FPS Friday! Conduit 2 has been played how much? Official U.S. Nintendo Channel data report.

Coffee Beans
I never did play Conduit 2. If you missed my wall-of-text April Brewed post earlier today, you can see what games I played during April, HERE. If you already read the list, you may have noticed that I didn't play a FPS during the month. It was the first month this year that I had not played a FPS, but I did get a good bit of gaming done.

Conduit 2 released as an exclusive Wii FPS just over 2 years ago now, on April 19, 2011. The game received an ESRB rating of "TEEN" with "Animated Blood, Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, Violence" listed as content for parents and gamers to be aware of. It was the sequel to the other exclusive Wii FPS The Conduit, which released in 2009.

While there really hasn't been a hint of the Wii U getting Conduit 3 yet, did U.S. Wii owners enjoy Conduit 2? How many hours have U.S. Wii owners reported playing Conduit 2, since it released just over 2 years ago, and how do its averaged hours "Per person" compare to some other Wii FPS games? Brew yourself some coffee, and let's take a look!

FPS Friday! GoldenEye 007 and Conduit 2 Hours Report

Coffee Beans
Do you know that FPS games are horrible on the Wii?  Do you know that the Wii is for kids, and Nintendo fanboys stuck in the 80s and 90s?  Do you know that when it comes to FPS games on home consoles, graphics matter more than actual game-play?

Well, if you do not know these things, you should go read more sites like IGN, Destructoid (most of their Wii FPS reviewers seemed to enjoy them, they just have had low/no Nintendo coverage of the Wii, and seem to ignore tips about legitimate Nintendo things from developers), Joystiq, and basically every "modern" game site that exists that doesn't contain the word "Nintendo" in its title, and you will become well versed in "modern game language" and the understanding that graphics trump game-play, AND that Nintendo is for the kids!

While there are many video game "journalists" that seem to think the words "Wii FPS" do not belong together(and to some those words might not even exist), as evidenced by their written opinions in reviews and articles, I think they are 100% wrong. I digress!

GoldenEye 007 was released on November 2, 2010 and Conduit 2 was released on April 19, 2011.  Conduit 2 received an overall lower "professional" review score average, so does it appear from reported game-play data that Conduit 2 is not as enjoyable as GoldenEye 007, proving that the "professionals'" opinions were right?  Let's take a look!

Conduit Travel - Conduit 2's Hours Arrive

Coffee Beans
Conduit 2 was released on April 19, 2011 with a MSRP of $49.99.  The game was a follow-up sequel to The Conduit which originally released on June 23, 2009. Conduit 2 has not been published for any other console and is a FPS exclusive for the Wii, like the original game.

Conduit 2 was developed by High Voltage Software and published by Sega.  The game received a "Teen" rating from the ESRB with "Animated Blood, Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, Violence" listed as content for gamers/parents to be aware of.

How many hours have Wii owners spent battling in Conduit 2, with 42 days of game-play reported?  Let's take a look!

Conduit 2 Gets Amazon-Bombed - Immaturity Abounds

Coffee Beans
Early last week I posted, "Sega's Advertising Failure - Conduit 2?"  In that post I showed the Amazon.com sales ranks for Conduit 2 from April 19 though April 30.  I also provided the "professional" review score average for Conduit 2 from GameRankings.com, and I provided the review scores and review score average from customers on Amazon.com.

Just one day after my post, drama broke-out between High Voltage Software(HVS) and Joystiq.com's "reviewer" of Conduit 2.  An internal HVS email was leaked, showing that HVS employees were encouraged to read/rate Joystiq.com's Conduit 2 reviewer's book he had written and had available for purchase on Amazon.com.  The email did not specify what rating to give the book, but considering the review score was 1 out of 5 Stars from Joystiq.com for Conduit 2, I would assume that is what was hoped for in retaliation reviews as well.

Initially after the email was sent internally, negative reviews started appearing on the "reviewer's" book on Amazon.com.  After the email was made public by MaroonersRock.com, some of those negative reviews started disappearing.

As for Conduit 2, the game had a customer review score average of 4.5 out of 5 Stars on Amazon.com, based on 13 customer reviews as of 12:30AM on May 17, 2011.  Conduit 2's customer review score average was 87.69%, based on 13 customer reviews from Tuesday.

It appears the news of the internal email at HVS has caused more negative reviews to pop up on Conduit 2 though, than the "reviewer's" own book.  Let's take a look.

Sega's Advertising Failure - Conduit 2?

Coffee Beans
Conduit 2 was released on April 19, 2011 for the Wii with a MSRP of $49.99.

Conduit 2 was developed by High Voltage Software, and published by Sega.  The game received a "Teen" rating from the ESRB with "Animated Blood, Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, Violence" listed as content for gamers/parents to be aware of.

It was officially announced on March 29, 2010 that Conduit 2 was in development.  The game is a direct sequel to the original game, The Conduit, but it has several new features such as local multi-player and WM+ control support.  Conduit 2 can also be patched(and has been) to hopefully address any issues that may pop-up in the game.

With Conduit 2 being the sequel to one of the Wii's most-hyped FPS games, did Sega's approach of not advertising Conduit 2 with any commercials, and relying only on name-recognition payoff for them?  Let's take a look!

Hours in The Conduit

Coffee Beans:
     The Conduit was released on June 23, 2009 as a Wii exclusive.  The game had a lot of coverage/hype leading up to its release, and its developer, HVS, was very active in promoting the game.
     I was excited about the game, especially with the idea of fully customizable FPS controls on the Wii.  I reserved the game, and picked it up day one.  I beat the single-player campaign four complete times, accomplished the "achievements" in the game, and I spent more than 100 hours with the game's online multi-player; but then I traded it off, and then got it back again!

     While the game wasn't perfect, it resulted with a game engine and foundation for HVS to build off of.  It was revealed in March 2010 that HVS was working on a sequel to The Conduit, Conduit 2, which just released yesterday.

     How many hours have Wii owners reported playing The Conduit, with 665 days of game-play reported before Conduit 2 released?  Let's take a look!

Conduit 2 Release Date Confirmed?

(click image to enlarge)

1-27-2011 UPDATE on the UPDATE, about the UPDATE, for the UPDATE!  It seems Sega and HVS are playing the "delay fish" game, and announced today(yesterday technically) that the game has been delayed again, and Conduit 2 will now be released on April 19, 2011.

UPDATE for the Update on the Update!  Conduit 2's release date has now been confirmed for March 22, 2011 and will retail for $49.99.  Sega/HVS announced the release date change, but didn't state why it was changed.

Update on the Update!  Conduit 2's release date has been confirmed for Tuesday, February 15, 2011.  You can pre-order it now!

*Update: It was reported on September 2, that Conduit 2 has been delayed until "the first quarter of 2011", by Nintendojo.com.

Thoughts:

If you click the image above, you will see that both Amazon.com and GameStop.com have Conduit 2 now with a release date of November 2, 2010.

I know many times companies like Game Stop and Amazon.com will use placeholder release dates, but this date does fall on a Tuesday, which is often the day new games are released.

The date, November 2, 2010, also goes along with the "Fall 2010" target release mentioned in Sega's press release, when they announced Conduit 2.

If November 2, 2010, is the release date, I think it's going to be very interesting seeing how Conduit 2 performs, if Treyarch/Activision release another Call of Duty Wii game this fall in November.

Call of Duty 3 was released on November 21, 2006.

Call of Duty: World at War was released on November 11, 2008.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Reflex was released on November 10, 2009.

Questions:

Do you think November 2, 2010, will end up being the release date for Conduit 2?

If so, and another Call of Duty game is released on the Wii this November as well, do you plan on buying both games, or just one?

If just one, which game do you plan on buying, Conduit 2 or the next Call of Duty?

As for myself, I do want to hear more details about Conduit 2, mainly on the multiplayer and hearing confirmation the spawn bug isn't present, that was present in The Conduit.  If Treyarch is developing the next Call of Duty Wii game, I'm already leaning towards Call of Duty, because of Treyarch's past two Wii Call of Duty games.

I am assuming another Call of Duty game will be released on the Wii this, though one hasn't been officially announced yet.

If you're interested in any of the games mentioned, you can see some of their new and used prices on Amazon.com below: