Bomberman Live sold over 500,000 copies. Not bad for a digitally distributed game. We usually don’t divulge into sales numbers, but there is an interesting story behind the downloadable Bomberman games.
Hudson released Bomberman on Xbox Live Arcade, WiiWare, and most recently PlayStation Network. The WiiWare game, Bomberman Blast, is a bit different from Bomberman Live and Bomberman Ultra, but the heart of all the three games is the same.
Bomberman is Bomberman unless it’s Bomberman: Act Zero.
And yet, sales for Bomberman Blast were only “a fraction” of what the Xbox Live Arcade version. To be fair, Bomberman Live had a full year of sales before Bomberman Blast came out. That should explain the difference, but Mike Pepe, Director of Marketing, brought up another point, “Ultra has been out only for a month and it’s been catching up on Blast fast.”
Pepe mentioned some of the trials of digital distribution and expressed their data may suggest Wii owners are not purchasing WiiWare games. Hudson is in a unique position since they are pushing for multiplatform digital downloads. Later this year, Hudson will release Diner Dash and Military Madness: Nectaris on all three consoles and unlike Bomberman’s different feature sets these titles will be the same game across the board.
“You should tell your readers to download WiiWare titles,” Pepe told Siliconera. “It’s a challenge on WiiWare. It’s a shame that really good titles are being overlooked.” Pepe wasn’t partial to Hudson and mentioned LostWinds and World of Goo as some of WiiWare’s gems.
