As I am sure most of you know, hardcore games haven't done particularly well on the Wii. The ultra-bloody and over the top violent MadWorld didn't do all that well at retail, while the alien shooter The Conduit looks to be following in the prior's footsteps. What is the one thing in common between these two games (besides flopping in terms of sales)? That's right, they are both published by Sega, and while hardcore sales figures have been disappointing, the publisher refuses to give up on providing the Wii with hardcore titles.

Mike Hayes, the COO of Sega told Wired, "Sega would be extremely arrogant to have a title that didn't do as well as we thought on a platform and then say, 'Those kind of games don't sell on that platform.'" He explained his position by comparing sales in Europe to that of North America by saying, "I think if you take our slew of more mature games - House of the Dead Overkill did really well in Europe, and for some reason even though it's a big [intellectual property] it did less well in North America. So that's kind of like a win and a miss that's kind of come out neutral."

While Hayes described MadWorld's sales as being "very disappointing," he pointed out that the reason as to why may be a bit more difficult to answer. Hayes questions whether or not it had to do with the platform itself, explaining that there may be some other factors a play.

Regardless, it is clear that Sega is not giving up on the Wii. "What we can say is that we'll still do mature games for the Wii market because with an install base of some 34 million in Europe and America... So I think the sheer scale of the Wii allows a shooter, or a mature game, to be a niche but a successful niche. And because the development costs can be less on Wii, that means you can sell less to be successful... We can take more risks on the Wii."