Guitar Hero’s success helping or hurting Wii?
Thursday, January 10th, 2008 at 1:10pm by Derek
For more than a decade, it has been common knowledge within the gaming populace that third-parties struggle to sell their games on Nintendo consoles. For one reason or another, the Nintendo audience generally doesn’t respond to mass sellers like Tony Hawk, Need For Speed or Call of Duty.
This tradition hasn’t changed much on Wii. Madden sales have bombed two years in a row, and even the impressive, Wii-focused Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 has been received with minimal fanfare.
But it has finally happened. A mainstream game published by a third party company has achieved massive success on Wii. RedOctane’s Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock has sold 1.1 million copies in America alone since launching on October 28.
Some consider this impressive feat the long-awaited proof of Wii’s staying power. In a December episode of GameTrailer.com’s Bonus Round webcast, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter argued RedOctane’s immediate success with Guitar Hero III on Wii relieves Nintendo’s console of fad-status and proves it can maintain a position in the market over the long term.
“Until Guitar Hero III, I thought the Wii might have been a fad. … The attach rate on Wii for Madden is lower than it is on any other platform and (the same is) pretty much true of all third party multiplatform games, so the only things that worked were Wii exclusives and first party content. And then Guitar Hero III came along.”
In terms of third-party Wii software, only Sega’s Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games and Capcom’s Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition have sold more copies than Guitar Hero III. In little more than two months, the wildly popular rhythm game has outsold both of Ubisoft’s million-selling Wii launch titles, Rayman Raving Rabbids and Red Steel, as well as every other third-party Wii game in existence.
But is this actually good news for Wii owners?
Without question, Guitar Hero III is a terrific game. It is the ultra-polished apex of the franchise, the finely toned result of years of refinements and tweaks. Everything players have come to love about the series has been shined to near perfection; the tracklist is deep and varied, the gameplay is sharp and precise, and the multiplayer brings friends together for a raucous good time. Factor in well-implemented additions and online content and Guitar Hero III becomes the ultimate Guitar Hero experience.
It is also, however, the same a weaker product on Wii.
Downloadable content has been spared due to hardware deficiencies, stereo sound was not included in what inexplicably became a mono-only package, and developers Neversoft and Vicarious Visions opted to keep the Wii version a direct port rather than a unique alternative. Even something as simple as Mii integration for the most basic uses, such as profile selection or high score lists, was ignored. Of course, it goes without saying that Mii inclusion should not be considered a prerequisite for Wii software. I use it as an example only to stress a point; the only Wii-specific features Guitar Hero III utilizes are the remote’s speaker for flubbed notes and rumble capabilities.
So much for a revolution, eh?
There is certainly something to be said for Guitar Hero III’s success on Wii. It is an exceptional game that does exactly what any great game should; by transforming know-nothing hacks and former musicians who traded their guitars for briefcases into virtual rock stars, it allows players to become rock gods in command of thundering hoards of head-bangers, air guitarists and mosh-pitters.
It allows players to imagine. And at the very least, it proves to cynical analysts and third-parties alike that the Wii audience is willing to shelve Wii Sports for a few hours and actually buy new software.
But what else does Guitar Hero III’s success say about the Wii market, particularly while Wii-focused gems like Zack & Wiki gather dust on store shelves? Perhaps more importantly, what message does this send to publishers and developers? As Wii owners continue to seek out the established and ignore the unique, does the strength of our supposed “revolution” weaken?
Many journalists have joined the Pachter camp on this one, arguing the success of Guitar Hero III proves the door is open for third-parties on Wii. Pachter believes it has solidified the Wii’s position as the console market leader, which is likely true, but at what cost has it done this? Marketing is certainly an issue, but if the Wii is truly destined to be a unique and innovative gaming alternative, isn’t RedOctane’s success with a feature-stripped port on Nintendo’s platform indicative of the opposite?
If the Wii loses its mystique and becomes just another console, as opposed to a unique alternative, it falls into the same category as its console counterparts. And that is a battle the Wii is dramatically ill-equipped to win.
Has Guitar Hero shut more doors than it has opened on Wii?
(Author’s note: All sales data in this article can be referenced at the sales tracking Web site VGChartz.com.)
January 10th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
The cream always (eventually) rises to the top, Derek. So even though some publishers may be tempted to ship deficient ports for a quick buck in light of GHIII success, competition maintains that it takes a stellar game with good marketing to reap the financial rewards.
January 10th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
GH and RB are games practically MADE for the wii audience- they are games that are easy to pick up, encourage multiplayer, encourage people to play in the same room, and encourage a different kind of socialization than, say, halo3 multiplayer.
It’s a great thing for the wii’s audience, and EA needs to hurry up and release RB Wii.
With time, I’ll bet there will be more optimized music games for the wii. For now, as the wii audience is generally less picky about technical details, these games can get by being ports without significant online support (but obviously not with mono)
January 10th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
I think it shows just what WE here at infendo have known: If you make a solid product, market it well and get the word out, it will sell fine.
Games like Zak and Wiki are horrible examples of if a quality game will sell because there was zero mainstream marketing, and little to know awareness. It wasn’t even available at a lot of stores. IT was literally put out to die. No game will do well without marketing and buzz, particularly on Wii when the buzz needs to be more mainstream.
MoH:H2 is another bad example of a game that SHOULD sell well on Wii. How tired IS MoH? I mean, none of the recent iterations have done well, certainly not a franchise from the PSP.
I tell you what, give us a solid version of RE5 with nice Wii-mote controls, then lets see if 3rd parties will sell on Wii. The problem is that companies are not committing their AAA titles to Wii, we are getting smaller games and ports (which can be awesome as we’ve seen). I think its starting to change and I think the success of guitar here is helping.
January 10th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
@ used
Regarding 3rd party AAA titles on the wii- I was always worried about that. I still believe, although it started an argument last time, that most of a console generation’s AAA titles land on the most powerful platforms, whic lead me to expect fewer AAA wii titles.
Although it’s hard to say whether my initial reasoning is the driving force, or whether developers see the wii as unreceptive to AAA titles, which tend to be less ‘casual’ by almost any definition (grandma! i got you a wii! and bioshock!)
January 10th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Guitar Hero 3 proves one thing to third parties. ADVERTISE!!!
I swear, so many great Wii games have been released with virtually ZERO advertising effort. Yeah, the Wii is great and all, but if you don’t let people know about your game, you can’t have any hope of them knowing whether it’s good or not. Wii games need just as much advertisement as any other product out there, even if it isn’t in the form of expensive TV commercials.
I mean games like Zack & Wiki, Trauma Center: New Blood, Kororinpa, Dewey’s Adventure… these are titles that DESERVED more attention and would’ve hjad a better chance of getting it if there had been a modicum of marketing pushing them.
And meanwhile, Guitar Hero 3 sells over a million on the Wii because people see advertising for the game itself and then go into a store and ask if it’s on the Wii.
January 10th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Take in account that Guitar Hero III on Wii did not get more advertising than any other Wii game, it just picked up from the advertising the game had in the other consoles (the 360 most prominently).
The success of Guitar Hero III on Wii does not point to the potential of third party software to be successful on Wii. Instead, it shows that the install base is big (lots of people have a Wii), the advertising of the franchise was vast, and that GH III can appeal to casual gamers. Combine the three and you get a successful Wii title. Will third party developers follow that formula for other titles? It doesn’t look like they will.
January 10th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
I agree with Carmine, the Wii version of GHIII has literally been sold out for weeks, and it is due to them advertising the shit out of it. As soon as that Wii logo was seen at the bottom of the advertisement, consumers knew they were in for a different experience than the others, so they bought it. Nintendo sucks at advertising, now a days. Yes, there is that weird Wii commercial on every commercial break or so on TV, but it really doesn’t show off the game. Yeah, it’s some guy waggling a Wii-mote on a movie theater screen with Mario. How am I supposed to know that this was the second -coming of Super Mario 64? Back in the day awesome commercials like the one for Majora’s Mask, SSB, hell even that recent Metroid Prime Hunters commercial were totally awesome. If you have seen that cool Trauma Center: New Blood promo all over the internet, it is pretty awesome. but why isn’t it on television? And even I could think up a sweet ad for Zac and Wiki that will get kids begging their parents to buy it for them. Advertise correctly Nintendo and third party companies.
January 10th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Let’s stand back and look at what we have from a distance, okay? If the Wii was not a little, white box with a cool, memorable name, and was instead a large, black box called Revolution, it wouldn’t sell as well even if it had motion controls. It isn’t necessarily how you play the games, but how they are presented to you, and I think that’s what nabs non-gamers’ attention in the first place. Basically what I’m saying is, if you take away the design of Wii, you’d have just another video game console within its core principal. So to say that Wii is somehow a “gaming alternative” is ridiculous, because it’s not. The truth is, your grandma is now no less of a gamer than you are. ^_^
It’s the same thing with a different coat of paint.
To suggest that Wii games need to be Wii-specific all of the time is also unrealistic. I agree that something as simple as Mii integration for save slots or something along those lines would have been a nice touch, but it doesn’t do us any good to have it in the same way it doesn’t do us any good not to have it. And honestly, if they had decided to integrate Wii specific controls and the like, critics would have berated it using terms like “tacked-on” and “unnecessary waggle.”
Doing something different for GHIII on Wii would have been a terrible idea. Things only need to be changed and fixed if they are “broken” in the first place, and something as wildly successful as GH isn’t worth the risk.
And finally, any successful 3rd party venture on Wii is a great thing. It helps get the Wii into hands of skeptical gamers in the case of something like GH, and lord knows I’ve had many arguments with Xbox and PS loyalists about the validity of Wii as a gaming console. This just helps me prove my point. Mom, dad, and grandma aren’t the only ones powering on the Wii anymore.
January 10th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
F*CKING ADVERTISE!!!!!
There is absolutely no reason why Medal of Honor Heroes 2 can’t be selling incredibly on Wii. Between the Wii zapper, great controls, and 30 player online play it should seem like a top choice for FPS enthusiasts this holiday season. It’s too bad it wasn’t advertised.
Dewey’s Adventure is a great game that I bought on a whim for my wife this Christmas. I had no idea if it was good or not but it was used at Gamestop so I took a chance. And it turns out that game has a very fun, unique, and totally new control scheme for a platformer. Then I realized that before I played it I didn’t even know how it controlled. It’s too bad it wasn’t advertised.
And Zak & Wiki… It’s too bad it wasn’t advertised.
Trauma Center is absolutely fantastic but no casual gamers I know of have even heard of it. Again… It’s too bad it wasn’t advertised.
You get my point. Third parties need to get their thumbs out of their @$$es, and Nintendo needs to stop relying on brand loyalty and name recognition alone.
January 10th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
And btw, GHIII on Wii did offer one advantage over it’s 360 and PS3 cousins that appealed to gamers everywhere and could ONLY be found on one next-gen system…
The chance to play it on a $250 machine!!!!
Yes, I know there’s the PS2 version but anyone with a next-gen machine simply is not going to buy it for PS2.
January 10th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
I feel guilty becaus there has been so many great Wii and DS games iv’e passed up despite having a good reason for doing so(Being poor and not wanting to live on the street.)
January 10th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
@invis
“Take in account that Guitar Hero III on Wii did not get more advertising than any other Wii game, it just picked up from the advertising the game had in the other consoles ”
Did you see what you just typed?
It didn’t get more advertising………well except for all that other, related advertising.
It doesn’t matter what advertising it was benefiting from, or if it was wii specific, the point is that the name was pushed on the public and the public happens to be buying Wiis like crazy.
And, hilariously you go on to do it again.
“The success of Guitar Hero III on Wii does not point to the potential of third party software to be successful on Wii. Instead, it shows that the install base is big (lots of people have a Wii), the advertising of the franchise was vast, and that GH III can appeal to casual gamers. Combine the three and you get a successful Wii title.”
So let me get this straight, somehow, GHIII’s success does not point to the potential success of third party software but yet it shows us exactly what a third party needs to do to be successful. My head is spinning.
And Andrew MG is right. Wii-specificity of design would have been a bad idea on something as iconic as guitar hero. The best thing they could do with that franchise (and others I might add) is work to make sure the idiosyncratic features of the Wii don’t disturb the existing superlative game design.
January 10th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
@boisv,
I generally agree with you, but honestly MoH is TIRED TIRED TIRED. EA made a good move making MOH:H2, but they picked the wrong franchise. WWII shooters on consoles have not been selling well for some time, advertising or not. They would have been better to do like Ubisoft did with Red Steel and create something fresh.
January 10th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
I still think GH3 is the game that has started it all:
http://www.infendo.com/wii/is-guitar-hero-3-for-wii-the-game/
I can really only provide my own experience as an argument in this comment: since Christmas Day, I’ve played the hell out of Guitar Hero 3 and Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party every day of the week. The fact that other systems already had those games, or had sharper looking versions was irrelevant because I only had enough scratch last year and this year to buy the Wii (I suppose I also chose to only buy the Wii, since I could have charged a 360 and accrued some more debt).
My youngest sister, Ms. high school abercrombie herself, also asked for and got GH3 for her Wii this Xmas. And Mario/Sonic at the Olympic Games and Super Mario Galaxy. She didn’t give a thought to graphics or mono issues or the fact that these games are pretty much ports or mini games. Or online. What a joke that argument is. That’s Xbox territory, and let them have it. This game isn’t hurting the Wii at all.
These games are well built and don’t waste any of my time with useless Wiimote controls. They work and they work on a capable system that’s affordable to more people than the competitors’ systems are.
Plus, my guitar vibrates when I have Star Power activated and it squawks like hell when I try to play Cliffs of Dover on Hard.. THAT’s something the powerhouse systems don’t have. They also don’ have any of my consumer dollars, because to me Nintendo did everything right in 2007 and they have a lot of money to prove it.
But in the end, maybe this game did hurt something: The issues with Guitar Hero 3 soured the opinions of gamers who have continually tried — either through ignorance or because they feel threatened by it — to make the system something it’s not.
January 10th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
@ used cisco:
I actually don’t play Medal of Honor games so I wouldn’t even know. But yeah, there are a ton of MoH games out there. I generally don’t play FPSs on consoles because I hate playing them with dual analog. I was thinking of getting Heroes 2 because I had heard of the fantastic Wii controls. I’m waiting for a slightly better used price at the Gamestapo.
And btw, I don’t think GHIII is hurting the Wii at all.
January 10th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
ahh… if only Red Steel was good. What a shame.
January 10th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
@Jack - How is it that you take the words out of my mouth so often?
On anecdotal evidence, I know some pretty ‘core’ gamers who don’t even know about games like Zack and Wiki, Trauma Center, etc. and a couple of them are Wii owners. Apparently I am more core than them.
On more anecdotal evidence, my mom asked me if I wanted guitar hero 3 for Wii this Christmas without me telling her about it, or anything. The proof, I believe what they say, is in the pudding.
I know the pair of Trauma Center and Zack and Wiki were never really meant to sell well (although I firmly believe all Wii-owners should at LEAST rent or somehow experience both of these games). I think they were more made, as true gamers games. These games are experienced by people who found out about them, took a chance on them, and likely loved them. If anyone else happens to hear about them, great. But I never really felt like either game, regardless of advertising would have been a huge success ala GH3. The games have a really hard sell, besides someone who owns the game turning it on for you, and saying, “here” (which actually works well with most Wii-games).
January 11th, 2008 at 9:07 am
I think one of the issues is that most people have Wii AND either a PS3/360. When you have the choice of which platform to buy a game, you are going to want the one with the best overall features. And PS3/360 will always beat Wii out on the graphics. The difference with GH3 is that graphics are not important at all. So when the game itself has no benefit from one platform to the next, and you are a casual gamer who isn’t really that concerned about DLC right from launch, then the cheaper price and wireless puts Wii ahead. But there are not going to be many games that don’t rely on graphics to get that “umph” boost on multiplatform.
Just my 2 cents
January 12th, 2008 at 6:39 am
SingStar, EyeToy and mainly Guitar Hero are the PS2’s (and increasingly other consoles) answer to Wii…
…yeah a little strange considering that most of these games were released before Wii… but stay with me a moment longer.
Guitar Hero is in my personal experience more “powerful” than Wii games, almost anyone I invited over to a Guitar Hero party bought a PS2slim with Guitar Hero afterwards, that’s about 5 people. Up until now nobody bought a Wii from the same group of people - although one is really considering Super Mario Galaxy.
So yes, absolutely Guitar Hero is a competitive product to Wii games.