Tag Archives: MadWorld

Platinum Games president Tatsuya Minami has rated his team’s performance over the past five years in a new interview, and has expressed disappointment in the studio’s sales. He has also laid bare aims to expand the company’s focus moving forward.

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If you take Max from MadWorld and put him into a game with Leo the cyborg, and get the creator of Bayonetta to smoosh them all together, you’ll end up with Anarchy Reigns. And it’s just as bizarre (and brilliant) as you’d expect. In today’s new trailer, SEGA shows off a few bits of the game’s story plus some multiplayer battles.

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Madworld director Shigenori Nishikawa has left developer Platinum Games, according to Shinji Mikami.

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No mature games on the Wii? Puh-leeease. Sega catered to your every limb-severing whim with The Conduit, Madworld, and House of the Dead: Overkill, but you were too busy petting Poniez and partying with Babiez to notice.

So Sega cleaned up its blood-spattered act and swore off mature Wii games forever.

Except that, turns out, it actually didn’t. Well, kinda.

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Head of Sega in the west Mike Hayes has said Madworld was a “mismatch” on Wii.

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SEGA has said that it will no longer permit it’s classic IPs to be used in sub-par games as it tries to gain popularity on PS3 and Xbox 360.

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Sega’s announced it’s releasing a triple pack of three of its mature titles for Wii in Australia.

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Platinum Games is to reveal its next project in the newest episode of GameTrailers TV, according to host Geoff Keighley.

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Sega’s revealed in the latest 4 Guys 1UP podcast that it is done with developing mature Wii titles.

Never saw that coming.

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Sega’s UK managing director John Clark has gone on record with GI, saying he wants the company to “crack core gaming”.

It comes as the developer released hardcore games like House of the Dead: Overkill and Madworld earlier this year on the Wii with critical success, but sales on both were mediocre at best. Clark insists though they will persist and “have a go”.

“We’re prepared to have a go and try to be innovative, and we want to crack core gaming.  We’ve spent a lot of time thinking there must be a way to release mature, more adult content on the Wii format.

“House of the Dead performed really well. Was that because it was mature or because it was an arcade title? You might lean towards the SEGA IP and the affiliation with Nintendo, but we matured that up by bringing out House of the Dead Overkill, and made it more of a core game,” said Clark.

“At the same time we entered into an exciting partnership with Platinum Games, the first result of which was MadWorld – a fantastic, innovative, original game, no doubt about it.”

Find more through the link.

Platinum’s Okami and MadWorld should have been better received, Qs Tetsuya Mizuguchi has told 1UP.

“It’s actually a coincidence that I mention two games by Clover/Platinum, but it’s a shame that unique games like this aren’t embraced by the public more,” said the Japanese dev stalwart.

Madworld’s wince-inducing sales were closely watched as the game was seen as something of a “core” test-bed for Wii, while Okami was hugely-loved, but not popular enough to spawn a Wii Sequel; a DS follow-on has since been announced.

There’s an interview through there.

Sega President and COO Mike Hayes has said that the company will back more hardcore games, despite the lackluster sales of Platinum’s MadWorld.

Speaking with Wired, Hayes stated that Sega is also still researching why it flopped at retail.

“It’s difficult because it was a critically acclaimed title; it was extreme but good,” he said. “The thing that we’re saying is, Sega would be extremely arrogant to have a title that didn’t do as well as we thought on a platform and then say, “Those kind of games don’t sell on that platform.” I think if you take our slew of more mature games — House of the Dead Overkill did really well in Europe, and for some reason even though it’s a big (intellectual property) it did less well in North America.

“So that’s kind of like a win and a miss that’s kind of come out neutral.

“MadWorld sales were very disappointing, but was that to do with the platform? Was it that people didn’t like the art style? Or that people didn’t like the way the game played through? It could be many things, which we’re obviously researching.

“What we can say is that we’ll still do mature games for the Wii market because with an install base of some 34 million in Europe and America.

“So I think the sheer scale of the Wii allows a shooter, or a mature game, to be a niche but a successful niche. And because the development costs can be less on Wii, that means you can sell less to be successful…. We can take more risks on the Wii.”

Loads more through the link.

Thanks, GoNintendo.

NOA’s Denise Kaigler has admitted she’s unsure why Wii titles like MadWorld and The Conduit along with other games aimed at the core audience are not selling at retail.

However, she said that she is hopeful that things will start picking up soon, and that Nintendo will continue to support core players as well as the casual.

“You know, I don’t know. It’s hard to say. It could be titles have the same type of sales curve that a lot of Nintendo titles have,” she told Wired. “A lot of Nintendo titles don’t follow that traditional sales curve where they launch big and then that’s it. Our titles have a long tail. They build in popularity, and this could be the case with MadWorld and The Conduit. I’ve played both. I’m not a core gamer, and I found that they were challenging and fun.

“We’re hopeful that the titles will catch on and that consumers who already have those games will spread the word and others will follow suit there. They’re deep experiences, and they’re very challenging titles, and we certainly like them. But it’s our hope that the games will pick up in popularity and they’ll continue to sell.

“We certainly want to make sure that we’re putting games on the market that casual and core alike enjoy. It’s certainly one of our primary areas of focus. And based on the popularity of the Wii, the Nintendo DS and DSi, that tells us we’re doing something right. As you know, we’ve got a very passionate fanbase out there – very vocal and very passionate, so they definitely tell us when they’re not happy. But the good thing is, they also tell us when they are happy. And we definitely got some really good response out of E3.

“They were certainly very happy with Metroid: Other M, and some of the other titles we announced at E3.”

Via CVG.

Sega has said that mature titles are showing long-term success and has budgeted more adult content for the console.

“House of the Dead: Overkill was a profitable title for us,” Gary Dunn, MD of Sega Europe told GI.biz. “Whilst it had a rather sharp tail at full price, they do bubble away at a lower price point for a long time.

“You get your money back and a bit on full price, but over the years, if we do the final product return on investment, profits come from the lower price point.”

MadWorld was not a huge blockbuster at retail either, but Dunn is willing to take a risk and has the cash to back him up.

“You have to push boundaries and explore,” he continued. “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.”

Sega’s Takayuki Kawagoe says the firm is looking at changing its current management structure in order to integrate the eastern and western divisions

“We need more integration so projects and initiatives on both sides can benefit from everyone’s experience and expertise,” said the head of Sega’s CS division.

Citing the recent ups and downs of Sega tiles, along with the downturn in the Japanese industry, Kawagoe admitted that the company’s offerings had better critic ratings in Europe than in the States.

Critic ratings aside, it still did not translate into high sales and Kawagoe used MadWorld and Yakuza 3 as examples of this trend. MadWorld having sold 66,000 in the states and Yakuza 3 breaking even over in Japan.

One way Sega hopes to combat the slump and close the east/west gap is by extending its IP into media platforms such as the anime adaptation of Valkyria Chronicles for television.

More over on Edge.

Sega’s MadWorld managed a paltry 66,000 units in the US last month, according to this Gama report.

The Wii game has been well-received in general, hitting 82 percent on Metacritic.

Rockstar’s GTA Chinatown Wars, the big “core” DS game of last month, only managed 89,000 units in the US.

More through there. Thanks, Blerk.

According to reports, UK shops are already dropping the price of Madworld to below the £20 mark.

It’s only been out two weeks, and suggested retail price is £34.99.

Gameplay’s selling it for £16.99, GameStation £17.99 and GAME for £19.99.

MadWorld debuted at number 34 on the all-format Top 40 at launch and quickly fell off thereafter.

Why do M-rated games lack success on Nintendo platforms? Because Nintendo’s “broader than that,” apparently. Sega and Rockstar must be thrilled.

“I’m not going to make an argument for why certain M-rated games, as you say, don’t achieve a certain amount of momentum on the Nintendo platform,” NoA corporate affairs VP Denise Kaigler told IGN at GDC yesterday.

“We’re broader than that. And that’s what our contribution to this industry is. We are making sure that we make games for a broad consumer platform from age five to 95, and that really has worked well for us.”

GTA: Chinatown Wars charted at six in the UK rankings on release, while Sega’s MadWorld only managed to place at 34. Why? Ask Sega.

“We’re not saying that certain games can’t succeed on Wii,” Kaigler added.

“We want those games. We want people to bring those opportunities to us. So I opened up my answer to your question by saying talk to Sega, talk to those guys.”

Sure it’s not because Nintendo hardware’s explosive growth this generation has been a result of selling in to non-gamers? We think it might be.

That interview’s well worth a read.

Platinums’ Atsushi Inaba has said that MadWorld’s a Wii system seller.

“We’ve had positive feedback online from users who’ve said that this is a must-buy, that it’s a reason to buy a Wii,” he told Kikizo.

Why Wii? It all boils down to “pick up and play” ability, apparently.

“The main reason is we wanted to create a new title for the Wii specifically, and if we developed for other platforms, we wouldn’t be able to develop a new title, new ideas,” he said. “We wanted to make something that was easy to pick up and play.”

Game’s out March 10 and 20 in the US and UK respectively.

Thanks, GoNintendo.

Update: EG’s given it 7/10. Thanks, Blerk.

IGN’s posted the first MadWorld review, giving the Platinum Wii actioner a straight 9/10.

Snip:

I realize that not everybody will find MadWorld’s unique visual and aural presentation appealing, but to me, the game is an instant collector’s item and a Wii showpiece, not just for its amazing style, but for its label-busting content. Anybody who says Nintendo’s console is just for kids will see things very differently after a few chainsaw- induced mutilations.

Video review after the break. It’s out this month.

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