Disaster: Days of Nobody Buying It

by Chris Greenhough { Nov 4th 2008 at 3:30PM }

A promise made by Reggie Fils-Aime means that North American Disaster: Day of Crisis fans have an active interest in how the game fares in Europe. If it sells enough copies on the other side of the Atlantic, Reggie has suggested a U.S. release will be considered. Sounds fair to us. The only problem? It's selling really badly in Europe.

According to the latest European sales charts, the game failed to reach the UK top forty, the Irish or Norwegian top twenty, or the Dutch, German, or Spanish top ten. More worryingly still, Monolith's title wasn't even amongst the top fifty Wii releases in the UK last week. Oo-er. Such a meek performance in Disaster's opening week doesn't exactly convince us we'll be seeing a Stateside release. We'd love nothing more than to be proved wrong and see Nintendo of America take a gamble.

Source: Brits prefer their Wii Fits
Source: Ireland isn't biting
Source: Holland bought more copies of Mario Party 8 last week
Source: Norway says "nor way" to Disaster
Source: Monolith's game knows only pain in Germany and Spain

Gallery: Disaster: Day of Crisis

Tags: action, disaster, disaster-day-of-crisis, europe, monolith

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Robbie @ Nov 4th 2008 3:40PM

That's a shame. It's actually a very enjoyable game.
It's not breaking any barriers but it's still fun to sit down and play.

Hardy @ Nov 4th 2008 3:42PM

Considering it already has English voices and text, I don't see why the hell it shouldn't come over here.

I don't know if Nintendo knows this, but different countries tend to have different tastes in things. SHOCK AW!!!!

But I guess it's not coming over here, which is a huge shame... :(

Chris @ Nov 4th 2008 3:45PM

Considering that Disaster: Day of Crisis is somewhat of an homage to blockbuster Hollywood action movies, it seems strange not to release in the North American market first (or at all, for that matter). Unless Nintendo knows something that I'm missing...

AzaMcWazza @ Nov 4th 2008 3:51PM

Jeesus, why do people moan about this. Mod your wii, or install the Homebrew channel and import the fucking game.

TWOO DEE @ Nov 4th 2008 3:55PM

i'd rather not fuck with my machine, thank you very much

AzaMcWazza @ Nov 4th 2008 4:18PM

The homebrew channel takes 10 minutes to get running and is completely safe, unless you don't read instructions. If the choice is between not playing a game you want to play, and taking 10 minutes to install a channel to your Wii, it seems pretty straight forward to me.

Roto13 @ Nov 4th 2008 6:28PM

The time investment isn't the point.

Hamster @ Nov 4th 2008 3:58PM

Well I'm not exactly surprised at the sales. I'm a Nintendo fanboy and even I didn't know it was released here in the UK last week. Though (of course) I've seen enough damn Brain Training commercials this past week to last me a life-time....

I guess the 0.001% of Nintendo's marketing budget that it dedicates to pushing core games has already been spent....

Mr Khan @ Nov 4th 2008 4:43PM

Advertising is a funny thing. Companies only advertise if they know they're getting returns

It leads to a chicken-or-the-egg question. Did it sell bad because it wasn't advertised. Or was it not advertised because it will sell bad?

James @ Nov 4th 2008 4:05PM

I'm in the UK and I haven't actually seen it in any shops... I was in HMV on the Saturday after its release, and it wasn't there.

Mogster @ Nov 4th 2008 4:19PM

Us Europeans arn't buying it on purpose just to give you a taste of your own medicine! Muwahahaha.

Though on a serious note, I would buy it if I had teh cash.

Covarr @ Nov 4th 2008 4:33PM

Maybe if they put more effort into advertising it.

moo083 @ Nov 4th 2008 4:42PM

Yeah, you know that whole letting people know a game exists? That usually sells games more than pretending the game only exists in an alternate dimension.

Roto13 @ Nov 4th 2008 6:30PM

I love how gamers are so quick to blame advertising whenever a good game doesn't sell. Here's a novel idea: How about you blame the people who didn't buy the game?

Hardy @ Nov 4th 2008 9:39PM

Well it can be a huge reason why games don't sell to well.

The best example I can think of would be Beyond Good & Evil by Ubisoft.
They choose to focus all advertising on Prince of Persia instead of BG&E and look what happened?

But you're right also, there's more then one reason a game sells poorly, but in this case, because of statements made by Nintendo and specifically Reggie, people are in a good position to blame advertising.

Buntaro @ Nov 5th 2008 5:08AM

I have to agree with this.
Some might get this in the wrong throat, but especially Wii gamers seem to sit around all day and wait for the commercials to come knocking on their door.

Looking for information about games is so easy nowadays. Within 5 minutes (no hyperbole) any gamer can gather enough impressions, gameplay bits and screenshots. Gaming site mamberships, youtube or nicovideo are free, to name just a few examples. Most sites also offer release lists.

I'm rather disappointed by my fellow European gamers.
Were are the so called "hardcore" gamers now? I'm not calling out the families that got the system for Wii Fit and Wii Sports (not their job to get the game).
I'm calling out the people that got Zelda, Resident Evil 4, Smash Bros and Mario Galaxy on the first day and are constantly complaining about "no new hardcore games on Wii". (Of course this doesn't count for gamers that either can't afford it or don't care for the action genre)

ALH @ Nov 4th 2008 6:37PM

I had no idea this was out until i saw it at Asda. GAME didnt have it, Gamestation didnt have it, HMV didnt have it, woolworths didnt have it and the local indy didnt have it.

Pretty weird. Is it any good?

hellhammer @ Nov 4th 2008 7:15PM

I figured as much. Seems that IF YOU BASH A GAME BEFORE ANYONE OUTSIDE JAPAN HAS A CHANCE TO PLAY IT, sales aren't so great.

And I agree with people about the advertising aspects of this game. Disaster had huge hype since 2006, they let it die down (extending as far as rumors of cancellation), then release it with little to no announcement, publicly bash it, and expect it to sell well?

"And the pity of it is, that these things cannot be confined to...the Twilight Zone."

Nintendo created Nintendo Channel for the specific purpose of advertising their products right in your living room...at no cost to you or Nintendo. They hardly bothered to advertise for Metroid 3, yet Metroid had videos on Wii. Why not show video of Disaster? Why, after all the time and work, purposely avoid it and help destroy the game?

Anonymousaurus @ Nov 4th 2008 8:35PM

how can you make a game that's based on a city in North America and not sell the game in NORTH AMERICA?

i really feel like this is nintendo's tongue-in-cheek way of making core gamers look like the ones to blame for unsuccessful core game sales and how casual shovelware sells.

and by making other core gamers feel neglected, few enough gamers will attempt to "prove nintendo wrong" (making a modest amount of profit in the process) but never achieve the sales status of any minigame collection just so nintendo can say "we told you so"

this game was a scapegoat.

leonus11 @ Nov 4th 2008 10:32PM

damn Europeans!! now you shall feel my wrath!! no but seriously NoA (or should i say Reggie) would be STUPID not to release this in the US. sure it didn't sell to well in Europe but who's to say it'll be the same result in the US? i say release it in time for the holidays (Christmas to be exact) and let the Americans be the judge as to whether or not its a good game. besides NoA needs to release more core games in order to tide people over till 2009. (whispers to himself) bunch of casual loving fluffs. i'll give you something to be casual about.

Arjan @ Nov 5th 2008 12:34AM

I bought it at the release and so did some friends of mine. We all love the game. Here in the Netherlands the game is being advertised quite well. So it is kind of a surprise to me. But I think the game will rise in the charts. Because gamers talk about their experiences :)
I will do my best!

The game is worth at least a 9 out of 10!