Climax not sure if hardcore games can succeed on Wii
“We feel we now understand the hardware and the interface very well. But the flip-side to that is that non-Nintendo publishers feel they haven’t done that well on it commercially. That’s the biggest issue. From that perspective the Wii is a really difficult device to develop for, because as a hardcore games machine, Wii games are always going to be held up against whatever’s just come out on the Xbox 360 or PS3. The second you try to make a gamer’s game for it you will get unflattering comparisons. That’s why it’s difficult…despite it being very large, I think the attachment rate is fairly low, and I think that colours publishers’ view on how much they can invest in the system. I think that ROI’s on Wii games are probably low. I think publishers are very conservative on how much they can spend on it. We just don’t know if hardcore games can succeed on the Wii. I think it’s yet to be proven. I think a lot of people have bought Wii’s, but many aren’t buying software for it. With Silent Hill Shattered Memories, we’ve made a gamer’s game, and we’ve put a lot of passion into the game to get it right. But we’ve now got to wait and see how successful it’s really going to be commercially. That’s kind of out of our hands.” – CEO at Climax Studios
It seems like one core third-party title after another this year haven’t found commercial success. MadWorld, Dead Space Extraction, and Little King’s Story haven’t sold well at all even though they’re high-quality games. I really hope that Silent Hill: Shattered Memories will be one of the few third-party offerings this year to have financial success.
