According to Gamespot, the highly-anticipated Wii first-person shooter, The Conduit had disappointing opening sales. It was unable to sell even 72,000 in June according to NPD figures. VGChartz lists total sales to date of only 82,953 copies worldwide and 64,469 in North America. For the month of July Conduit has only reached the 30th position in overall software sales. Last month The Conduit could not even crack the Top 50.
This game had been hyped up as the great hope for hardcore games on the Wii. It was specifically developed for the Wii to take advantage of the system's capabilities. It is unquestionably the best-looking shooter on the Wii and arguably the best controlling. Many are seeing its failure to meet the impossible expectations placed on it as the death-knell for hardcore games on the Wii.
The game’s developer High Voltage Software began developing he game before it had a publisher. Sega eventually picked up the game. Sega also released hardcore friendly games MadWorld and House of the Dead: Overkill earlier this year. Those games also met tepid sales despite good reviews and a strong amount of buzz. With the retail failure of these games it is doubtful that Sega will continue to take chances publishing hardcore games on the Wii. High Voltage Software has already begun development on another Wii First-Person Shooter , The Grinder. They promise learn from the mistakes made on The Conduit with this release. Hopefully, they will be able to find a publisher for it.
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