The Conduit

[Shino]

It won't reach Halo sales because it simply wont be as heavily marketed. There won't be The Conduit numbered helmets/figurines or The Conduit branded Mountain Dew.

[mcj metroid]

LOL at it becoming 'Wii's Halo'. That's like looking at a pretty 360 game and going 'it's the 360's zelda/mario'.

that's one of the problems with it being called wii's halo.. people might expect too much from the game when it's on it's starting feet as a series.

People called metroid prime gamecube's halo too and people really got the wrong idea... For me metroid prime shits over halo but obviously for the non thinking casual the game ain't worth shit.

[Tellyn]

I personally think it could come close to the sales of the first Halo. With SEGA behind it, it definitely has the potential to reach a massive audience. We'll see.

[Calza]

5 million sales?

 

I guess we'll just have to see.

[Shino]

All they need to do is say on the ads "Its like Halo on Wii!".

[Tellyn]

5 million sales?

 

I guess we'll just have to see.

 

That's just me personally. I think it's capable of reaching that figure with proper marketing - I'm sure there's already a lot of gamers who are aware of it and want to purchase it already. Focus on 16-player online gameplay and voice chat on the adverts, and they're onto a winner.

[Emasher]

KG: Yes, this is a hardcore demographic, but I think with the control, the type of game(it’s teen rated) and a compelling storyline, it makes it accessible to the average Wii user.

 

This was the best part of the interview for me. Now I'll be able to buy the game right away. Anyone know if stores are starting with pre-orders yet?

 

Anyway, this isn't going to sell as well as Halo did, but it will probably sell enough that it will become a major IP for SEGA and HVS. I'm thinking 3-5 Million Copies. Depending on the marketing.

[david.dakota]

Just been reading some impressions of this game (G4 and.....somewhere else) and boy are they effing idiots. They say the game is good but the controls are bad because the wiimote ISN'T as good for FPS as a gamepad. Saying the cursor is too shakey!!

 

Stupid. For eons we've been pointing a wide variety of items at a wider variety targets- deer, mammoths, John F Kennedy- with reasonably good accuracy. And all of a sudden games journalists have lost the ability to point? What shit are you on, journo's?

 

Pointing is a natural thing to do, we point to identify a far off thing, we point our fingers in a gun shape as kids, we can point and track a bird, so why can't pointing make the transition to gaming? Seems a perfectly natural thought to me, and given our previous successes at pointing, we should be rather good at it. But games journalists think not? Crazy fooks.

 

Who are these people? Do they stab themselves in the face when eating? Throw their coffee in their pants? Do they piss up the bathroom wall, or shove their hand up their anus when wiping? Are their hands that ill-coordinated?

 

Give me - and i'm sure HVS would agree - some real critisism. IR is not responsive, motion controls broken, game is crap... Telling me you're unable to hold your hand steady is not a useful critique of the game (far too much of the five finger shuffle, i guess).

 

These reviewers ultimately hold some power over the success of the game, and i'd have to see this game recieve unwarranted negative reviews simply because the reviewer has a w@nkers twitch.

[dazzybee]

Exactly Dakota!! Truly bizarre. Oh well, as long as we all get it and have regular online matches it's going to be amazing. Especially with voice chat. Has it been confirmed that it will be 16 player voice chat; I remember some paranoid rumblings about it being 4 players connected only!

[Tellyn]

David's post is the best thing I've read in months, well done dude.

[Emasher]

The 4 Player Voice chat thing was just with AC and the Wii Speak Channel. So people just assumed it would only work with 4 people.

 

One other thing I should point out is the fact that HVS in the interview didn't deny that the game wouldn't use friend codes. So its still possible we won't get them. If they were being forced to use them, why not just say that?

[Ganepark32]

The game is using friends codes. Read something about it on the web somewhere last week. Can't remember where it was though and I think the place I read it said it was unofficially stated. But they seemed to confident that it was true. I'm not bothered really. If they can at least incorporate some form of lobby system into the game, and it's entirely possible with FCs as we've seen with Mario Kart, then it'll be a much better experience.

[dwarf]

Yeah the point to aim thing is much better than using analogues. It's the one thing I miss by changing from Wii to PS3 owner. Call of Duty works great with it, I just wish I could use it to play Killzone 2. That would make Unbelievable. It's still going to be kickass online though.

[Emasher]

The game is using friends codes. Read something about it on the web somewhere last week. Can't remember where it was though and I think the place I read it said it was unofficially stated. But they seemed to confident that it was true. I'm not bothered really. If they can at least incorporate some form of lobby system into the game, and it's entirely possible with FCs as we've seen with Mario Kart, then it'll be a much better experience.

 

I wouldn't have any complaints if it had a lobby system. Though if it was set in stone surely they would have said that in the interview.

[D_prOdigy]

What what I read yesterday, you can go into matches with random people, but you won't be able to use voice chat with random people. You can only use VC with friends, so I hope that doesn't mean you have to set up a friends-only game for voice chat.

 

Apparently, you can "tag" your friends when they're online so you can follow them and stick with them across games, which I think is nice.

[darksnowman]

You know what it needs? Maybe already confirmed, but having a limitless (or stupidly big) friend roster would be great.

[Zechs Merquise]

Wow, some crazy sales figures flying about here! I'm not saying it won't sell that amount - but I've just got my fingers crossed that it does a million.

[Emasher]

Wow, some crazy sales figures flying about here! I'm not saying it won't sell that amount - but I've just got my fingers crossed that it does a million.

 

With the hype its already got it might sell 1 million. But SEGA have said they're going to be marketing this pretty well, so hopefully they can get more out of it. If they advertise it and MadWorld with an in-box add with sonic unleashed and sonic and the black knight, and really play up the fact that its a SEGA game, it could do well, SEGA is still a pretty strong brand.

[david.dakota]

I'm kind of with Zechs. I really hope, desperately hope it hits amazing figures of 4, 5, 8 million. However, similar products (Red Steel, Metroid Prime 3) have earned less than 1.5 million units sold. In The Conduits favour, its getting marketed, its hyped, its launching into a bigger Wii install base, so who knows.

 

Lets face it though, this Spring is make or break for the Wii's core audience.

[Shino]

Lets face it though, this Spring is make or break for the Wii's core audience.

 

No, lets not face it. Because it ain't.

[mcj metroid]

No, lets not face it. Because it ain't.

 

 

anyway.. he may have a point otherwise.. The respect of the core audience is dangling if it isn't gone already but nintendo may not care about such things.. If nintendo is market leader why would they even care especially if the hardcore didnt save them in gamecubes time.

[Ganepark32]

^ see that's just silly. Of course Nintendo would care if the 'hardcore' gave up on their consoles as they are the main market for titles such as Mario, Zelda and Metroid amongst other things and while they may not be bringing in as much revenue these days compared to other more 'casual' offerings, such as Wii Fit, they still quantify a significant amount of income to Nintendo. If the 'hardcore' left, then the numbers of Wiis being bought would perhaps be significantly lower than they are now because there would have been a much smaller attachment rating at the launch of the console and with little word of mouth and showing of titles like Wii Sports by these gamers to their families/friends/what-have-you then there would also be a smaller attachment rating for the console now.

 

People continue to moan and talk about the 'hardcore' gamer having moved on from Nintendo's lack of consistency for providing adequate titles to the Wii and while that may be the case in the minority, many of the so called 'hardcore' are still playing their Wiis today because they have accepted that they have to look outside of the normal, standards in gaming and have been awarded with many a gem (Zack and Wiki, No More Heroes and Eledees to name but a few).

 

The next few months won't decide the 'hardcore' fate for the Wii. Whether these titles fly off of the shelves or whether they wither and die like a flower in the baking sun it matters not as there will always be one or two developers who are willing to take the chance to release a more mature title on the Wii. I mean, there are developers who are working on various mature titles we don't know about. For example, n-Space are said to have several Wii titles in development, outside of Winter, and all are said to be mature titles. We also have the likes of Nibris who are committed, even though it may not look like it from the total lack of coverage on the likes of Sadness and Raid Over the River, to the development of more mature titles that will appeal to the 'hardcore' gamer. And then there's Nintendo who will always be there to provide us with the next iteration in the Mario, Zelda and Metroid franchises. There will always be titles for the 'hardcore' on the Wii regardless of how the 'Big 3' from Sega do.

 

And yes, I still believe that Sadness will be released. It's still being worked on as we speak. I'll try and get in touch with the guys at Nibris for an update on how it's going.

[mcj metroid]

^ see that's just silly. Of course Nintendo would care if the 'hardcore' gave up on their consoles as they are the main market for titles such as Mario, Zelda and Metroid amongst other things and while they may not be bringing in as much revenue these days compared to other more 'casual' offerings, such as Wii Fit, they still quantify a significant amount of income to Nintendo. If the 'hardcore' left, then the numbers of Wiis being bought would perhaps be significantly lower than they are now because there would have been a much smaller attachment rating at the launch of the console and with little word of mouth and showing of titles like Wii Sports by these gamers to their families/friends/what-have-you then there would also be a smaller attachment rating for the console now.

 

People continue to moan and talk about the 'hardcore' gamer having moved on from Nintendo's lack of consistency for providing adequate titles to the Wii and while that may be the case in the minority, many of the so called 'hardcore' are still playing their Wiis today because they have accepted that they have to look outside of the normal, standards in gaming and have been awarded with many a gem (Zack and Wiki, No More Heroes and Eledees to name but a few).

 

The next few months won't decide the 'hardcore' fate for the Wii. Whether these titles fly off of the shelves or whether they wither and die like a flower in the baking sun it matters not as there will always be one or two developers who are willing to take the chance to release a more mature title on the Wii. I mean, there are developers who are working on various mature titles we don't know about. For example, n-Space are said to have several Wii titles in development, outside of Winter, and all are said to be mature titles. We also have the likes of Nibris who are committed, even though it may not look like it from the total lack of coverage on the likes of Sadness and Raid Over the River, to the development of more mature titles that will appeal to the 'hardcore' gamer. And then there's Nintendo who will always be there to provide us with the next iteration in the Mario, Zelda and Metroid franchises. There will always be titles for the 'hardcore' on the Wii regardless of how the 'Big 3' from Sega do.

 

And yes, I still believe that Sadness will be released. It's still being worked on as we speak. I'll try and get in touch with the guys at Nibris for an update on how it's going.

 

hmm that's good i wanted someone to challenge that point cause I wasn't even sure if I believed it myself just throwing it out there you know..

I'd like to think they care. I do think this year on wii may be a good bit better than last for the core titles.

[Tellyn]

And yes, I still believe that Sadness will be released. It's still being worked on as we speak. I'll try and get in touch with the guys at Nibris for an update on how it's going.

 

You know Nibris? They've ignored every attempt I made to contact them in the past year or so.

[Emasher]

Like I've been saying since last E3. All the releases of Wii games lined up for 2007 and because of that, barely anything came out in 2008. But we got many AAA titles in 2007. This year, we will most likely start to see games released from studios that released stuff late 2006 early 2007.

 

The average length of a generation is 5 years. In 2003 there was a similar Nintendo drought, 5 years latter in 2008 we had the same thing happen.

 

We've already heard about tons of hardcore games from Nintendo and many from 2nd and 3rd parties, why are people still saying that Nintendo is no longer making hardcore games, obviously they are, there were just fewer of them in 2008.

 

And like others have said, Hardcore gamers on the Wii are still a significant market. Mario Galaxy sold 8 Million Zelda TP sold 6 Million, Brawl Sold 8 Million (Not 100% sure on those numbers). And Nintendo said a year ago that 70% of people who bought Wii consoles were actually hardcore gamers, and most of the casuals were just other people in the house who played it.

 

And remember, not all casual gamers just buy casual games. There are a lot of casual gamers who buy games like Mario and Smash Bros. just because they've heard of these games and want to try them out.