While it never exactly resonated with the more discerning end of the video game buying public, the average man on the street would still have put a fiver on Wii Music doing well in its first month of sale (the game was released in the US on October 20). After all, it's for the Wii, it's made by Nintendo and it's got "Wii" in the title. Not to mention the fact it was the beneficiary of a fairly hefty marketing push from Nintendo. So heads were no doubt being scratched at Nintendo HQ when the game wasn't among the top ten sellers for October. And scratched further when it wasn't among the top twenty. Instead, the game sold either a disappointing 81,000 units (according to NPD) or an even more disappointing 65-66,000 (according to Nintendo's "internal numbers"). Let's be charitable, and give them the 81,000. That means the game was outsold by Dead Space, Rock Band 2, SOCOM, the venerable Mario Kart and, yes, Kirby Super Star Ultra. I didn't see Kirby Super Star Ultra shilled on morning talk shows. Of course, Smile Machine Cammie Dunaway may have a point when she says, in the game's defence:
We're predicting that it's going to be an evergreen title. And if you look at titles like ‘Brain Age,' it's about the same as what ‘Brain Age' did during it's first few weeks and went on to sell 2.5 million copies. ‘Wii Fit' certainly had a larger launch than that. But I think that people are starting to understand ‘Wii Music.
Then again, if November passes and the game puts up similar numbers, she may not have a point, and all you angry Wii Music-hating children of the internet can spend the day basking in your own sense of smug self-satisfaction. ‘Wii Music' U.S. Launch Sales One Tenth Of ‘Wii Fit' Debut Mark, Nintendo Not Panicking [MTV] Wii Music sells under 81,000 in Oct [GameSpot]
(Sorry, couldn't resist)