SEGA backs away from mature titles on Wii

NewsPosted 04/01/2010 - 2:17pm GMT

'Probably' won't be investing further in that specific Wii market.

SEGA of America studio director Constantine Hantzopoulos has revealed that the publisher is highly unlikely to continue to invest in mature video games for the Wii.

"Are we going to do more mature titles for the Wii? Probably not,” he said on the 4 Guys 1UP Podcast.

"I have to say that it was a space that was open and we took a gamble on it. It’s like, 'Wow, there's no mature games on the Wii. Is there an audience out there?' We did some research, it said there was an audience out there."

It's not that titles such as MadWorld and House of the Dead: Overkill were complete flops, but neither could be considered hugely successful.

"I mean both [MadWorld and House of the Dead: Overkill] are doing okay and at the end of the day we’ll make our numbers, that’s good," he explained.

It was the dismal sales of EA's Dead Space: Extraction, though, that really shook the boat at SEGA.

"We were stunned. That was my litmus test. Basically, it’s like, okay, you got EA, who can put all the marketing muscle behind this, an established franchise that scored quite well on 360 and PS3. They should be able to actually hit this out of the park, right? We get numbers, real numbers aside from NPD, and I’m like, 'Woah.'"

Bad news for fans of SEGA's mature Wii offerings then, especially given that early in 2009 SEGA of America’s vice president of marketing Sean Ratcliffe said that there was franchise potential in MadWorld.

Via Develop

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Highest Rated Comment

VG_Staff

'Probably' won't be investing further in that specific Wii market.

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Posted 15:13 on 04 January 2010

User Comments

CANCEROUS

Like ive been saying the core gamers are the one's to blame for this reaction from Sega and EA and Capcom. Is it any wonder when they are trying to create unique and mature games for the system which we are alway screaming out for, when we get one (it may be onrails) mature game we dont go out an buy it. Its been a trend ive seen through the Wii's life. I agree they should start by not creating so many on rail shooter and look to bring games Like RE5 which looking at the way RE:DC looks and plays can be done on the little white box of magic. Start looking at bringing games that are orginal and use the online and wii speak and start also making use of the wii motion plus.

Posted 16:21 on 06 January 2010

bencrosaby

I enjoyed MadWorld alot (and for the record I bought it) and as a result this news is a little disappointing.

Let's hope Capcom don't pull out anytime soon.

Posted 22:38 on 04 January 2010

Bloodstorm

Let's look at No More Heroes, that was given an M for Mature, how EXCELLENT was that? That game warranted a sequel. Let's look at Madworld, how DULL was that?

If you want a game to perform well you need to actually make it good. Who would have thought? Just because it's an M doesn't mean it's going to be an instant hit.

Posted 18:17 on 04 January 2010

Rickitis

Madworld was alright but got boring pretty fast, it was a decent game though. Mature titles just dont sell that well on the Wii platform I guess.

Posted 16:08 on 04 January 2010

j-man

How about all these companies stop making so many rail shooters and try doing an action title that's a little more traditional. The wii may not be the most powerful hardware but they surely can do better than this. Its no wonder why people are not buying these games! I for one much rather play games like dead space and resident evil in the traditional way instead of the rail nonsense that has been thrown our way.

Posted 15:46 on 04 January 2010