Face it: Japanese Wii owners buy Wii Sports, Wii Fit and maybe Super Mario Galaxy. That's about it, really! So, when a third party company releases something that, well, isn't any of those three, what happens? Not much. That's No More Heroes executive producer and Harvest Moon creator Yasuhiro Wada and No More Heroes and Killer 7 creator Goichi Suda hoping to give out toilet paper and hoping to sign copies of NMH. Thing is, after twenty minutes of Suda and Wada standing in front of Akihabara's Sofmap, nobody bought the game. Keep in mind, that not only two well-known game creators were giving out toilet paper, but there was also a woman in a mini-skirt (that, after the jump). Talk about a tough crowd!
Japanese game press like IT Media, GA Graphic and Famitsu were at the bust of an event and didn't have any customers to photograph at the launch. According to Akiba Blog, a staffer from Famitsu publisher Enterbrain apparently went and bought a copy of No More Heroes for Wada and Suda to sign. Regardless of what you think of No More Heroes, stuff like this isn't just sad for Suda and co., but for Wii owners ultimately. No More Heroes isn't your typical Wii game, and it seems to be getting punished for that. Hope it does better in the States — for the Wii's sake.
Hit the jump for the mini-skirt cosplay girl.
PS2 Still Most Popular Console
Other systems aren't being played as much as Sony's seven-year-old beast.
by Daemon Hatfield
December 12, 2007 - The Nielsen Company has released several top ten lists for 2007 that reveal a variety of consumer trends related to media and technology. Among them is Videogame Console Usage from April to November that shows the PlayStation 2 is still enjoying the most use among consoles.
Nielsen measured the total amount of minutes its participants spent playing videogames, then divided those minutes between all current- and last-gen consoles. The PS2 obliterated the competition, claiming over 42 percent of all usage time. For each of the big three platforms, their last-gen predecessors saw more use than current systems. Here's how each console ranked:
Videogame Console Usage (April-November 2007)
1. PS2 – 42.2% of usage minutes
2. Xbox – 13.9
3. Xbox 360 – 11.8
4. GameCube – 7.1
5. Wii – 5.5
6. PS3 – 2.5
7. Other – 17.1
"Other" consists of any other console found in the home.
The data suggests that while the Wii has seen brisk sales this year, many of its purchasers don't play the console as often as those who bought a 360. It is also interesting to note the "other" category saw more use than the PS3, Wii, and GameCube combined.
Nielsen also revealed that Fresh Bread was the most popular consumer packaged good in 2007.
Mass Effect sales at 1 million; Halo 3 at 5 million
Written by Dax
Tuesday, 11 December 2007
Quote:
In a special Ad Watch column on the Xbox 360 marketing strategy this holiday season, Jeff Bell, Corporate Vice President of Global Marketing for the Xbox 360, has revealed to GameDaily BIZ that sales for BioWare's blockbuster role-playing game Mass Effect are better than perhaps many industry watchers were expecting.
Prediction market the simExchange pegged Mass Effect at around 328,000 units for November (the title released on Nov. 20). That said, in less than three weeks on the market, the game has more than tripled the predicted November total. "We've... seen a strong response to both Halo 3 sales with more than 5 million, and Mass Effect which has sold more than a million copies in less than three weeks," noted Bell, highlighting consumers' reaction to Microsoft's holiday push.
Bell did not specify whether the one million figure is a global data point or for the U.S. only (Update: it's a worldwide sales total). Nevertheless, one million sold in under three weeks is a fantastic start and yet another reason for Microsoft to do everything in their power to keep the franchise exclusive to Xbox 360.
While Microsoft holds the exclusive publishing rights to the first Mass Effect, Electronic Arts' purchase of BioWare/Pandemic means that EA now holds the rights to the valuable IP. Microsoft has said multiple times since the acquisition that "we'll be talking to EA and BioWare in the weeks to come." Whether or not an exclusivity deal can be reached is anybody's guess, but with one million sold already Microsoft just got more incentive.
