The sales of MadWorld and House of the Dead: Overkill still haunt the outlook for mature titles on Wii.
Despite showing the utmost confidence in Dead Space: Extraction, EA still sees its release on Wii as a gamble. EA Games President Frank Gibeau talked to Gamasutra about the situation currently affecting the Wii.
"Well, there has been some M-rated high-quality games released recently on Wii that we've taken note of, and that's why I think Dead Space: Extraction is a gamble. It's a calculated risk," said Gibeau. "Can a high-quality experience like that that appeals to a more mature audience work on the Wii platform?"
This concern is raised due to MadWorld and House of the Dead: Overkill's controversial sales numbers. Both titles are M-rated, stylized Wii-exclusive games that failed to meet sales expectations during their first month of release despite the warm reception they received from gamers and media.
Despite this, EA remains optimistic that there is a market for mature titles on Wii, going as far as to research the needs of the consumer to try to prove that Dead Space: Extraction will be worth the gamble.
"We spent a lot of research, time, and understanding that the customer dynamics of who's actually playing on the Wii, do they own multiple platforms, are there really gamers on the Wii, or is it mainly families and youth?" questioned Gibeau. "But we think we've found a market on the Wii that would be interested in the Dead Space: Extraction experiment. We're going to take a gamble and build that market. You know, until you try, you don't really know if the hypothesis is correct or not."
This opinion is also shared by Sega, who is planning to continue bringing more mature titles to Wii and has confirmed that while House of the Dead: Overkill wasn't a huge seller, it still proved to be profitable.