“It was a huge risk [....] but the title did not sell well”
As part of that Alan Pritchard interview with Game Informer we told you about earlier tonight, Sega’s newest VP of sales and marketing also talked about some franchises on the bubble–including MadWorld. Despite critical acclaim, blame the almighty dollar for its likely death as a franchise.
Analyze what Pritchard said of its success (or lack thereof), and that’s the only sensible takeaway. For Sega, it seems, sales still trump quality:
Review-wise, it was [successful]. Commercially . . . the answer has to be no. It was a huge risk that we really believed in at the time, but the title did not sell well.
That draws to a wider context: Sega’s experiment with mature fare on the typically casual Wii. Citing a still fragile economy, Pritchard says Sega may ease back on the risk taking–at least with giving them the green light so fast:
MadWorld was a big risk. Was it on the wrong platform? I don’t know. Would it have done better on 360 or PS3? Possibly. I think we will look at some of those slightly more risky type opportunities, but very, very carefully. We’ve still got the economic situation. It’s hard for retailers, and consumers are buying fewer products. The Wii had such a massive amount of success for three years; things are different now.
If you’re big on innovation in the industry, remarks like that may unsettle you. Consistency is always great, but the same old can get stolid, in of itself not helping Sega’s chances for success as a gaming publisher and developer. What do you think? Should Sega’s focus be getting its own house back in shape, or trying to push the envelope some more? Tell us in the comments section. Thanks to Blue Emerald who sent this information to us. If you have news to share, be sure to share it with us by clicking News Tips at the top of every page.
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Obviously they need to get their shit straight first, but it’s sad they can’t try to be innovative as well. Ah well, it’s what’s bringing back the good ol Sonic we’ve missed all these years. Hope things change for the better.
if they released it on ps360 it would have sold much more
Sadly, when it comes to consumers these days, innovation doesn’t matter. What they want are the eight millionth iterations of Call of Duty or Madden. Innovative experiences? Get outta town. Sadly, games aren’t made on rainbow farts and unicorn dreams, so when they tank, there’s little reason to bother revisiting it.
At the time; the majority of the people who owned a Wii were the kids. This is because there wasn’t too many Mature games on the Wii to bring in the older commute. “MadWorld” simply was released too early to sell well.
Whoops; I meant to type “weren’t” instead of “wasn’t”. Grammar fail >_<
That’s a damn shame, Madworld was good fun. It went great with scotch.
You say that the “same old always gets stolid”, yet CoD, FIFA, Mario and Halo continue to sell millions and break records despite the fact their sequels don’t actually bring anything new to the table.
I bought it, and I want more please D=
Once again, Sega is tragically ahead of its time.
This will simply go down as another classic, innovative game that was just a little too obscure to fall into the mainstream. Unfortunately, many games like that usually don’t get the recognition they deserve and fail to get sequels, but then again maybe that’s a good thing….