Is Mature Gaming On The Wii Dead? Simply Put, It's Getting There

Is the Wii reaching its last days with the core gaming audience? Quentyn from AnalogHype.com explores this possibility.

[NotSoSilentBob]

Was it ever alive in the first place? You can't make something into what it isn't.

[ogwilson]

depends on how you look at it, I guess. Hardcore gamers certainly did buy the console. And a lot of people did get the Wii with the prospect of getting great mature titles. That never came to fruition, though, so it's a 2 way thing. At one end, it never was "alive", but it did show signs of life.

[Hisiru]

I need to say that MW:Reflex is a port of a 2 years game and it's selling pretty well without advertising.

For people using The Conduit to say that the Wii can't sell hardcore games:
http://www.capcom-unity.com...

[FarEastOrient]

The Wii is marketed as a toy and so far it is treated as such by the customers.

The Xbox 360 and PS3 are marketed as multimedia/gaming portals and of course are treated as such.

Gaming PCs are labeled as Rigs since they eat polygons and bragging rights.

You can not blame the developers for trying to bring hardcore gaming to the Wii. When you have a hardcore game only selling 16 000 units after three weeks you know you are in trouble.

[Mista T]

Mature games are a failure on wii

you would think that games like COD: Reflex, Madworld, The Conduit, etc would have sold a lot more by now because of 65 million console base but no.

[Genesis5]

It might help if they had HD.

[execution17]

but yeah i find it ironic about the wii and the ps3/360 when it comes to sales, if a ps3/360 game flops, then if a mature wii game sells that amount its a success, i oh so wish it was back like in the days when it was never about "teh salez" but yeah, anyone whose a real gamer wouldn't care anyways

ps i play my wii for the classics xD

[Aquarius]

I can't re-call a mature title ever being on the Wii.

Metroid Other M
SMG2 ( which is an expansion btw )
Zelda Wii

I will agree as being fun to play but they're not mature.

I was playing Mario Kart DS just the other day and I seriously couldn't play it for more than a hour. When I actually realised what I was playing, it was a child's game. It was babified!!!!! And I don't mean the difficulty, it was kid-like something which I have grown out of.
cheep cheep beach, anyone?
Who here use to watch pokemon or just any cartoon? Would you seriously go back and watch it, now that your an adult?
DBZ was my favourite cartoon but I watch things like documentaries, discovery channel, soaps etc. HEROES is my favourite programme atm.

[sikbeta]

Actually there is another point, the exclusives, Devs don't going to make Huge Mature games when they know wii-sport sold like +20m copies, they just try to copy what Nintendo do with its own games (Mario, Zelda, etc) but simply FAIL and making a Quality M game just to FAIL is not a good idea either

[EvilTwin]

Aquarius -- What would it take for you to think of Metroid as mature? What, it needs swearing, more blood and some sexual references? I'd call the Prime trilogy much more mature than the vast majority of mindless and mediocre shooters of this gen and last.

I've never understood people who think "mature" equals "hardcore gamer." Core games used to actually be challenging, hard games. I'd call Megaman 9 a core game, easily.

If third parties want core success, they should put their best efforts forward on the Wii and market them. That's the elephant in the room here -- for most third party publishers/developers, they do NOT make games on Wii with a quality level commensurate of their PS3/360 releases.

[blu_yu_away]

When Modnation racers comes out I expect the same type of comments from you about that. But alas, you will praise it for all of it's glory as a ps3 exclusive and how it somehow takes kart racing to an uber fantastic, unique and hardcore level previously thought unattainable. You claim to have "matured" far beyond cartoons or Mario games yet you still spend your free time trolling N4G.

[ChickeyCantor]

" you would think that games like COD: Reflex, Madworld, The Conduit, etc would have sold a lot more by now because of 65 million console base but no."

You would think that games like MGS4, uncharted, etc would sell 20 million...

uhm?

Its such a retarded statement, if we go by that statement Ps2 was a disaster because no game sold 90million+?

" Who here use to watch pokemon or just any cartoon? Would you seriously go back and watch it, now that your an adult? "
We might, your point being? Just because you started to grow some hair on your scrotum doesn't mean you can't appreciate something kid friendly.

" growing out of something" got merely anything to do with being an adult. 2 different things actually.

[AWBrawler]

and how much did God of War sell on the 120 million PS2s out there?

last I checked Wind Waker Dang near outsold the whole series, and it was on the 3rd place Gamecube

[Trevorthenerd]

another anti-wii article... Well once I get my hands on super Mario galaxy 2, metroid other m and the new zelda game this year I will be happy...

[Kushan]

To be fair, this year is the exception with 3x the number of good games coming out than the Wii normally gets.

[tunaks1]

honestly this is getting as bad as the PS3 is doomed articles
when Zelda, Other M, Galaxy 2, Tatsunoko Vs Capcom, Red Steel 2,MH3, and NMH2 comes out everyone will forget these poorly written articles

[sikbeta]

NOP, this is a totally different thing, Nintendo can live without M games, I want to point out that if it's a Quality Game, obviously I want it to sell very well and there are Game on the wii that simply don't sell as expected, not saying sell like cr@p just saying the games deserve MORE sales

[SaiyanFury]

I think the article speaks about "M" rated games not selling as well. Lord knows the Wii has a plethora of other titles like New Super Mario Bros. Wii that is selling like hotcakes. There are more core titles on the system, just M-rated ones may not sell as well considering a lot of adult gamers that moved on past the N64 to the PS and Xbox brands. Just a personal observation there. The Wii has a lot of great games, it just seems like the more adult oriented ones may not sell as much.

[SinnedNogara]

Capcom and Sega, and many other third-party developers are missing the point. It's not that there games were great and they didn't have an audience, it's that those games weren't really good and the audience wasn't satisfied.

Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop--Boring, average, terrible, nothing new.

MadWorld--Doesn't have much of a audience. Who wants a black and white gore-fest?? Not the average gamer. Even still, 100,000 people liked it.

House of the Dead: Overkill--Another rail shooter???? I'm pretty sure gamers were tired of their 50th rail shooter. And it's not the most-loved genre, unlike FPS games or RPG gaems.

The Conduit--Did you see those reviews? GamePro, X-Play, GameTrailers (7s don't go well on GT), Edge, and several other sources managed to get all their subscribers to hate the game. It wasn't really accessible and I never loved it. And I was a HUGE supporter.

Now look at how well Call of Duty games on Wii sell. This is what Wii gamers want, the numbers show. Same for Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3.

It's sorta Nintendo's fault as well. I mean, Nintendo isn't making too many hardcore games to convince third party developers. Yes, Metroid, Mario, SSBB, Zelda, etc are great, it seem's Nintendo forgot the other half of their killer franchises. By that I mean, the generation is almost over and where is Star Fox, Kirby, F-Zero, etc. And where are the new and revived franchises like Kid Icarus (yes I want that game too)?? Nintendo also has the friend code system too, which no matter who you ask, whether it's me or the most hardcore Nintendo fanboy, we all hate Friend Codes.

Now here's the question. If Sega pull's out, then who will publish the Grinder, Gladioter A.D. and The Conduit 2. I'm guessing Nintendo, and if that's the case, those games will sell MUCH more.

[blackboyunltd]

i believe it! mature gaming is for the high defs

[Pein]

i dont think so. the wii has hardcore games coming like metroid and thats about it lol

[Double Toasted]

???

[superootfan]

COD: MW reflex selling over half a million in 8 weeks begs to differ...

COD Reflex Week 1: 60,000

COD Reflex Week 7: 151,000

Source:
http://www.vgchartz.com/gam...

We're talking about numbers that have not only not slowed but more then doubled with no advertising whatsoever. A mature title that will almost certainly reach over a million in the next 3 months. with NO ADVERTIZING other then a few videos on Nintendo channel and word of mouth.

It proves that games made with thought and quality can indeed do great and also proves that this article is 100% garbage speculation and should be ignored at all costs. The basis for their arguments ignores everything convenient for them.

[Hisiru]

Yeah, it's a port of a 2 years old game and it's selling well without advertising.

[M337ING]

superrootfan, did you forget to mention how badly Reflex sales cratered this week according to your link? They'll never recover from that.

[Kushan]

Plus, that was over the CHRISTMAS PERIOD. It's not going to sell like that ever again. It might barely hit 1million sales, which is pretty good, but there's what, 50, 60million Wiis out there? Hardcore games on the PS3/360 were able to double that with half the consoles sold.

[superootfan]

Perhaps those numbers are low because... GASP! THE WEEK ISN'T OVER YET!!! Therefor there can't BE numbers for this week yet. So you know when something says N/A it means "Not Available" not "North america" or "Not Selling". Good job at the charts copernicus.

The point is it's a mature title that has probably made a considerable profit for activision. Which proves this article wrong. Against all odds an title that is mature has sold quite well and justso everyone realises... That last week, with the highest numbers out of all of them. Took place the week AFTER Christmas. So it might be a tad foolish to contribute all these sales to the holidays. One thing the wii has proven is games with solid online components tend to sell alot and have steady sales. Look at mario Kart wii, that game is a year old and it was still the best selling game in europe last year.

At least i'm backing what i say up I guess. More then I can say for alot of people on this site.

[asdr3wsfas]

"It might barely hit 1million sales, which is pretty good, but there's what, 50, 60million Wiis out there? Hardcore games on the PS3/360 were able to double that with half the consoles sold."

Those systems had:

-advertising for COD games
-COD games that weren't 2 year old ports

50 to 60 million wiis is important? There were twice that many ps2s and okami still sold better on the wii. That's why the sequel is coming to DS.

If you talk about a wii game cratering you have no idea how they sell. Look at the MW sales again - slow and steady over 3 months. Wii sales aren't front loaded as much as the other systems.

[Double Toasted]

Does the author mean...bloody? Sorry pal, maybe in your world or back in '92 or '93 bloody meant...good...but that equation doesn't hold much weight nowadays. I really can't think of any game besides Gears, that is so violently bloody but yet poetic in its approach, that holds my interest. Everything else, there is hardly a glimmer of blood at all and the games are fantastic. Oh another rather "bloody" game recently released would be Borderlands, but I feel like that game could've been put on Wii if it weren't for Epic hating Wii and not letting the UE3 to be used for the console (I have no proof of this, just speculation, I mean the iPhone is using the UE3...c'mon now...the iPhone?!?!)...whatever though!

[Heartbroken-Menace]

the Wii's software is no where near that of the xbox360 or PS3. No need for rocket science to figure that out. But the Wii sells even without software, so it's not like Nintendo needs to care, or do they?

[HOSe]

please, the last mature game released by/for/on nintendo was eternal darkness

[Dsnyder]

YES. Mature and hardcore games on the wii are nearly dead. You can go back to my 50 other posts about how family friendly casual gamers and stone age hardware have killed the wii's potential of you really need and explanation but explaining something so obvious seems redundant.

[HOSe]

michael "oh dude i picked up mw2 like 5 million other young dumbfuc<ks and its sick!!!"

beyonce" oh really???? do they have that game for wii"

michael" nah dumba$$ but they did just release this other dumpy game for wii thats just as bad as the conduit"

[Knightofelemia]

I would not mind trying out MadWorld or the new Mario game but I am not buying a console to play 2 games and have it sit around my house collecting dust. But the Wii is geared towards kids and the elderly and its a market Nintendo did well with but they did drop their hardcore fans in the process most people own a Wii to keep the wife and kids happy or for Zelda or Metroid to Wii owners those two titles are hardcore Wii games. I just hope Sega does not drop Mad World and they bring the game to the 360 and the PS3 when Natal and Sonys wand hit the market I'll buy the game.

[asdr3wsfas]

"for Zelda or Metroid to Wii owners those two titles are hardcore Wii games."

Or metroid. Or punchout (beat mike tyson sometime). Or Sin and Punishment. Or Fire Emblem. Or wario. Did a hardcore gamer just overlook several nintendo hardcore franchises? The hardcore must not follow wii games...

The wii is explicitly geared towards lapsed gamers too, most of which are by definition not kids or "the elderly." And given the DS and wii succeeded (from nintendo's admission and market/nintendo channel
research) I'd say you're wrong in assuming only kids and soccer moms play the system.

Madworld is in 480i. So few HD only gamers realize it is actually graphically worse than most wii games. So they can't stand SD graphics yet somehow this is ok because it's bloody?

I own it. BTW it sucks - the game is mindless, skill-less killing until the occasional redeeming boss fight and ends in 6 hours. In the stages you literally just kill enemies who almost never attack you. It's the ultimate example of style over substance I've seen in years.

Great soundtrack tho. The announcers are hilarious too, they do make the game worth it.

[HOSe]

like, this year..

nintendo revolution at 2010 e3 anyone?

[asdr3wsfas]

Only morons on a gaming site could consider people who wanted sequels to punchout, mario kart, or 2d mario as anything but mature. Just from the fact we played the originals you can easily gather we're older and have played longer than most other people.

COD MW reflex is selling like the others btw and looks to easily hit 1m+ with NO ADVERTISING as a YEAR OLD PORT. NMH2 comes out this month, so does Sin and Punishment 2 and TvC. Then Monster Hunter Tri. This site is a joke as these articles and associated comments are written by people who obviously have no idea what wii games are upcoming. If they did they'd realize this year is the best for third party support!

This ignores metroid: other M, wii zelda, and SMG 2, all coming out this year. Real casual lineup right there. I know because team ninja is doing other M and they make minigames *eyeroll*

[EvilTwin]

Shh...no talking sense allowed, bob.

I'm actually shocked at COD:MWR's sales. It'll probably get adjusted a bit after a month or two, but it's selling amazingly well for a two-year old game with no marketing.

And for the life of me, I don't know when "mature" gaming came to encompass ALL of hardcore gaming. M-rated games certainly have their big share of the market (I love GTA as much as the next person), but the rating alone doesn't make them "core," in my view.

A core game is aimed at people who play games a lot who want a challenge. Zelda has always been a core game, because it takes dedication to beat it. Same with Metroid (those Super Metroid speed runs take a helluva lot of practice). And the brilliance of those franchises is they manage to be challenging while being so fun.

But apparently Mario isn't a core game anymore. I mean, Morgan Webb says it, so it must be true...
[/sarcasm]

[Gr81]

Is the same as "casual" gaming in that they are just buzzwords used to marginalize the Wii or Wii owners. Its quite pitiful really. Its like this "us Mature gamers no the Wii sucks but those casual gamers are so stupid they don't know what is good" type of thing.

I love the theater that goes on. But honestly in 3 years Wii has such a diverse library of games ranging all over regardless of the rating. I'm still playing Brawl with fam and friends whether local or not and we're all 25+ some with wives and kids (not me I'm bachelor for life ;) I get the itch to play Prime 3 every other month, RE4 destroys 5 in every way save for resolution. I mean "Mature" games lol. I was what? 10-12 playing Mortal Kombat 2? Yeah how mature I was.

[Jamescagney]

Mature gaming, hmm. A lot of people seem to forget that kids play games as well. I have 2 kids that I would prefer not to play on my ps3 as the games I have are pretty much all mature games, with the exception of a few.

The wii may not have many blood and guts games, or games with explicit language, but it does have great games that my children can play, and games that I enjoy as well.

Sometimes mature gaming is over-rated, I enjoy games that I can play with the family as well. A fact that many seem to overlook.

[asdr3wsfas]

Good post but don't forget mature doesn't always mean mature players. I played the most violent bloody games of my life around 10 years old - Mortal Kombat, GTA, Postal and Resident Evil.

I hardly play those titles anymore. Now I play metroid, mario, and arcade shoot em ups almost exclusively, being bored to tears of games that use violence as a crutch for poor gameplay. There are good mature games but also quite a bit of trash.

[Jamescagney]

All that matters at the end of the day is whether a game is good. That's all that matters. No matter what system it's on, you just have to have it. You want it.

That's gaming.

[asdr3wsfas]

That is why LBP is my favorite ps3 game despite the overwhelmingly childish feel.

I own a wii for that reason. Nintendo games are usually such high quality they alone justify the purchase. And they've gone wild this gen - I can't wait until Sin and Punishment 2.

[EvilTwin]

I think a game's rating is probably the most arbitrary factor to its fun level.

An M-rating sure as heck didn't make Driv3r a good game, the same way an R-rating doesn't mean a film is any good. Dr. Strangelove is rated PG, but I'd say it's a far more mature film than an R-rated slasher movie. (Likewise, I consider the Metroid Prime Trilogy more mature than a lot of M-rated shooters.)

In the best mature titles, usually the most "adult" thing about them isn't what gets them the M-rating, IMO.
COD4's violence earned it an M-rating, but the most mature aspect of the game is how the bomb is handled, IMO.
In Bioshock, I thought the most mature part of the game was its stance on some of the follies of Randian philosophy.

[Wrathman]

i do believe that xbox and ps3 fans alike, wud like to see the wii die.

[N4g_null]

The question is if it did die then what would those gamers gain.

It's really sad that gamers are like this now. I believe it all grew out of competition with 3rd parties you see nintendo is almost always the top publisher. Sega was like that always yet Sony is never that competitive. Until uncharted I don't think 3rd parties even cared about sony's 1st games.

No one gains from any one leaving the market. Thanks to hd gaming nintendo is going to make the next system hd. Also you have to realize this is a come back gen for them. They don't have the cash of ms or the past loyalty of Sony in reguards to developers and publishers.

The hate is clear as day yet it mostly only hurts the hater. Never focus on hate it ruins your own life. If you do it for fun then that says a lot about what type of gamer you are.

[hoops]

It was never alive in the first place. Silly article

[hard joe]

has it ever been alive to begin with?
i thought wii was for little kids and seniors :D

[Advari]

Mature gaming is not dead yet but it will be a while before another rated M game hits the console why would companies play poker when they have a winning hand with the PS3 and 360. And why play a mature game on a system your kids plays when you can play a mature games on a Hi Def system with better graphics and online capabilities.

[ChickeyCantor]

Obviously its rather clear what context "mature" takes in this article.

However, me being able to sit with 3 friends and play NSMBW and get so frustrated that we actually call each other names...but not in a " HA HA" way. I wonder if the game really is kid friendly.

But"mature" gaming is kinda double edged. Actually being able to sit with 3 friends and socialize is also mature.

[asdr3wsfas]

"But"mature" gaming is kinda double edged. Actually being able to sit with 3 friends and socialize is also mature."

In this context they define mature as "having such low self-confidence in playing video games as an adult that pointless violence, sex, and bad storylines are required to rationalize it."

[Blow Out Your Brains]

All Nintendo has left are the hardcore fans, the soccer moms, and young children. That's all they need anyway.

[AWBrawler]

I don't Mean M rated either (All though RE4 and UC were M)

TOS Dawn of the new world is more mature than Most M games. Thats why Tenebrae is my avatar.

As for Mature wii games how about FFCC:Crystal Bearers, TOS Dawn of the New World, Metroid Corruption, Zelda TP, No more Heroes, Red Steel and others
A game does have to be M to be mature. Are you telling me Leisure suit Larry is more mature than say Mario? if anything its immature. Again Most M games bomb on Wii, cos they are BAD. imagine how Madworld, and Manhunt would do on the PS360 or Cursed Mountain, or RE:UC, or RE:DC, or Driv3r. See where I'm going?

My what Fanboyism.

[Samus HD]

hey is this confirmed or just writen ????>?

[N4g_null]

If it can die on the wii then it can die on hd consoles. Is pc mature rated games dead remember that's all they had where is it now? Also remember motion control and family games are coming to a hd near you.

Becareful what you wish for because it could effect what you like also.

Had 3rd parties tried harder casual gaming would not even be talked about on the wii. It would have lead to the upgrade mentality also. Thanks to no effort many hd games will not gain new fans.

Don't blame it on nintendo gamers and developers choose not to support it now we simply don't have enough hd gamers to support all of the me too developers. Nintendo controlls nothing only consumers and of course developers.