By brad on Nov 19, 2009

If you wanna make money, you have to make a game that’s actually good! First party titles are having no problem selling.

By Dave on Nov 19, 2009

And..what games have they made?

By Thomas N on Nov 19, 2009

This is unfortunate, but if a publisher does a poor job advertising its games and these games sold poorly as a result, then it should be blamed. It is possible that the games do not have broad appeal which may explain why they sell poorly.

By Ponkotsu on Nov 20, 2009

That’s pretty much it right here. Marvelous makes very niche games. They’re a small publisher that can’t afford to support the HD systems – nor do they make the kinds of games those consoles’ audiences, which buy VERY few types of games, actually buy – and the Wii is the only console they can work on and find a real, profitable audience given the types of niche games they make and their budgetary restrictions.

But that also comes with literally zero advertising for most of their games. They have no room to complain about the Wii audience – and there’s no wisdom in turning to the HD consoles with their No More Heroes port, which is literally flushing money they don’t really have away – when they aren’t probably backing their games with marketing. By each generation’s niche game sales standards, their games track solidly – most niche games don’t sell very well in any generation and rely on market leader platforms and lower budgets to have a shot at profitability. That shot does not exist on any console but the Wii this gen, and odds are, most of their games will turn a profit in time. Rune Factory will continue to gradually sell to the Harvest Moon audience, Little King’s Story’s getting by gradually on word of mouth, Muramasa’s already sold over double their announced expectations, the Harvest Moon games sell consistently well and have a dedicated Nintendo platform fanbase, Valhalla Knights was a game that wasn’t going to sell well on any platform and the media here shredded it, and Arc Rise Fantasia hasn’t been released outside of Japan yet.

Porting No More Heroes over to the HD consoles and blaming the Wii audience after making money – Suda’s most successful game to date by a large margin – on it is a very unwise and unprofessional business decision. Not something that’s going to help get themselves out of the hole they’ve begun to dig themselves into. If anything, they should focus on increasing DS support – where they do make money – and carefully reevaluate their approach to the Wii. Perhaps work on less games at a time and actually allocate money for advertising. When you’re a very niche publisher releasing limited appeal titles with zero marketing on the mainstream console and they’re actually SELLING there, though not enough for their tastes, it’s an issue they need to look within themselves to correct. Looking to the HD platforms is simply a potentially dangerously suicidal turn for the company to take, so one hopes they’ll learn from the inevitable No More Heroes port backfire and figure out a Wii route to achieve profitability beyond Harvest Moon. Otherwise, like many developers, they may be better off just stepping back entirely and go portable-only. These are tough economic times. $60 is insane for any game. $50 is ridiculous, too. Most games don’t hit their full sales stride until they’re around $20. Niche games made money on the mainstream consoles in the past and they both can and have on the Wii, but you can’t blame the public and mass market for not shelling $50 out for an uber-niche game appealing to a very limited segment of the market with zero advertising during the current global economic crisis.

By Ponkotsu on Nov 20, 2009

To really summarize, a big part of the problem we keep seeing, with Marvelous included, is a publisher tendency to blame the customer when things don’t quite turn out as desired. They don’t ask “what did we do wrong?” Instead, they’re eager to turn away the blame when very niche titles with zero advertising don’t do as well as hoped. It’s this problem of self-centeredness that the industry has developed in recent years, where they’ve gotten complacent in their profits and sustainability on previous consoles through rather conservative business practices. They think they’re entitled to their own existence and gotten so wrapped up in the concept of “my” game that they’ve lost sight of that they’re PRODUCERS serving CUSTOMERS. They’ve lost touch with what consumers want and they aren’t providing to their wants and needs, let alone properly marketing their products. Bad business decision after bad business decision rooted in the loss of a customer-centric focus. The minute the customer stops being #1, any company is headed into dangerous territory, and video game developers are no different.

Marvelous made the right call in focusing on the Wii to begin with, as they wouldn’t be able to sustain themselves on any other console this generation. They’d only find a quick death on the HD consoles. But they’ve made obvious and undeniable mistakes on the Wii as well. They’re producing niche, limited appeal titles with no marketing that would not be a hit on any platform and would likely only sell about as well as they have on the Wii if they were on the PS2 last generation. They need to look into their own practices and decision-making processes if they have any interest in remaining relevant in the coming years of console gaming, because even on the Wii, limited appeal ultra-niche games can only do so well – especially without proper backup. As a developer, like many, Marvelous is still largely stuck in last generation. If they don’t figure out how to tap into the Wii audience and actually get their games marketed this gen, they’re going to have to go portable-only or potentially go bankrupt. Many Japanese developers are basically committing suicide this gen on the HD consoles already as is, simply assuming that they’ll somehow find PS2 era style sustainability that doesn’t exist for small Japanese developers on those platforms. It’d be a shame for Marvelous to join them, speaking as a longtime fan of their games who’s supported and enjoyed their Wii releases so far.