Sega plans more hardcore games on Wii despite MadWorld sales

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."

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Thanks, GoNintendo.