SEGA to cease production of Wii titles

SEGA have decided to reduce the number of mature Wii games it publishes and develops after mixed commercial performance of MadWorld and Conduit, a company executive has claimed. The move comes in the wake of Sega releasing several high-profile ‘core’ Wii games in recent months – a move which the Sega has now branded a “gamble” after the games returned mixed sales figures. Constantine Hantzopoulos, a Sega of America studio director, told 1Up that the company would not likely make further risks with hardcore Wii games:

Are we going to do more mature titles for the Wii? I have to say that it was a space that was open and we took a gamble on it. It’s like, ‘Wow, there’s no mature games on the Wii. Is there an audience out there?’ We did some research, it said there was an audience out there.

Whilst sales of both MadWorld and Conduit haven’t been  stunning, they have been steady, but Hantzopoulos reveals that it was the poor sales figures of a non-Sega published mature Wii game that convinced the company that the core Wii market was too unpredictable for sustained investment:

Look at Dead Space Extraction. We were stunned. That was my litmus test. Basically, it’s like, okay, you got EA, who can put all the marketing muscle behind this, an established franchise that scored quite well on 360 and PS3. They should be able to actually hit this out of the park, right? We get numbers…and I’m like, ‘Woah.’

However this new stance on mature Wii titles seems does seem to conflict with the news that SEGA are planning a sequel to the 18-rated game MadWorld…

(Source: MCV)