Is the Wii's Pudding Tainted!

 

 "What does, "The proof is in the pudding", even mean?"  I'm glad you asked!

According to The Word Detective, “The proof is in the pudding” is a popular figure of speech meaning “the quality, effectiveness or truth of something can only be judged by putting it into action or to its intended use” and when applied to food, according to The Word Detective, "A dish may have been made from a good recipe with fresh ingredients and look delicious, but you can really only judge it by putting it in your mouth. The actual taste is the only true criterion of success."

"The proof is in the pudding", isn't the original phrase, and The Word Detective says, "But the key to the mystery lies in the fact that “the proof is in the pudding” is actually a mangled form of the original phrase, which was “the proof of the pudding is in the eating.”

I've applied the statement, "the proof is in the pudding" to the gaming world, particularly, the idea that Wii games sell well, despite being reviewed poorly.
Analyzing what analyst Michael Pachter said, "A well positioned game with an interesting concept can sell well on the Wii regardless of review scores..."
For the sake of this example, "pudding" would be poor review scores for games, and  "proof" would be how well those games sold.

Is Michael Pachter correct?  Are there Wii games that have sold millions of copies that were reviewed poorly, or "regardless of review scores"?

Absolutely!  The "proof" is Wii games like Carnival Games and Deca Sports that have reportedly sold a million copies or more, and the "pudding" is that Carnival Games has a MetaCritic average score of 56 out of 100, while Deca Sports has a MetaCritic average score of 50 out of 100.

While some may think those games are poor examples to use, let's take a look at several games that have only been out a few weeks.

A picture says a thousand words, so here you go:

(click photo to enlarge)

What do you think of the information displayed in the photo?

I find it very interesting that Tony Hawk: RIDE is outselling both, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [Reflex] and Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles.  All three games come from established franchises, but Tony Hawk: RIDE is also more than double the price of Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [Reflex]!

How is it that Tony Hawk: RIDE on the Wii has a higher sales rank than does Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [Reflex]?

A couple of reasons I think could explain it:

1)  Tony Hawk: RIDE isn't rated "Mature" like the other two

2) The Wii's "casual" crowd that "...wouldn't know Metacritic if it fell on them.", is buying the game because they are used to Wii games selling with peripherals, and they want to try something new.

Tony Hawk: RIDE is another example right now of a game that is reviewing poorly, but selling better on Amazon.com than other games that have reviewed better than it.

What do you think of the Wii's game market and the way seemingly "bad" games, sell well.

*The prices, sales rank, and Metacritic.com score averages were gathered on Sunday, November 29, between 4p.m. and 5p.m.

A couple of links you may find interesting based around this topic: 

MetaCritic scores not important, but genre and franchise continuations are.

Predicting review scores.

Pachter says MetaCritic scores aren't important.

Wii software doesn't review well.

THQ, high review scores bring in high sales.

The pressure of MetaCritic scores.

Critics Speak, We Listen, Why?

Do Game Journalist Lack Morals?

Eidos asked low scores held back.

2009's Gaming Turkey Award

Today, being Thanksgiving, many gamers sat down with family and friends to enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner, and many of those dinners probably had turkey as the main meat of the meal.

How is it, that turkeys seem to be loved most by Americans, only after turkeys have been baked/roasted/fried and are being eaten off our plates, instead of when they're flying around, gobbling, or running like crazy?

I think the same sort of thought pattern happens in the gaming world.  We tend to favor certain gaming companies, whether it's Microsoft, Nintendo, or Sony.  If you game, you probably have a favorite console or gaming company. 

Though we may enjoy the games and consoles, I would say gamers don't always agree with every decision a gaming company makes, or sometimes with what a representative may say.  Instead of enjoying the companies flying high, we prefer to roast them with our words, like many turkeys on Thanksgiving are roasted in ovens, when the gaming companies do or say something we don't agree with.

So, what's all this turkey talk?  The Gaming Turkey Award! The Gaming Turkey Award goes to either a gaming company or a person within the gaming industry, that through actions or words have caused uproars and have been roasted/baked/fried by the community of gamers.

Wii's Nintendo Channel Game Data: EA Sports Active, Punch-Out!!, The Conduit, Wii Sports Resort

Wii's Nintendo Channel Game Data for EA Sports Active, Punch-Out!!, The Conduit,Wii Sports Resort:

Nintendo Channel Updated on Monday, November 23, 2009 

(Click photo to enlarge)

Numbers:

EA Sports Active had 42,281 players report data on the Nintendo Channel, an increase of 918 players from the previous week.

Punch-Out!! had 67,089 players report data on the Nintendo Channel this week, an increase of 1,493 players from last week.

The Conduit had 41,213 players report data on the Nintendo Channel this week, an increase of 938 players from last week.

Wii Sports Resort had 143,690 players report data on the Nintendo Channel this week, an increase of 6,346 players from last week.

As the picture shows, Wii Sports Resort crossed 2.5 million total game-play hours reported on the Nintendo Channel and The Conduit crossed 900,000 total game-play hours reported on the Nintendo Channel.

Thoughts:

I was surprised that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [Reflex] that was released on November 10, didn't debut this week on the Nintendo Channel.  The Conduit and Wii Sports Resort both had data show up on the Nintendo Channel within about two weeks of their releases, but so far, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [Reflex] is a no show.

Also, New Super Mario Bros. Wii debuted this week with data on the Nintendo Channel, and it looks like it'll move up quickly, but I don't think it'll be a long burner with data, due to the short length of the game.

Questions:

Is anybody still playing Wii Sports Resort that bought it on release day?  If anybody that has played or is still playing The Conduit, do you think it will cross 1 million total game-play hours before the end of the year?

How Much Would Mario Make In A Week?

Wii's Nintendo Channel Game Data: New Super Mario Bros. Wii's Debut

Do you want to be a plumber?

(click photo to enlarge)

Numbers:

In the first week since New Super Mario Bros. Wii released, 13,359 players have reported data on the Nintendo Channel.

82,335 total game-play hours have been reported.  If you were a plumber, working just 40 hours in a week, it would take you 39.5 years to complete the 82,335 hours of work! In the first week, players accumulated more than 9 years of game-play hours.

If Mario charged for the hours played(his hours worked), and he is charging $50-$100 per hour like the typical plumber, in the last week, Mario would have made:

$4,116,750 if he charged only $50 per hour

$8,233,500 if he charged $100 per hour (look out Bobby Kotick!)

Thoughts:

I think it will be interesting to see how New Super Mario Bros. Wii's game-play hours continue, especially after Christmas, because I think it'll be a big "gift" under a lot of gamers' Christmas trees this year.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii is the fastest game I've seen debut on the Nintendo Channel with data, since I've been collecting the data.  As the picture shows, New Super Mario Bros. Wii was released on Sunday, November 15, 2009, and the data was captured on Monday, November 23, 2009.  That's only 8 days after the game released, and not all eight days have game-play data reported.

I also find interesting the total hours "Per Person" to be at 6 Hours 10 Min., I wonder if most people beat the game, and haven't picked it up for a second play-through yet, or if they're still working they're way through the game.

Questions:

Have you purchased New Super Mario Bros. Wii already?  If so, have you beaten the game and how long did it take you?  If you haven't purchased it, why haven't you?  Leave a comment and let me know!

Did I purchase the game?  Check the comments to find out.

Wii's Release Games, Three Years in the Making: Legend of Zelda, Excite Truck, Need for Speed, and Call of Duty

Three years ago today, on November 19, 2006, Nintendo released the Wii.  Since the Wii's release, Nintendo has done several updates to the system, and one of the updates was the Nintendo Channel.  I've been posting the data for several games off the Nintendo Channel for several months now.  Today, I'll be showing games that were released with or very close to the release of the Wii, and how those games have performed over the last three years.

Wii's Nintendo Channel Data for:
  The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Excite Truck, Call of Duty 3, and Need for Speed Carbon

(click photo to enlarge)

Numbers:

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess has had 932,842 players reporting game-play data.

Excite Truck has had 171,500 players reporting game-play data on the Wii's Nintendo Channel.

Call of Duty 3 has had 220,751 players report game-play.

Need for Speed Carbon has had 144,593 players report game-play data in nearly the last three years since the Wii's release.

Thoughts:

These were the only four games, other than Wii Sports, that I saw with game-play data showing on the Wii's Nintendo Channel.  I was very surprised to not see Red Steel and Rayman Raving Rabbids showing data, as I'm curious to know how Red Steel and Rayman Raving Rabbids did game-play wise.

Questions:

What was the first Wii game(s) you purchased with your Wii?  Looking back, how do you think that game(s) would play now, if you haven't played them in a while?
What were you playing three years ago, today?



So, how has Wii Sports done compared to these other games.  I know I posted some numbers for Wii Sports about two weeks ago, but you can have another look at the updated numbers for this week!

Wii's Nintendo Channel Data for Wii Sports!

(click photo to enlarge)

Numbers:

Wii Sports has had 2,790,530 players report game-play data on the Wii's Nintendo Channel since it released three years ago.
Wii Sports is also currently the most played Wii game as of Total Hours reported played.

*It should be noted, that the data collected off the Nintendo Channel, is not updated on a daily basis, it is updated on a weekly basis.  The game-play shown, would probably be from Nov. 19, 2006, probably through Nov. 15, 2009.

Tony Hawk: RIDE's sales comparison for the Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii

Tony Hawk: RIDE was released yesterday on Sony's PS3, Microsoft's Xbox 360, and Nintendo's Wii.  While the Tony Hawk series had released on consoles in the past, this is the first time the Tony Hawk series uses a new skateboard peripheral, that must be used to play the game.
From initial previews of the game, it seems that all three versions of Tony Hawk: RIDE are very similar in game-play, just the graphics being "better" for the PS3/360 version compared to the Wii version of the game.
Amazon.com is the only place I know to track a game's sales rank, so which version it doing the best?

(click photo to enlarge)

Numbers:

Amazon.com allows us to see how Tony Hawk: RIDE is selling within each consoles own video games listing, as well as compared directly to the sales rank of other consoles.  As the photo shows, the data was captured off Amazon.com around 5:30p.m. on November 18, 2009(today!). 

Tony Hawk: RIDE on the Xbox 360 had a sales rank of 159th overall in the video game category.

Tony Hawk: RIDE on the PS3 had a sales rank of 296th overall in the video game category.

Tony Hawk: RIDE on the Wii had a sales rank of 28th overall in the video game category!

Thoughts:

I was really surprised to see the Wii version ranked higher than the PS3 and the Xbox 360 version.  I found it interesting the PS3 version of Tony Hawk: RIDE is performing extremely poor in Amazon.com's sales rank compared to the Xbox 360 version, considering both are basically identical, graphics and all.
I'm not sure if perhaps the Wii's "casual" audience is showing through more on Amazon.com, and perhaps the "core" gamers that own 360s/PS3s are busy playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, or perhaps PS3/360 owners prefer to lounge(be lazy) while playing their games and not "move" a lot like some Wii games have required, is showing in the sales numbers.
Or, maybe the PS3/360 owners bought Tony Hawk: RIDE in stores, and that will be reflected more in the NPD numbers for November.  I think it'll be interesting to see the NPD numbers and see if Tony Hawk: RIDE debuts in the Top 10 for any console, and if those numbers will reflect what Amazon.com's sales numbers are showing.

Question:

Did you, or are you going to purchase Tony Hawk: RIDE?  From what you've played or seen of the game what are you impressions of it?

Wii Nintendo Channel Game Data: EA Sports Active, Punch-Out!!, The Conduit, Wii Sports Resort

Nintendo Channel Game Data for Week Starting November 15, 2009:

Numbers:

EA Sports Active had 41,363 players reporting data, an increase this week of 894 players reporting data.

Punch-Out!! had 65,596 players reporting data, an increase this week of 1,490 players reporting data.

The Conduit had 40,275 players reporting data, an increase this week of 992 players reporting data.

Wii Sports Resort had 137,344 players reporting data, an increase this week of 6,277 players reporting data.

Thoughts:

I think The Conduit is going to see a pretty significant decrease in the average number of hours reported each week, now with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [Reflex] being released.  I'll keep an eye on both, and see if it looks like The Conduit has been affected by Call of Duty's release.

EA Sports Active will be interesting to watch, because of the release of EA Sports Active: More Workouts this week.

Wii Sports Resort and Punch-Out!! both seem to be in their own little world, increasing steadily each week and have more of an increase in players reporting data each week.

Questions:

Did you buy Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [Reflex], or do you own The Conduit and are sticking with it instead?

For anybody that has played EA Sports Active, do you want to purchase EA Sports Active: More Workouts and do you think the price of $39.99 is good for the sequel?

Super Smash Bros. Brawl: Wii Nintendo Channel Game Data: 100,000,000 Hours!

It's only been a few weeks since I posted up that Wii Sports had crossed 100 million hours of game-play hours reported on the Wii's Nintendo Channel.
Now, with today's Nintendo Channel game-play data updates, Super Smash Bros. Brawl has crossed 100,000,000 hours of game-play!

The Wii's Nintendo Channel Data for Super Smash Bros. Brawl, from November 16, 2009:

(click photo to enlarge)

Numbers:

As the picture shows Super Smash Bros. Brawl has 100,278,406 reported total hours of game-play, making it only the second Wii game to cross 100 million hours of game-play reported on the Nintendo Channel, unless I've missed another one.

1,364,932 players have reported game play data for Super Smash Bros. Brawl, according to the data provided on the Nintendo Channel.
Approximately 617 days from Super Smash Bros. Brawl's release date of March 9, 2008, it crossed 100 million hours of game-play.
617 days is the equivalent of:
53,308,800 seconds
888,480 minutes
14,808 hours
88 weeks(rounded down) 
1 year, 8 months, 7 days excluding the end date.

While it took Super Smash Bros. Brawl 617 days to cross the 100 million hour mark, Wii Sports' data was captured 1079 days from it's release, showing it had crossed the 100 million hour mark.

Thoughts:
Mrs. Coffee bought me Super Smash Bros. Brawl for as a wedding anniversary gift one yaer...I had never gotten into the Smash Bros. games before, and I still didn't even after receiving it as an anniversary gift.  I ended up trading the game in, in April or May of this year and put it towards The Conduit, with her knowledge of course!
I know friends that love the series and really enjoy it, and I think the game-play data for Super Smash Bros. Brawl shows that this type of Nintendo "fighting" game is played A LOT by people, and I'm wondering if Nintendo will in the near future try to bring the Smash Bros. series to the Nintendo DS/DSi handheld systems.

Questions:
Do you own Super Smash Bros. Brawl?  If so, how many hours have you contributed to the game and it's 100 million hours of reported game-play?

For myself, you can see with the picture below how little I played the game from July of 2008, until April/May this year when I traded it in:

(click photo to enlarge)

A Wii FPS Year's Perspective: Call of Duty

A Year's Perspective of Call of Duty: World at War

(click photo to enlarge)

Call of Duty: World at War was released November 11, 2008 on the Wii.  I've been tracking Call of Duty: World at War's Nintendo Channel data on the Wii for a few months now, and it's been increasing more than 100K hours every week that I've been following it.

Numbers:

Over the last year, according the the Wii's Nintendo Channel data, Call of Duty: World at War has amassed 6,897,580 hours of total game play data, from approximately 137,925 players.

Thoughts:

I played A LOT of Call of Duty: World at War on the Wii.  I bought the game at the very end of December and played it pretty consistently through April.  I finally beat Call of Duty: World at War on Veteran difficulty, which was absolutely insane, in October.  Call of Duty: World at War is my most played Wii game to date, which I find a little odd, considering I bought my Wii one week after it's release, and didn't buy Call of Duty: World at War until more than two years later.

Question:

Being that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [Reflex] just released on the Wii, if you played Call of Duty: World at War before, how would you rate Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [Reflex] to Call of Duty: World at War?

Do you think in one year's time, that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [Reflex] will pass Call of Duty: World at War's one year totals for game play data on the Wii's Nintendo Channel?

Nintendo's Wii Game Sales Data: The Conduit versus Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [Reflex]

(click photo to enlarge)

What Happens with a Temporary Price Drop?

Almost two weeks ago, I captured the Amazon.com sales data on The Conduit and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [Reflex].  I captured the data, because I was really suprised to see Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [Reflex] selling at a higher position on Amazon.com, than The Conduit was, at that time.

Well, nearly two weeks have passed since the last post, and some interesting things have happened. 

The Conduit saw a significant price drop, from $49.99, down to $29.99.  After The Conduit's price drop, it had a brief spike on the Amazon.com sales chart, but fell back pretty quickly to being ranked between 600-800 in video game sales on Amazon.com on a daily basis.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [Reflex] kept continually climbing up the Amazon.com sales ranks, and has been sitting the "Top 100" for the last seven days.

On Wednesday, November 11, Amazon.com temporarily slashed The Conduit's price down to $18.  The Conduit's sales immediately starting rising, it crossed into the "Top 100", and soon enough, passed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [Reflex], as the picture above shows.  Not only did The Conduit shoot way up in sales, but Amazon.com sold out, and now The Conduit is only available for purchase through some of Amazon.com's 2nd/3rd party vendors.

Did the temporary price slashing by Amazon.com help spur continued sales for The Conduit?
I decided to watch the sales over the last 24 hours, and the picture below shows the sales rank for both The Conduit and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [Reflex] on Amazon.com 24 hours after the picture above.

(click photo to enlarge)

As the picture shows, 24 hours later, The Conduit has fallen back beneath the sales rank of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [Reflex].  I think it would be interesting to see how The Conduit would have kept performing had Amazon.com not run out of stock.

If you haven't purchased The Conduit, do you plan on picking it up now at the MSRP of $29.99,  or are you debating on purchasing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [Reflex]?  I myself did own The Conduit, and I'm now debating on buying Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [Reflex].
If you own both games, what are your opinions good/bad on both games?

Wii Nintendo Channel Data: EA Sports Active, Punch-Out!!, The Conduit, and Wii Sports Resort

Nintendo Channel Data for the Week Starting November 8, 2009:

Numbers:

EA Sports Active had 40,469 players reporting data.

Punch-Out!! had 64,106 players reporting data.

The Conduit had 39,283 players reporting data.

Wii Sports Resort had 131,067 players reporting data.

Thoughts:

The Conduit saw a significant price drop in the past week.  The Conduit had a MSRP of $49.99.  Amazon.com, GameStop.com and BestBuy.com all dropped the game last week to a MSRP of $29.99 last week.  Amazon.com put The Conduit on sale this afternoon for $18, and it's sale's rank jumped all the way to #76 at the time I'm writing this.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare[Reflex] was released yesterday, and I think it's in direct competition with The Conduit, and I'll be watching to see when it debuts, and how quickly it moves up in hours.

EA Sports Active has a direct sequel coming out next week, EA Sports Active: More Workouts and I'll also be watching to see when it debuts.

Question:

If you haven't bought The Conduit before now, will you buy it at the new MSRP of $29.99?

I bought The Conduit in June, on it's release day, and it has became my 4th most played Wii game.  If you haven't played The Conduit and are interested in it, the multi-player is definitely a buggy/glitchy game, but can be fun if you have patience with it.  The single player campaign was good fun and provided many hours of game play, so if you've been holding out on purchasing it, now is probably the right time.

Madden's Magic Trick

While I was researching the NPD data for the last blog post, I was looking at NPD sales for Madden over the period of the last year.  I was looking mainly at the release month sales for the game, being NPD numbers for August of 2008 and August of 2009.

How do the NPD numbers compare for Madden's release in 2008, to Madden's release in 2009?  Let's take a look!

NPD Data:
August 2008 NPD Data for Madden NFL 09 console sales:
360 -  1,000,000
PS3 -  643,000
PS2 -  424,500
Wii  -  115,800
       = 2,183,300

August 2009 NPD Data for Madden NFL 10 console sales:
360 -   928,000
PS3 -   665,000
PS2 -   160,000
Wii  -    67,000
       = 1,820,000

Numbers:*
Sales for Madden NFL 10 fell on every single console this year, EXCEPT the PS3.
The PS3 sold 22,000 more copies this year, than it did last year, a little more than a 3% increase in sales.
The Xbox360 saw Madden NFL 10's sales fall by 72,000 copies, 7.2%, from Madden NFL 09's sales.
The PS2 saw Madden NFL 10 sales drop by 264,500 copies, dropping a little more than 62%, making it the biggest loser in percentage of sales lost.
The Wii sold 48,800 fewer copies, with sales decreasing a little more than 42% year-over-year.

Madden NFL 10 sold 363,300 fewer copies, than Madden NFL 09 did it's release month.

Madden NFL 10's August release sales dropped nearly 17%, from last year's Madden NFL 09's August release NPD numbers.

The PS2's 264,500 fewer copies, accounts for almost 73% of the total sales lost, in August, for Madden NFL 10.

Thoughts:
The title of the blog is "Madden's Magic Trick".  I named it that, because I think it's crazy how 363,300 buyers of the game seemingly vanished in one year. 
I would think Sony is happy on one hand, that the PS3 saw an increase in sales, but maybe baffled at the large drop in sales of the PS2 version.
If I was Microsoft, I would be a little concerned by the 7.2% decrease, especially when looking at September's sales for Madden, and knowing how much of a drop off happened from August sales to September sales.
If I was Nintendo, I would look at the sales of Madden this year, and see a HUGE opportunity for a Nintendo Wii football game of some sort.
If I was EA, I probably wouldn't develop/publish Madden on the Wii anymore.

Questions:

Do you think EA will release another Madden on the Wii, or will Madden NFL 10 be the last version on the Wii?

Did you purchase any version of Madden this year?  If so, leave a comment and let me know what you think of the game!  I'd love to hear your thoughts on how Madden NFL 10's sales were down nearly 17%, and if you're surprised by that, or if this is what you've been expecting to happen to the Madden series.

*Numbers in article are comparison of first month sales NPD data.
Madden NFL 09 was released on August 12, 2008.
Madden NFL 10 was released on August 14, 2009.

The NCAA vs. The NFL: Wii Nintendo Channel Game Data

Football season is well underway this year, both for the NCAA and the NFL.
I know friends that follow the NCAA games, and they don't really care about the NFL games.  I have friends that follow the NFL games, and don't care about NCAA games.  I also know friends that follow NCAA games, as well as NFL games.  I, myself, follow just the NFL and don't care much for the NCAA.

NCAA Football 09 All-Play has been the only NCAA football game released on the Wii, and it came out last year on July 15, 2008.  Electronic Arts also released Madden NFL 09 All-Play for the Wii last year on August 12, 2008.  Hearing a lot of talk of NCAA college games this past week, and in particular today with the LSU versus Alabama game, got me wondering.  I wondered why Electronic Arts canceled the NCAA games on the Wii after last year's release, so I decided to see if the Nintendo Channel had any game play data for NCAA Football 09 All-Play, or if the game sold so poorly, that the hours never got high enough to have any data reported.
Take a look at how NCAA Football 09 All-Play and Madden NFL 09 All-Play compare with data from the Nintendo Channel!

The Nintendo Channel Data:

Numbers:

Looking at the numbers, I do think it helps to remember that the NCAA football games on all consoles, sell less than the Madden football games, with that being said:

NCAA Football 09 All-Play has about 41,421 players reporting play time data on the Nintendo Channel.

According to VGChartz, NCAA Football 09 All-Play has sold about 130,000 units.  If 130K is the correct number of  units sold, that would mean about 32% of the players are reporting data on the Nintendo Channel.

Madden NFL 09 All-Play has about 104,985 players reporting play time data on the Nintendo Channel.  According to VGChartz, Madden NFL 09 All-Play has sold about 820,000 units since it released.  If the VGChartz numbers are correct, that would mean only about 13% of Madden's players are reporting data, compared to NCAA's 32% of players.

Thoughts:

I find it interesting, that according to the NPD data from last August, Madden on the Wii sold 115.8K units in just August last year, yet in the entire year following Madden's release, it wasn't able to get 115.8K players to report data on the Nintendo Channel out of the supposed 820,000 players that purchased it.

I think NCAA Football 09 All-Play's review score of 53.33% is horrible, and along with low sales, may be what contributed to Electronic Arts canceling NCAA on the Wii this year.

Questions:

Have you played either of these games, if so, what is your opinion of either of them?  Do you have a favorite NCAA team or NFL team?

I haven't played either of these football games on the Wii, the last football game I played on the Wii was Madden 2007.

I don't have a favorite NCAA team, but my favorite NFL team is the Tennessee Titans, even with their awesomely horrible 1-6 record this year.

New Play Control! Wii Nintendo Channel Game Data Comparisons!

Nintendo Channel data, now with Amazon.com sale ranks and Metacritic.com average review scores!

(Click photo to enlarge)

According to the Numbers:

New Play Control! Mario Power Tennis has 32,409 players reporting data on the Nintendo Channel.

New Play Control! Pikmin has 23,480 players reporting data on the Nintendo Channel.

New Play Control! Donkey Kong Jungle Beat has 8,384 players reporting data on the Nintendo Channel.

Metroid Prime Trilogy has 14,790 players reporting data on the Nintendo Channel.

A Thought:

I just thought about how The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess on the Wii, was really just a GameCube port with Wii controls added to it.  Nintendo really could have labeled it, "New Play Control! The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess".

A Question:

Do you own any of these games and if so, which one have you played the most?

Used, or Not Used: That is the Question!

With the economy seemingly in the toilet, budgets may be tighter for families this year going into the holiday season.  I think with the downturn in the economy, more gamers may be looking to purchase used games, instead of new games.  I've bought used games.  I've traded games for store credit, and the games I traded, were then sold as used.  Even right now, I'm a member at Goozex.com, where you "trade" used games with other gamers.

Many people have lost their job in the last year, and some are still uncertain if they'll be employed tomorrow, or even next week.  The video game industry hasn't been immune to the lay offs, and it's seen increasing numbers this year, of publishers/developers laying staff off, some going bankrupt, and even the doors closing to development studios.

Here are a few links discussing lay offs/studio closures:

Activision Subtracts From 7 Studios, Hits Ex-Scratch Dev With Layoffs

Spore Developer Maxis Lays Off Staff

Raven Software Struck with Mass Layoffs

Midway Corporate Officers Laid Off, Buyout Finalized for $49 Million

Majesco closes California development studio, no effect on product lines

Activision Lays Off Shaba's Ranks, Closes Studio [Update]

This year, seeing lists of studio closures and reports of employees being laid off, a question crossed my mind, "What if gamers didn't purchase used games on current generation consoles,  if the games were still being published?  Would the development studios still close or the lay offs still be necessary?"

     I don't think the answer is a simple, but I believe there's at least one legitimate argument against buying used games that are actually being published:

1) If you buy used games, the developers/publishers don't make money on them.

When I go to a coffee shop, I don't ask if I can buy a "used" bagel or "used" cup of coffee.  Why should I do the same with my games?  From a developers perspective, I wonder if they think that me buying a used game is like me using the developer for work(sometimes years of work), and not paying them a single dime for any of the work they did.  I know I want to be payed for the work I do, so why shouldn't a developer or publisher?  If you work for 40 hours in the week, then your boss tells you, "Thanks for the work, but I'm going pay somebody else for the 40 hours of work you already did."  That wouldn't make any sense to us.

Isn't that scenario, just like us going to GameStop, only we are the boss(as the consumer) telling the developers, "Thanks for your years of work, but I'm buying it used and paying GameStop for all the labor you did, you won't make a dime."

I think it's an interesting thought, and one that we maybe don't think often about.

The next time you have a used game in your hand, think, "Is it possible that it might be leading to the next layoff or studio closure?"

What do you think about this topic?  Do you think the purchase of used games is good or bad for the video game industry?  Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Wii Nintendo Channel Game Data: Wii Sports crosses 100 Million Hours Played!

Nintendo Channel Data

According to the Nintendo Channel data, Wii Sports has crossed 100,000,000 game play hours!  Again, 100 MILLION GAME PLAY HOURS!  While I'm not positive, I do think this is the first Wii game that has crossed the 100 million hours mark, from the data that is provided on the Nintendo Channel.

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According To The Numbers:

2,758,409 gamers have reported the data on the Nintendo Channel.

Interesting Facts:

There are 168 hours in a week.  To reach 100 million hours by yourself, you would have to play the game for 617,146 weeks(I can only imagine how many cups of coffee I'd drink to during this time!).

There are 8,760 hours in a year(based on 365 days).  To reach 100 million hours by yourself, it would take 11,836 years.

$7.25 is the national minimum wage.  103,680,482 hours multiplied by $7.25 = $751,683,494.50(That would be a lot of taxable income, I hope the government isn't reading this!)

Nearly 15(14.8) Empire State Buildings could be constructed with those hours.

A Thought:

I've been tracking Wii Sports Resort since its release, and I wonder how long it'll take Wii Sports Resort to cross the 100 million hour mark, or even if it will?  How long do you think it'll take Wii Sports Resort to reach 100 million hours reported?  DO you think it'll reach 100 million hours reported?

Wii Nintendo Channel Game Data: Casual vs. Core vs. Casual/Core

Nintendo Channel Data

Casual vs. Core vs. Casual/Core for the week starting November 1:

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According To The Numbers:

EA Sports Active has 39,546 players reporting data.

Punch-Out!! has 62,640 players reporting data.

The Conduit has 38,380 players reporting data.

Wii Sports Resort has 125,186 players reporting data.

A Thought:

The Conduit has the fewest players reporting data, and is behind in sales rank on Amazon.com, but The Conduit shows that the number of games sold, doesn't equal number of hours played.  Punch-Out!! and EA Sports Active are outselling The Conduit on Amazon.com on a regular basis, but The Conduit is being played more, even with fewer gamers reporting data...at least according to the Nintendo Channel numbers.

Do you think Punch-Out!! or EA Sports Active will catch The Conduit in game play hours, once another online multi-player FPS, such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [Reflex Edition] is released?  Or do you think The Conduit will continue to get game play hours like it has been and won't be affected by Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [Reflex Edition]?

Interesting fact:

It was reported on November 2, that Wii Sports Resort has crossed 7 million units sold world-wide, since its release.

The Nintendo Channel Notable Debuts

Nintendo Channel Data

Little King's Story was released on the Wii in July this year.  The game received generally favorable reviews all around and currently has an 87% out of 100%, for it's average review score on MetaCritic.com.  There's a company, called NPD for short, that tracks game sales on a monthly basis.  There was supposed, "leaked", NPD numbers for July, that showed Little King's Story sold between 6,000 to 12,000 units during ten days in July.  While Little King's Story received favorable reviews, the game seemed to be struggling with sales.

Muramasa: The Demon Blade was released on the Wii in September this year.  Muramasa also received generally favorable reviews and currently sits at 80% out of 100% as it's average review score on MetaCritic.com.  The supposed, "leaked", NPD numbers for September showed Muramasa: The Demon Blade sold about 35,000 units during twenty-two days in September.

Assuming the leaked rumored NPD numbers are correct, it seems that Muramasa would have sold more it's first month, even if Little King's Story had been released for the same number of days it's first month.  The last the Nintendo Channel data had updated, was the week starting September 13.  Little King's Story still wasn't showing any numbers reported for play time data.  Muramasa wasn't showing any numbers either, but it usually takes two weeks for the numbers to update to the Nintendo Channel from a game's release, so Muramasa's numbers probably wouldn't have been showing that week anyway.  Six weeks passed, and the Nintendo Channel play time data wasn't being updated and shown on a weekly basis, so I didn't know how any games were performing.  This past week, the Nintendo Channel finally updated the play time data on games, and both Little King's Story and Muramasa: The Demon Blade debuted showing play time data.

How did both games debut with hours on the Nintendo Channel?  Have a look at the data:

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Interesting notes:

Little King's Story has been out for 14 weeks.

Muramasa: The Demon Blade has been out for 7 weeks.

Little King's Story has averaged 4,378 hours of game play each week since it released.

Muramasa: The Demon Blade has averaged 7,644 game play hours each week since it released.

Little King's Story has 3,520 gamers reporting their data through the Nintendo Channel.

Muramasa: The Demon Blade has 4,590 gamers reporting their data via the Nintendo Channel.

Assumptions, based off the data:

Just from the numbers presented above, one could conclude that Muramasa: The Demon Blade has sold at least 1,070 more copies, than Little King's Story has.

Have you bought Little King's Story and/or Muramasa: The Demon Blade?  If so, what do you think of either game?

If you haven't purchased either game, why haven't you?