Nintendo Sale Data: The Conduit versus Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [Reflex]

A picture says a thousand words?  Well, I think that picture above is baffling.  I'm baffled at how Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [Reflex] has a higher sales rank on Amazon.com, than The Conduit does.

Why do I find it baffling?

1)  Very little is known about how Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [Reflex] will play

2)  There have been ONLY six screenshots of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [Reflex] released

3)  There are no videos showing any game play from the game itself

How/why is it that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Reflex has a higher sales rank than The Conduit?

Here is the main reason why(I think):

1)  Casual gamers are buying Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [Relfex], thinking it's going to be Modern Warfare 2 for the Wii, not knowing the difference

I'm a huge fan of Call of Duty: World at War, but that doesn't mean I'm going to reserve or purchase Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [Reflex] without knowing/seeing more about the game.  Most of the gamers I've seen talking online, have some reservations about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [Reflex] because there is so little information that has been provided on the game.

Also, I know The Conduit's online is a glitchfest, and because of that, sales have probably slowed as word-of-mouth spread about the problems with multi-player, but I definitely don't think enough information is known about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [Reflex] to justify purchasing it now.

What do you think?  Have you reserved or already purchased Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [Reflex] for the Wii?  

Do you plan on buying Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [Reflex]?

*Pictures were captured off Amazon.com around 3a.m. on Friday, October 30.

The Beach or The Gym?

Do Wii owners prefer going to a gym or prefer going to a beach resort?  Well, from data provided by the Nintendo Channel, one seems to be favored clearly over the other!

The original Wii Sports and Wii Fit have done extremely well, both selling millions of copies.
Wii Sports was included with the Wii in North America and is a great piece of software to demonstrate the Wii's capabilities with motion controls, right out of the box.
Wii Fit was released in 2008 and was bundled with the Wii Balance Board, which was a new way to get gamers involved in games and also in shape.

Flash-forward to 2009!
In July, Nintendo released a sequel of sorts, to the original Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort.  Wii Sports Resort was bundled with a new accessory, Wii Motion +, selling for $49.99.
Wii Sports Resort is Nintendo's software to demonstrate some of the possibilities that can be done in games on the Wii, now with the new Wii Motion + accessory.
In October, Nintendo released a sequel, to the original Wii Fit, Wii Fit Plus.  Wii Fit Plus is being sold as a software alone for $19.99, or with the Wii Balance Board for $99.99.

Through data provided on the Nintendo Channel, we can see how much the games are being played, by people that are allowing their game play data to be tracked.  I  personally think Wii Sports Resort is more of a casual/core game, appealing to both casual and core gamers, while I think Wii Fit Plus is more of a casual game, appealing more so to casual gamers.

The Nintendo Channel data:

(click to enlarge photo)

As the picture shows, Wii Sports Resort had more game play hours/game play times than Wii Fit Plus did in about the same amount of time.  Wii Sports Resort's data was collected two weeks after the game released, Wii Fit Plus's data was collected three weeks after it released.

The breakdown:

Wii Sports Resort had 166,984 more total game play hours than Wii Fit Plus did...and again, Wii Fit Plus's numbers were over a three week period, compared to a two week period for Wii Sports Resort.

Wii Sports Resort also had 23,329 users submitting data, where as Wii Fit Plus only had 8,378, a difference of 14,951 more users in Wii Sports Resort's advantage.

The meaning(my assumption):

I think based off the Nintendo Channel data, it looks like more Wii owners would prefer going to a beach resort, than working out in a gym.

Have you bought Wii Sports Resort and/or Wii Fit Plus?  If so, which game have you spent more time with?

The Battle of the Bands Rhythm Games: Nintendo Channel Data

(click picture to enlarge)

Guitar Hero 5 and The Beatles: Rock Band were both released in September of this year.  Guitar Hero 5 was released eight days before The Beatles: Rock Band, which is why I found it interesting The Beatles: Rock Band has accumulated more total game play hours than Guitar Hero 5.
Looking at the Nintendo Channel data, it looks like The Beatles: Rock Band also has more people having game play data reported/recorded by the Nintendo Channel, than does Guitar Hero 5.

Quick math:
Guitar Hero 5 shows 43,900 total times played, with a total of 6.56 times per person.
The Beatles: Rock Band shows 48,745 total times played, with a total of 6.4 times per person.

Based off those numbers:
The Beatles: Rock Band has 7,616 people reporting game play data.
Guitar Hero 5 only has 6,692 people reporting their game play data.

Again, I'm surprised to know The Beatles: Rock Band has accumulated more game play hours and has almost 1,000 more people reporting data, than Guitar Hero 5.

Have you picked up either Guitar Hero 5 and/or The Beatles: Rock Band, if so, what do you think of the games?

The Nintendo Channel Update, Finally Updates!

Six weeks ago Nintendo released the Nintendo Channel update, and for 6 weeks, the game play data wasn't updated.  The great news is that the game play data has been updated and hopefully that will continue on a weekly basis.  Because there was a six week gap with no reporting, some assumptions will be taken.

The Casual/Core games that were being tracked are back and updated, but now also with Amazon.com's sales rank to go along with it:

Compared to the hours from 6 weeks ago:

Number of hours increased from September 14 through October 26:
EA Sports Active increased of 64,739 hours during the past 6 weeks.
Punch-Out!! increased 120,904 hours during the past 6 weeks.
The Conduit increased 211,123 hours during the past 6 weeks.
Wii Sports Resort increased 917,043 hours during the past 6 weeks.

Being that the data wasn't reported for 6 weeks, I've just done a simple average of increases per week for the games shown:
EA Sports Active had an average increase of 10,790 hours per week.
Punch-Out!! had an average increase of 20,151 hours per week.
The Conduit had an average increase of 35,187 hours per week.
Wii Sports Resort had an average increase of 152,841 hours per week.

Things of interest:
The Conduit is still second in game play hours reported, but as shown on Amazon.com's sales rank, The Conduit is in last place in sales.
Wii Sports Resort crossed the 2 million hours played mark and is still selling extremely well on Amazon.com.
I think EA Sports Active is a great example of a game marketed almost entirely toward the new "casual" market on the Wii.  EA Sports Active has sold more than The Conduit and Punch-Out!!, from the numbers available, and the sales rank on Amazon.com reflects that, but still EA Sports Active has the fewest number of game play hours reported, I think reflecting the "casual" user base that is buying the game.

Are you still contributing any of the hours of game play associated with these games?

Nintendo of America's System History via Video.

A video showing the history of most, if not all, Nintendo systems released 
in North America.

Nintendo's website (S)Lacking...

I was just doing some research for an article I'm writing, and while doing the research, I went to Nintendo's website and looked at the history of the company.

I wonder if the person in charge of updating Nintendo's website, does it as a job or as a hobby.  If they do it as a job, they must be too busy rolling around in the piles of cash they've been making to actually update the site.

What am I talking about?  Well, if you visit the Company History page on Nintendo.com, you won't see a certain gaming system they released this year listed(released six months ago as of today, October 5).

Direct link to the Nintendo Company History page:
http://www.nintendo.com/corp/history.jsp

Do you know what system is missing from the list?

Wii System Update 4.2 and The Conduit's Spawn Glitch

Nintendo released their latest update, 4.2, for the Wii last week.  It was reported by, http://www.gamealmighty.com/nintendo-patches-the-conduits-spawn-glitch, that they had played a couple of matches online of The Conduit after updating to 4.2 and they didn't experience the spawn glitch.  They said at one point, "While we can't officially confirm Nintendo's patching of the spawn glitch, we can at least note that is has now failed to occur, even with its tell-tale signs, after 4.2's release."

Well, I would just like to update with video proof, that Nintendo's 4.2 patch did not fix The Conduit's spawn glitch as they had hoped, and even I had hoped after reading their article.



If you purchased The Conduit, does the spawn glitch make you less likely to attempt to play the multi player now?  For myself at this point, I'm hoping that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare[Reflex] has controls as great as The Conduit's and online play as smooth as Call of Duty: World at War's is on the Wii.