Sega sticks by mature Wii releases

Sega has vowed to plough on with its strategy of creating adult games for Wii – despite the commercial failure of MadWorld earlier this year.

The Platinum Games-developed title did not make an impact on the UK and US charts, but won critical praise and heavy marketing support.

However, Sega West president Mike Hayes told MCV this week that the firm is not deterred, and is confident fellow Platinum game Bayonetta will not suffer a similar fate.

I don’t know why MadWorld didn’t sell so well,” he said. Perhaps it was the black and white graphics or the violence, but to argue mature games don’t sell well on Wii just because we launched one that didn’t hit right away would be arrogant. We have other teen and mature games we will be launching on the Wii platform.”

Hayes was upbeat about recent Wii shooter release The Conduit, which he pointed out had shipped 300,000 units worldwide since launch.

Show me another new IP that has done those numbers, bearing in mind the Wii market has been a little slow this summer,” he added. If you compare The Conduit with other core IP that’s been launched in the last three years it’s tracking well above.”

Sega’s upcoming line-up for Q4 includes Mario and Sonic At The Winter Olympics and Alpha Protocol, whilst Alien vs. Predator and Bayonetta are both due for release in Q1 next year. In addition, multi-million selling PC title Football Manager is due for release on October 30th.

To read our full interview with Mike Hayes click here.