See article below. Apparently the game has only sold 3756 copies in the US and needs double that for the company to get paid.
Depressing stuff. Great game.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/33498/Lilt_Line_Reveals_Di...

The reason I haven't bought it is that I'm still waiting on the demo that America got.

Oh well.

In a recent interview with Gamasutra, Midwood said of Nintendo's console, "It’s a shame what happened to the Wii really, given its potential. The software never came out apart from the Mario games and the downloadable games that only I am interested in."

Huh? There's no question that it's the first-party stuff that's kept the Wii retail market afloat, but I have no idea what he means about the downloadable games. He's the only one interested in them? Or people are only interested in the first-party downloads?

I have no clue what he's even saying. Either possibility is pretty preposterous though. I'm sorry your game didn't sell well (it was quite good) but it's not impossible for great WiiWare games to make good money for the developer, or at least hit the threshold after which they do make money. In fact, I don't think any of the (very few) first party releases had the top 10 staying power of World of Goo or Mega Man 9, among others.

Oh well, bud. Have you tried advertising it at all? It did wonders for the Bit.Trip series.

And also there's the simple matter of fact that not every good game sells well. That's been the case as long as video games have been around. Quality =/= sales. It's unfortunate, but it's certainly not unprecedented.

It just sounds to me like some pity-me griping. It's still on Wii Shop Channel. If you're disappointed in how it's selling, advertise the darned thing. Start some buzz. Do something other than complain that it hasn't sold, because that's not constructive at all.

It is a good game, and I'd totally recommend people buy it...

...on an iDevice if they have one. It's only $2.99 there, and controls just as well as the Wii version would (tilt controls are spot on, and it's visually simple enough that tilting the small screen is no issue, like it is in bit.trip beat on the iPhone/iTouch).

I know this isn't their fault; it's Nintendo's for not pricing competitively. I wonder if this is part of the issue. (I'd say it is worth the $5, if you like this type of game, for Wii only owners).

Either way, Gaijin is one of the better WW developers, and it would be a shame if they jumped ship to focus only on the App store or move over to PSN/XBLA. WW needs good exclusives like Bit.Trip and Lilt Line, or what's the point of the service? Nintendo really needs to think about how it treats devs. Even if the devs don't sell enough to break even themselves, even a small portion of the initial sales will help build goodwill. They'll remember which companies treated them well, and will consider that when choosing how to develop their next game.

There's a reason we see so many iDevice ports on Nintendo download platforms - it's simply too risky to release an unknown game on a Nintendo device. You need one with proven sales to make the investment worthwhile, and even then there's no guarantee.

Wait the Iphone version has only sold 59 more copies despite being half the price and releasing months earlier....

@Token: Lilt Line isn't Gaijin, it's Different Cloth or something like that. i forget how Gaijin fits into the equation exactly (i think they helped port it to WiiWare), but they didn't originally develop Lilt Line nor are they the ones speaking in the article.

Yeah, Token, it's worth bearing in mind that the iPhone version didn't fare much better. Nintendo's pricing issue doesn't seem to be the real factor here. I think it's just a lack of buzz and/or bad luck.

I agree Chicken, but the fact that they don't get paid for the Wiiware version if it doesn't sell X number of copies is the real issue here. The sales limit helps create a vicious cycle where Wiiware's lack of popularity prevents a lot of developers from ever seeing any return on the work that they put into their game, which leads to developers either not putting any effort into their Wiiware games or not creating games for Wiiware period, which in turn contributes to Wiiware's lack of popularity.

I don't think it's the real issue here (in which sales of the game weren't that great period) or even elsewhere, personally. I'm not saying it's a great system, but it's a system that developers knowingly enter into. They are aware that there is a threshold they must meet in order to get paid, they are aware of exactly what that threshold is, and they choose to enter into that agreement. It's not a surprise and it's not a cheat...it's part of the contract the developers knowingly enter into.

Whether or not it's a fair arrangement is certainly another story, but I find it hard to have much sympathy for people who complain about conditions that they've knowingly agreed to.

Wow, that's really sad. I wonder what percentage of games actually manage to make money on WiiWare if good 500-point games like this sell so little.

I wonder if giving NA the demo when the game came out was a mistake. It might have dissuaded more people from buying it than it convinced to buy it, because it did seem exceptionally easy if you only played those first few levels.

For anyone who hasn't bought the game, I highly recommend it. It's worth it just to hear some of the cool music. The game doesn't last long, but I think I beat Bit.Trip Flux faster than this one. It's a quality experience, and there's good replay value if you want to get perfects on all the levels, or just replay it to hear the music.

I'm of two minds about that.... it might be better if they got the payment regardless of sales but 6K isn't much(and it's not lilt line stormed the Wiiware charts) and I imagine over time most games surpass the threshold.

I really enjoyed the demo and I hope to get it soon seems like a solid title and for the Wii, the perfect pirce.

The sad thing about the iPhone/iPad/iWhatever version though, is that if it's not .99 cents or free most people won't get it, especially without a lite or demo version.

Why don't they have a demo yet on the App Store?

Can't say I'm really surprised. A decent game, but dubstep is a pretty niche music, the presentation is quite lackluster (especially compared to the Bit Trip series), and zero advertising. Beyond the demo on the Wii shop, which I doubt helped.

Plus their title is all in lowercase. Crazy people.

I played the demo it wasn't that great imo.

That risk is not inherently a bad thing. That's the reason that Nintendo's download services aren't the same as Apple's. More risk means the developers have to be more invested in the game, and it's the reason why there are 10,000+ games and apps available for iOS and far fewer available for WiiWare and DSiWare. Even though Nintendo's downloadable services are higher risk than Apple's, they're still lower risk than retail, and there's nothing wrong with where Nintendo is trying to position themselves in that "risk" spectrum. WiiWare and DSiWare could be better, but I for one do not want to see Nintendo go the way of the mobile app store.

I don't know. He also has another game called helicoid that looks pretty interesting but doesn't have a demo either.

Exactly^.

Honestly, the demo probably wouldn't have sold me on this game, because it's so basic and over so quick. What sold me was watching a youtube video of someone playing one of the crazier levels on their iPod.