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles only sold 16,000 copies in its first three weeks, which needless to say was below Capcom's expectations, especially considering Resident Evil 4 Wii sold a respectable 140,000 copies, a great figure for a game that has already been out on other consoles for a while, although it did come out at a time when there was "no competition," says Capcom.

Capcom France boss Antoine Seux said: "Development on Wii is very difficult, with an oversupply of games and a gamer market that has radically changed. Hardcore games are selling less and less on the console, be it MadWorld or Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop or House of the Dead: Overkill." He added: "Two years ago, there were still gamers on Wii, but these have been diverted from this console in favour of the new generation. The Wii console is very much a family commitment and rates relatively low. So for us, Capcom, the future is the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360."

Despite being a decent rail shooter, EA's Dead Space Extraction didn't exactly take the sales charts by storm, so could EA be next to give up on hardcore Wii games? Nintendo themselves have refused to give Project Zero 4: The Mask of the Lunar Eclipse a European and American release simply because they don't think it's worth investing the money in patching and translating it (damn you Nintendo). This means that hardcore gamers will only get excited about the big first party Nintendo names, Mario, Metroid and Zelda. Everything else is for the casual market. It's a shame to say the least.

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UPDATE

Contrary to yesterdays statement by Capcom France boss Antoine Seux, Capcom has been quick to retract his statement and confirm their commitment to Wii. The statement reads: "Further to comments made in a recent article on French website Gamekult, Capcom would like to confirm its commitment as a multi-platform developer and publisher of interactive software."

Sure, Capcom will release games on the Wii, but will they release any more hardcore games? Will there be another Resident Evil on the Wii? I doubt it.