Red Steel 2 fails to capture retail success

TVGB: "Despite numerous gameplay improvements and positive word from critics, Ubisoft's Red Steel 2 did not weather its first week at retail well. The sword-swinging sequel made its entrance on the UK's all formats sales charts at the disappointing 34th spot, leaving us wonder as to the franchise's future."

[ClownBelt]

Drop the Wii. It's all about the other two systems.

[wohoo]

I'll agree with that. It would probably sell more as downloadable titles on XBLA/PSN. Same for Dead Space Extraction.

[Carlton Banks]

Now Imagine if its name was Red Steel 2: Mario's Return, instant success.

[Anon1974]

For the love of god, why?

Edit: Wait. I guess it did break over a million. Few games ever reach that milestone, let alone mature games for the Wii. I guess that warrants a second go.

[Cheeseknight28]

If I wasn't so busy playing other hack-n'-slashes on the PS3 and 360, like Bayonetta and God of War, I would have bought Red Steel. That, and if I had the money.

Maybe it'll get cheap fast, like every other third-party game released in the past few months.

[HolyOrangeCows]

I feel bad for third party developers who keep trying to bring hardcore titles to the Wii. They just can't seem to win.

[sikbeta]

@HolyOrangeCows

Third Party Devs not only FAIL with Hardcore/mature Games, also the non-hardcore games sell crap too, labeled as Shovelware cuz they are and don't have a known Character like Mario and such, there are a bunch of games that sell well on the wii, like "just-dance" whereas the majority of games, hardcore or not sell crap and sink, is time for Third Party Devs to Moven On, they FAILED, so is better for them to Fully jump into making games for the HD consoles

[ReservoirDog316]

In all honesty, it's just kinda really expensive to support a 360, PS3, Wii and PSP.

So if push comes to shove, PS3 comes first (online friends). Then 360. Then Wii. Then PSP.

That being said, I never liked the art style of RS2. So I never really thought of getting it.

[rexus12345]

marketing an completely unrelated game as a sequel to a garbage game did not help. They could at least come up with a new name, Mad Cowboy Samurai or something

[mastiffchild]

I haven't got it yet-even though I will-purely cos I'm too skint after buying GOW3 and Yakuza3 this week! I WILL be supporting Ubi on this one, though, as it looks both a great game and like they really put some effort into it.

I think the first, shoddy, but OK in bits and bobs first game sold so well because of the lack of anything else to get if you wanted a bit of mature action at Wii launch, though, and that's not the case these days. Now competition from the other consoles is more serious and there IS more choice in the library of Wii games.

I normally think that a demo could have helped sales of third party Wii games too-but this time with it being the only action game, that I can think of, to support Motion Plus that might not have helped that much(though Sports Resort MUST have got a few units out there!). Who vcan say just why mature games seem to be stalling on the Wii. RE4 did fine and WaW sold well after a slow start -which MUST now be Ubi's hope with RS2 or we may see a port to either or both HD console come the eutumn. Who knows, but it's got to nbe getting frustrating that these devs cannot seem to catch a break even when they put in the effort to make the most of what Wii has to offer. RS2 seems to tick every box you'd want it to and yet again we have some awfully slack sales for the game.Pity.

[N4g_null]

You know what devs are getting feed up with you HD guys. All the pats on the back and you still can't get mario sells unless your MW2 or halo or GEARS OF WAR.

I heard a few people actually saying F the HD crowd. Maybe it was because so many there where laid off because the HD crowd could not support their game.It think you guys are going to bbe left with a few pubs and devs on the HD front pretty soon. People are going to retreat to the hand held again it seems. Unless the economy picks up. Whos buying a 3dHDtv this year? LOL

I mean you look at this and you can understand why MH3 and kingdom hearts is going to the wii. The HD guys just want MW2 and halo and the PS3 guys want to act like uncharted is untouchable lol. The FF13 sales are horrible so is GOW3 seriously only 3 million? WTF... those are your best games!

I always wonder how the PC crowd would react to console games and I see fully now. They don't give a F. And viceversa. Gaming is not a team sport stop acting like it them against us. Good luck with that.

[PirateThom]

And Devs are also saying F the Wii, because they can't pull Nintendo numbers....

Difference is, the HD consoles have developers attention, Wii does not.

[Millah]

Sometimes its hard to justify shelling out 50 bucks for a Wii game, a game that has last-gen graphics, when there are games for 10 dollars more on PS360 that are technically much more advanced and modern. The game on Wii really has to be amazing and standout to justify purchasing it. Thats why Nintendo games always sell, because they usually are fantastic and standout from the pack of shovelware. I think if maybe devs brought the price down to 40 dollars it would help sales, Wii technology is last gen after all so budgets can't be all that high.

[Kamikaze135]

Red Steel 2 looks like an amazing game, but most Wii owners only want casual games and 1st party titles. Why are developers wasting their time? I think Red Steel 2 should have been a PS3/360 game with Move and Natal coming out this Fall.

[RememberThe357]

If Ubisoft wants to make their money back, they have to port it to Natal and Move.

[Rock Bottom]

Have you guys seen Red Steel 2?

[Doletskaya]

Its almost a waste of time,efforts and money for third parties to develop games for Wii.All Wii owners want are games from Nintendo.They don't even care about or pay attention to other games,let alone buying them.

[Titanz]

It can kill third party success.

[Mahr]

The more likely obstacle to Red Steel 2's commercial success is the commercial success of Red Steel 1.

[Rocket Sauce]

I was so excited for the first Red Steel, I bought it the day it came out...I'm not falling for that one again.

[ChickeyCantor]

@rocket

Not falling for it?
Sounds like you dont even know what you are talking about.

The first one was rushed due to the release of the console.
This one got plenty of time and got polished 100x more than the first one.

Falling for what? your own ignorance?

[OhReginald]

..with the playstation move controllers and online support and HD graphics.

[crazy25000]

would be awesome

[EvilTwin]

That's for UK-only, so I'd reserve judgment for now. It's not like this game had great brand recognition (most people who played the original didn't like it), and Ubi didn't put much of a marketing blitz behind it (there were a few late-night ads, but it's not like it was sponsoring basketball games like FF).

Most Wii games (even Nintendo ones) don't launch like Halo or COD; they tend to have a longer sales curve at the expense of huge openings. We'll see with RS2. Its success or failure won't be decided in one week or one month. If it does end up totally bombing, it'll be a shame. Ubi really did a good job on it.

[asdr3wsfas]

Even COD on wii sells like that ;)

This is one of the most enjoyable games I've ever played.

If you talk like that the internet commentators might forget they know nothing about statistics. They may actually learn the name of that distribution. YOU'VE SAID TOO MUCH

[mastiffchild]

It's still odd, even taking into account the odd mature Wii game that has sold better than people imagine but over time, though that mature Wii games either fail to reach the numbers they do on PS360(even WaW figures aren't really on the same level as they were on other platforms with more mature choices available to compete)or just fall really flat.

Sure, the case isn't as open and shut as some commentators would have us believe but, to me, it's still a worry that so many mature(hate the term but it's better than "hardcore", "non casual" or "core" at a push!)fail to light up the sales charts when there's simply so many more Wiis out there than either PS3s or 360s even now. Something, surely, could be done about all this but what the answer is, IDK, more demos on one of the channels(shopping or Nintendo?)or just better marketing for these games? Who knows but if RS2 doesn't sneak up the charts than it's just another one that's slipped through the net, imo, and more fuel to Nintendo's detractors than ever-fair or not.

I can't help feeling there has to be a reason behind the likes of this game, NMH, Zack and Wiki, even WaW and so many others not getting the marketing or support you'd expect on other platforms but I'm damned if I know what it is! So m,any Wiis and, relatively, so few sales-why wasn't, say, DS:Extraction even advertised to such a massive number of potential buyers? Te mind boggles, it truly does. EA didn't push it at all and them and Capcom then both complained about it being the fault of Wii gamers that it and DC failed to sell well! Despite them not marketing them and the fact they released as poor value in saturated(rail shooter) markets Wii gamers got the blame!

[EvilTwin]

lol

I'm just no good at keeping "secrets" on the intertubes, bob.