Remember MadWorld? Ultra-bloody hack n' slash gorefest with Sin City's graphic style and Sam Raimi's one-liner wit? Well, it released to praise from the press over its bold mission to bring a new age of mature gaming to Nintendo's little white box. It even rated an average score of
81/100 on Metacritic, topping the scores on
all of Sega's recent Sonic titles in one fell blow.
So why did it only sell 66,000 copies in its first month?
Every time you look at MadWorld on the shelf and pass it by, Jack eats the wings off an angel.
We can take a look at Sega's
other M-rated title for the
Wii that came out bleeding fanfare and hallelujahs from the critics - House of the Dead: Overkill. Its Metacritic score was a solid
78/100, which should have been enough to sell a few hundred thousand copies alone. Come the end of the month, they've sold 45,000.
The entire gaming community spent the better part of the last year psyching themselves up about how Sega (among other publishers and developers) was going to change everyone's view of the
Wii forever. And when it finally came time to release the big-name games of the year to the 17+ public, everyone quickly forgot that these titles even existed. Gary Dunn, Sega's MD of European development, isn't fazed by early sales figures.
"You have to push boundaries and explore. I think whilst MadWorld commercially didn't sell what we were expecting I wouldn't say it's game over for mature
Wii titles from Sega...We're taking a look at the resources we have now. We've got money to invest in development, we're just considering where to invest it next."
As more and more of the blue blur's titles chug out and get eaten up by the twelve-and-under crowd, Sega is actually experimenting with some great blockbuster games. Let's do our part as the consumer and make sure they're appreciated.
How could you not own this game?
Linear Mode
