House of the Dead Overkill - A Look Back

House of the Dead Overkill is a on-rails exclusive Wii game. The game holds a 81.1% average on GameRankings and overall was positively received. This game along with MadWorld and Conduit are always used as example of how poorly M (and T for Conduit) rated games sell on Nintendo Machine. Although its been quite some time since this game shipped, it is still being used as an example- its time to see how its been doing.

The game sold 37,760 units in its first week and has since then been deemed a failure. It is important to note that a lot of games follow this trend. The get release sell modestly and develop long legs. Currently the game has sold       705,074 worldwide. That is an impressive amount for a being a mature title on the Wii, but it is also a mature rail shooter- which is a niche market. Michael Patcher claims that HD games need to sell 2million to make a profit, now imagine how much this game cost to make in comparison to other HD games. Factor in the amount this game sold and its modest budget and it is clear a profit was made. Why this is still used as an example of a Wii game that "bombed"? Because Wii games sell differently then games on the other two systems, they have long slow legs.

I mention the Conduit and MadWorld earlier, let us breifly examine how those games faired.

Opening weeks

MadWorld - 68,359 

The Conduit - 82,953

Now

MadWorld - 536,051 

The Conduit - 427,210

Overkill's pattern applies perfectly to both these title. Now take into account that 'The Conduit' was a new IP, and so was MadWorld (was a M rated new IP). Yet all three titles are still considered failures by sites like IGN, Gamespot and by the gaming community. In the end it is clear that mature titles are do-able on Wii, even if the average troll seems to think differently.

Lets not even bring up Modern Warfare Reflex and World at War, which each sold over a million on Wii