Chinatown Wars & Madworld U.S Mediocre Sales News

It seems the fact that Mature themed video games just don't do well on Nintendo has been cemented, with NPD sales figures for March 2009 alarmingly revealing that both GTA: Chinatown Wars and MadWorld fared pretty poorly.

Rockstar's foray onto the DS, widely considered a test bed for future GTA iterations on Nintendo formats, only managed to shift 89,000 units for the period.  The figure represents a considerably poorer performance than the 200,000 - 400,000 sales that analysts had previously predicted.

Equally SEGA' MadWorld performed modestly on Wii during March, with sales of 66,000 units.  SEGA has in the past stated that early indicators were "very encouraging", so perhaps they'd set a lower bar or are just putting a brave face on.  The first title to emerge from a partnership with Platinum Games enjoyed only a week in the UK Top 40.

To provide some perspective, Pokemon Platinum (yes we know it's Pokemon) managed to shift 805,000 copies across the U.S during March, while Wii Fit still managed to notch up 541,000 sales.  We'll acknowledge that both titles are extreme examples, both phenomenons, but suggestive of the titles that work and succeed on Nintendo.

Either way it does paint a concerning picture for Wii fans in particular, clamouring for grittier, edgier titles to be released on the popular home console format but yet ultimately still fail to succeed at retail.