Will Skull Girls ever arrive on Wii U and N3DS?

[Humdinger]

And marketing depends on a marketing budget which costs money which is also the primary issue at hand along with lack of interest.

And no I do not think having to buy a special controller makes me want to play skullgirls wii u anymore than I already do as I already have one controller that I can use for 1 to 2 games. It's actually annoying if anything.

 

[Apex]

OR

Instead of wanting Lab Zero to make a financially untenable decision just to get the game on your favorite console, you could purchase the game on one of the many systems it is being released for.

Just a thought.

 

[TheMightyBox]

I just-
why is this thread even still going?

Question: Will SG ever be on WiiU or N3DS
Answer:

unless a publisher steps forward to fund a port to WiiU, it's not happening.

Why are you still arguing technicalities and possibilities when a concrete answer has already been delivered by Lab Zero themselves?

 

[Flotilla]

Skullgirls is a type of game that with some marketing would sell 10000 units and maybe more... It primarily depends on marketing and are people aware of the game also support of controllers can and will contribute sales of the game.

Is that supposed to be some mind-blowing number? Skullgirls sold over 50,000 units in its first week of release on PS3/360. It's (evidently) sold several hundred thousand more since then. Do you think marketing is something they can just pull from the branches of a tree in their backyard?

Also, you're not going to convince LZ to make a financial decision as major as porting Skullgirls to Wii U without giving them the money to do it. Hell, the port to PS4 (a console with a MUCH larger userbase than the Wii U) wouldn't have happened if a publisher hadn't stepped up.

 

[ArgonBern]

I just-
why is this thread even still going?

Question: Will SG ever be on WiiU or N3DS
Answer:

Why are you still arguing technicalities and possibilities when a concrete answer has already been delivered by Lab Zero themselves?

People will probably tell me stuff now or call me out but I smell the T-word on OP.
Maybe it's me being paranoid, but I just do.

 

[Mr. X]

I get you really want SG on Ninty systems but the people who have to put the money up dont. Lab Zero is a developer, not a publisher. They look for people give them money to work on games and no one wants to give them money to put SG on Ninty systems.

Begging here wont help, there is nothing left to say on the topic.

The Melee comment; the game sold over how many million? 10k people watching is still less than 1%. Smash 4 outsold it I think and gets less viewers. There is also little crossover between games, even if they are the same genre. Smash doing well and being a fighter doesnt mean its doing well because its a fighter and it doesnt mean people want fighters

 

[Crayolan]

But none of that really matters, Melee and SG have completely different control schemes so it's not like the market is gonna bleed over, and unless you want SG on GameCube now, it's not even like hardcore Melee players are even gonna have the console necessary.

I can tell you from experience that SG does not work well on a gamecube controller.

 

[Cellsai]

People gettin mighty confrontational in here. Let's all be friends :)

A side note to consider too: porting games is not as easy as just having LZ copy the SG files and relabel them "WiiU version". It's a pretty expensive process that generally involves at least one dedicated programmer who's only job is to handle the port. In order to hire that guy L0 will need a porting budget, which they don't have until a company offers them the funds, which is where the need for a publisher comes in.

EDIT: To clarify, L0 were given specific publishing funds to port the game to PS4 and Vita, which is why it's getting all sort of exclusive (non-gameplay) bells and whistles the current versions will have once the porting is fully finished.

 

[VFsarah]

lol no

- People who owns a Wii U doesn´t gonna buying , the mayority of the console base are casual players ( kids, familys, casual gamers.)
Same can be said for any other console... :P

- SG gonna be in PS3/ X360 / Steam (Free online btw.) / PS4 and Vita, Wii U doesn´t give a fuck about "competitive fighting game"
Vita also has free online and so does Wii U/3DS/N3DS...

And marketing depends on a marketing budget which costs money which is also the primary issue at hand along with lack of interest.
You want to believe that there is lack of interest and you don't need to spend money to promote a game, first of all the LZ can create an official account on various forums and be active on Miiverse and only real cost would be time and not actual money also they can give review copy to popular Youtube channels that have Nintendo content such as ProJared or focused solely on Nintendo such as Wiifolderjosh also when a game AAA or indie then Nintendo will upload a trailer of the game on their Youtube channels.

And no I do not think having to buy a special controller makes me want to play skullgirls wii u anymore than I already do as I already have one controller that I can use for 1 to 2 games. It's actually annoying if anything.
It is not about people that own Skullgirls on other platforms it is about expanding the audience/fan base of the game and controls are the same on every platform and thus when there is a tournament on any platform then at least tournament hosts can have fighting sticks ready for users that have played on other platform.

OR

Instead of wanting Lab Zero to make a financially untenable decision just to get the game on your favorite console, you could purchase the game on one of the many systems it is being released for.
Wii U can't be my favorite console since I don't own a Wii U.

Just a thought.
Your thought is simply jumping to conclusion that suits you the most. :)

Is that supposed to be some mind-blowing number?
I never presented it that way.

Skullgirls sold over 50,000 units in its first week of release on PS3/360. It's (evidently) sold several hundred thousand more since then.
...and that is because of massive size of install base of those consoles which are 80M+ each.

Do you think marketing is something they can just pull from the branches of a tree in their backyard?
Yes since you can make accounts on various popular Nintendo focused forums/boards for public relations, send/give game to popular Youtube channels that have Nintendo content such as ProJared or are Nintendo focused such as Wiifolderjosh and when a game is on a Nintendo platform then Nintendo will upload a trailer of the game on their Youtube channels also Lab Zero could start working on a Wii U port right now and then be featured on a Nintendo Digital Event at E3 on a indie section and maybe even talked about like some indie games were like Don't Starve and Octodad in latest Nintendo Direct which was viewed by 900000 times while Nintendo Digital Event will be viewed million upon million on Youtube and when it is livestream there is at least half a million people watching.

Also, you're not going to convince LZ to make a financial decision as major as porting Skullgirls to Wii U without giving them the money to do it. Hell, the port to PS4 (a console with a MUCH larger userbase than the Wii U) wouldn't have happened if a publisher hadn't stepped up.
PS4 having larger user base than Wii U doesn't mean that sales disparity will be of equal length and how well did Skullgirls sold in Japan?

The Melee comment; the game sold over how many million? 10k people watching is still less than 1%. Smash 4 outsold it I think and gets less viewers. There is also little crossover between games, even if they are the same genre. Smash doing well and being a fighter doesnt mean its doing well because its a fighter and it doesnt mean people want fighters.
Skullgirls is in a high end category for an indie game on Wii U with 10000 units being minimum and current maximum is 60000 units which is on par Xbox One and you act as if Skullgirls doesn't have a history nor reputation that influences purchase decision of an individual.

As for crossover... They could ask for permission to feature characters for example such as Bayonetta, Wonder Pink from Wonderful 101 or Shinobu from No More Heroes.

People gettin mighty confrontational in here. Let's all be friends :)

A side note to consider too: porting games is not as easy as just having LZ copy the SG files and relabel them "WiiU version".
Tell me something that isn't obvious like everyone else has been doing... -_-"

It's a pretty expensive process that generally involves at least one dedicated programmer who's only job is to handle the port.
Again... Obvious... :P

In order to hire that guy L0 will need a porting budget, which they don't have until a company offers them the funds, which is where the need for a publisher comes in.
So Lab Zero is basically waiting for someone to say "Hey, I am willing to fund you guys" rather than seek it them self and convince the publisher for sake of competence?

Skullgirls is in a high end category and selling at 15$ and assuming that Nintendo takes same cut as Steam which is 30% which leaves 10.5$ of bottom line and selling 10000 units minimum means 105000$ which is enough enough to hire one senior and two junior programmers for 6-9 months or two senior programmers for 6-9 months.

Best case scenario for an indie game on Wii U is 60000 units and bottom line of 630000$ in theory for Skullgirls...

Lab Zero should check out Straight Right due to their experience in porting to Wii U and developing a game for Wii U and see if a port could be possible for under 105000$.

 

[EU03]

Please don't devise scenarios from your armchair.

Mike Z sez:
First off, a SENIOR programmer for 9 months can cost $100k by themselves.
Giving anyone 1/3 of that predicted $105000 would equate to a $46,000/year salary. NO CONTRACTOR with any skills will accept at $46k/year salary as a contractor, because they have to pay all their own taxes.
Unskilled contractors might, but they won't be porting the game in that timeframe.
Secondly, there is the cost of development hardware. That's not small.
Devkits and first-party submission can be $20-30k, easy.
Third, there is the fact that it is impossible to pay people based on subjective sales because that money doesn't EXIST. We are BRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOKEEEEEEE after the Indiegogo is finished, so we can't pay prospective contractors ANYTHING. The PS4 port is being paid for by an interested party, and thus far nobody has shown any interest in financing a WiiU version.
This...is because the WiiU has had extremely poor sales, and with the exception of Nintendo first-party games, so have WiiU games.
And lastly, given the complete lack of, for example, arcade sticks and usable hardware (besides Gamecube controllers, I guess?) to play fighting games with on WiiU, sales of 10,000 might well be a high estimate. Even assuming we could fund a port and break even on said port, why bother? It's much less risky not to do, especially if the prospective gains are so small.
Also, it's laughable to suggest Nintendo takes Steam's 30%.
Microsoft takes 70%, Sony is similar. Nintendo ain't takin' no 30%, that's laughable.
Valve doesn't have to test your games or sell consoles, that's why they can take 30%.
So if Nintendo takes a (let's be nice) 60% cut, then we get $6 a copy. To make $100k we'd have to sell 16k copies. Judging by the ports we've already done, though, we'd have to sell more like 41,000 copies just to break even.
Not to mention how dissimilar the WiiU's architecture is to the other systems, including networking with friend codes etc. So the port would likely be MORE work than all our other ports.

 

[Persona]

♫

 

[North888]

Crossover characters if they go to Wii U? Dude....have you ever seen anything on how much it takes to make a singular character? And SG wouldn't lock any character behind a console wall. L0 don't do that kinda stuff.

Sounds like you need to understand how budgetting for the programming and creation of such things work. You sound a bit uninformed on the actual development of games.

 

[VFsarah]

Crossover characters if they go to Wii U? Dude....have you ever seen anything on how much it takes to make a singular character? And SG wouldn't lock any character behind a console wall. L0 don't do that kinda stuff.
So Wonder Pink is out of the question, leaves Bayonetta and Shinobi :P

Sounds like you need to understand how budgetting for the programming and creation of such things work. You sound a bit uninformed on the actual development of games.
Great... More assumptions.

 

[North888]

I'm not trying to assume anything. You're saying it's possible to get a port wen the budget, and this has been told to you, is not there. Additionally, you bring up the possibility of guest characters. While its obvious you mean this in a more joking light, your comments thus far have led to believe that you have a lesser understanding of the budgeting necessary to get such a port done. That being said, my own understanding of said budgeting is just as limited, so I'm not trying to say anything demeaning or anything.

 

[Mike_Z]

Hello. Brian already posted my comments, but I'm just gonna finish this up right now.

It is highly unlikely that SG will ever make it to 3DS or WiiU, ignoring every single thing about whether or not the consoles are powerful enough or capable or whatever else.
We have no money left after fulfilling the IGG obligations. That money went toward developing the game, as promised.
The PS4 and Vita ports are being paid for by a company that's interested in them. That's the reason PS4/Vita ports are happening. They did not come from IGG or Lab Zero money.
Nobody has stepped up to do the same for a WiiU version, thus there is no WiiU version. Were some company to offer money for a port, THEN we'd consider whether it's worthwhile. But that hasn't even happened, and is not likely to happen.

The reality is - most publishers don't think a WiiU version of anything is worthwhile unless it comes for basically free, since the projected sales won't justify the cost otherwise. Nintendo first-party (and Sega, also first-party) games are the exception. Why bother making a WiiU port, when selling to 100% of WiiU owners is worse than selling to 15-20% of xBone and PS4 owners? (And of course, selling to 100% is unlikely/impossible, whereas selling even a crappy game to 15-20% is possible.)

End of discussion. @Flotilla close please.