If you’ve been reading up on the world of Nintendo platform games lately, you’ll have noticed that developers/publishers have expressed their disappointment in the less-than-impressive sales figures from the “mature titles”. What is the root cause for this?

Due to recent PC problems, I’ve pretty much been limited to internet access on my mobile phone. Which isn’t the best way to browse websites, but it’s better than nothing. One thing you can’t miss is the response from developers/publishers to the sales figures of their “mature titles” on the Nintendo Wii.

The sleek white box has long been accused of being a console unsuitable for the mature demographic. First of all, I get the feeling that the definition of a “mature title” may vary from person to person. Yes, there maybe underlying themes that most will agree on, but the term is largely subjective. One opinion that I think most older gamers will agree on though, is that there’s not enough of them on the Nintendo platforms.

Sega has recently has made it clear that games like MadWorld, and The Conduit have not been selling as well as expected. The same with Dead Space: Extraction from EA, and also, Antoine Seux from Capcom France has made a worrying comment on the choice of consoles that the company will be focusing on due to the lack of gamer response to their attempts at mature titles.

I have some thoughts on why these games aren’t selling, but it seems Fred Dutton from the Official Nintendo Magazine has beaten me to it. So instead of repeating what he’s said, it’ll be well worth your time to check out his editorial over on their site. I totally agree with Mr. Dutton in what he has to say about on-rails shooters and that the games in question are simply nothing amazing.

This whole mess is kind of like “What came first? The chicken or the egg?”. Is the lack of decent mature games due to the fact that the Wii lacks processing/memory power, and disc-capacity that’s associated with HD consoles; thereby imposing creative/technical limits on developers? Or is the whole notion that the Wii hardcore demographic is in the minority something that has been perpetuated by rival consoles and/or gamers looking in from the outside?

Play.com is one of the largest online retailers and a quick glance of their top-selling products in the Wii category shows some very questionable titles from a mature gamer’s viewpoint. Also, I personally find Nintendo’s advertising strategy is neglectful of the mature demographic. All their television adverts are interchangeable with each other; just change the game title and you essentially have the same advert. With Cammie Dunaway’s frustration at Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars sales on the DS, it leads me to wonder why Nintendo aren’t doing more to help third-party companies market their games.

At the end of the day, there’s no single party that should take the blame for this mess. Everyone has blood on their hands, so to speak, and unless everyone (you too gamers – start buying games instead of pirating them) pulls their finger out, the Wii will die an undeserved death in the eyes of the mature gamers. Nintendo simply can’t rely on Mario games and Wii Sports Resort to compensate for the crappy sales of others. The brand image of the Wii is that it’s a console for everyone. I’m not sure the big N has done everything it can to make that a reality for developers/gamers. The console has been out for three years, and we’re still complaining about the lack of mature titles. That’s not right.