Wii Music shifts 50k on day one in Japan
by Chris Greenhough 
{ Oct 17th 2008 at 9:00PM }
Don't they look happy? That's because they all bought Wii Music, along with 49,996 others. Yup, you read that right: the Wii Music day one sales data from Japan is in, and according to Famitsu publisher Enterbrain, the magical figure is 50,000 units sold. How does that compare to the Japanese launches of other large first-party Wii games? Not that well, as it happens; hit the break to see for yourself.
Gallery: Wii Music
Super Mario Galaxy: 130,000 on day one*
Super Smash Bros. Brawl: 500,000 on day one *
Wii Fit: 254,000 in first two days
Mario Kart Wii: 594,000 in first four days
Wii Sports: 176,167 in first two days
Wii Play: 175,297 in first two days
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: 139,011 in first two days
Wario: Smooth Moves: 63,954 in first two days
* Source is Japanese industry blogger Sinobi, and is thus classed as rumor.
[Via Go Nintendo]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Monkey Thing?!!? @ Oct 17th 2008 9:55PM
Might spell bad news for the game in Japan, since long tail doesn't really have an impact there.
Or not, we shall see.
KaBob799 @ Oct 17th 2008 10:18PM
Well it's doing better than wario.
daniel =] @ Oct 17th 2008 10:24PM
Why would we want the game to do well? Its just a mindless waggle and button-pressing fest targeted towards the casual audience.
bug frawg @ Oct 18th 2008 6:20AM
You miss the point entirely, success and failure is the difference between whether or not you manage to produce a sound that you enjoy.(like how it is with real instruments)
esposch @ Oct 17th 2008 10:38PM
When you think that Zack and Wiki shifted only 35,000 in its first *month* this is an absolute outrage.
Angry sposchy is angry.
Hardy @ Oct 18th 2008 12:23AM
This game is one of those "enduring sales" games.
It won't sell, but it'll sell for much longer then most games.
Josh @ Oct 18th 2008 12:43AM
Yeah, I was gonna say...This seems awfully low.
Daryl @ Oct 18th 2008 1:07AM
This is against very high competition. Games like Zelda and Mario are tough to follow.
Nevertheless it shows that innovative carries a risk, and the risk should always be managed intelligently. It's not a big deal if a product doesn't sell if you don't put a grandiose budget into it. Eventually Nintendo will find another hit game.
phenylketonurics @ Oct 18th 2008 1:11AM
I almost find it insane to predict before the fact that this game's sales would have compared to the well-known titles on the console. Seriously. Music is really powerful (I adore music) but my want to PLAY music is pretty low.
Appeal factor: 23%.
milan @ Oct 18th 2008 1:22AM
Slow and steady wins the race.. Brain Age 1 and 2 are still selling (and are still prominently advertised... wii music fits right into that business model..)
This was obviously never a "killer app"... but how much does it retail for anyways?
Nathew @ Oct 18th 2008 1:24PM
$50, which is too much for me to spend on a game like this. $20? maybe.
ramuji @ Oct 18th 2008 1:58AM
After buying Wii Music on day one, I've now spent about 5 hours with it. This is a great, addicting game. It's biggest weak point is the song selection. It would be nice if Nintendo offers additional pop songs in the future via DLC.
TWOO DEE @ Oct 18th 2008 2:10AM
stephen totillo of multiplayer blog has a great hands-on impression of the game, for anyone interested
can't wait!
Don @ Oct 18th 2008 2:59AM
This is WiiFanboy. What makes you think they'd actually *WANT* to know about someone's hands-on impressions of Wii Music, when they *ALREADY* "know" it sucks, because... it's not hardcore, right? There's no Mega-Man in it, is there? What would be the point of actually, y'know, researching the "game" if it doesn't give them an opportunity to post a 645th article on Mega-Man? Why bother?
After reading the hands-on, Wii Music seems more like being given a set of art tools, and critics scoffing at it because the art tools & canvas don't keep score. Other than enjoying listening to & playing music, this is speaking as someone who's not predisposed to Wii Music either way. I'd just like some extensive coverage of Wii-related things.
And that hands-on:
http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/10/17/how-wii-music-works-as-a-game/
Ethan @ Oct 18th 2008 4:44AM
It'll be in the charts for months though.
Bob @ Oct 18th 2008 5:22AM
Seriously, Wii for world domination!
Greetz Bob - http://www.torrentbug.com
Psalm Bowser @ Oct 18th 2008 5:54AM
This game better sell a million+. It's the perfect way to create unconditional fanboy rage, and it'll make the workday a little easier.
Hamster @ Oct 18th 2008 9:43AM
That does seem quite low, maybe the casual bubble is bursting. I imagine the game was marketed by Nintendo the same as all Wii games and the Wii console itself, ie. as a shallow silly shakey-waggly novelty and maybe people are getting bored of that approach and are looking for something deeper than a novelty to spend their money on.
Psalm Bowser @ Oct 18th 2008 10:26AM
A deeper experience in the music rhythm genre?
bug frawg @ Oct 18th 2008 11:06AM
The casual market is dying because of one game's sales? by that logic the hardcore market should have died years ago.
Monkey Thing?!!? @ Oct 18th 2008 9:21PM
Sounds like wishful thinking
Kenology18 @ Oct 18th 2008 10:53AM
Watch and see, folks! Witness the incredible legs this title will have!
This game will sell a million in Japan. 50k opening day or no.
yomachaser @ Oct 18th 2008 11:06AM
It's sad unprofessional this site can be. Using two day sales to make the 1 day sales of wii music look bad is pretty obnoxious.
If this was done with just day 1 vs day 1 sales it would have compared quite well to even Zelda's launch and we can't have wii music look good for even a second right?
This site has been on a negative track for a long time towards anything casual (even though that's half the point of Wii) and I for one am sick of it.
pjsingh @ Oct 18th 2008 11:11AM
Amen, brudda
Chris Greenhough @ Oct 19th 2008 1:48AM
If I could have used day one figures, I would have done. As it happens, said information wasn't available for some games. This is due to the timing of when sales data is released in Japan; put simply, we don't have that information to hand.
In other words, it's time to put the conspiracy theories and tinfoil hats to one side, methinks. If you *can* produce day one sales figures for the titles above, I will happily replace the data we have posted.
Alexisonfire @ Oct 19th 2008 1:48AM
This should have been a wiiware game. Then, I could have just simply ignored it like My Pokemon Ranch, Cocoto Fishing Master, SPOGS, and the rest of the games of it's caliber.
thesoiden @ Oct 19th 2008 2:02AM
I'm sure Wii Music will end selling more than many of the games listed here.
KIMP @ Oct 19th 2008 7:49AM
If you think the game will suck, then just DON'T BUY IT!
Its as simple as that!
Me, I will get it for my son who just turned two and actuall just started to play Wii Sport Tennis. I'm sure he will love Wii Music, as many others... and probably even me.
This game was made because YES there is a market for it... and there's more then only "hardcore gamer" (whatever thats means anyway) that play videogames.
yomachaser @ Oct 19th 2008 2:07PM
@Chris Greenhough
I wasn't trying to suggest conspiracy I'm just saying if you have 2 day figures for one release and 1 day for another a more fair comparison would be waiting for day 2 figures or maybe halfing the 2 day figure to give a rough estimate.
Also since I'm not writing an article there is no burden on me to produce anything dude. Your comment highlights what I mean by unprofessional btw.
The moment you post a story on this blog it looks like news because it's mixed with news so there is an expectation of strong fact checking and a fairly neutral tone.
I'm dying to know what the point of this article is exactly, the launch numbers of games on Wii don't seem to point to how well they sell at all as they sell for a long time (the whole strong legs thing).
After Zack and Wiki and No More Heroes went on to sell very well (especially for their budgets and niche audiences) you'd think articles like this wouldn't quite carry the doubtful tone.
Peace
Chris Greenhough @ Oct 20th 2008 2:48PM
"I wasn't trying to suggest conspiracy"
Sorry if I took it that way, but when you wrote, "Using two day sales to make the 1 day sales of wii music look bad is pretty obnoxious," that seemed to imply I had somehow deliberately cherry-picked statistics.
"I'm just saying if you have 2 day figures for one release and 1 day for another a more fair comparison would be waiting for day 2 figures or maybe halfing the 2 day figure to give a rough estimate."
Halving the two-day figures? Rough estimates? But further down, you describe how "there is an expectation of strong fact checking and a fairly neutral tone." Does halving two-day figures (the only numbers we have) really constitute "strong fact checking and a fairly neutral tone"?
"Also since I'm not writing an article there is no burden on me to produce anything dude. Your comment highlights what I mean by unprofessional btw."
I wasn't asking you to produce figures to help me out in composing a post. It was merely my way of saying: if you do have other numbers, then I'd be happy to apologize for not using them originally, and include the updated statistics.
"The moment you post a story on this blog it looks like news because it's mixed with news so there is an expectation of strong fact checking and a fairly neutral tone."
All the facts I posted were correct and sourced, and I noted where we had used figures from Sinobi. I wouldn't rely on the "neutral tone," incidentally -- this is a blog, so tends to be news mixed with views.
"I'm dying to know what the point of this article is exactly, the launch numbers of games on Wii don't seem to point to how well they sell at all as they sell for a long time (the whole strong legs thing)."
I'd agree with you there, they often don't! But the point of the article was to promote discussion, which, for better or worse, it has achieved. I didn't think I was making any broader statement about Wii Music's long-term chances. I personally hope Wii Music does have legs!
I do value your input, but I felt I should defend myself in this instance.
yomachaser @ Oct 21st 2008 10:34AM
I think I'll apologize at this juncture because I think the endless waves of hater-aid being poured over this game might have me seeing negativity where none exists.
You're also correct , I can't ask for exact stats then offer a muddy math solution.