Posts Tagged ‘MadWorld’
By: Jon Christensen on January 11th, 2010 pm31 2:41 pm
When Madworld was released for the Nintendo Wii early last year, it was met with glowing reviews. It was praised for its mature content and unique graphical style, that used colors to illustrate how violent the virtual world was. Sadly with all those accolades, Wii owners never gave the title a chance.
According to reports, the first month of sales were dreadful. The game launched in March and only sold about 66,000 units, which is horrible considering how many Wii’s are in homes. This eventually led to Sega to reconsider their plans on launching more mature content on the family system.
However, that hasn’t stopped developer Shigenori Nishikawa, who directed Madworld, thinking about creating a sequel. “I think MadWorld was very well received and was acknowledged for its innovative graphical style and gameplay,” Nishikawa told ONM. “We would definitely be interested in making a sequel in the future.”
Again he is right about the title being well received by critics; however, Wii owners just didn’t buy it. The only reason why publishers give studios the greenlight to develop a game is because they feel it could be a money maker. Obviously, these publishers are not always right with their predictions
When Madworld was in the early stages of development, Sega felt they could market mature titles to a profitable niche on the Wii. The company would release other ‘mature’ titles, but ultimately they failed in terms of sales. Let’s face it, there isn’t a lot of videogames dedicated to a male over the age of 18, who is looking for something a little more ‘adult.’ Sega thought releasing this content could potentially capture these men — sadly, there is not a bunch of people who fall under that demographic who own a Wii — according to how many people actually purchased these games.
The only way we could see a sequel to Madworld, is if some publisher felt the original game was just poorly marketed (which it was), and that it could feasibly sell better, as long as it was marketed right. Of course they would have to pick up the rights to the game, but until that happens, don’t wait for a Madworld 2.
Of course, a sequel doesn’t necessarily have to come out for the Wii.
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By: Jon Christensen on March 23rd, 2009 am31 1:21 am
Sega is trying to capture a market on the Wii that many companies have ignored, the hardcore gamer. Unfortunately for Sega, there is a reason why many publishers have stayed away from that particular demographic and Sega, for now, has learned the hard way. According to the NPD Group, Grindhouse The House of the Dead: Overkill sold about 45,000 units in February. Those numbers put the rail-shooter at the 50th best selling game for the month, which is terrible for a new release on a system that sold 20 million+ in the US. Surprisingly, the Guinness World Record holder, received decent reviews from critics. As of now, the game captured a favorable 79/100 score on Metacritic.
It’s going to be interesting to see if Sega’s two other hardcore games for the Wii can get better attention from the public. Of course, I’m talking about MadWorld and The Conduit. If I were to choose which one will do well, it would have to be Madworld. Right now, I’m just not convinced the Conduit will sell well on the Wii. I think its to hardcore, and the same people who would buy a FPS on a console, would find it underwhelming when compared to other first-person shooters on the Xbox 360 and PS3. MadWorld, however, is just unique enough to maybe do decent.
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By: Jon Christensen on March 19th, 2009 pm31 7:44 pm
After stint with a possible ban in Europe for Madword, Sega is going on a tear for their marketing. As you can tell from the picture above, Sega has decided to do a viral campaign of sorts, and have fake limbs from humans holding a Madworld case. The publisher placed the black & white body parts in various popular locations around England. Some of these spots include Tower Bridge and Carnaby Street in London.
The British publication ‘The Sun‘ reported the same story earlier today, in the headline it read ‘Public Sickened by Game Stunt.’ However, according to Sega, this is simply not the case :
“We had a team of people carefully monitoring reaction to the arms, if anyone at all found them offensive we removed them immediately. But we have had no complaints from the public at all.”
Also, we included a picture below that reveals Sega getting creative with how they send a review copy of the game to the press. Sega really is going out of the way to promote the title being extremely violent.
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By: Jon Christensen on February 6th, 2009 pm28 2:43 pm
Comic-Con NYC 2009 is happening right now and I’m stuck here writing about it. Although, because the show is going on as I type this, today is a little more interesting than a usual friday — thanks to some news coming from the show.
Gametrailers picked up a few minutes worth of actual gameplay from Sega’s MadWorld for the Wii. Yes, the action title is still freaking bloody. Not only that, the F-Bomb is dropped pretty damn loud on the show floor.
Overall the title looks fun, but the one gripe I saw during this past E3 was still evident — the control. Although I have yet to put my hands on the Wiimote and play MadWorld, it seems like the character movements are a tad jerky. That can sometimes hurt the control of the game and ultimalty the fun-factor. But we still think the game has a lot of promise and we can’t wait to finally throw some jackass into spikes and dropping the F-Bomb at the same time.
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By: Jon Christensen on December 16th, 2008 pm31 11:28 pm
Who doesn’t love conventions? From E3 to Comic-Con, I just love the feel and hype before the doors open. Last year Comic-Con New York made a huge impact in the pop-culture world with 60,000 attending the event. Because last year’s success, many companies are going to debut their products for the first time at the convention. Not only will it get great word of mouth, but the press is really going to start to cover the show.
Sega is going to be one of those companies. The gaming publisher is going to show off three highly anticipated Wii games; MadWorld, The Conduit and House of the Dead. So, if you’re in the New York City area or already planning to attend Comic-Con; make sure you head over to Sega’s booth and try these titles.
After mentioning those games, I just realized that Sega might have a better lineup than maybe even Nintendo for the little white console.
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By: Jon Christensen on December 13th, 2008 pm31 5:04 pm
Nothing says the holidays like limbs and blood splattering all over the place. And Sega understands this because they have released their ‘holiday trailer’ for MadWorld for the Wii.
There isn’t a question about how Sega plans to market the action title — and it 100% to get the public to realize this game is hands down the bloodiest game on the Wii. However, the question remains — do MOST Wii owners care? It’s a pretty bold move for Sega to publish a game like MadWorld where there isn’t a proven track record for a violent game to succeed on the Wii.
Will it work, I’m not so sure. Although, because this is so different than any other game out for Nintendo’s system, it might. I would consider this a niche game on the Wii, but niches can sometimes make a company crap loads of money.
Either way, it certainly looks like a bloody good time.
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By: Jon Christensen on November 17th, 2008 am30 4:48 am
Madworld is certainly shaping up to be a must purchase for Nintendo Wii owners. The ultra violent game has received nothing but negative press outside the gaming world — which to us, makes it an awesome sign.
Today we have some more screens for your eyes to feast upon. And looking at them, we can still confirm the game is going to still be a bloody mess. Hopefully it can live up to the hype because Sega Needs something like this.
Considering the game is produced by Atsushi Inaba who is one of the pioneers for both Viewful Joe and Okami, we have quite a bit of faith in both him and Madworld. (more…)
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By: Jon Christensen on October 3rd, 2008 am31 1:52 am
The most controversial game on the Wii has a brand new trailer out. Madworld which is being published by Sega, has been unfairly targeted so much because of its extreme violence, the country Germany has banned it. Even advocacy groups have condemned the Frank Miller inspired game.
The trailer certainly shows off the main character killing his opponents in a gruesome manner. And obviously, that’s how Sega intends to market the game to the Wii consumer. At this point, I’m still not sold yet, as much as I love a good ol’ fashion gore feast, I’m worried the game could get stale overtime. No matter how the gameplay ends up being, the style and art direction is just incredible and should win some kind of award.
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By: Jon Christensen on August 21st, 2008 am31 2:01 am
The trailer for MadWorld has hit the interwebs, and you’ll get the same impression that we got after seeing it at E3 and say, “WOW that’s a violent game.”
Madworld is an upcoming action game being developed by PlatinumGames and will be published by Sega. The game will feature a third-person view, and the player will control the character named Jack – who instead of a hand, will have a giant ass chainsaw. The goal for Jack in the games story, is to win a violent TV show and kill every contestant to insure victory.
Obviously, from one look at the game, it will feature a unique art style similar to the movie Sin City, where the whole game is black and white, but the color of the blood that spills from the enemies will splatter red. As you control Jack, the way you kill a contestant is to mimic the way you would use the weapon in the game by using the Wiimote instead. For instance, if you decide to stab a victim you would than take the controller and do a stabbing motion. Even though the game seems to tell a disturbing story, the designer Shigenori Nishikawa promises it’ll have a humorous story line.
From the trailer above, it still seems the game could still plague from some of the camera issues that was present at this past E3, but they have plenty of time to fix it considering it comes out next year. If the team does improve it, it could easily be one of the most interesting games to come out for all the consoles next year.
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