Ever wonder if some games don't sell any copies at all?

[Teggy]

I was looking through the new releases and spotted a bunch of games I knew nothing about. Generally, these are Wii titles. For example, here's one: Geon Cube. There are no current reviews for the game, and I have never seen an ad for it.

What would cause someone to buy this game? It seems very likely that maybe Gamestop got a copy for each of its stores and it just sits on the shelf unpurchased. If I recall correctly, Madworld had very low sales, and it was promoted quite heavily, so what happens to a game like this? How much money do they wind up losing? With little advertising, not as much, but I wonder how much money is thrown away by publishers on shovelware.

[Misguided]

That seems familiar, but I thought it was wiiware for some reason. But yeah, it's hard to get attention on store shelves.

[Blackjack]

In PS2's heyday, there seemed to be shelves and shelves full of junk nobody was interested in. I assumed that for Sony (or any console maker), the ability to say your console "has more than XYZ# of titles!" means that they welcome any title to the list, even if it has little mass market appeal.

[msteelers]

It would be an impressive feat for a game to not sell ANY copies, especially around the holidays. These games all look the same to adults buying gifts for their kids. I got plenty of head scratching games when I was younger. That's why to this day I send out a list of games that people should get me, just in case. 

[Knightshade Dragon]

Makes you long for the "Nintendo Seal of Quality", doesn't it?

[Destructor]

You'd be amazed at what sells to the unwashed masses, especially during the holidays. Also, a pretty piece of box art (or something that just jumps out at you) and good screenshots on the back goes a long way for whatever reason as well.

[Blackjack]

If we can include PC titles, I'm pretty sure some of the obscure European titles I've liked over the years (the TBS game Odium comes to mind) probably sold like 27 copies in the U.S. 

[Kurt Stevens]

If we can include PC titles, I'm pretty sure some of the obscure European titles I've liked over the years (the TBS game Odium comes to mind) probably sold like 27 copies in the U.S. 

I think I still have my copy of Odium in a box in the garage. 

[JohnathanStrange]

Ok, technically if even one game gets picked up by Grandma for Gamer, Jr., then the claim "it didn't sell any copies at all" wouldn't be true. 

However, there are still games that I've seen over the years, where I wonder "Who'd buy that?" or "Who'd knowingly buy that?" Then I tell myself that my own tastes are perhaps so singular that I can hardly be said to know what moves the gaming public - but even so, I'm no snob who looks down on blockbuster games, children's games, mass-appeal games: I'm just curious.

There are games in my specific areas of interest - turnbased strategy games - that I sometimes suspect sell only 3 copies: one to me (who'll be bored and disappointed by it), one to dbt1949 (who'll try anything) and JeffV (who won't like it).

[Einsteinium]

Stop slandering "Virtual Basketweaver" dammit!

[kronovan]

Just today I read that Peter Molyneux's 1st game -a text based biz simulator- sold only 2 copies, and 1 of them was to his mom.   

[Einsteinium]

Just today I read that Peter Molyneux's 1st game -a text based biz simulator- sold only 2 copies, and 1 of them was to his mom.   

Would that be good or bad if his mom considered it an amazing game?

[Blackjack]

If we can include PC titles, I'm pretty sure some of the obscure European titles I've liked over the years (the TBS game Odium comes to mind) probably sold like 27 copies in the U.S.  

I think I still have my copy of Odium in a box in the garage.  

I almost did a fan site on that game. My buds tended to just scream about the inability to fire in 360 degree directions (the game was I guess sort of chess-like and you could only fire in certain directions). Lesson from Odium is do not name a game with a word that means "hatred combined with disgust," because reviewers have way too much fun with it.  

[morlac]

"Ever wonder if some games don't sell any copies at all?"

Not really.  We all know they just bury them out in the desert...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_video_game_burial