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Sega Considering Maturing the Wii

By Jorge Ba-oh (jb)

32659 on 01.07.2009 at 00:53

Sega Considering Maturing the Wii on Nintendo gaming news, videos and discussion

Sega have invested heavily in bringing content for teenagers/young adults to to the Wii, and is considering bringing more.

House of the Dead, MadWorld and more recently, The Conduit, have added a little variety in the Wii catalogue and although these titles may have not sold as well as, dare we say it, Carnival Games, the publisher feels there's still room to explore and bring mature content to Nintendo's platform.

House of the Dead: Overkill was a profitable title for us. Whilst it had a rather sharp tail at full price, they do bubble away at a lower price point for a long time. You get your money back and a bit on full price, but over the years, if we do the final product return on investment, profits come from the lower price point. You have to push boundaries and explore.

I think whilst MadWorld commercially didn't sell what we were expecting I wouldn't say it's game over for mature Wii titles from Sega. We're taking a look at the resources we have now. We've got money to invest in development, we're just considering where to invest it next.

Gary Dunn, MD of European development for Sega

Which IPs from SEGA/third parties do you think the publisher could work with on Wii

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MadWorld (Wii)

Developer
Platinum

Publisher
SEGA

Genre
Brawler

Players
1

C3 Score
9/10

Reader Score
8/10 (21 Votes)

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SuperLink on 01.07.2009 at 01:16#1

I dunno, mature titles are nice, but would MadWorld or HotD have sold many more on 360 or PS3? Maybe it just goes to show that mature titles for the sake of mature titles really aren't all they're cracked up to be.

I'd be much happier if SEGA stuck to the basic principle of "bringing more great games to the Wii", I really couldn't care less if they were mature or not, regardless of how great HotD and Madworld may be.

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gatotsu911 on 01.07.2009 at 01:32#2

Sega isn't really known for its M-rated franchises, unless maybe you count House of the Dead.
Anyway, if there's any franchise I really want to see on the Wii, it's Metal Gear, without a doubt.

satsubatsu347 on 01.07.2009 at 02:24#3

I think the real problem is not Sega making a blanket statement of "let's push m-rated fare for m-rated fare's sake" but Sega truly "knowing" that pushing m-rated fare on Nintendo's money machine gives them an edge due to the lack of the aforementioned type of games. Mature titles bring undecided Nintendo players out of the wings and on to the Wii.

SuperShyGuy62 on 01.07.2009 at 06:09#4

It is up too Nintendo to say if the Wii needs to be mature. Not Sega's decision. Let them be reminded that they work for them, not the other way around.

Mario, Mega Man and Rayman FTW!!!

PK Mongoose on 01.07.2009 at 07:04#5

SuperShyGuy62 said:
It is up too Nintendo to say if the Wii needs to be mature. Not Sega's decision. Let them be reminded that they work for them, not the other way around.

Actually, Sega is its own company, independent from Nintendo. They've made plenty games for quite a few non-Nintendo systems.

It really does seem, however, that they're overthinking the whole "Mature Rating".

Like SL said, quality is independent of adultery. Just because the coffee's black doesn't mean that it'd be worse with cream and sugar!

It requires great courage to look at oneself honestly, and forge one's own path.

RudyC3 on 01.07.2009 at 11:19#6

PK Mongoose>Strange image to represent the facts Smilie but that's exactly how it is. By the way i love cofee with milk and sugar Smilie . What does that mean.. "No gives a f***" ???

I'd like to see a new Skies of Arcadia game on Wii. Here's a game that's not M-rated but clearly targeted at teenagers and young adults.

Plus, the Wii is becoming more and more of a RPG console with all those RPGs coming up, so there's bound to be an audience there, ready to buy it.

Also, bringing it to the Wii would help strengthen its "RPG console" image among the players that love this kind of game, and help build that audience on the console. It's already happened with another "lower powered" console, mainly targetted at the casual audience : The Nintendo DS.

So why not the Wii ?

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Teetrab on 01.07.2009 at 18:54#7

Sega needs to work on the Jet Set Radio series, and put that on the wii. The music was awesome as well as the tagging part. They should make it where you could Tag with the wii mote and bowl over police-men with the nun-shuck or something....

Or they could do something upredictable with the controls ...

Another game franchise I guess they could bring over to the wii is Phantasy Star series...I\'d be happy even if they decided not to go online (even though I think they should).

OR Sega could go with a whole new franchise... something completely different and unexpected. Smilie

( Edited 01.07.2009 17:55 by Teetrab )

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Darkflame on 01.07.2009 at 21:19#8

I agree with Superlink.
We want quality, thats all.

Shenmue would be nice.

Please give our little random review show a try;
http://randomreviewshow.com/index.html
We have special effects and umm...stuff...

mamoon on 02.07.2009 at 00:10#9

I don't know what will happen but sega really does need to step up the M-rated games and that will most likely bring more fans and consumers

Nin1Od0 on 02.07.2009 at 16:24#10

M titles are definitely nice, and would definitely help in Wii's image. But it's hard for any M rated game, no matter how good it is, to do well when Nintendo has went so far already to push the system as a "PG" system so to speak.

Before "M" title's do well, I think Nintendo needs to drop an "M" title of it's own first, so it's own fans can finally see "there are M rated games on Wii???" Cuz as of right now, to majority of the Wii fanbase, they see nothing more than party/mini games. So those attempts by Sega, Capcom, and EA so far, fall short because Nintendo needs to put their attempt at an "M" game as well for it to really be noticed.

-make it count- Hey if you wanna play Wii Games with me, check out my game portion of my profile and pm me if you wanna add me so I can add you!

Darkflame on 02.07.2009 at 18:04#11

I dont see why.
Resident Evil sold very decently on both the gamecube and Wii (despite being an enhanced port)

Meanwhile, Nintendo's last utterly superb AAA mature game...Eternal Darkness...didnt sale well at all.

Ratings have absolutely nothing to do with game sales.
For every GTA saleing well, theres dozens of M titles that dont. And besides, its not the volience that makes GTA sale so well, its the fact its a massive, high quality sandbox game with considerable investment put into it.

Thats what the Wii needs. Good investment in good games.
So those attempts by Sega, Capcom, and EA so far, fall short....because they have either been niche genre(madworld), a port, or just plane cheap to make.

Please give our little random review show a try;
http://randomreviewshow.com/index.html
We have special effects and umm...stuff...

erv on 02.07.2009 at 19:40#12

SuperLink said:
I dunno, mature titles are nice, but would MadWorld or HotD have sold many more on 360 or PS3? Maybe it just goes to show that mature titles for the sake of mature titles really aren't all they're cracked up to be.
I'd be much happier if SEGA stuck to the basic principle of "bringing more great games to the Wii", I really couldn't care less if they were mature or not, regardless of how great HotD and Madworld may be.

+ star.

By the way, billy hatcher absolutely rocked, but sold like crap. Maybe, when investing in a title, go all the way - in terms of marketing the crap out of it until everyone wants it, and then some more.

Teetrab on 02.07.2009 at 19:45#13

Darkflame said:
I dont see why.
Resident Evil sold very decently on both the gamecube and Wii (despite being an enhanced port)
Meanwhile, Nintendo's last utterly superb AAA mature game...Eternal Darkness...didnt sale well at all.
Ratings have absolutely nothing to do with game sales.
For every GTA saleing well, theres dozens of M titles that dont. And besides, its not the volience that makes GTA sale so well, its the fact its a massive, high quality sandbox game with considerable investment put into it.
Thats what the Wii needs. Good investment in good games.
So those attempts by Sega, Capcom, and EA so far, fall short....because they have either been niche genre(madworld), a port, or just plane cheap to make.

I agree with you. Ratings don't have too much to do with sales. The quality of the game have (at least should have) a strong correlation with sales.

I believe that as long as Nintendo and its third parties puts out strong, fun, long-lasting (Replay value) games, then they should always be in great standing in the competition.

Now, in order for them to get a better edge on the competition it also means reaching out to every spectrum of gamer out there. They've done a great job with the casual side as well as the people they already have. In terms of the spectrum they're missing one equally important piece (one can argue). It's important because if it wasn't, we wouldn't be talking about it in the 1st place right?

They're not strong in the mature audience. Image has become such an important part in business...especially now in videogames. Its always been important in clothes, cars, even food (like soda drinks) and now videogames has an image too.

What Nintendo needs to do to improve that is kicking out good quality (key phrase here) mature games (NOT SPECIFICALLY M-RATED) It gives a new breath to the console and gets some stragglers on board.

Personally, I'm satisfied with mature and non-serious games, but from a business standpoint Nintendo could get major benefits from producing more mature games to reach out to this type of neglected gamer spectrum.

Edit this post:

[quote][b]Darkflame said:[/b]<br/>I dont see why.
Resident Evil sold very decently on both the gamecube and Wii (despite being an enhanced port)

Meanwhile, Nintendo's last utterly superb AAA mature game...Eternal Darkness...didnt sale well at all.

[/quote]

I agree with you. Ratings don't have too much to do with sales. The quality of the game have (at least should have) a strong correlation with sales.

I believe that as long as Nintendo and its third parties puts out strong, fun, long-lasting (Replay value) games, then they should always be in great standing in the competition.

What Nintendo needs to do to improve that is kicking out good quality (key phrase here) mature games (NOT SPECIFICALLY M-RATED) It gives a new breath to the console and gets some stragglers on board.