SEGA hopes to cash in with hardcore Wii titles

NewsPosted 20/01/2009 - 1:12pm GMT

Believes there is an opportunity for new IPs including MadWorld and the Conduit.

Speaking to MCV, SEGA has revealed that it believes many publishers have moved away from the hardcore Wii gamer market in favour of creating mass market casual games and now hopes to fill this gap with upcoming titles, MadWorld and The Conduit.

"There have been some good hardcore Wii titles," said MD of SEGA Europe North Alan Pritchard. "Resident Evil 4 has done reasonable numbers; Red Steel has also performed really well. But since then, many publishers have migrated towards the more mass-market family titles, so perhaps there hasn't been the array or depth of hardcore titles on Wii. So there is definitely opportunity here."

UK sales director John Clark added: "More family friendly titles are being released on PlayStation and 360 as this is a growth area for these formats. Maybe with Wii there's a reverse opportunity."

MadWorld and The Conduit have certainly been generating a buzz among the hardcore gaming community, one looking truly unique while the other appears to push the Wii's graphical limits.

Are you excited by MadWorld and The Conduit? Let us know in the comments section below.

Comments

To add your comment, please login or register

User Comments

bencrosaby

Can't wait for The Conduit! I'm glad SEGA have chosen to focus on the Core this year, so kudos to them! Let's hope they can deliver.

Posted 16:29 on 20 January 2009

Triggerhappytel @ cirej2000

But of course, I'm not suggesting that the graphics should be compared to PS360 games, I just think the premise seems fairly uninteresting and nothing gameplay-wise from the videos has really seemed that impressive as yet.

Like I say, I will be interested to read reviews of this one when it finally gets released. The potential is there but I think it could go either way.

Oh, and welcome to the site, by the way :)

Posted 16:09 on 20 January 2009

cirej2000

I dunno Triggerhappytel, there was pretty good hype for Lair, Too Human, Haze and a few other mediocre games on PS360. They just didn't get the HUGE hype of GTAIV, Gears, Halo and MGS.

I know alot of folks are trying to compare it to a 360 or PS3 game. But the Conduit does get a bit of hype because it is a ground up FPS for the Wii, it's got a team that's putting everything into it they possibly can (fully customizable controls including motion controls, Wiimotion plus support, Wii speak support, solid visuals and a decent online mode).

But yeah, if you're saying that it's not up to the visual standards of a 360 or PS3 game, then I'm not arguing with you. Then again, if it's got big budget graphics with huge vistas, excellent flame effects, superior flight animations and did I say big budget graphics...well, I'll pass on Lair again.

And yes, the stupid disclaimer...I own all three systems, am a big fan of shooters, I think that shooters need excellent graphics in order to excel and I'm hyped for Killzone 2.

Posted 15:51 on 20 January 2009

Triggerhappytel

I think The Conduit is a curious oddity - if it were on PS360 it would pratically be ignored against the heavyweight competition, but somehow it seems to be getting so much attention just because it's on the Wii, unremarkable as it may look. I also remain unconvinced by the gameplay videos I've seen; sometimes it looks pretty nice (although never of the standard of the best the Xbox 1 had to offer), and other times it looks like a middling PS2 title.

Regardless of my cynicism, I will be interested to see how it performs when it finally gets released.

Posted 13:51 on 20 January 2009