Its weird retro disney, so that counts against it.
If it had a more conventional look and was a good game marketed well I think it would do well.
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Tell me to get back to rewriting this site so it's not horrible on mobile
This all comes down to how the game is marketed, and the Disney hype machine is better than Nintendo's. Not too many companies can say that. Does anyone honestly think Miley Cyrus has any talent and would have sold millions of albums on her own? The game "Disney Princess: Enchanted Journey" sold over half a million copies on its own despite having absolutely nothing resembling a quality game behind it, just based on having Disney Princesses in it.
The Disney audience already owns the Wii. Mickey on the cover will sell half a million, regardless of quality. Sure it's dark, but it's more weird "Tim Burton dark" than "scary dark" that everyone expected at first. So they won't be losing any young kids even by aiming at an older market.
To get into the million plus range will depend on how much extra marketing they do. If they really reach out to the mom and kids through Nickelodeon and Women's Home Journal they'll sky rocket in sales. Maybe that's sad, but if A Boy and His Blob put out a few ads in some women's magazines it would have done much better than it did by trying to target gamers in game magazines just based on its cuteness factor.
The only real question in my mind is whether or not the hardcore audience will embrace this game or turn its back on it since it's both a Wii game and a Mickey game. The quality of the game is already without question. Warren Spector doesn't fuck around, and I highly doubt he'd start now on his first major project with Disney, particularly when he was given such open reign with this game.
Robio's prediction - 2 million copies sold.
robio said:This all comes down to how the game is marketed, and the Disney hype machine is better than Nintendo's. Not too many companies can say that. Does anyone honestly think Miley Cyrus has any talent and would have sold millions of albums on her own? The game "Disney Princess: Enchanted Journey" sold over half a million copies on its own despite having absolutely nothing resembling a quality game behind it, just based on having Disney Princesses in it.
The Disney audience already owns the Wii. Mickey on the cover will sell half a million, regardless of quality. Sure it's dark, but it's more weird "Tim Burton dark" than "scary dark" that everyone expected at first. So they won't be losing any young kids even by aiming at an older market.
To get into the million plus range will depend on how much extra marketing they do. If they really reach out to the mom and kids through Nickelodeon and Women's Home Journal they'll sky rocket in sales. Maybe that's sad, but if A Boy and His Blob put out a few ads in some women's magazines it would have done much better than it did by trying to target gamers in game magazines just based on its cuteness factor.
The only real question in my mind is whether or not the hardcore audience will embrace this game or turn its back on it since it's both a Wii game and a Mickey game. The quality of the game is already without question. Warren Spector doesn't fuck around, and I highly doubt he'd start now on his first major project with Disney, particularly when he was given such open reign with this game.
Robio's prediction - 2 million copies sold.
I agree.
I think if ANY 3rd-party game not called Resident Evil can do well on Wii, its a high-quality Mickey game. With good marketing I don't see any reason why this can't do at least as well as something like Super Paper Mario.
Just as with Resident Evil, Nintendo owners tend to favor AAA production games with a MAJOR name attatched to them. Nintendo platforms don't get many of those outside of Nintendo games and RE, which is why all these new quirky IP's don't usually do well.
Most of the higher quality Wii games are of the quirky and niche type, so of course they're not gonna set sales records. Silent Hill has been on the decline for years, and SM didn't get any push at all.
Yodariquo said:Define flop.
Let's say less than 500,000 in North America. Which I'd say would be a flop for an original Disney IP.
aspro said:
Yodariquo said:Define flop.Let's say less than 500,000 in North America. Which I'd say would be a flop for an original Disney IP.
It's up to marketing now. If they pull a "almost every 3rd party Wii game" and send it out to die, then it will. If they give it a push with real advertising with the potential there, then it'll sell plenty. It's not going to sell nomatter what, but it's got everything there to be successful.
Now watch it fail and people to crap on the Wii because they tried to sell Mickey as a badass.
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Tell me to get back to rewriting this site so it's not horrible on mobilerobio said:but if A Boy and His Blob put out a few ads in some women's magazines it would have done much better than it did by trying to target gamers in game magazines just based on its cuteness factor.
I'm curious to see if it has slow but steady sales over time and ends up ok in the end.
robio said:Another reason I think Epic Mickey will do well is something that Edge sort of alluded to. It's a major game that's being treated like its a major game which is almost unheard of on the Wii, sad as that is. By the time the game launches it will have had over a year of hype behind it, from the first early concept art pictures to the GI exlcusive announcement, and whatever else happens from now until the launch. You know, kind of how games on the PS3 and 360 are treated . . . games that sell.
You mean like MH3 in Japan?
robio said:This all comes down to how the game is marketed, and the Disney hype machine is better than Nintendo's. Not too many companies can say that. Does anyone honestly think Miley Cyrus has any talent and would have sold millions of albums on her own? The game "Disney Princess: Enchanted Journey" sold over half a million copies on its own despite having absolutely nothing resembling a quality game behind it, just based on having Disney Princesses in it.
The Disney audience already owns the Wii. Mickey on the cover will sell half a million, regardless of quality. Sure it's dark, but it's more weird "Tim Burton dark" than "scary dark" that everyone expected at first. So they won't be losing any young kids even by aiming at an older market.
To get into the million plus range will depend on how much extra marketing they do. If they really reach out to the mom and kids through Nickelodeon and Women's Home Journal they'll sky rocket in sales. Maybe that's sad, but if A Boy and His Blob put out a few ads in some women's magazines it would have done much better than it did by trying to target gamers in game magazines just based on its cuteness factor.
The only real question in my mind is whether or not the hardcore audience will embrace this game or turn its back on it since it's both a Wii game and a Mickey game. The quality of the game is already without question. Warren Spector doesn't fuck around, and I highly doubt he'd start now on his first major project with Disney, particularly when he was given such open reign with this game.
Robio's prediction - 2 million copies sold.
Maybe even 3 million. Let's not forget than de Blob should be at 1 million ww by now. Compare Blob vs Mickey and 3 million seems possible. Heck Galaxy sold 8 million.
Iga_Bobovic said:robio said:Another reason I think Epic Mickey will do well is something that Edge sort of alluded to. It's a major game that's being treated like its a major game which is almost unheard of on the Wii, sad as that is. By the time the game launches it will have had over a year of hype behind it, from the first early concept art pictures to the GI exlcusive announcement, and whatever else happens from now until the launch. You know, kind of how games on the PS3 and 360 are treated . . . games that sell.You mean like MH3 in Japan?
Exactly! And that game did 1 million copies in Japan alone. Good game, good reputation, and good hype and it resulted in big sales. Hard to believe that combination pays off.
And not to get off the subject too much but I think Capcom may actually be getting their heads out of their ass and may have finally learned that lesson. They actually ran some TV for Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, and they managed to keep a pretty good stream of attention on MH3 in this country with announcements about release dates, the bundled controller, Nintendo taking control of European publishing, etc. That's how you keep a game in the news before it comes out. Still not sure if it'll pay off since the Monster Hunter brand name has no equity outside of Japan, but at least they're making a real effort this time.
I'm unfamiliar with Spectors games so to me I'm still in the: will this be any good, mindset.
I don't see it getting AAA reviews. And if it is a 7/10 game then I dont see it selling unless they just market the hell out of it, I mean it IS mickey mouse.
Force Unleashed, despite being the ugly stepsister of a 7/10 HD game still sold over 1.5 million on Wii.
robio said:and they managed to keep a pretty good stream of attention on MH3 in this country with announcements about release dates, the bundled controller, Nintendo taking control of European publishing, etc. That's how you keep a game in the news before it comes out. Still not sure if it'll pay off since the Monster Hunter brand name has no equity outside of Japan, but at least they're making a real effort this time.
Did I hear that Nintendo was also handling advertising for it or am I imagining that?
gamingeek said:I don't see it getting AAA reviews. And if it is a 7/10 game then I dont see it selling unless they just market the hell out of it, I mean it IS mickey mouse.
Force Unleashed, despite being the ugly stepsister of a 7/10 HD game still sold over 1.5 million on Wii.
It's not going to be shovelware. It is going to be on a console with a huge base. It doesn't need to just rely on hardcore gamer word of mouth, Mickey is a huge recognizable brand. They will market it probably better than any other third party - hell how many would you sell just stocking it at the disney parks?
I would be suprised if it didn't hit a million. A lot of the multiple million sellers are not single player games so I'm not sure how high it will go. Or I'm completely wrong - like that hasn't happened before....
angrymonkey said:robio said:and they managed to keep a pretty good stream of attention on MH3 in this country with announcements about release dates, the bundled controller, Nintendo taking control of European publishing, etc. That's how you keep a game in the news before it comes out. Still not sure if it'll pay off since the Monster Hunter brand name has no equity outside of Japan, but at least they're making a real effort this time.
Did I hear that Nintendo was also handling advertising for it or am I imagining that?
gamingeek said:
People forget that Professor Layton is a Level 5 game. But with Nintendo handling the publishing and doing prime time marketing, it has become a huge success.
angrymonkey said:robio said:and they managed to keep a pretty good stream of attention on MH3 in this country with announcements about release dates, the bundled controller, Nintendo taking control of European publishing, etc. That's how you keep a game in the news before it comes out. Still not sure if it'll pay off since the Monster Hunter brand name has no equity outside of Japan, but at least they're making a real effort this time.
Did I hear that Nintendo was also handling advertising for it or am I imagining that?
Nintendo is handling the publishing and therefore marketing for the game in Europe. I don't know if they're doing the same thing in North America, but I think Capcom is going it on their own here.
gamingeek said:...
Force Unleashed, despite being the ugly stepsister of a 7/10 HD game still sold over 1.5 million on Wii.
That's a good indicator - Star Wars is roughly equivalent to Disney in terms of pop culture appeal. Not sure about Mickey vs Darth Vader in terms of appeal, I think the game buying demographic is more inclined to like the death-grip dude in black from outer space than a mouse with a high-pitched voice from the 1930's. I've just missed how Mickey is in any way culturally relevant or appealing -- Disney has been so protective of him that he has not really done anything since Phantasia -- and when the fuck was that? Like, 1970 or something?
I just don't know.
aspro said:That's a good indicator - Star Wars is roughly equivalent to Disney in terms of pop culture appeal. Not sure about Mickey vs Darth Vader in terms of appeal, I think the game buying demographic is more inclined to like the death-grip dude in black from outer space than a mouse with a high-pitched voice from the 1930's. I've just missed how Mickey is in any way culturally relevant or appealing -- Disney has been so protective of him that he has not really done anything since Phantasia -- and when the fuck was that? Like, 1970 or something?
I just don't know.
Mickey did a bunch of good 8-Bit and 16-Bit games in the early-mid 90s. Also, there's Fantasia 2000.
Yoda will hate this one, because it is one of those pointless, no-one can know the answer type questions, but regardless, I want your opinions.
Do you think Epic Mickey will flop? I can't see any scenario under which it succeeds, regardless of the quality of the game. I maybe see some sales from the Disneyphiles, ala Kingdom Hearts, but I just don't see anything from a third party succeeding on the Wii unless it targets the uber-casual (or fitness) market.